Fjords

When I eat dinner these days I have been playing over some great audio versions of the classic Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series read by the author, Douglas Adams. As most geeks the world over know, these books are amazing and have spawned a whole set of bizarre references that only we can appreciate. Today, I was listening to the scene where Author talks to Slarty Bartfast (sp?), who was a coastline designer for the creation of Earth. This is one of many references to him and his design of a coastline feature that I’m also particularly fond of:

“I think the chances of finding out what is really going on [in life] are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is say, ‘Hang the sense of it and just keep yourself occupied.’ Look at me, I designed coastlines. I got an award for Norway.” He rummaged around in a pile of debris and pulled out a large perspex (sp?) block with his name on it and model of Norway molded into it. “Where is the sense in that? None that I can make out. I have been doing fjords all my life and for a fleeting moment they become fashionable and I get a major award…In this replacement Earth we are building, they have given me Africa to do, and of course, I’m doing it with all fjords again, because I happen to like them and I’m old-fashioned enough to think they give a lovely baroque feel to a continent. And they tell me it is not equatorial enough. Equatorial.” He gave a hollow laugh, “What does it matter? Science has achieved some wonderful things, of course. But I would far rather be happy than right, any day.” (From Chapter 30)