By Douglas Adams
A cosmic comedy of galactic proportions
Subject
Themes
Arthur Dent wakes on a Thursday morning to find bulldozers poised to demolish his house for a bypass. He throws himself in the mud to block them, only to be dragged to the pub by his friend Ford Prefect, who reveals he is not from Guildford but from a planet near Betelgeuse, stranded on Earth for fifteen years as a researcher for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Ford explains the world is about to end. Minutes later, the Vogon Constructor Fleet arrives and broadcasts to every device on the planet: a hyperspatial express route requires Earth's demolition. The plans have been on display at Alpha Centauri for fifty years. Earth is vaporised.
Arthur Dent wakes on a Thursday morning to find bulldozers poised to demolish his house for a bypass. He throws himself in the mud to block them, only to be dragged to the pub by his friend Ford Prefect, who reveals he is not from Guildford but from a planet near Betelgeuse, stranded on Earth for…
When it first aired as a BBC Radio 4 series in 1978, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was unlike anything British audiences had encountered. Science fiction at the time was dominated by two modes: the earnest technological optimism of authors like Arthur C. Clarke and the politically engaged…
The destruction of Earth is not carried out by a tyrant, a conqueror, or an ancient evil. It is carried out by a civil servant filing paperwork. Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz demolishes the planet because a hyperspatial express route requires it, the forms have been completed, and the demolition orders…
Deep Thought spends seven and a half million years computing the Answer to the Great Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. The answer is forty-two. This number is perfect in its meaninglessness: it is not symbolically resonant, not mathematically elegant, not philosophically provocative.…
Earth is described from the very first line as utterly insignificant: a small, unregarded planet orbiting a small, unregarded yellow sun in the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy. Its inhabitants are so primitive they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea. The…
Every piece of technology encountered across the Galaxy mirrors and amplifies a recognisable human failing. The Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, whose marketing division the Guide defines as "a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes," has fitted the…
The Infinite Improbability Drive does not merely power the Heart of Gold; it provides the governing logic of the entire narrative. Every major coincidence, every unlikely connection, every absurd event is either caused by or explicable through improbability. Ford and Arthur are rescued from space at…
Arthur Dent is an ordinary Englishman thrust into extraordinary circumstances. He is about thirty, tall, dark-haired, and never quite at ease with himself. His greatest worry, before the world ended, was that people kept asking him what he looked so worried about. He works in local radio, which he…
Ford Prefect is a roving researcher for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, hailing from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse. He arrived on Earth fifteen years before its destruction, intending to stay for a week. He got stranded. During his exile, he posed as an out-of-work…
Zaphod Beeblebrox is the President of the Imperial Galactic Government, a role that carries no real power whatsoever. The President's job is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it, and Zaphod is spectacularly good at drawing attention. He is an adventurer, ex-hippie, good-timer,…
Trillian, born Tricia McMillan, is the other human survivor of Earth's destruction. She is slim, darkish, with long waves of black hair, a full mouth, and ridiculously brown eyes. She wears a red head scarf knotted in a particular way and a long flowing brown dress that gives her a vaguely Arabic…
Marvin is a prototype robot fitted with a Genuine People Personality by the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, whose marketing division promises robots that are "Your Plastic Pal Who's Fun to Be With." The Hitchhiker's Guide defines this same marketing division as "a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be…
Slartibartfast is a Magrathean planet designer, tall and elderly, dressed in a single long grey robe. His face is thin and distinguished, careworn but not unkind, the sort of face you would happily bank with. He has been asleep for five million years, revived now because special clients from another…
Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz is the commander of the Vogon Constructor Fleet that demolishes Earth. He is not a pleasant sight, even for other Vogons. His highly domed nose rises above a small piggy forehead. His dark green rubbery skin is thick enough for political survival in the Vogon Civil Service and…
Deep Thought is a stupendous supercomputer, the size of a small city, built by hyperintelligent pandimensional beings to calculate the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Before its data banks are even connected, it deduces the existence of rice pudding and income…
Somewhere in the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy, an utterly insignificant blue-green planet orbits a small, unregarded yellow sun. Its ape-descended inhabitants still consider digital watches a neat idea. Most of them are unhappy most of the time, preoccupied with small…
