Week 14: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy


I’ve read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Restaurant at the End of the Universe a few times before, but it was interesting to hear the audio drama version of it. Arthur Dent seems like a much more heroic character in the radio version, while I remember him in the books being very unassuming, almost meek as he gets thrown around the universe with various other people at the helm. Even his voice in the radio version is much more confident and bold than I would’ve imagined Arthur Dent to be. There’s also several events in the radio version that I have no recollection of, so I’m assuming at least some of them aren’t in the books. Still, in terms of tone and theme, the radio version is very much the same Douglas Adams style humor, and I don’t feel as if he changed any of the core elements of his story radically when he went on to write the books. He has a very particular blend of witty one-liners and somewhat depressing views of the nonsensical chaos of the universe which definitely stretches across all of his work, no matter what medium it’s in. It does make me curious to think what other mediums his work could be adapted into, since it’s already been on the radio, in books, in a movie, in an 80s videogame, and in a TV series. In some ways, I think it’s best if people read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy while they’re in high school. I remember the humor and characters resonating really well with me at that age, and while I enjoy it no less listening to it in college, it doesn’t feel quite as significant as it did years ago. I think a large part of high school is about personally trying to find the meaning of your own life, the universe, and everything, and a large part of that is coming up short with no real answers. So in that way, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is very well-fitting lens through which to examine your own life when you’re most uncertain about it. Life may be chaotic and without purpose, but there’s a good deal of humor in that, and a core message of Douglas Adams’ work is to find that humor and thrive on it as best as you can.

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