[SYRFox]

So basically, I'm reading The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy trilogy in English currently (I've already read it in French), I just finished the first book.
There's a particular wordgame I can't understand - I've asked my English teacher but she did not find either.

It's in the end part, when they get to Magrathea. The planet has two twin suns, "Soulianis and Rahm". Is there a wordplay in it? In french, there's one: the two suns are called "Soulépav et Laplaj", which refers to a May 68 slogan.

Help would be really appreciated

Ive read that at school too, in english, and the whole 5 or six (??) books in german a while ago...
"rahm" is a german word but I doubt that makes sense it that english wordplay if theres some...

[Alex's Trip]

I think it may have something to do with ramming souls into anuses.

[Glice]

Originally Posted by SYRFox

So basically, I'm reading The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy trilogy in English currently (I've already read it in French), I just finished the first book.
There's a particular wordgame I can't understand - I've asked my English teacher but she did not find either.

It's in the end part, when they get to Magrathea. The planet has two twin suns, "Soulianis and Rahm". Is there a wordplay in it? In french, there's one: the two suns are called "Soulépav et Laplaj", which refers to a May 68 slogan.

Help would be really appreciated

I would guess, knowing Adams, that Rahm could just as easily refer to the Ram as in Aries or RAM as in random access memory, or equally as easily to a drink he once had in Cheltenham. I think with Adams there's not much point eking out the obscure references, as he's a slippery bugger who probably has comical disdain for people over-reading things. There's endless references to the over-reading of myth in Hitchhikers.

[SYRFox]

Originally Posted by Glice

I would guess, knowing Adams, that Rahm could just as easily refer to the Ram as in Aries or RAM as in random access memory, or equally as easily to a drink he once had in Cheltenham. I think with Adams there's not much point eking out the obscure references, as he's a slippery bugger who probably has comical disdain for people over-reading things. There's endless references to the over-reading of myth in Hitchhikers.

Oh, okay. Thanks. As there were an obvious wordplay in French I guessed it would be obvious in English as well, apparently I was wrong

[Glice]

It's an interesting cultural phenomenon that pretty much anywhere you look in French writing (and, apparently, French translations) there's a reference to May '68, whereas over here it has a fairly small cultural currency outside of academics (and left-leaning ones at that).

[akprodr]

Ya kno, since all the versions are different (radio, TV, books, record, movie), I wouldn't be surprised if the different languages were different too.