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Mostly Harmless
- 208 statements
- 40 feature instances
- 59 referencing feature instances
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Mostly Harmless | |
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Mostly Harmless (1992) is the fifth installment in the increasingly inaccurately-named The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, and the last written by franchise creator Douglas Adams himself. Set several years after the fourth one, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, its plot divides into three distinct branches. The first concerns the series protagonist, hapless Englishman Arthur Dent, as he tries to find a new, Earth-like home to settle down on after the unexpected erasure of his soul-mate, Fenchurch; he eventually builds a sort of life for himself as resident sandwich-maker for the primitive villagers on the planet Lamuella (but not for long).The second concerns Ford Prefect and his ill-conceived attempts to save the Guide Corporation from corporate sleaze Vann Harl and Infini-Dim Enterprises, a bureaucratic nightmare run by the Vogons that wants to pervert the spirit of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for profit. The third concerns Trillian, who reinvents herself as an interplanetary anchorwoman and bears Arthur's child, Random Dent, who is absolutely nothing like her mild-mannered father.This book is by far the darkest of the series, which had hitherto been very upbeat, due to a bad case of Creator Breakdown.Preceded by So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish. Succeeded by And Another Thing.... Has next to nothing to do with the Connecticut sketch comedy Mostly Harmless, but is definitely related to the Mostly Harmless Roleplay LJ group. | |
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Mostly Harmless / int_14beeefd | type |
Darker and Edgier | |
Mostly Harmless / int_14beeefd | comment |
Darker and Edgier: Than the previous books in the "trilogy". | |
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Mostly Harmless / int_166e33f3 | type |
Little Miss Badass | |
Mostly Harmless / int_166e33f3 | comment |
Little Miss Badass: Random (at the very least, she tries to be). She likes to throw rocks at people who annoy her, and keeps a specially sharpened one in her pocket for the right occasion, which she can "cause a lot of trouble with". | |
Mostly Harmless / int_166e33f3 | featureApplicability |
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Mostly Harmless / int_1cf11f13 | type |
No Sympathy | |
Mostly Harmless / int_1cf11f13 | comment |
No Sympathy: Arthur tries to complain about what happened to Fenchurch to the spaceline people, but once they figure out what's happened, they just laugh at him. | |
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Mostly Harmless / int_204a1207 | type |
Hyperspace Is a Scary Place | |
Mostly Harmless / int_204a1207 | comment |
Hyperspace Is a Scary Place: If you're from a plural sector, travelling through hyperspace can lead to pronounced cases of spontaneous existence failure. | |
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Mostly Harmless / int_21d70919 | type |
Crapsack World | |
Mostly Harmless / int_21d70919 | comment |
Crapsack World: NowWhat, an alternate Earth which Arthur visits on his travels. It's so bad that the ghastly smile on the president's picture is due to the fact he'd just shot himself, and every inhabitant has only one ambition: leave. | |
Mostly Harmless / int_21d70919 | featureApplicability |
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Mostly Harmless / int_23a79ebf | type |
Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer | |
Mostly Harmless / int_23a79ebf | comment |
Sir Not Appearing in This Book: Zaphod Beeblebrox and Marvin. Well, at least Marvin has a good excuse. | |
Mostly Harmless / int_23a79ebf | featureApplicability |
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Mostly Harmless / int_2a44899 | type |
Plot Armor | |
Mostly Harmless / int_2a44899 | comment |
Plot Armor: Arthur Dent has it, and it's explicitly justified. Remember Agrajag from Life, the Universe and Everything? The guy who kept getting reincarnated, and whom Arthur keeps accidentally killing? There's an incarnation of him that Arthur hadn't met at that point, and the narration explicitly states that until Arthur accidentally kills that incarnation of Agrajag, he literally cannot die. Which he does, at the end of this book, with his own death (and everyone else's) following by mere seconds. | |
Mostly Harmless / int_2a44899 | featureApplicability |
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Mostly Harmless / int_3e74b72e | type |
The Pollyanna | |
Mostly Harmless / int_3e74b72e | comment |
The Pollyanna: Colin, a flying security robot that Ford meets (and names) when he revisits the Guide HQ. Ford reprogrammed him so he would always feel happy, no matter what happens, effectively turning him into the anti-Marvin. | |
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Mostly Harmless / int_43a045de | type |
Dropped a Bridge on Him | |
Mostly Harmless / int_43a045de | comment |
Dropped a Bridge on Him: Poor Fenchurch. At least the radio adaptation has a Deus ex Machina at the end that spares her. | |
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Mostly Harmless / int_454d9422 | type |
Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies | |
Mostly Harmless / int_454d9422 | comment |
Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies: Or more like "Earth Gets Obliterated, Everyone Dies". | |
Mostly Harmless / int_454d9422 | featureApplicability |
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Mostly Harmless / int_46c7e7b8 | type |
