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’.
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