"The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."
Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
This is, perhaps, my favorite sentence in the English language. It is both absurd and fully comprehensible.
One of my favorite afternoons in memory was in May of 1989 shortly after graduating from Purdue. With nothing better to do, I sat in the Blue Cafe in West Lafayette, Indiana and read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy cover to cover casting, in my mind, various members of Monty Python to voice the parts.
I'm sure I looked odd giggling to myself in the corner as I read the book, but I don't really care. It was pure bliss.
40 for 40, #32
Comments
"The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."
Can anyone explain this to me?? I can't find a reasonable meaning to this sentence!
Tks
Posted by: Manuel Balda | March 12, 2008 10:06 AM
Wow, Manuel, that's some coincidence that you should respond to this almost exactly one year after I posted it.
Well, the plain sense of the sentence to me is that the ships were generally brick shaped and looked like they should just fall, and yet they didn't. It captures that moment of incomprehensibility where you see something that just doesn't connect with your life experience. Does that help?
Posted by: ironic1 | March 12, 2008 12:17 PM
Bizarre. I searched this phrase and found your page on March 12 too. Weird.
Posted by: Logan | March 12, 2008 3:36 PM
It is not that odd. I searched as well--43 minutes late. The reason for my search? The sentence was the "Quote of the Day."
Posted by: Komo | March 12, 2008 11:46 PM
...EDT that is!
Posted by: Komo | March 12, 2008 11:48 PM