Stranded with Edison | |
Mostly Harmless / int_46c7e7b8 | comment |
Stranded with Edison: Discussed but averted; when Arthur Dent is stranded on a planet with an Iron Age culture, he intitally thinks he can bring them civilisation, before realising that he doesn't actually know how to make anything. Except sandwiches... | |
Mostly Harmless / int_46c7e7b8 | featureApplicability |
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Mostly Harmless / int_4e3d253b | type |
Downer Ending | |
Mostly Harmless / int_4e3d253b | comment |
Downer Ending: All Alternate Universe Earths are destroyed, and 80% of the main cast dies. See Creator Breakdown. ...or so it seems, until the sixth book reveals that, at Random's request, they're placed into a Lotus-Eater Machine by the Guide Mk. II and given one last shot at survival. | |
Mostly Harmless / int_4e3d253b | featureApplicability |
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Mostly Harmless / int_525fe89a | type |
Extremophile Lifeforms | |
Mostly Harmless / int_525fe89a | comment |
Extremophile Lifeforms: Played with. The narration notes that life can exist in all sorts of hostile environments, such as the intoxicating seas of Santraginus V, the fire storms of Frastra, and even New York. | |
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Mostly Harmless / int_7453bc5b | type |
Spared by the Adaptation | |
Mostly Harmless / int_7453bc5b | comment |
Spared by the Adaptation: All of the main characters (including Marvin) in the radio play. | |
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Mostly Harmless / int_775a1af6 | type |
Married to the Job | |
Mostly Harmless / int_775a1af6 | comment |
Married to the Job: Trillian is much more interested in her career than raising her (clearly emotionally damaged) daughter. Granted some of it isn't her fault, temporal induced aging and all, but it comes across as enormously selfish that she doesn't even consider a job that would let her stay in Random's life. | |
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Mostly Harmless / int_7c203f21 | type |
This Is No Time to Panic | |
Mostly Harmless / int_7c203f21 | comment |
This Is No Time to Panic: The Guide's iconic "Don't Panic" has been replaced by a small print "Panic". Yes, it is time to panic. | |
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Mostly Harmless / int_81414673 | type |
AM/FM Characterization | |
Mostly Harmless / int_81414673 | comment |
AM/FM Characterization: Ford, surprisingly. He is in awe of the singer at The Domain Of a the King, who turns out to be Elvis, having left the Earth with some passing aliens. It’s one of the more oddly touching moments in the book. | |
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Mostly Harmless / int_8774fb47 | type |
Eldritch Abomination | |
Mostly Harmless / int_8774fb47 | comment |
Eldritch Abomination: The Guide Mk. II is a pandimensional thing of limitless power (it can make anything happen simply by arranging events in the past to bring about a given future event) that has the appearance of a black bird. Sometimes. | |
Mostly Harmless / int_8774fb47 | featureApplicability |
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Mostly Harmless / int_8a1215e0 | type |
Bratty Teenage Daughter | |
Mostly Harmless / int_8a1215e0 | comment |
Bratty Teenage Daughter: Random. Justified as her mother isn't really interested in raising her, and she's basically been dumped with her unsupecting father on boring backwater planet Lamuella. | |
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Mostly Harmless / int_8a5dc833 | type |
It Runs on Nonsensoleum | |
Mostly Harmless / int_8a5dc833 | comment |
It Runs on Nonsensoleum: The series' phlebotinum runs entirely on Rule of Funny. In this book, there's an anecdote about a race whose interstellar craft run on bad news, the only thing in the universe that travels faster than light. (Their ships don't work very well, and somehow nobody's ever pleased to see them.) | |
Mostly Harmless / int_8a5dc833 | featureApplicability |
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Mostly Harmless / int_8a5dc833 | |
Mostly Harmless / int_8f9f71a8 | type |
Crazy Enough to Work | |
Mostly Harmless / int_8f9f71a8 | comment |
Crazy Enough to Work: Ford manages to subdue the new editor of the Guide by throwing his towel at the man and yelling "kill!" His towel does not possess the capacity to kill on command, but it distracts the guy long enough for Ford to knock him out (and steal his ID card so he can give himself an unlimited expense account). | |
Mostly Harmless / int_8f9f71a8 | featureApplicability |
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Mostly Harmless / int_94e4b975 | type |
Vomit Indiscretion Shot | |
Mostly Harmless / int_94e4b975 | comment |
Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Arthur makes the mistake of taking a deep breath before approaching the old woman in the cave on Hawalius (whose cave is surrounded by goat corpses and flies). The results are not pretty, and described in nauseating detail. | |
Mostly Harmless / int_94e4b975 | featureApplicability |
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Mostly Harmless / int_95b7c400 | type |
Faux Affably Evil | |
Mostly Harmless / int_95b7c400 | comment |
Faux Affably Evil: Vann Harl (actually Zarniwoop, as described in the second book), corporate bastard extraordinaire. By this point in the series, the Guide had come to represent freedom from the norm, and thus, both his transformation of the Guide HQ from a dadaesque palace of fun to a drab corporate office complex and his attempt to misuse time-traveling technology to profit infinitely from a single sale are seen as gruesome sins in this series' world. However, he is ever so utterly suave and in-control... though we know he is loathsome, it's hard not to like him. Just a little. | |
