Douglas Adam's Guide to the Absurd
In the realm of Science Fiction, total annihilation is always a looming threat and potential theme. It's the antagonist that a society faces, be it a bio-terrorism virus, a nuclear bomb, black holes, etc, the stakes are nearly always set on a grand scale with science fiction. Never before have I read a book like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which illustrates such violence and destruction... and utterly laughs in the face of it.
The book builds upon absurdity and sadness, following the once-measly life of Englishman Arthur Dent. After all of the dolphins leave Earth, revealing to be intelligent aliens after all, things take a weird turn as Earth is destroyed and Arthur is saved only to be confused of his whereabouts on a space ship. It's from there that he faces death countless times in the most bizarre of ways. Very little fulfills our expectations. For example, all along Earth was simply a giant computer designed to give the answer to the Universe... which was a resounding 42. Never mind the fact that their ship operates on an infinite improbability drive. What I enjoy is how it embraces absurdity, there is nothing I can find that is founded with severeness and seriousness that is brought up to Arthur.
I find that the more absurd the better when dealing with questions about where we come from and why we're here. We don't know, there is nothing finite, it could literally be any of the possibilities Douglas presents and we- like Arthur- would have no choice other than to accept it. What is key for getting the absurdity across while not taking itself too seriously is Douglas' use of the digressive omniscient narrator voice to dictate the story. He himself feels like a character, explaining to us like we're Arthur.
Arthur may be sad, but he never wallows, he's always outdone, even in sadness, by Marvin. Arthur reacts like any basic human would, but the story Douglas is trying to tell ultimately isn't Arthur's, it's meant to be an objective portrayal of the world. The beauty of absurdity is the various ways the reader can interpret it, making the book have a very personalized feel to it.
The book builds upon absurdity and sadness, following the once-measly life of Englishman Arthur Dent. After all of the dolphins leave Earth, revealing to be intelligent aliens after all, things take a weird turn as Earth is destroyed and Arthur is saved only to be confused of his whereabouts on a space ship. It's from there that he faces death countless times in the most bizarre of ways. Very little fulfills our expectations. For example, all along Earth was simply a giant computer designed to give the answer to the Universe... which was a resounding 42. Never mind the fact that their ship operates on an infinite improbability drive. What I enjoy is how it embraces absurdity, there is nothing I can find that is founded with severeness and seriousness that is brought up to Arthur.
I find that the more absurd the better when dealing with questions about where we come from and why we're here. We don't know, there is nothing finite, it could literally be any of the possibilities Douglas presents and we- like Arthur- would have no choice other than to accept it. What is key for getting the absurdity across while not taking itself too seriously is Douglas' use of the digressive omniscient narrator voice to dictate the story. He himself feels like a character, explaining to us like we're Arthur.
Arthur may be sad, but he never wallows, he's always outdone, even in sadness, by Marvin. Arthur reacts like any basic human would, but the story Douglas is trying to tell ultimately isn't Arthur's, it's meant to be an objective portrayal of the world. The beauty of absurdity is the various ways the reader can interpret it, making the book have a very personalized feel to it.
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