Take care and thank you for the fish
Take care and thank you for all the fish ( So long, and thanks for all the fish ) is the title of the fourth volume in the five-part novel series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams . The original of the novel was published in 1984, the German translation in 1985.
In the first hitchhiker's novel, the dolphins leave the human misinterpreted message, "Take care and thank you for the fish," as they move away from Earth just before it is destroyed by the Vogons to make way for a hyperspace bypass. The phrase has since been used by science fiction fans as a humorous way of saying goodbye.
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The plot takes place some time after the third part ( Life, the universe and all the rest ) and offers the transition to the fifth part of the series: Once Rupert and back .
Arthur Dent returns to earth that actually exploded to find out if it is still the same as before. It is, but the dolphins have disappeared. For this Arthur finds a puzzling glass vessel in his house on which the words are engraved: "Take care and thank you". On earth he meets Fenchurch. Like Arthur Dent, she is a person who has endured strange things. The two get to know and love each other. Fenchurch also has a glass vessel.
Together they set out to find the solution to the riddle of why the dolphins disappeared. This leads you to the “outside of the madhouse”, a house whose builder John Watson, known as “Wonko the Sensible”, claims to have recognized the world as a madhouse and therefore built a madhouse for the whole world. Only he and his living area are on the 'outside'.
Ford Prefect is also making its way to Earth after suddenly hitchhiking its full-length articles on Earth , even though, given the devastation, he expected the exact opposite.
Arthur and Fenchurch finally make their way to Preliumtarn, where God's final message to creation is. There they meet Marvin, the depressive robot who, due to previous events, is 37 times older than the universe and is about to die.
The story The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was originally designed as a trilogy. Because of the great success, Adams gradually wrote two more volumes, which is why the series is also referred to as the “four-part trilogy in five volumes” or the last volume as the “fifth part of the trilogy”.
Title: Do it or do it
In some of the new German editions, the title is “Mach's gut und Danke für den Fisch”, so it is formulated as a singular. However, since the message from the dolphins is addressed to humanity and not to an individual, this translation is incorrect. This is "just" a mistake in the envelope design. “Take care and thank you for the fish” appears exclusively on the cover, in the book itself the book title is “Take care and thank you for the fish”.
expenditure
- First edition: So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish. Pan Books, 1984, ISBN 0-330-28498-3 .
- German: Take care, and thanks for the fish. Translated by Benjamin Schwarz . Rogner & Bernhard at Zweiausendeins, 1985, ISBN 3-8077-0211-3 .
- Audiobook: Take care and thank you for the fish. Complete reading by Andreas Fröhlich . Director: Kai Lüftner . Translated by Benjamin Schwarz. The Hörverlag, Munich and [Hamburg] 2013, ISBN 978-3-86717-592-0 .
Web links
- Take care, and thanks for the fish in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (English)