appropriate - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?

[kristin0713]

Can anyone who has read this tell me if it is appropriate for kids?  I'm trying to find something different for my picky 11yo to read.  

[Lang Syne Boardie]

In my opinion, it is fine for ages 11 and up. But just so you know, this is one of those books that people need to talk about! Your whole family will have new inside jokes and references, for the next twenty years, if your kids read it. So I would advise that you read it first. 🙂

[Terabith]

Yup.  Fine in our family.  

[kristin0713]

12 minutes ago, Lang Syne Boardie said:

In my opinion, it is fine for ages 11 and up. But just so you know, this is one of those books that people need to talk about! Your whole family will have new inside jokes and references, for the next twenty years, if your kids read it. So I would advise that you read it first. 🙂

ugh, it is not my taste at all!  that's why i'd rather just hand it to him 😂

[Lori D.]

Totally agree with Lang Syne Boardie -- it's a fast funny read, and a great one to share with tween/teen aged children because of the goofy, at times teen-age humor. I tend toward being conservative about book content -- 11yo is about as young as I personally would go with this one. That's just me. 😉 And -- I read this one and the sequel (Restaurant at the End of the Universe) aloud to my then tween/very young teen boys, and we all loved it. (I don't recommend the 3 books that follow -- not as funny or clever, and full of language; and one has a fair amount of s*x.) But Douglas Adams DOES have a certain kind of sense of humor that will not appeal to all.

Content that may be somewhat edgy is very limited. Moments I recall:

There are a few drinking references -- in the beginning chapter, the main character is urged to drink up 3 pints of beer before breakfast (but is it because we later learn that it is because the beer will cushion his system for being transported the alien ship). Also, there is a description of a powerful alcoholic drink, the Garglepan Galactic Blaster which is described as being like "getting hit in the head with a gold brick with a slice of lemon wrapped around it." 

There is one very brief s*xual reference/innuendo -- a very brief passing reference to "Gallum Bits Erotica, the triple-bre*sted wh*re", described as being the "biggest bang in the universe" since the Big Bang -- most of that will go over an 11yo's head, I would guess.

No real physical violence that I can think of. No drugs or smoking. Nothing graphic. There may be one or two "d*mns", but I can't remember any bad language.

Edited February 14, 2020 by Lori D.

[blue plaid]

My 12 year old read it and enjoyed it.  That said, I started reading it, and I can't remember exactly what I came across, but seems like it was probably jokes about God that were, well, trying to make God a joke, so I didn't appreciate that.  So I talked to my son about it.  I am not saying don't read it, just a heads-up if that kind of stuff matters to you.  I didn't read the whole book so may have been a one or two time thing, I don't know.  But to me that stuff is more disturbing than a little bad language.

[Lori D.]

2 hours ago, blue plaid said:

My 12 year old read it and enjoyed it.  That said, I started reading it, and I can't remember exactly what I came across, but seems like it was probably jokes about God that were, well, trying to make God a joke, so I didn't appreciate that.  So I talked to my son about it.  I am not saying don't read it, just a heads-up if that kind of stuff matters to you.  I didn't read the whole book so may have been a one or two time thing, I don't know.  But to me that stuff is more disturbing than a little bad language.

Yes, Douglas Adams was a self-described atheist, and, as with *every* author, their worldview will come through. The Hitchhiker universe is definitely a world with no God. BUT, it is also not mean-spirited about that. I actually think that Adams created a very absurdist universe --  Absurdism is the belief that human beings exist in a purposeless, chaotic universe (i.e., absurd universe), and since it is absurd, you might as well laugh. (Nihilism takes Absurdism a step further, rejecting all religious and moral principles, in the belief that life is meaningless, or that nothing in the world has a real existence; as a result, we might as well die sooner than later.)

Adams has a gently mocking tone about everything in these books -- religion, but also science, politics, and esp. people and their foibles. If you have read any Terry Pratchett books, they overlap a lot in tone and type of humor.

Blue Plaid, I think this might be the scene you are referring to, which not only pokes fun at the God, but also pokes fun at people who rely on logic to "explain away" God. We found this to be a light way to have a deep discussion about philosophy, theology, and logic, but again -- this style of writing is NOT a good fit for everyone, and that is okay! 😄 

“Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful [as the babel fish] could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as the final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God. The argument goes something like this: "I refuse to prove that I exist,'" says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing." "But," says Man, "The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED." "Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic. "Oh, that was easy," says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.”

Edited February 14, 2020 by Lori D.

[kristin0713]

Thanks so much for these detailed responses! 

[wathe]

My 10 and 12 year olds have read it.  Lori D already pointed out the bits that might be problematic.

The audio version narrated by Stephen Fry is fabulous!

[Shoeless]

Oh man, I loved Douglas Adams and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!  I have a "Don't Panic" t-shirt, (written in large, friendly letters, of course). 

I read it for the first time when I was 12-ish.  I probably will wait a year or two before my almost-12-ish kiddo reads it, because he's a little innocent and the reference to "the biggest bang in the universe" would make him blush. 

The books are a bit irreverent and absurd.  What Lori D said is really about as "naughty" as the books get.

[blue plaid]

Thanks Lori!  Good to remember the absurdist nature of it all.  I do appreciate the creativity, but yes, not really to my tastes.  I took a look and the passage I was thinking of was this:

And then, one Thursday, nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change, a girl sitting on her own in a small cafe in Rickmansworth suddenly realized what it was that had been going wrong all this time, and she finally knew how the world could be made a good and happy place. This time it was right, it would work, and no one would have to get nailed to anything.

[Lori D.]

2 hours ago, blue plaid said:

Thanks Lori!  Good to remember the absurdist nature of it all.  I do appreciate the creativity, but yes, not really to my tastes.  I took a look and the passage I was thinking of was this:

And then, one Thursday, nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change, a girl sitting on her own in a small cafe in Rickmansworth suddenly realized what it was that had been going wrong all this time, and she finally knew how the world could be made a good and happy place. This time it was right, it would work, and no one would have to get nailed to anything.

Oh yes, I had forgotten that reference. Thanks so much for the reminder. 😄 

Yes, it does show his atheism there (totally missing the need (fallen human nature) for Christ's sacrifice (God's great love for his people). But I I think the reason why I forgot this reference was because it didn't feel flippant or mocking; Adams seemed genuine in expressing that hurting others, in this case Jesus and his crucifixion, is wrong; it also shows that Adams sees that there is something wrong with the world at a very basic level ("going wrong all this time"), and that something needs to happen to make it a "good and happy place". What a great discussion point for worldview -- for atheists, what a conundrum that must be...

And again -- totally get that his sense of humor is not a fit for everyone. 😉 

[73349]

Depending on maturity & sense of humor, some of it will be much funnier to a 13 or 14yo.

[Meriwether]

On 2/14/2020 at 1:38 PM, blue plaid said:

My 12 year old read it and enjoyed it.  That said, I started reading it, and I can't remember exactly what I came across, but seems like it was probably jokes about God that were, well, trying to make God a joke, so I didn't appreciate that.  So I talked to my son about it.  I am not saying don't read it, just a heads-up if that kind of stuff matters to you.  I didn't read the whole book so may have been a one or two time thing, I don't know.  But to me that stuff is more disturbing than a little bad language.

Two of my kids started it, and both of them stopped at this point of their own accord.