Ford and Arthur wake in a dark, squalid cabin aboard a Vogon constructor ship. Ford explains that the Dentrassis, wild gourmand cooks employed by the Vogons, smuggled them on board because annoying the Vogons is their favourite pastime. He hands Arthur The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, an…
A hole appears in the Galaxy, a nothingth of a second long and millions of light-years across. Paper hats, party balloons, seven three-foot market analysts, and 239,000 lightly fried eggs tumble out of it. The hole reverberates through time, traumatising a random group of atoms into self-replicating…
Arthur steps onto the bridge of the Heart of Gold and finds a man with two heads and three arms, picking his teeth. Ford introduces him as Zaphod Beeblebrox, his semi-cousin. To everyone's shock, Arthur announces they have already met. Six months earlier, at a party in Islington, Arthur had been…
A recorded message from Magrathea politely informs the crew the planet is "temporarily closed for business" and invites them to leave a name and contact planet. When Zaphod ignores this, a second message asks them to leave immediately, promising announcements in fashionable magazines when business…
Left alone on the surface with Marvin, Arthur browses the Guide and finds the story of Veet Voojagig, a student who became obsessed with where lost ballpoints go. Voojagig theorised a planet of ballpoint life forms, claimed to have found it and worked there as a limousine driver for cheap green…
Millions of years ago, hyperintelligent pandimensional beings grew tired of arguments about the meaning of life interrupting their games of Brockian Ultra Cricket (a curious game involving hitting people for no apparent reason and running away). They built Deep Thought, a stupendous supercomputer…
Zaphod, Ford, and Trillian wake from the gas on solid gold, which proves to be a Sens-O-Tape planet catalogue. Scenes cycle around them: platinum worlds, planets knee-deep in fish, purple seas with silver parasols, five hundred naked women on parachutes. Ignoring the spectacle, Zaphod pieces…
The police barrage stops abruptly. After strangled gurgles and thuds, silence falls. Ford investigates and finds both cops lying dead in their space suits. They are methane-breathing life forms from Blagulon Kappa, entirely dependent on their suits' life-support computers to survive in Magrathea's…
Arthur Dent is an ordinary Englishman thrust into extraordinary circumstances. He is about thirty, tall, dark-haired, and never quite at ease with himself. His greatest worry, before the world ended, was that people kept asking him what he looked so worried about. He works in local radio, which he…
Ford Prefect is a roving researcher for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, hailing from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse. He arrived on Earth fifteen years before its destruction, intending to stay for a week. He got stranded. During his exile, he posed as an out-of-work…
Zaphod Beeblebrox is the President of the Imperial Galactic Government, a role that carries no real power whatsoever. The President's job is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it, and Zaphod is spectacularly good at drawing attention. He is an adventurer, ex-hippie, good-timer,…
Trillian, born Tricia McMillan, is the other human survivor of Earth's destruction. She is slim, darkish, with long waves of black hair, a full mouth, and ridiculously brown eyes. She wears a red head scarf knotted in a particular way and a long flowing brown dress that gives her a vaguely Arabic…
Marvin is a prototype robot fitted with a Genuine People Personality by the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, whose marketing division promises robots that are "Your Plastic Pal Who's Fun to Be With." The Hitchhiker's Guide defines this same marketing division as "a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be…
Slartibartfast is a Magrathean planet designer, tall and elderly, dressed in a single long grey robe. His face is thin and distinguished, careworn but not unkind, the sort of face you would happily bank with. He has been asleep for five million years, revived now because special clients from another…
Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz is the commander of the Vogon Constructor Fleet that demolishes Earth. He is not a pleasant sight, even for other Vogons. His highly domed nose rises above a small piggy forehead. His dark green rubbery skin is thick enough for political survival in the Vogon Civil Service and…
Deep Thought is a stupendous supercomputer, the size of a small city, built by hyperintelligent pandimensional beings to calculate the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Before its data banks are even connected, it deduces the existence of rice pudding and income…
By Douglas Adams
Subject
Themes
Arthur Dent wakes on a Thursday morning to find bulldozers poised to demolish his house for a bypass. He throws himself in the mud to block them, only to be dragged to the pub by his friend Ford Prefect, who reveals he is not from Guildford but from a planet near Betelgeuse, stranded on Earth for fifteen years as a researcher for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Ford explains the world is about to end. Minutes later, the Vogon Constructor Fleet arrives and broadcasts to every device on the planet: a hyperspatial express route requires Earth's demolition. The plans have been on display at Alpha Centauri for fifty years. Earth is vaporised.