All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning. Albert Camus The world of literature is blessed with many brilliantly conceived and well-remembered beginnings, celebrated in fitting tributes across the blogoshpere. Inspired by Albert Camus’s appreciation of the ridiculous, I have been contemplating great beginnings in humorous fiction. Terry Pratchett, the modern master of intelligent ridiculousness, begins Hogfather on a similar theme. Everything starts somewhere, although many physicists disagree. Further thoughts on the subject are offered by Douglas Adams in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe . The story so far: In the beginning the universe … Continue reading Ridiculous Beginnings