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> unknown book, ages past Reminds me of Douglas Adams’s description of where the Aliens posted their plans to bulldoze Earth: “But the plans were on display…”
by jachee 4y ago
> unknown book, ages past
Reminds me of Douglas Adams’s description of where the Aliens posted their plans to bulldoze Earth:
“But the plans were on display…”.
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”
- throwaway173738 4y agolittle nitpick but it’s where the local council put the notice about bulldozing his house.
- crooked-v 4y agoThe aliens' plans were, if I remember right, posted for display in a nearby star system, with a similar 'it's your own fault if you didn't bother to go look' justification. The indie book series Dungeon Crawler Carl, which is entirely unlike Adams' work in most ways but clearly takes some inspiration from the malevolent absurdity on display, uses a similar premise where the demolition-causing aliens let the pharaohs know 40,000 years ago and that serves as sufficient legal notice.
- adhesive_wombat 4y agoFurther similar vibes: the DUST short film "Final Offer": https://youtube.com/watch?v=rv8kOzRZK8g https://youtube.com/watch?v=rv8kOzRZK8g
- xapata 4y ago... almost, but not quite, entirely unlike ...
- WithinReason 4y agoThe best sentence in the entire book
- poizan42 4y agoI think it's tied with "The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."
- lelanthran 4y ago> little nitpick but it’s where the local council put the notice about bulldozing his house. True, but later on we find that the aliens pulled the same trick with the notice to demolish earth. It was hilarious what the city council did to Arthur, it was even funnier when a few pages later we find you that the Vorgons did the same thing.
- richrichardsson 4y agoEntirely unnecessary nitpick: they are Vogons. Had me questioning myself for a moment if I'd consistently misread their name[1]! [1] this could have been quite likely since it wasn't until I was about 18 years old that I realised Kawaski motorcylces were in fact Kawasaki motorcycles!
- krisoft 4y agoEvery time I read that part of the book I am surprised that there was no actual leopard. Somehow my brain stored that scene that he had to fight a leopard in the dark basement with no easy way out because of the fallen stairs. Yet clearly the leopard is only on the sign (or is it?)
- seabass-labrax 4y agoMy understanding was that the sign was an entirely bogus but rather worrisome warning, put there as a somewhat deceitful tactic to dissuade people from reading the real notices (about demolition, for instance).
- andybak 4y agoYes. The leopard sign is a non sequitur meant to further emphasise that this is precisely not the place one would expect to look for the item in question. It could have been a sign about anything but the "Beware of the leopard" is perfectly unrelated to the topic. This is the kind of thing Adams had a real genius for.