The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy-Douglas Adams

How I found this book: While in college the first time with the Jewell Gang, my friend Melissa received this book from someone she was dating. It passed the rounds through each of us, and being college aged kids, the humor was really meaningful to us. I still will whip it out just for the fun of it now and again.

Setting: Late 20th century by Earth standards, hard to tell with the rest of the Universe, which is where the rest of the book takes place at. The primary other planet that they ever approach is the mythical planet of Magrathea.

Main Characters:

Arthur Dent: A writer for the BBC radio, Arthur Dent is a rather sad and somewhat confused Englishman who has just found out his house is being demolished and his planet is being destroyed when he is whisked off into an adventure in outer space. Somewhat confused and lost through most of the story, Arthur’s disorientation serves as a great source of irritation to several other characters who have little or no respect for Earthlings or their need for tea.

Ford Prefect: Arthur’s best friend, he is really a field reporter for the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the universe’s pre-eminent travel guide and general source of knowledge. Stuck on earth for the last fifteen years, he has been pretending to be an actor. He manages to help Arthur escape Earth in its last minutes of existence, and eventually falls in with his semi-cousin Zaphod in his zany quest.

Zaphod Beeblebrox: The President of the Galaxy, Zaphod has just successfully stolen the brand new, amazing spaceship, the Heart of Gold, and is off to find the mythical planet of Magrathea. Apparently theft is no preclusion to being Galactic president, nor is Zaphod’s often irresponsible behavior. He has two heads, and three arms, and is depicted as being a charismatic, hippie type, but also slightly insane.

Tricia “Trillian” MacMillan: The only other survivor of Earth, Trillian met Arthur at a party once in the past, but was picked up by Zaphod (who had only one head at the time and was party crashing), and went into space with him instead. Trillian is a practical, sane foil to Zaphod, herself having been a scientist on Earth. She seems to take the vagaries of space and Zaphod with a great deal more equilibrium than Arthur.
Marvin, the Paranoid Android: One of the many androids on the Heart of Gold, Marvin’s personality has been designed to be both rudely sarcastic and hoplessly depressed and depressing. Marvin’s chief point in the stories is to constantly complain about some malfunctioning body part or the total lack of respect for his great intellect in respect to the menial tasks he is asked to perform.

Slartibartfast: One of the designers on the mythical planet of Magrathea, known for it’s handcrafted design of whole worlds. He is very proud of his creation of the fjords on Earth, which we discover was a creation by Magrathea as part of an experiment by creatures from another dimension.

Plot: Arthur Dent discovers one day that not only is his house being demolished in favor of a new freeway entrance, but that the planet of his birth is about to be destroyed. Whisked off the planet by his good friend, (and unknown to him, and alien), Ford Prefect, Arthur is taken on an adventure in space with semi-cousin, Zaphod, and Trillian, a girl Arthur once was interested in back home on Earth and the planets only other survivor. Now the quartet tries to survive as the police hunt down Zaphod and his ship, The Heart of Gold, (which Zaphod stole), as Zaphod attempts to find the mythical planet of Magrathea.

Themes:

The idiocy of bureaucracy: Adam’s delights in poking fun at the absurdities of governments and bureaucracies, and does so without restraint in the book. Everything from the parallel of the destruction of Arthur’s house/the Earth, to Zaphod’s role as President of the Galaxy shows how governments are inefficient tools used to control the lives of others, often at the expense of those who are directly affected by them.

Why are we here: Adam’s himself wasn’t big on the whole ‘religion’ thing, but it is silly that the whole purpose of Earth in the universe, (which is constantly lampooned by other aliens as being a backwards backwater), was to answer the meaning to life, the universe, and everything for a bunch of beings elsewhere. The loss of this backwards planet means that this question is once again not really answered, (well sort of…the answer is 42, we still haven’t figured out the question). Perhaps the real purpose to life then isn’t in finding the answer, its in finding the question to ask.

Human’s aren’t always the smartest creatures in the universe: Other aliens aside, Adams, who was an environmentalist, really felt that we humans often think to much of ourselves, and loves to gently prod out our pride. Besides the snide remarks about our descent from monkeys, we find that often the most intelligent creatures in the story are not even humanoid. The mice, (who are humanoid in their dimension, but mice in ours), are an example of creatures who do not look as if they would have a great deal of intelligence, but prove to be manipulative enough to have conned the very gullible Zaphod into doing their bidding and getting the two remaining Earthlings to Magrathea.


The universe is absurd: In Adams stories, the universe is often doing the weirdest things, just because…and that is just the way it is.


Every book sucks somewhere: The crux of the story comes from a series of radio shows Adams wrote for the BBC. Because of this, the story is very zany, but more than that it is episodic. It doesn’t have a real, full, clear plot or point that a regular novel would, which isn’t a bad thing, but is a bit off putting for those of you who are looking for a definite beginning, middle, climax, and end. If you read it much more as a story arch from a series, it works better that way, and it is very, very funny.


What did I like: I love the humor of this story. Britian has some of the funniest writers out there, all with the wry, tongue-in-cheek humor that many Americans might think is odd, but which I love. Yes, some of this is over-the-top humor, but it is dolled out with the dry, sarcastic wit that makes it hard to get through the story without sitting in a corner quietly snorting to yourself.

I also love Adams delight at making fun of EVERYTHING, and how he cleverly turns all sacred cows from our society into something to laugh at in his stories. He doesn’t bat an eye as he drops jokes about religion, sex, and politics, and keeps merely rolling along with the absurdity, but making it make sense as well. It’s not a chaotic story, it does have a point, and he is able to keep his story together with firm reasons for the hysterics going on around our characters.

How would I rate this wormy book: This is a MONSTER book, I believe every person at some point should read The Hitchhiker’s Guide, if nothing else to understand why people say that 42 is the answer to life, the universe, and everything. It’s a fun, silly book, and if you love British humor, you will love Douglas Adams.