Yesterday was 42-day, the day when we ponder the meaning of Life, The Universe, and Everything. But Vancouver is still celebrating Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: the book is Vancouver's "One Book One Vancouver" pick, causing some controversy.
Writing in the Vancouver Observer, Terry Lavender complains that Douglas Adams wasn't Canadian, and had no connection to Vancouver whatsoever. Actual Canadian science fiction authors that could have been chosen, Lavender points out, include William Gibson, Crawford Kilian or Spider Robinson — or Donna McMahon, who wrote two novels set in a 22nd century post-global-warming Vancouver. Lavender also points out that the events tying in with the Hitchhiker's Guide don't seem to be taking the book's themes seriously:
The Guide is certainly interesting, engaging and easy to read. And yes, some of its ideas and themes (planetary destruction, inter-species communication, environmental customization, the search for the reason for existence) are worth discussing... Curiously, the [Vancouver Public Library] isn't addressing any of these topics in the activities surrounding the book. Instead, topics include UFOs, travel writing and a "Vogon Poetry Slam-Off".
What do you think? Should Vancouver pick a local SF author? Would you go to a Vogon Poetry Slam-Off? [Vancouver Observer]