Mostly Harmless / int_95b7c400 | featureApplicability |
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Mostly Harmless / int_987be393 | type |
Gambit Roulette | |
Mostly Harmless / int_987be393 | comment |
Gambit Roulette: "Temporal reverse-engineering", the special feature of the Guide Mark II; give it a goal, and it will turn out to have already been acting to bring it about while also working on somebody else's future agenda and ensuring you give it the goal it wants. | |
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Mostly Harmless / int_9bcd82c0 | type |
Took a Level in Badass | |
Mostly Harmless / int_9bcd82c0 | comment |
Took a Level in Badass: After spending the last four books only interested in his hedonistic lifestyle, Ford, with said hedonistic lifestyle threatened, manages to escape several security robots with a towel and a shoe. | |
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Mostly Harmless / int_9bcd82c0 | |
Mostly Harmless / int_aa8dcc21 | type |
MegaCorp | |
Mostly Harmless / int_aa8dcc21 | comment |
Mega-Corp: The Hitchhiker's Guide Corporation and Infini-Dim Enterprises. | |
Mostly Harmless / int_aa8dcc21 | featureApplicability |
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Mostly Harmless / int_aa8dcc21 | |
Mostly Harmless / int_abb930ed | type |
Sleeper Starship | |
Mostly Harmless / int_abb930ed | comment |
Sleeper Starship: The Grebulons were on one until they crashed on the planet Rupert and lost their memories. | |
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Mostly Harmless / int_bc00493f | type |
Precision F-Strike | |
Mostly Harmless / int_bc00493f | comment |
Precision F-Strike: Arthur, on meeting Ford again, and having had a really unpleasant night, actually uses the word "fucking" to explain as much. | |
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Mostly Harmless / int_bef696dd | type |
Mind Screw | |
Mostly Harmless / int_bef696dd | comment |
Mind Screw: Ford's voyage into the four-dimensional Guide online network. The scene in which Arthur visited the man in the village filled with poles. Said man can walk to the horizon and back in a single step, and can step off one of the poles (each one is 40 feet tall, mind you) and live. | |
Mostly Harmless / int_bef696dd | featureApplicability |
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Mostly Harmless / int_d148b019 | type |
Mundane Made Awesome | |
Mostly Harmless / int_d148b019 | comment |
Mundane Made Awesome: Arthur's epic sandwich-making skills. | |
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Mostly Harmless / int_d31f99d8 | type |
Mid-Suicide Regret | |
Mostly Harmless / int_d31f99d8 | comment |
Mid-Suicide Regret: The Great Ventilation and Telephone Riots of SrDt 3454 resulted in a requirement that all office buildings have windows that actually open, a development which apparently also led to a lowering of the suicide rate: | |
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Mostly Harmless / int_d4f3a682 | type |
The Operators Must Be Crazy | |
Mostly Harmless / int_d4f3a682 | comment |
The Operators Must Be Crazy: | |
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Mostly Harmless / int_d4f3a682 | |
Mostly Harmless / int_d62dd556 | type |
The Chessmaster | |
Mostly Harmless / int_d62dd556 | comment |
The Chessmaster: The Guide Mark II. It uses "reverse temporal engineering" to change the past and ensure that any action its owner undertakes will have the desired outcome. The Vogons ultimately use it to destroy Earth once and for all. | |
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Mostly Harmless / int_dc11b29e | type |
Naughty Tentacles | |
Mostly Harmless / int_dc11b29e | comment |
Naughty Tentacles: Implied by the throwaway reference to the Guide having a statue of "Leda and the Octopus" (rather than swan). | |
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Mostly Harmless / int_e2d457 | type |
The Ditz | |
Mostly Harmless / int_e2d457 | comment |
The Ditz: The guy running the desk at the hotel alternate-Trillian is staying at is mind-bogglingly stupid, and ends up costing Trillian a job because of it. | |
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Mostly Harmless / int_e5e07b2d | type |
You Cannot Grasp the True Form | |
Mostly Harmless / int_e5e07b2d | comment |
You Cannot Grasp the True Form: Arthur is thoroughly disturbed by the man on the pole not making any sort of spatial sense. | |
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Mostly Harmless / int_eae0129f | type |
Anti-Advice | |
Mostly Harmless / int_eae0129f | comment |
Anti-Advice: Arthur Dent asks a soothsayer how he should live his life, and her counsel boils down to "Here's my autobiography. Read it, and do the opposite of what I did." | |
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Mostly Harmless / int_fbe02582 | type |
Satiating Sandwich | |
Mostly Harmless / int_fbe02582 | comment |
Satiating Sandwich: Arthur Dent, having undergone an existential crisis over his only skill being sandwich making, ends up the chief sandwich maker for the tribe on Lamuella, with several whole pages about this exalted position, and his divine sandwich-making skills earn him more respect than the village chief. | |
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Mostly Harmless / int_fea27091 | type |
Buffy Speak | |
Mostly Harmless / int_fea27091 | comment |
Buffy Speak: The Guide calls the sum total of all possible universes/timelines the Whole Sort of General Mish Mash, or WSOGMM for short. | |
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Mostly Harmless |
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