How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
It's difficult to say exactly what the people on the surface of the planet were doing now, because they didn't really know what they were doing themselves. None of it made a lot of sense—running into houses, running out of houses, howling noiselessly at the noise. (3.60)
After the Vogon fleet comes to Earth and announces that Earth is going to be destroyed, no one goes on to talk about how the galaxy is full of wonders and amazing things we never knew about. No, instead, everyone goes a little crazy with fear, just running around and screaming. We should note, though, that Adams never uses the word "fear" here. In fact, he never uses the word "fear" at all in the whole book. Is that because "fear" isn't funny, or because this universe doesn't have anything to be afraid of?
Quote #5
"Wow," said Zaphod Beeblebrox to the Heart of Gold. There wasn't much else he could say. (4.51)
Arthur and the humans (our next band name) may be amazed by aliens and planets and Babel fish, which are all old hat for the aliens we meet, but other characters are also capable of amazement. For instance, Zaphod is amazed by the Heart of Gold spaceship. (It's pretty rare for him to run out of things to say, as he does here.) And the engineers who built the ship are amazed (or at least excited) to meet the president (4.23). So it seems like everyone has something to be amazed at, no matter how experienced they are.
Quote #6
"Space," it says, "is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind-boggingly big it is. I mean you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space. Listen ..." and so on. (8.3)
It's hard to find the right words (other than "wow") to describe really amazing things. The experience of awe and amazement seems to call for repetition (like the repetition of big in "big. Really big"), or for lots of intensifier words like "vastly" and "hugely" and "mind-boggingly." Everything here tells us how amazingly big space is. Too bad it's mostly empty and boring.