pkuong/hitchhikersguide · Datasets at Hugging Face

text stringlengths 0 65

"OK baby, hold tight," said Zaphod. "We'll take in a quick bite
at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe."


=================================================================
* President: full title President of the Imperial Galactic
Government.

The term Imperial is kept though it is now an anachronism. The
hereditary Emperor is nearly dead and has been so for many
centuries. In the last moments of his dying coma he was locked in
a statis field which keeps him in a state of perpetual
unchangingness. All his heirs are now long dead, and this means
that without any drastic political upheaval, power has simply and
effectively moved a rung or two down the ladder, and is now seen
to be vested in a body which used to act simply as advisers to
the Emperor - an elected Governmental assembly headed by a
President elected by that assembly. In fact it vests in no such
place.

The President in particular is very much a figurehead - he wields
no real power whatsoever. He is apparently chosen by the
government, but the qualities he is required to display are not
those of leadership but those of finely judged outrage. For this
reason the President is always a controversial choice, always an
infuriating but fascinating character. His job is not to wield
power but to draw attention away from it. On those criteria
Zaphod Beeblebrox is one of the most successful Presidents the
Galaxy has ever had - he has already spent two of his ten
Presidential years in prison for fraud. Very very few people
realize that the President and the Government have virtually no
power at all, and of these very few people only six know whence
ultimate political power is wielded. Most of the others secretly
believe that the ultimate decision-making process is handled by a
computer. They couldn't be more wrong.

* Ford Prefect's original name is only pronuncible in an obscure
Betelgeusian dialect, now virtually extinct since the Great
Collapsing Hrung Disaster of Gal./Sid./Year 03758 which wiped out
all the old Praxibetel communities on Betelgeuse Seven. Ford's
father was the only man on the entire planet to survive the Great
Collapsing Hrung disaster, by an extraordinary coincidence that
he was never able satisfactorily to explain. The whole episode is
shrouded in deep mystery: in fact no one ever knew what a Hrung
was nor why it had chosen to collapse on Betelgeuse Seven
particularly. Ford's father, magnanimously waving aside the
clouds of suspicion that had inevitably settled around him, came
to live on Betelgeuse Five where he both fathered and uncled
Ford; in memory of his now dead race he christened him in the
ancient Praxibetel tongue.

Because Ford never learned to say his original name, his father
eventually died of shame, which is still a terminal disease in
some parts of the Galaxy. The other kids at school nicknamed him
Ix, which in the language of Betelgeuse Five translates as "boy
who is not able satisfactorily to explain what a Hrung is, nor
why it should choose to collapse on Betelgeuse Seven".

"OK baby, hold tight," said Zaphod. "We'll take in a quick bite

at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe."

=================================================================

* President: full title President of the Imperial Galactic

Government.

The term Imperial is kept though it is now an anachronism. The

hereditary Emperor is nearly dead and has been so for many

centuries. In the last moments of his dying coma he was locked in

a statis field which keeps him in a state of perpetual

unchangingness. All his heirs are now long dead, and this means

that without any drastic political upheaval, power has simply and

effectively moved a rung or two down the ladder, and is now seen

to be vested in a body which used to act simply as advisers to

the Emperor - an elected Governmental assembly headed by a

President elected by that assembly. In fact it vests in no such

place.

The President in particular is very much a figurehead - he wields

no real power whatsoever. He is apparently chosen by the

government, but the qualities he is required to display are not

those of leadership but those of finely judged outrage. For this

reason the President is always a controversial choice, always an

infuriating but fascinating character. His job is not to wield

power but to draw attention away from it. On those criteria

Zaphod Beeblebrox is one of the most successful Presidents the

Galaxy has ever had - he has already spent two of his ten

Presidential years in prison for fraud. Very very few people

realize that the President and the Government have virtually no

power at all, and of these very few people only six know whence

ultimate political power is wielded. Most of the others secretly

believe that the ultimate decision-making process is handled by a

computer. They couldn't be more wrong.

* Ford Prefect's original name is only pronuncible in an obscure

Betelgeusian dialect, now virtually extinct since the Great

Collapsing Hrung Disaster of Gal./Sid./Year 03758 which wiped out

all the old Praxibetel communities on Betelgeuse Seven. Ford's

father was the only man on the entire planet to survive the Great

Collapsing Hrung disaster, by an extraordinary coincidence that

he was never able satisfactorily to explain. The whole episode is

shrouded in deep mystery: in fact no one ever knew what a Hrung

was nor why it had chosen to collapse on Betelgeuse Seven

particularly. Ford's father, magnanimously waving aside the

clouds of suspicion that had inevitably settled around him, came

to live on Betelgeuse Five where he both fathered and uncled

Ford; in memory of his now dead race he christened him in the

ancient Praxibetel tongue.

Because Ford never learned to say his original name, his father

eventually died of shame, which is still a terminal disease in

some parts of the Galaxy. The other kids at school nicknamed him

Ix, which in the language of Betelgeuse Five translates as "boy

who is not able satisfactorily to explain what a Hrung is, nor

why it should choose to collapse on Betelgeuse Seven".