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Comment by wolfi1

2 days ago

[flagged]

There are probably a non-zero amount of people who are older than 20 who have not read the hitchhikers guide, or don't recall some parts of it. For example, me

Ah, yes, everything I know is a basic common knowledge and if someone do not know anything from my list should be checked for some problems.

Be it a minor SciFi flick in a written form or some SciFi flick in a live-action form[0]

FYI HHTG is big[1] in anglosphere and known mostly to SciFi enthusiasts in other parts of the world.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44287254

[1] as big as you want, of course

I’ve read this book exactly once, in my second language (English), 20 something years ago. Guess that makes me worrisome.

Lots of non native to English speakers around here too, lowers the odds.

  • It aired on BBC World Service a long time ago. Apparently some guy wrote in from India to complain that robots (ie Marvin) shouldn't be employed in place of human actors. I wonder if he is still around to see how _that_ turned out.

Hitch hikers is by no means a universal cultural reference, and by the way it is 2025. The movie adaptation came out in 2005, 20 years ago. It's entirely possible for lots of people older than 20 to not get that reference.

That simply makes them one of today's lucky 10,000

https://xkcd.com/1053/

  • Lots of people are outside of the US

    • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is British.

      Also, I know it, it has been translated in my language (French), the movie made out to the theaters, and we even have a well known school named after it (42). So it is known even to non-English speakers.

      1 reply →

    • The spirit of the drawing applies everywhere. This 10000 figure looks made up anyway.

      (hi from outside US :-))

Is the Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy still part of the geek culture for people in their twenties?

I still think 42 is pretty well known, but it doesn't mean people have actually read the books and recognize that part.