The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Infinite improbability drives, ballpoint pen planets, the evolution of birds due to ill-fitting shoes, and much much more. What can I say, Douglas Adams’ novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a masterpiece filled with absurdities one can only imagine.

The novel begins with a seemingly normal person: Arthur Dent. In no way is he a heroic fighter, a wealthy businessman, nor a powerful politician. In fact, he doesn’t appear to have anything out of the ordinary. He’s just a regular guy, and yet the book places him in new, weird, gigantic situations. Consider, for instance, the possibility of a construction crew coming to knock down your house. Sure, you may know what to do, but what about when an alien construction crew comes to knock down your planet? This is precisely the type of ridiculous circumstances Arthur is thrust into. At first they merely seem funny, blowing the problems we may regularly face to absurd proportions or minimizing it them to a comical extent. In this way, Adams presents the extreme side of the ideas we aspire to achieve in the future. In reality, however, these aspirations derive from the present.

Typically, science fiction novels show us a vision of our future full of the technology we desire. In order to want something, however, one must first be lacking in something else. Otherwise there would be no reason to want it in the first place. It can be said, then, that these wants coincide with our shortcomings and our fears. With this is mind, it is clear that the vision of society science fiction presents is a direct reflection of our modern day values and culture, rather than a future one. One could even argue that we look to science fiction to relieve our anxieties or else address their concerns. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is no different in this sense, except that Adams takes a satirical approach. Using the well known tropes of science fiction as a premise, he points out the flaws in our current logic and values, creating a lighthearted story with deep underpinnings in a more hilarious fashion than I could every dream of matching. Nevertheless, even if you failed to pick up on his somewhat negative assessment of excessive consumerism leading to people turning into birds, at the very least, Adams succeeds in making us laugh.

What Arthur Dent learns from his unpredictable adventure boils down to this: he lives in an absurd universe that doesn't really care what happens to him. It’s a somewhat depressing thought at first, but The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy also shows us how to deal with this absurd universe in the form of laughter, for no matter how bad things get, you can always laugh, especially at yourself. Arthur Dent is a small guy dealing with gigantically big issues that he really can't solve. But at the very least, he can laugh about it. And let’s be real, our problems couldn’t possibly be worse than his...right?

In the end, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy teaches us valuable lessons on the nature of life, the universe, and everything, while also commenting on the imperfectness of human nature. It takes big issues that don't quite exist (yet) like excessive consumerism sparking evolution, the complete ineffectiveness of politicians, and the greedy overreach of corporations and, rather than dwelling on it, makes fun of it. And if some of these details sound too familiar, well, that’s the point. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy isn’t about the future; it’s about the present. The book is about us. Whatever future ultimately comes to pass - dystopian, post-apocalyptic, or otherwise - we are responsible for it. This story is our story. Whether we will overcome our problems, laugh in the face of death and destruction alongside the characters in the book, or simply abandon our planet like the dolphins, it is up to us.

In any case, this is will be my final blog post. It has been a fun! So long, and thanks for all the fish.