History Literature / SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish

* AllJustADream: [[spoiler:Subverted. Arthur considers the possibility that he must have hallucinated his time in space, but quickly realises this can't be true because he's clearly been ''somewhere''. It eventually turns out the Earth was restored by the dolphins.]]
* AmbigiousTimePeriod: It's only been a few months (from the Earth's perspective) since the Vogon attack, but Know-Nothing Bozo is an in-universe dig at President Creator/RonaldReagan, and ''Arthur is familiar with this''. So ... the first book was set at least two years after publication?

* AllJustADream: [[spoiler:Subverted. Arthur is persuaded at first that he must have hallucinated his time in space, but it eventually turns out he's just in an AlternateUniverse.]]

-->''But his smile when he turned it on you was quite remarkable. It seemed to be composed of all the worst things that life can do to you, but which, when he briefly reassembled them in that particular order on his face, made you suddenly fee, "Oh. Well that's all right then."''

* AllJustADream: [[spoiler:Subverted.]]

* {{Bizarrchitecture}}: Invoked in the description of Wonko the Sane's house.

* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:Marvin]]

* TheseusShipParadox: Invoked in Marvin, who mentions that almost[[note]]Except the pain-raddled diodes down his left side[[/note]] every part of him has been replaced at least 50 times.

[[caption-width-right:364:''[[Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy ...So sad that it should come to this]]\\

''So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish'' (published in 1984) is the fourth installment in the [[TrilogyCreep increasingly inaccurately-named]] ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' 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, ''Literature/LifeTheUniverseAndEverything'', 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.

* OneParagraphChapter

* CosmicPlaything: Not just Arthur Dent this time but Rob [=McKenna=], the trucker who is a rain god and has absolutely no idea. All he knew was that he constantly had a literal rain cloud over his head. And had catalogued two hundred and thirty-one separate types of rain. The clouds loved him and want to be near him, but he didn't see it that way. After Arthur suggests he show his journal of all the rain (mainly to get the creepy trucker to stop telling ''him'' about it), he ''does''. As a result, according to Murray Bost-Henson, his status as a rain attractor apparently becomes recognized internationally, and several nations (namely those who rely on pleasant weather to attract tourists) and major airports paid him to stay away at all times.

* PerpetualStorm: Bob [=McKenna=] has recorded a log showing that it rains everywhere, all the time. This is because, unknown to himself, he's a rain god and the clouds are honoring him by raining wherever he is.

He explores his old Islington home and, seeing everything back where it should be, starts to suspect that his memories of space travel [[AllJustADream 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...

* MyOtherCarIsAnX: In one of the most famous examples, has the following...
-->''The figure pressed back as the machine streaked towards him. it was a low bulbous shape, like a small whale surfing — sleek, grey and rounded and moving at terrifying speed. The figure instinctively threw up his hands to protect himself, but was hit only by a sluice of water as the machine swept past and off into the night. It was illuminated briefly by another flicker of lightning crossing the sky, which allowed the soaked figure by the roadside a split-second to read a small sign at the back of the machine before it disappeared. To the figure's apparent incredulous astonishment the sign read, "My other car is also a Porsche."''

* PrecisionFStrike: If you're reading the American version of the books[[note]](in the US version of ''Literature/LifeTheUniverseAndEverything, the award for Most Gratuitous Use of the Word "Fuck" in a Serious Screenplay is swapped out for Most Gratuitous Use of the Word [[UnusualEuphemism "Belgium"]] in a Serious Screenplay)[[/note]]then this book contains a whopper. In fact, all of Chapter 25 is spent building up to it. See SophisticatedAsHell.

* BrickJoke: 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.

[[EarWorm We tried to warn you all, but oh dear...]]'']]

* Bizarrchitecture: Invoked in the description of Wonko the Sane's house.