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[[File:751f.jpg|frame|''[[The
'''''So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish''''' is the fourth installment in the [[Trilogy Creep|increasingly inaccurately named]] ''[[The
▲''So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish'' is the fourth installment in the [[Trilogy Creep|increasingly inaccurately named]] ''[[The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'' trilogy; it's set eight years since the beginning of the first book, but the amount of time that has passed between the end of the third, ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy (Franchise)/Life, The Universe And Everything|Life The Universe And Everything]]'', and the beginning of this one is not made clear. The plot concerns series protagonist Arthur Dent, who is ''very'' surprised to discover that his homeworld, planet Earth, seems to have suddenly sprung back into existence even though the alien Vogons destroyed it eight years ago to make way for an interstellar bypass.
He explores his old Islington home and, seeing everything back where it should be, starts to suspect that his memories of space travel [[All Just a Dream|may have been nothing more than hallucinations]]; after all, the people say, a nearby water source was found to be accidentally contaminated by hallucinogens. Arthur returns to his old ways and even strikes up a meaningful romance with Fenchurch, a beautiful young woman who seems just right for him. However, something is not quite right. Every dolphin on Earth seems to have mysteriously disappeared, as has his old friend Ford Prefect, and the appearance of a strange fishbowl on his doorstep sends Arthur, and Fenchurch, on a quest to discover the truth...
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Notable for featuring God's Final Message to His Creation.
Preceded by ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to
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{{tropelist}}
* [[All Just a Dream]]: {{spoiler|Averted}}
* [[Author Filibuster]]
* [[Bavarian Fire Drill]]: Ford pulls this to get himself, Arthur and Fenchurch onto a spaceship and off Earth.
* [[Brick Joke]]: This story starts with an almost identical narration to the first novel, before revealing in the first few chapters that Fenchurch was the woman mentioned in it.
* [[Democracy Is Bad]]: "On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people, if they didn't vote for a lizard, the wrong lizard might get in." Though one could argue this is more of an argument against first-past-the-post voting than against democracy in general.
* [[First Contact]]: Ford arrives on Earth in a ship that's creates this scenario. He then {{spoiler|sneaks himself, Arthur and Fenchurch on board when it's leaving.}}
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* [[Intentionally Awkward Title]]
* [[Killed Off for Real]]: {{spoiler|Marvin}}
* [[Law of Conservation of Detail]]: Discussed at length in Chapter 25, as the narrator tries to envoke it as an excuse for why this is the first we're hearing of Arthur's love life.
* [[Look Ma, No Plane]]: Arthur and Fenchurch, taking a somewhat innovative approach to joining the [[Mile-High Club]].
* [[Love Before First Sight]]: In that Arthur falls in love with Fenchurch while she's asleep, so he had had ''seen'' her, but he had not met her.
* [[Metaphorgotten]]: Ford:
{{quote|
* [[The Nicknamer]]: Murray Bost Henson, calling Arthur nicknames of endearment such as, "my old silver tureen", "my old elephant tusk" and "my old prosthetic limb".
* [[One
* [[Precision F-Strike]]: If you're reading the American version of the books<ref>(in the US version of ''[[Life the Universe And Everything]], the award for Most Gratuitous Use of the Word 'Fuck' in a Serious Screenplay is swapped out for Most Gratuitous Use of the Word '[[Unusual Euphemism|Belguim]]' in a Serious Screenplay)</ref> than this book contains a whopper. In fact, all of Chapter 25 is spent building up to it. See [[Sophisticated As Hell]].
* [[Sapient Cetaceans]]: The disappearance of the dolphins, though previously mentioned in the series, is something of a plot point here.
* [[Sexy Discretion Shot]]: Offered by the author in a case of [[No Fourth Wall]], when he advises the uninterested reader to skip the chapter where Arthur and Fenchurch have sex.
* [[Shout-Out]]: Arthur asks if Fenchurch was born [[The Importance of Being Earnest|in a handbag at Fenchurch station]].
* [[Sophisticated As Hell]]:
{{quote|
* [[Textual Celebrity Resemblance]]: Parodied.
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* [[Timey-Wimey Ball]]: This book is set a subjective eight years for Arthur after he first left the Earth at the beginning of the first book. As he spent five of those years on prehistoric Earth, it can be inferred that this is about three years after in "real time". But on Earth itself, just under six months appear to have passed (from early September to mid-February). Then again, when he left Earth, it was ''destroyed''. It could be inferred that it took {{spoiler|the dolphins}} two and a half years to get it set up so Earth could continue without anyone noticing the difference.
* [[Unexpected Genre Change]]: For a large part of the book, [[Science Fiction]] yields to romance and [[Slice of Life]] (it's still funny, though.)
* [[When He Smiles]]: Wonko the Sane.
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* [[Zero-G Spot]]: Arthur and Fenchurch
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Comic Literature]]
[[Category:Science Fiction Literature]]
[[Category:So Long And Thanks For All The Fish]]
[[Category:
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:British Literature]]
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