What makes "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglass Adams so important?

-
The future: we've read a lot about it so far. What makes Hitchhiker's Guide so different? Why does it matter?

The scientific parody category of genre has opened my eyes to what it feels like the other sci fi had been trying to teach me about, but couldn't completely send it home until now. A lesson about the future.

The genre of sci fi as a whole, though often depicting the future, is often describing the present. It has often forced me to reevaluate the present. Hitchhiker's, though a parody, was no exception. Most obviously, Hitchhiker's taught me to laugh even in a dark present. If the world was ending, why should I sweat the small stuff? Or, alternatively, if the world is ending, I might as well go enjoy the smallest, most mundane little things about life that I can, while I still can. And finally, at the very least, at least I can still say "at least the world isn't about to explode in place of a new interstellar bypass."

Hearing about the end of the universe, even in parody, still feels relieving. Suddenly the problems of my life are framed in a completely new way. By expanding the scale, most sci fi novels are able to make earthly problems seem small in place of grand adventure. Hitchhiker's Guide, however, accomplishes this somewhat, and also in it's place, accomplishes something else. Hitchhiker's Guide does show and address all of the small, earthly problems (like houses being destroyed, being depressed like Marvin, or wanting to know the purpose of your life and your place in the universe).

It just also happens to show you that these problems are very silly.

By making fun of all of the medial things, Hitchhiker's Guide has the vibe that your life is manageable. This dynamic works beautifully with an observation about Arthur and Ford.

At first, I believed Arthur to be the one we were meant to relate to. He's an average guy, and reminds me extremely of Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit. He never meant to go on an adventure, but one happened to find him. Arthur as well, having just been inducted into this new world of space and time travel beyond Earth, also tends to freak out. Arthur gets extremely concerned and freaked out when confronted with danger or the impossible situations they encounter, as any of us would

However, the more I listened, the more I felt like I was slipping into Ford's frame of mind. When terrible things happen and characters like Arthur spend so much time worrying and fretting about it, you find yourself trusting that everything will be okay, because they always have been.

Applying this to my own life, Hitchhiker's Guide was teaching me to stop stressing about the present. I should instead focus on the adventure that is my life, and work on getting to where in the universe I want to be.

Liberating, it is, to stop stressing about every detail of the present, and it then frees you to explore your future. If all of the sci fi that I have experienced has taught me anything, it would be that the future is going to be exactly what I make it, because I am the greatest force under my control, and so I must use it.

Comments

  1. StarcadianDecember 8, 2018 at 1:23 AM

    Let me just say, I completely agree. I especially love your point about how the book makes life seem more manageable, because at least the planet didn't explode right? Now if I could just stop stressing about finishing all this homework before the semester ends...

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Characterization of Relationships in "Interview With A Vampire"

-
One of the most fascinating aspects of Interview With A Vampire by Anne Rice is it's cast of characters and their interactions. Vibrant contrast is offered between the three main characters, and between the vampires and the world around them. Interestingly enough, the vampires of both this world and in the film Only Lovers Left Alive consider themselves superior to humans in every apparent way. Even Louis grew tired of the ways of man more quickly than he'd like himself to believe. However, this relationship differs between the two works as the vampires in Only Lovers Left Alive tended to see themselves as higher, more spiritually aware, almost celestial beings, while in Interview they tend to see themselves as hunters with humans as prey. Both works gravitated to a culture of a small group of vampires rather than large communities. The small group in Interview functioned not unlike a family, despite the idea of a family with two fathers being typically viewed as unacceptab
Read more

The Pros and Cons of Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Left Hand of Darkness"

-
The Left Hand of Darkness was the first book I've read this semester that I've had very mixed feelings about. For a number of reasons, I found this book to be successful, but to an equal degree, found it lacking. One thing that I do adore about this book is the bold exploration of gender and sexuality. Written during a time where anyone not straight and cisgender was likely to be ostracized, The Left Hand of Darkness stands in contrast. To allow even closed minded readers to undestand, Le Guin places you into another planet, as a foreigner. You are a human from Earth, dropped in the middle of a new world and struggle to interact with other beings that are entirely new to you. She does this purposefully, to place you into an entirely new frame of mind and rid you of your preconceptions about what a person is and what their gender and sexuality might be. In many ways, this was very successful, but in some ways I found this to falter. While I adore that the creatures are ase
Read more

The Universe of "The Stars, My Destination" by Alfred Bester

-
The degree of worldbuilding exhibited in The Stars, My Destination by Alfred Bester was astounding. From my perspective, it seems like the author decided to implant a few drastic changes to our current reality, and simply let the rest of the universe fall into place around it. In The Stars, those changes were the setting, and the ability of humans to teleport. He considered every possible way that our reality would be affected by these two changes. Everything from planetary systems as a whole to the individual man or women would be affected by these changes. How would we go to work? Without a need for public transportation, people in The Stars have created platforms with black and white symbols for easier memorization to aid their daily "jaunte". But, then, what happens to manual forms of transportation? You would think that cars and bikes would become extinct. However, ever more appropriate is the conclusion that Bester came to: in a world where everything moves in a
Read more