Theoretical physicist Richard Feynman famously said “You know, the most amazing thing happened to me tonight. I was coming here, on the way to the lecture, and I came in through the parking lot. And you won’t believe what happened. I saw a car with the license plate ARW 357. Can you imagine? Of all the millions of license plates in the state, what was the chance that I would see that particular one tonight? Amazing!” The hitchikers guide to the galaxy is an explication in the form of a sci-fi novel of the comedy behind that quote
Let me start by saying I’ve never seen the movie, nor do I have any desire to do so. The book follows a quest to discover the answer to life the universe and everything from the perspective of an unlikely hero, an unwilling participant (greatness thrust upon him). From there, the narrative continues to follow the typical archetypal plot lines. Destruction of hearth and home, quirky but brilliant mentor, journey to the reaches of time and space, galactic plots, etc. The uniqueness of the book can perhaps be best described by the central metaphor and plot device “the infinite improbability drive”. The drive powers the fellowship’s uniquely fast and versatile space craft by making highly improbably things happen, such as rescuing the protagonist the moment before death or causing a whale to materialize in the upper reaches of the stratosphere and begin philosophizing on it’s way to a grizzly impact on the ground below.
The problem with the book isn’t hard to see, it sucks meaning from everything and tends towards gross nihilism. The answer to the previously stated quest (The meaning of lie the universe and everything) is 42, it’s hard to image a more hopeless conclusion. This however, does not detract from the good of the book. Adams is genuinly funny and true to comedy’s central role, the book helps us take ourselves less seriously; a certain degree of skepticism is thoroughly healthy in those interested in the truth (the same physicist quoted above also said, I would rather have questions which can’t be answered than answers which can’t be questioned). So give it a read, but be sure to keep in order in your foundation whilst imbibing this thoroughly chaotic potion.