The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

As the human race makes life-changing discoveries, it is made apparent that there is always more to learn as the universe, instead of becoming familiar, is becoming absurd. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, written by Douglas Adams, as well as the 2005 film adaption, portrays absurdity to be an all-encompassing system in the universe. Through the introduction and attempt to understand lack of reason, the narration of important elements and the human perception of the universe, the novel is as a whole, more complete than the film. With these points it is irrefutable that The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy develops the theme of absurdity with greater prowess than the film, resulting in a deeper understanding of absurdity, with an outlook the reader can connect to.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy introduces absurdity in a more compelling way than the film. The Infinite Improbability Drive "passes through every point in the Universe," (Adams 80). After being thrown out of an airlock, Arthur and Ford are rescued by the Drive with the “chance of rescue being 22079460347 to one against,” (Adams 67). Being rescued despite an astronomical improbability allows the novel to empower the theme of absurdity in a noteworthy way. The prominent focus the novel has on absurdity vastly differs from the minimal effort made in the film to evidently develop a source of absurdity in the universe, damaging The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Furthermore, the novel’s depiction of the search for reason among the predominant lack of reason adds a very important human element to the understanding of absurdity. While undergoing the effects of the Drive “A million-gallon vat of custard upended itself over ...

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... of this ideology in a way the reader can connect to. Through the foundation and attempt to understand the lack of reason, clear narration of important text and a human perception of absurdity, the novel prominently transcends the absurdity presented in the film. Absurdity is conveyed to be a school of thought, wherein humans attempt to answer and quantify the grandest questions of the universe, but ultimately come to a conclusion that the greatest answers are beyond us. As George Bernard Shaw said, “The more you learn, the more you know. The more you know, the more you forget. The more you forget, the less you know. So why bother to learn?”

Works Cited

Adams, Douglas. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. London: Pan Macmillan Adult, 2002.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Dir. Garth Jennings. With Martin Freeman, Mos Def. Touchstone Pictures, 2005.