Title: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Author:
Douglas Adams
Author's (memorial) web site: http://douglasadams.com/
Date:
1980
Publisher:
Pocket Books
ISBN:
0-671-53264-2
Length:
250 pages
Quote:
“A…computer had to be built to find out what the actual question was. And this
computer, which was called the earth, was so large that it was frequently
mistaken for a planet…Sadly, however, just before the critical moment of
read-out, the Earth was unexpectedly demolished by the Vogons to make way—so
they claimed—for a new hyperspace bypass, and so all hope of discovering the
meaning of life was lost for ever. Or so it would seem. Two of these strange,
apelike creatures survived. Arthur Dent…and…Tricia McMillan—or Trillian…are all
that remains of the greatest experiment ever conducted—to find the Ultimate
Question and the Ultimate Answer of Life, the Universe and everything. And,
less than half a million miles from where their starship is drifting lazily
through the inky blackness of space, a Vogon ship is moving slowly toward
them.”
What’s to
be taken seriously about the five-volume Hitchhiker’s
Trilogy, in which The Restaurant at
the End of the Universe is volume two? Not the science-fiction clichés of
which the whole comic sequence is a parody. Not the apocalypse(s)—plural—the
whole idea was that, per science-fiction clichés of the 1970s, the universe
ends in so many just-noticeably-different ways that it’s possible for any
self-respecting time-travel scientist to build a colossally profitable tourist
attraction on the time warp that allows
visitors to see the end of the universe, wait for the one they want if they can
afford it, and swing back through time to enjoy dinner. Not the science-versus-religion
jokes…
Douglas
Adams was a Christian teenager. As a young man, he declared himself an atheist
due to the usual philosophical problems with the suffering of innocent animals.
(Large and sardonic though he was, anyone who’s read Last Chance to See
or, in fact, any of his work, knows that he was
very sensitive to the suffering of innocent animals.)
or, in fact, any of his work, knows that he was
very sensitive to the suffering of innocent animals.)
During the 1980s, when
the rest of the end of the baby-boom generation were laughing ourselves silly
over the Hitchhiker’s Trilogy, a
serious book was written exposing and denouncing the atheist elements in, I
think it was either the first three or four of the five volumes. I remember
reading that book, too, and being underwhelmed. I would describe the Hitchhiker’s Trilogy as an agnostic series, in which Adams made fun
of Christian clichés, atheist clichés, Buddhist clichés, and any other clichés
he could think of, with a primary goal of evoking hysterical if not positively
orgasmic howls of laughter on every college campus in the English-speaking
world.
Some people who claimed to know Adams personally claimed to think he was
drifting back in the direction of faith before his untimely death. He’d retired
from writing, so his readers wouldn’t know…I suspect he was on the side of the
angels all along, anyway. He wrote as if he were.The comedy in his books was
consistently about as snarky and cynical as comedy can get, but it was never
mean; it never left readers feeling really discouraged, the way e.g. Woody
Allen and Steve Martin sometimes did.
Later Adams
wrote that the central idea behind the Hitchhiker’s
Trilogy was a set of different possible ways the Universe could come to an
end, and in this volume Arthur and Trillian experience one of them. In the end
of the universe they observe, the most devout members of an alien religious
cult are waiting for the second coming of their prophet, who has been missing
previous Ends of the Universe for years…and
this evening, while their humanoid alien friend Ford is getting drunk, his
cousin Zaphod is acting like a jerk, and Marvin the depressive robot is helping
park spacecraft outside, the prophet returns.
This is
in between the two near-certain-death scenes in which they’re rescued by the
Infinite Improbability Drive, before Ford and Arthur are separated from Zaphod
and Trillian, and stuck (until the next volume) with the Golgafrinchan
colonists who brought the genes for yuppie-type stupidity to Earth.
I can’t
review this book (or series or writer) impartially. They came along at the
right moment in my early life. I thought I’d memorized all the jokes while
wearing out my copy (after putting considerable wear on two libraries’ copies)
in college, yet I still can’t read any Hitchhiker
book without laughing.
So, if
you want to use laughter to reduce stress and relieve pain, these books are
highly recommended. I’m even willing to part with…one of my copies…of this particular volume, because I have a more
recent one, in better condition. The one I’m willing to sell in real life is in
very bad condition indeed by now, with the back cover gone and the front cover
torn. The ones I’ll sell you online readers will come from Amazon and have both
front and back covers in place.
No comments:
Post a Comment