How It All Goes Down
- Meanwhile, back to Arthur and Slartibartfast.
- Slartibartfast finishes the story: Earth was a giant computer, with all the life on it part of the program. And it was five minutes away from giving an answer when the Vogons came and destroyed it.
- That's a real stupid way for a planet to go, Slartibartfast agrees. However, rather than worry about things like that, he would prefer to just keep busy making fjords.
- In Earth Two, for example, he's been given Africa to do, and he's decided to do it all with fjords, even though people complain that that's not accurate.
- Slartibartfast tells Arthur that it's time to meet the mice. We were hoping that it was time to meet the fjords.
- This announcement causes Arthur to reflect: "'I seem to be having tremendous difficulty with my lifestyle,' he muttered to himself" (30.20).