It’s 2025.
After all these long years I finally sat down and read Douglas Adams’ The Hitch-Hiker’s guide to the Galaxy. I first heard about this story when I watched the movie about it with a buddy of mine. That’s right, the one with Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent. I don’t remember too much about this movie except thinking it was very weird and complicated at times. Years later – when I was still quite young – I tried reading the book, but I could never really get into it. Despite this, I still bought the remaining books in the poorly named “trilogy” and since I’m both trying to read more as well as diversifying the sort of books I’m reading, it was time for me to give this book another shot. And I was pleasantly surprised.
For those of you unfamiliar with the book, The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide is a book based on a radio play about an Englishman who ends up traveling through space after Earth is blown up. His good friend Ford Prefect – which he thought would be a good cover name – is actually an alien from Betelgeuse Nine and he brings Arthur along when he escapes earth on a Vogon ship. The two later get picked up in a ship with Trillian – the only other earthling who happened to escape a few months prior – and Zaphod Beeblebrox, a strange fellow with two faces who was the president of the galaxy for a while and is also a cousin to Ford. The four of them make their way to a planet rumored to exist but considered a myth by most and meet some interesting figures.
What makes this novel ‘tick’ is the humor it uses. It will describe the most insane concepts that clearly make no sense at all with a seriousness that makes you believe they’re really thought out. It talks about how a phrase yelled into nothingness is sent through a wormhole millions of years back and happens to be the exact same as an insult that causes two races who were about to make peace wage war for many more generations instead. This story ends with them figuring out what happened and teaming up to attack earth, only to be swallowed by a single dog as they vastly misjudged the size difference. All of what I just talked about was only a throwaway side story in two pages before we return to the main story again.
The main story itself is interesting too. The concept behind it seems to be that these travelers are somehow influenced to go here and although we don’t quite learn all of what is going on, it does make for an interesting background. What really makes this book good for me is the final part on the planet of Magrathea. They meet an old man named Slartibartfast – yes it’s impressive someone made this up – and they then come face to face with the mice that were actually the smartest creatures on earth. They ran an experiment through earth, making it basically a giant super computer, but due to the Vogons’ interference they never got the result they needed. You see, researchers managed to build the second most intelligent super computer a long time ago and this told them that the answer to life, the universe and everything was ‘42’. But they never managed to figure out the question that this number answers. Since the second most intelligent computer couldn’t figure it out, they had to build an even more intelligent one. Now they need to start again from zero while our cast of weirdos make their way to the restaurant at the end of the universe.
One thing I took away from this story is how progressive it can seem at times. I want to look at one scene towards the end of the novel as a specific example of what I mean. While trying to escape from the mice on Magrathea, our fantastic four run into two cops that are chasing Zaphod for stealing the Heart of gold. Many years before the “acab” movement ever caught steam, this novel speaks about two cops who are just as violent as the other cops, but they’re the good apples because instead of bragging about shooting someone they go home to their wives and cry about not having another choice. Needless to say they still start blasting immediately. It’s a fun little commentary on the way the world works that I didn’t expect to find in a novel from almost 50 years ago. Also, Marvin depressing a ship so much it commits suicide is very funny.
I didn’t expect to talk this much about a book that’s only 180 pages, but it left more of an impression on me than I expected. I’m excited to read the other four books in the trilogy and I’ll share my thoughts on them as I go through them. I’ll be reading a lot more throughout the year and I’ll try and update you folks at times about what I’ve read and what I recommend. For now, I’m going to sleep since it’s already late and I have to teach first period tomorrow. Thanks for reading!
Opal Kaharis 