Tell someone that the meaning of life is 42, and they will likely stare blankly at you. Occasionally, however, someone will correct you that it is not the meaning of life, but the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything. This hoopy frood is someone who knows where his towel is; he is the person who has put aside his sanity and read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
All of the beauty of “HG2G” lies in the syntax of author Douglas Adams. From the two-page tangent on the many creative uses of towels for interstellar hitchhikers, to a full transcription of the existential thoughts of a whale spontaneously brought into being several miles above a planet’s surface, to one character’s all-consuming pride in designing Earth’s fjords, to the biting political satire and revolutionary epiphanies of having an unwilling President of the Galaxy, to exactly why humans are the third-most intelligent species on Earth--I could go on for hours about the dozens of humorous passages in the book, although you may have to stick a Babel fish in your ear to understand it all--every paragraph is worth framing on your wall as entertainment each time you pass by it.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is the first book which comes to mind whenever I am asked for a recommendation, and I pity anyone who hasn’t experienced the work. However, having read the book eight times, along with the additional four books in the series and Adams’ other renowned novel, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, I believe I can safely say that the only redeeming quality of the novel is that Adams wrote it.
HG2G lacks depth of character; every creature present is a tool for one or more jokes. The plot is thinly aligned as well, with the protagonists accomplishing very little by the end of the novel. Moreover, there isn’t much of a problem to solve even if they had wanted to. The overall entertainment value and surprisingly profound questions that the book raises outweigh these weaknesses. Nevertheless, recently I have been plagued by one issue.
If The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy succeeds only in matters not related to the actual story, if the characters’ journey is not worth telling under any other author, is HG2G still a good book?
I would love your input in the comments section.
Before reading your blog, I thought a towel was the most useful thing in the universe. Now, I know I am mistaken because you're blog never fails to make me smile. Instead of saying thanks for all the fish, I will say thanks for all the posts, which is ironic become some happen to be about cephalopods. Now for my input, I would say it still is a good book, but clearly cannot match the iconic original.
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