📕 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
A science fiction classic that blends humor, adventure, and profound questions about life, the universe, and everything.
Published in 1979, this novel introduces readers to an unlikely duo: Arthur Dent, an ordinary Earthman, and his alien friend Ford Prefect, as they hitchhike through the galaxy after Earth’s unexpected demolition.
With its witty writing style and inventive concepts, the book explores themes of existentialism and absurdity, all while maintaining a light-hearted and comedic tone. Amidst the chaos of galactic travel and eccentric characters, including a depressed robot and two-headed president, the novel delves into philosophical inquiries and the ultimate question of life, leading to the famously anticlimactic answer: 42.
Adams’ story is a delightful journey through space that offers laughs, surprises, and a unique take on the meaning of existence, making it a must-read for fans of science fiction and comedy alike
About the book
| Author: | Douglas Adams |
| Year of release: | 1979 |
| Genre: | Scifi, Fiction, Humor, Classics, Fantasy, Comedy, Adventure, Novels |
| Pages: | 194 |
| Average WPM: | 356 |
| Date Started/Finished: | 27 to 29-November-2022 |
| Time took: | 1.18 Hours |
Impressions
"I'd far rather be happy than right any day."
The story was unique, writing style was enjoyable to read, maybe the book’s theme made it feel that way, but it was good either way. I really loved that the author introduced so many new ideas that were unique, and complex yet easily understandable.
The only thing I didn’t like about the book is that in the middle of the book it tried to juggle a lot of topics/concepts in a short period of time which felt like it didn’t do justice to all of them well. (The jokes were kinda mid at certain parts).
How I Discovered It
Read the book because of 42AD (the coding school)
Who Should Read It?
Someone who is into science fiction and comedy
Summary + Notes
Chapter 3
Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in “Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There’s a frood who really knows where his towel is.” (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)
Chapter 5
One of the things Ford Prefect had always found hardest to understand about humans was their habit of continually stating and repeating the very very obvious, as in It’s a nice day, or You’re very tall, or Oh dear you seem to have fallen down a thirty-foot well, are you all right? At first Ford had formed a theory to account for this strange behavior. If human beings don’t keep exercising their lips, he thought, their mouths probably seize up. After a few months’ consideration and observation he abandoned this theory in favor of a new one. If they don’t keep on exercising their lips, he thought, their brains start working. After a while he abandoned this one as well as being obstructively cynical and decided he quite liked human beings after all, but he always remained desperately worried abut the terrible number of things they didn’t know about.
Chapter 6
“Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation.”
Chapter 24
“Earthman, the planet you lived on was commissioned, paid for and run by mice. It was destroyed five minutes before the completion of the purpose for which it was built, and we’ve got to build another one.”
“Earthman,” he said, “it is sometimes hard to follow your mode of speech. Remember I have been asleep inside this planet of Magrathea for five million years and know little of these early sixties sitcoms of which you speak. These creatures you call mice, you see, they are not quite as they appear. They are merely the protrusion into our dimension of vastly hyperintelligent pandimensional beings. The whole business with the cheese and the squeaking is just a front.” The old man paused, and with a sympathetic frown continued. “They’ve been experimenting on you, I’m afraid.”
Chapter 25
My circuits are now irrevocably committed to calculating the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything.” He paused and satisfied himself that he now had everyone’s attention, before continuing more quietly. “But the program will take me a little while to run.” Fook glanced impatiently at his watch. “How long?” he said. “Seven and a half million years,” said Deep Thought. Lunkwill and Fook blinked at each other. “Seven and a half million years!” they cried in chorus.
Chapter 27
“Never again,” cried the man, “never again will we wake up in the morning and think Who am I? What is my purpose in life? Does it really, cosmically speaking, matter if I don’t get up and go to work? For today we will finally learn once and for all the plain and simple answer to all these nagging little problems of Life, the Universe and Everything!”
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
“You’re really not going to like it,” observed Deep Thought.
“Tell us!”
“All right,” said Deep Thought. “The Answer to the Great Question …”
“Yes …!”
“Of Life, the Universe and Everything …” said Deep Thought.
“Yes …!”
“Is …” said Deep Thought, and paused.
“Yes …!”
“Is …”
“Yes …!!! …?”
“Forty-two,” said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.
Chapter 28
1
2
3
4
5
6
“Forty-two!” yelled Loonquawl. “Is that all you’ve got to show for
seven and a half million years’ work?”
“I checked it very thoroughly,” said the computer, “and that quite
definitely is the answer. I think the problem, to be quite honest
with you, is that you’ve never actually known what the question is.”
“I speak of none but the computer that is to come after me,” intoned Deep Thought, his voice regaining its accustomed declamatory tones. “A computer whose merest operational parameters I am not worthy to calculate—and yet I will design it for you. A computer that can calculate the Question to the Ultimate Answer, a computer of such infinite and subtle complexity that organic life itself shall form part of its operational matrix. And you yourselves shall take on new forms and go down into the computer to navigate its ten-million-year program! Yes! I shall design this computer for you. And I shall name it also unto you. And it shall be called … the Earth.”
Chapter 30
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
“Deep Thought designed the Earth, we built it and you lived on it.”
“And the Vogons came and destroyed it five minutes before the program was completed,”
added Arthur, not unbitterly
“Yes,” said the old man, pausing to gaze hopelessly round the room. “Ten million years
of planning and work gone just like that. Ten million years, Earthman, can you conceive
of that kind of time span?
A galactic civilization could grow from a single worm five times over in that time. Gone.”
He paused. “Well, that’s bureaucracy for you,” he added.
Chapter 31
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
“You see,” he said, “if they’re just sitting there in the studio looking very relaxed and, you
know, just mentioning that they happen to know the Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything,
and then eventually have to admit that in fact it’s Forty-two, then the show’s probably quite
short. No follow-up, you see.”
“We have to have something that sounds good,” said Benjy.
“Something that sounds good?” exclaimed Arthur. “An Ultimate Question that sounds good? From a
couple of mice?”
Chapter 34
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
“That ship hated me,” he said dejectedly, indicating the policecraft.
“That ship?” said Ford in sudden excitement. “What happened to it? Do you know?”
“It hated me because I talked to it.”
“You talked to it?” exclaimed Ford. “What do you mean you talked to it?”
“Simple. I got very bored and depressed, so I went and plugged myself in to its external
computer feed. I talked to the computer at great length and explained my view of the
Universe to it,” said Marvin.
“And what happened?” pressed Ford.
“It committed suicide,” said Marvin, and stalked off back to the Heart of Gold.
Chapter 35
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
He came across this entry.
It said: “The History of every major Galactic Civilization tends to pass through three
distinct and recognizable phases, those of Survival, Inquiry and Sophistication,
otherwise known as the How, Why and Where phases.
“For instance, the first phase is characterized by the question How can we eat?
the second by the question Why do we eat? and the third by the question Where shall we have lunch?”