Text | turing
Earlier this year, Disney announced the acquisition of Hulu, making it a first-line American drama platform; subsequently, Hulu made a big move.
According to the well-known film and television media "deadline", "This series will be 'a modern update of a story'.
Among them was an Earthling named Arthur Dent, who found his house being destroyed to make way for the highway, and Earth was in the same situation— an alien civilization would destroy Earth to make way for the interstellar highway.
He was rescued by an alien named Ford Prefect, author of the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, an encyclopedia of the galaxy, and embarked on a journey. ”
amazing！ Although it is not an official announcement, it still makes the science fiction fans who get the news elated and brush up on "42" in the comment area.
Compared with Asimov's "Base" and other sci-fi IP predecessors, the "Galaxy Roaming Guide" born in 1979 may still look younger, but it has become the most terrier.
Now, let's talk about its past and present lives.
(This is my favorite version on the cover of all the Guide to the Galaxy publications.)
People who look up at the stars
In 1952, after World War II, Douglas Adams was born in Cambridge, England, in a home with no worries but a complicated family relationship.
Adams was quite passionate about writing as a student, and in 1971 he wrote an essay on religious poetry in which he associated the Beatles with William Black and earned him the admiration of the "local university."
That allowed him to study English literature — yes, Cambridge University, when he was 19 years old.
That same year, Adams finally realized his plan to cross the continent of Europa to Istanbul.
For this plan, he carried a copy of the European Travel Guide with him.
One night Adams was drinking heavily, but suddenly—a vast galaxy hit his slightly raised head.
Kant said, "There are only two things in the world that are awe-inspiring, and that is the starry sky above our heads and the morality in our hearts." "The seeds of the Guide to the Galaxy are planted.
After graduating, Adams became a playwright, writing mainly comedy.
At first, life was not good, so I had to do some other work at the same time. But he didn't stop writing the book.
Eventually, in 1979, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was successfully published and aired on BBC as a radio drama, and Adams turned his career around – he successfully served as a producer at BBC.
Since then, Adams has been active on stage and on screen as a playwright, and for a time even the creator of the world-renowned, fossil-level project Doctor Who.
Of course, although he himself does not admit it, he is in fact a well-deserved environmentalist social activist and one of the most important writers in the history of science fiction.
On May 10, 2001, the Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Society named the asteroid Number 18610 "Arthur Duncan"—the name of the male protagonist in the Guide to the Galaxy.
On May 11, 2001, Adams died of a heart attack.
A man looking up at the stars closed his eyes.
(Adams and "42")
Brilliant sea of stars
Shortly after Adams' death, Disney set up a project to film "A Guide to the Galaxy", which was released in 2005 and unsurprisingly won the box office.
Compared to the 1981 BBC", which aired the "Guide to the Galaxy" episode, I think the 2005 film version really made the taste of the original.
One of the great regrets of science fiction is that ideas are often too advanced, and the technical power of the same era or even one or two eras after that is not enough to support.
Thanks to the good start of 1997's "The Fifth Element", the filmmakers finally had a direction and mature reference case when making the magnificent "space stage".
And the 2005 Disney version of "A Guide to the Galaxy", I can even say this: there is no film at present, which can express the characteristics of various civilizations so well on such a large spatial scale, integrate so many aesthetic elements, and fit the temperament of the story so well.
It is useless to say more, directly above the picture:
(One second solemn and solemn, the next second with a little horror)
(Retro sci-fi can also be played)
(Even if the light is seen, as long as Marvin is there, the funeral will still be mourned)
(Ancient super civilizations that operate their supercomputers with sacrificial rituals)
Don't ask, ask is 42
Of course, the most important reason why "A Guide to the Galaxy" is so much talked about is that it is really a very melodious work.
Science fiction revolves around the author's many science fiction ideas.
As a comedy writer, Adams' sci-fi ideas are almost always with British cold humor, which is quite intriguing.
The most famous is "42".
In the work, an ancient and advanced civilization builds a supercomputer in order to explore "the ultimate answer to the existence of the universe, life, and all things."
Over the course of time, this civilization has risen and fallen, but this super project has always been maintained.
After 7.5 million years, the advanced civilization of that year has degenerated into a primitive religious civilization, and the supercomputer has finally given the answer, which is very simple, "42".
Obviously, no one can understand this answer!
So in order to explain the answer to 42, a new project began - that is, to use the Earth as a new supercomputer to calculate the explanation (yes, the Earth was made by them)....
However, a second before Earth was about to come up with an answer, it was destroyed by the Demolition Office of the Interstellar Highway.
In reality, 42 is just a number that Adams wrote by hand.
This is a meta-question, and the question itself actually constitutes its answer.
A similar terrier is the most powerful driver in the universe: the Infinite Impossible Device (hear the name!). ）
How did this thing come to be, the front technology is a limited impossible device, that is, this device can achieve all possible things.
Physicists in this world pondered this for a long time, and finally declared that this is an impossible machine to build.
But there is a little clever ghost who feels that if this machine does not exist at all, then this is a finite impossible event.
So, this little clever ghost used the finite impossible device to create the infinite impossible device....
It seems absurd and illogical, but it reminds me of the development of human industry: when people only have lathes with an accuracy of 1mm, how to process new lathe parts with an accuracy of 0.1mm?
Quite simply, make a few more parts, and there is always precision just right.
In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, you don't know if you'll be thinking or laughing the next second — or maybe both.
This is also the meaning of science fiction, which inspires people in its own unique way.
(The famous British rock band Coldplay paid tribute to the late Adams in the legendary record of "viva la vida")
No matter how much life is lost, how meaningless the world is, at least people still have endless starry skies and curiosity about the world.
This may be the humanistic care under the science fiction cloak of "The Guide to the Galaxy".
Adams, like the bohemian president in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, "I think happiness is more important than the truth." He also hopes that people who have read and seen this work will be able to smile.