Baron, being the nonconformist that he is, kicked off the meeting by getting a feel for how we all liked the book before launching into the book discussion. So, it became apparent early on that there was a bit of a generational divide, with one group, let's call them the Froody Towel Bearers (Baron, Diesel, Gilligan, and me) who liked the book and found it witty/hilarious/laugh-out-loud funny and another group, we'll call them the Pontiferous Vogons (Deuce, Indy, Cat and JB) who very politely looked for nice things to say but clearly weren't Adams' number one fans. One of the common criticisms of the book was the struggle with made up words and the difficulty visualizing some of the things described by Adams (i.e. a man with two heads and three arms). Most (I think) agreed that it was a fun read. Interestingly, Adams was a writer for Monty Python, which makes perfect sense, given the quirky humour (see what I did there) of both.
Then, to shake things up a bit, we shared some Vogon poetry, which will be posted in full in a separate post. I think we really gave the Vogons a run for their money! We talked about which characters we would be in the book. I must have already started on the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster because my notes don't reflect who said which character, but I noted that some popular choices were the mice/philosophers, Slartibartfast, Eddie the computer, and the sighing doors. No one wanted to be Marvin, for obvious reasons.
One of the pre-meeting questions posed by Baron was what we think is essential in the way that Ford Prefect thought a towel was essential for a hitchhiker. Diesel pointed out that after she read this book in high school she started carrying a towel, and has found it extremely useful. Gilligan needs his toothbrush; Deuce needs shampoo; Baron needs a comb; JB & Cat both need cell phones; Indy stuck with the towel; and Diesel needs a knife.
Then, we roundly abused the DMV, banks, customs, airports, and the VA when discussing the Vogon mentality before shifting gears to discuss what book we'd like to write. Baron wishes he would've recorded some of the hilarious things Chief and Boss said in their younger days to create a book of funny kids quotes. Gilligan wants to be the next Webster and write a dictionary. Staying true to our source material, JB wants to write a travel guide (but maybe not about the galaxy). Cat, somewhat predictably given her alias, would write about cats. Diesel had the idea of writing a book in the style of a journal written in the style of lab reports. Indy would like to write about plants.
We concluded by reflecting on some of the great quotes from the book. I think we all agreed that the book had some great lines! For example:
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