GioBlog

Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy

Haven't seen it yet, but I've read some reviews.

I'm very worried.

See, I can claim to have been one of the very first North American fans of the Guide.

Back when I was working my way through my college and my first masters degree, I worked nights at a trucking company. I used to listen to NPR at night to while away the time.

Anyway, this NPR station was playing the first run of the BBC radio series, and it was the wackiest thing I had ever heard. I started recording the audio off of the radio so I could listen back again. But when I talked about it, no one I knew had ever heard of it.

When I found out there was a book, I did the search, and it wasn't yet published in the U.S. In fact, no bookstore I could find in the U.S. had heard of it. So I had to place an order with a U.K. bookstore and have it shipped to the U.S. Still have the original copy I got from the U.K.

When the radio series was released by the BBC on cassette, I bought it (still have it). But, again, had to order it from the U.K., as it wasn't available at the time in the U.S.

At one time, had the audio almost memorized. Bought all the books and devoured them. Watched the lousy BBC video version over several times.

So, as a long-time fan of the original (whatever that is*), I'm terrified to see a movie that isn't faithful to the original. But I will. So at some point in the next week or so, this thing will resolve itself one way or another.

Does it concern you that the president of a think tank with (dare I say) national impact is a fan of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy? Me, too.

*Almost every time Douglas Adams moved the Guide into a new medium, he changed things. But I think it's safe to say that the BBC radio play is THE original.

Update: It has been pointed out by some of my critics that recording the HHGtG off of the radio is a form of copyright piracy, which seems inconsistent given my strong beliefs about IP protection. Fair enough. But in my own defense I must say that it was 1984 (I think), and I was a college senior, and my IP positions were not exactly fully formed at that point. In addition, as soon as the series went on sale in the form of an audio book, I bought it, and I still own the 6-cassette series.

I used to pirate software, too. In fact, I got my first professional job after college on the back of a bootleg copy of WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS and a bootleg copy of Ventura Publisher for GEM. I was wrong.

It was during that job that I had an epiphany of sorts. It dawned on me at some point during that job that it was wrong for me to not have the decency to buy the two key tools I was using to make a living. I went to my employer and told them I needed them to buy fully-licensed copies of the software for me to continue doing what I was doing. They refused, so I bought them out of my own pocket, and left that job shortly thereafter. Been legal ever since (except for speed limits).