Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy book review

Douglas Adams was fundamentally a writer than wanted to create a comedic science fiction who was denied constantly at first.  Then the rise of science fiction into the mainstream allowed him to fulfill his want/dream and he created the radio play Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  It then became a book trilogy (while forgetting that a trilogy means three books), miniseries, and movie.  Adams was a man who was creating the truly unique and could not be stopped.  He essentially created Alice in Wonderland and set it in space and all around the known and unknown galaxy.

The book may seem to be nonsensical during the first read, but much meaning could be found in a lot of his funniest and darkest statements.  They are funny because they are true and therein lies the meat of the story.  For example, “As soon as Mr. Prosser realized that he was substantially the loser after all, it was as if a weight lifted itself off his shoulders.  This was more like the world as he knew it.”  Many people base their lives off of becoming the winner of anything and everything.  There is that part of nature that does tell the person in their subconscious that any one person cannot have it all.  People want to be so much more.  They lose their sense of humor and any real purpose when they base their lives off of being winners.  Having a small character, no matter how insubstantial or doomed, understand and accept that they are not a winner is a relief.  Especially in science fiction, the characters take themselves too seriously.  There is always a world that could be blown up at any minute and all of the hero’s energy goes to stopping it.  A rare moment indeed when the hero realizes and accepts that they cannot stop the inevitable and even rarer when they experience a sense of relief.  People forget that the overwhelming sense of doom and constant pressure, no matter how dire the circumstances, only mess up the person experiencing them more.  A person who can accept it and let the relief overtake them is one that gets that life is not fair.

The idea of the towel as a symbol is ingenious.  “Any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the Galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through and still know where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.”  It represents that a person is put together and knows where they are going.  It is a truly handy device to a hitchhiker.  A person who does not know where they are going or where they have been and is fine with it.  This seems to be what a good hitchhiker is to Ford Prefect.  A character who is laid back, but always searching for something more.  Someone who eats up information and observations as a lifeline.  I think the constant changes around Ford keep him sane.  He is surrounded by the different and the new and so, he is ‘on his toes’.

The most insightful statement to me was when Ford commented on the humans need to constantly state the obvious, “If they don’t keep exercising their lips,” he thought, “their brains start working.”  The question of why humans feel the need to talk about the most trivial of things to the point of never stopping is brought up here.  The need to constantly fill the silence with ourselves.  Is it our way of making ourselves more a part of the world around us?  Is it our way of connecting?  Or, is it as Ford sees it?

Basically, Adams was a very funny man.  He was this way because he observed and understood more than the rest of us are willing to admit to about ourselves.  He asked the important questions of triviality which no one else even realized needed to be asked by making jokes of them.  The man knew how to invade the subconscious and ‘tickle the funny bone’.

book review of Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's/Philospher's Stone

The Harry Potter series is not just about a boy finding out he has magical powers.  It is about finding a place in life and a purpose to it.  It is about belonging and enjoying life to the fullest.  It is about discovering and exploring what it is to be alive and coming to terms with death.  It is not just a coming- of - age story, but a coming to life story. 

Rowling presented a magical world unlike others in that magic was used on a day to day basis for menial tasks such as Mrs. Weasley does, but it is not the solution to everything.  Hagrid to Harry on why Muggles cannot know about Wizards, ‘Everyone’d be wantin’ magic solutions to their problems.’  She understood that people would only become lazy and not advance if they always went to others to simply make their problems disappear instead of dealing with them on their own.  The personal growth of humankind would then be forsaken.

People would become lazy and continue to rely on the wizards to do everything for them.  The wizards would become the ruling class and the Muggles would become the working class and believe them to be godlike in their abilities.  The Muggles would then expect the wizards to overcome all, even death.  Dumbledore to Harry, ‘After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure. . . the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them.’  Dumbledore is the voice of the wisdom in the series because he sees the long term effects of everything while others are simply looking at the next moment and how it effects themselves personally.  If the wizards became the upper class, the Muggles would then stop developing completely and no longer experience their own life, but the life that they are expected to live.  Free will would seem to disappear and with that disappearance what must follow but only hope.  Muggles would simply become a class of people who saw only physical labor and no mental growth to even consider death or experience life.  The Muggle would no longer need to debate the good and bad of the world.

