The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: a hilarious
adventure story telling of intergalactic travel, strange creatures,
and
saving the world! What more could you want? The rather unfortunate
Arthur Dent is whisked onto a mysterious space contraption by his
friend Ford Prefect (a visitor from another planet who has yet, as can
be seen from his unconventional name, to get to grips with the English
language completely...) And from then on, havoc and disaster inevitably
follow. The book is well written- or, as some might argue, written well
only if you have the fine sense of humour with which to appreciate the
satire and ironic comedy contained within these pages. But not only is
it uproariously funny, there are also deeper points of interests-
merely starting points from which a great many philosophical thoughts
may follow. It is up to the reader to decide how far they will look
into this book and its meanings.
The proof of the popularity of this book is seen with the making of the
recent film, and the Douglas Adams story has even been turned into a
"darker" version by American author Chris Genoa. Make up your own
mind as to which might be the best, and make up your own mind as to
Adams' original issues contained deep within the lines of this book. I
have no doubt that in the future many a scienctist or philospher will
claim to see hidden messages where before, all we saw was a spot of
that Douglas-like barb-wire humour.
After reading this book which can only be described as a twisted
science-fiction novel falling somewhere between Monty Python and Terry
Pratchett, everyone will understand the significance of the Babel fish
(which many might say would prove invaluable in our world, assisting
negotiation between different countries), and the way in which we would
all rather chew off our left legs than listen to the hideous Vorgon
poetry! Like it or not, this book contains several very amusing remarks
and situations which will be quoted by many people for many years, and
only through reading it and truly becoming involved in poor Arthur
Dent's not-so-fun adventure, will we be able to understand the
connotations.