The Restaurant at the End of the Universe: Sacrifice Story for Funny (prompt 12)(chapter 22)

“On Earth – when there had been an Earth, before it was demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass – the problem had been with cars. The disadvantages involved in pulling lots of black sticky slime from out of the ground where it had been safely hidden out of harm’s way, turning it into tar to cover the land with, smoke to fill the air with and pouring the rest into the sea, all seemed to outweigh the advantages of being able to get more quickly from one place to another – particularly when the place you arrived at had probably become, as a result of this, very similar to the place you had left, i.e., covered with tar, full of smoke and short of fish.” – (page 168)

Douglas Adams wrote this nice piece of commentary into the beginning of chapter 22. He seems to do that a lot. Rather than continue the story or describe the setting, he gives the reader a laugh. In this chapter, two of the main characters have been randomly transported to an unknown location that could be anywhere within a few lightyears of nowhere. So, where most authors would launch into a long and (in my opinion) boring description of the new setting, Adams comments on modes of transportation. After he finishes criticizing cars, Adams shows the reader some popular protest songs against teleportation (which are all very entertaining).

I think Adams decides to include more humorous than pertinent information sometimes because it is simply his writing style. Readers like myself enjoy reading this kind of book because we don’t have to sit through long-winded descriptions just to prove an author’s eloquence. Rather, we have fun laughing and get something more from the book than just the story.

Below is an excellent example of how I feel when writers (or characters) go on and ramble about themselves or the setting or their thoughts or anything else really that isn't interesting. I think this book does an excellent job of keeping the reader interested, unlike some other books (**cough cough** invisible man **cough** crime and punishment **cough cough**) that we have read in the past.