Slytherin House is presented with a snake to represent which gives the reader an idea of slyness and a slippery quality.  This is where the biblical is brought in with the snake as a sign of evil or bad.  The introduction of the house to Harry and the reader is with the introduction of Draco Malfoy.  His character is instantly unlikeable with his haughty air of simultaneous indifference and disdain.  He is obviously the type of person that stays with ‘his own’ and does not understand the need or want to be otherwise.  He criticizes Hagrid without even knowing him based off what he has heard and seen of him (from a mere glance).  Hagrid then talks to Harry of Slytherin House, ‘There’s not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn’t in Slytherin.’  It is interesting how Slytherin House is seen as being a force of bad and so anyone who is accepted there must be bad themselves.  This is a bit hypocritical because they are isolated from everyone else for this and then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy for them to become bad.  They must go against what all of society and their families think they should be in order to be good as is seen in the later books.

Speaking of defying expectation, the analysis of what Rowling was doing with the symbols and symbolism within the series would serve to reveal what she thinks that children should be seeing subconsciously.  A big one in the first book would be the Mirror of Erised.  Dumbledore to Harry on the Mirror of Erised, ‘It does not do well to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that.’   A mirror causes the looker to reflect within themselves and destroys those that obsess over it (much like The Ring). Rewards those that look deeply and truly knowing what’s important (Dumbledore’s spell).  So, the wisdom within looking at one’s own reflection can be found when the looker is no longer wanting.

Another big concept to look at is power.  This is something that to a child means complete authority and a deserving authority at that.  They do not understand that power can be taken and given to those that should not have it.  To the child, it is merely a concept.  To the adult, it is what drives them every day. Professor Quirrell on Voldemort’s philosophy of power, ‘There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it.’  This brings into question if power is a force of good or evil.  Does it depend on the holder?  Is it truly abstract as children see it?

A good source of power would be with the Sorcerer’s/Philosopher’s Stone.  This stone grants long life.  It represents longevity and power.  Voldemort wants it so that he may live again and continue on with his dark plans of domination and tyranny.  This small stone becomes a symbol of the possible future. A stone is but a superficial thing that is a part of nature.  It forms over time and is strong.  It has many sides and can hold a reflection. 

Last, the chess game at the end of the Sorcerer’s/Philosopher’s Stone is full of symbolism.  Harry as the Bishop is fitting.  He is a famous, leader with influence.  Much like Dumbledore, he looks at what’s truly important (big picture).  He sees that getting the stone before someone bad gets it and gives it to Voldermort is more important than the House Cup.  Hermione as the Castle/Rook works because she is an old soul who is very cautious.  She is a homely girl who is comfortable and safe much like a home is.  She is like a fortress in that she can serve as a sign of power to have with her vast intellect and unexpected action. Ron as the Knight is superb in that he is a follower and leader.  He has a code of honor and thinks of others first.  He is brave to the point of martyrdom as can be seen by the end of the chess game itself.

In short, the first book is an exploration into the effects of isolation.  The hypocrisy found within every society even the idealistic magical one.  The love of adventure and mystery within us all and the need to know every answer. 

Book review of Jason Vanhef’s Engines of the Broken World

This book is an exercise in the study of minimalist characters.  They are quite a simple people because they are the last people.  The protagonist is not even aware of what a machine looks like; they live in such a simple world.  The last war had rid the world of machines from what the book says. 

The mother dies and yet, the girl, Merciful, hears her dead mother singing to her and hears her move.  Gospel, her brother, looks over all of it, at first.  The dog or ‘it’ avoids the mother.  His hackles raise or he cowers.  The mother grabs the girl and speaks to her of a machine calling in the fog that will bring about their deaths.  They are the last people.  This girl who does not even know what a machine looks like must then find this machine and smash it to call off the fog. 

The fog is a strangely dense entity that is quickly approaching their small community.  Jenny Gone is a young woman that is found without an ear or arm on his left side(the side that went into the fog).  The effects of the fog slowly spread and bring the woman into nothingness until it reaches her heart and kills her.

The question is whether the possessed body of her mother is telling the truth or whether a mechanical animal is telling the truth.  What is more important?  What choice will she make?  Merciful can either kill the Minister machine and stop the apocalypse or she can kill the possessed bodies in the house.  A true test of character within a deeply spiritual and turning book that makes the reader wonder what they would do.