Book Notes: Check Two
Setting:
- The for the most part during the remainder of the novel remains constant (Heart of Gold) although with the ships “Infinite Probability Drive” the possibilities are literally endless. As I said before Douglas Adams seems to want to create a setting where anything is possible and throughout the remainder of the novel this seems to be the case for the most part. Space is sometimes known as “The Great Unknown” and it is in this unknowing that Adams thrives. The setting does change once from the Heart of Gold to the “Lost Planet of Magrathea” which is somewhat like finding the Lost City of Atlantis in planetary form. Zaphod Beeblebrox wanted to find this mythical planet for reasons both unknown to him and almost everyone and everything else. For the most part these settings reflect a trend in the novel where the plot is nothing more than two hitchhikers going wherever the wind takes them. Although there is no wind in space.
Characters:
Arthur Dent
Arthur continues to be disinterest in his surroundings for the most part, no matter how amazing they might be. Apparently space travel, talking robots and alien races bore him. This disinterest is expressed best when discribing Arthur as he walks the on an alien planet millions of miles away from planet earth:
“On the surface of Magrathea Arthur wandered about moodily”
This quote I feel best expresses Arthur's negative attitude in general. However, it could easily be the destruction of everything he ever knew and loved that is putting him off. I find Arthur Dent interesting in that he is completely uninteresting, which is strange for a main character of a novel, and is unlike any novel I have ever read. There is one part during the second half of the novel however where Arthur become momentarily interested in something, something in which will most likely change him forever… Or for the time being at least.
Ford Prefect
Ford is a strange character to say the least and a very strange character to say the most. Although he sometimes resembles a human in words and actions he is completely unlike humans at other times. Like Arthur he is disinterested in most things however the exceptions being women, alcohol and partying. It is interesting to compare both Arthur and Ford as they both share a past of having their home planet destroyed along with everyone they ever loved. Although their past is the same they both deal with it completely differently. Ford on one hand just tries to block it out by filling each day with fun and excitement or alcohol, while Arthur has almost completely disconnected himself from everyone around himself.
Zaphod Beeblebrox
Zaphod is quite normal other than his unorthodox actions, two heads, three arms (one of which is protruding right out of his chest) and intelligent idiocy. Zaphod resembles Ford at sometimes in that he also likes to have a good time, but also differs greatly in that he sometimes shows great ambition, which Ford lacks completely. It is as though he is schizophrenic which makes sense as he has two heads. He accomplishes amazing things such as stealing a highly expensive and secure space ship (The Heart of Gold) and at the same time requiring to be the President of the Galaxy to do so. However at other times he is completely idiotic:
"Whatever Zaphod's qualities of mind might include — dash, bravado, conceit — he was mechanically inept and could easily blow the ship up with an extravagant gesture. Trillian had come to suspect that the main reason why he had had such a wild and successful life that he never really understood the significance of anything he did."
Trillian
Trillian Zaphod’s girlfriend and partner in crime, literally and figuratively speaking has continued to be an unimportant character in the novel, she hardly speaks and when she does it is something unimportant and easily forgettable. I am still unsure what role she was supposed to play in the novel as she could have easily been cut out. My guess would be that Adams had an earlier purpose for her when conceiving the novel, but decided against it as he began to write and as a result made her a throwaway character. I would not be surprised if in later books she was killed off or thrown away.
Marvin
Marvin continues to be completely and utterly miserable and is a complete downer whenever he speaks in the text. I think for the most part Adams uses Marvin in order show exactly how damaging a negative attitude can be. This in turn supports his theme of enjoying life and making the most of your situation, as I myself have found Marvin depressing. This depression is expressed well through the following passage:
"Night's falling," he said. "Look robot, the stars are coming out."
From the heart of a dark nebula it is possible to see very few stars, and only very faintly, but they were there to be seen.
The robot obediently looked at them, then looked back.
"I know," he said. "Wretched isn't it?"
"But that sunset! I've never seen anything like it in my wildest dreams ... the two suns! It was like mountains of fire boiling into space."
"I've seen it," said Marvin. "It's rubbish."
"We only ever had the one sun at home," persevered Arthur, "I came from a planet called Earth you know."
"I know," said Marvin, "you keep going on about it. It sounds awful."
"Ah no, it was a beautiful place."
"Did it have oceans?"
"Oh yes," said Arthur with a sigh, "great wide rolling blue oceans ..."
"Can't bear oceans," said Marvin.
"Tell me," inquired Arthur, "do you get on well with other robots?"
"Hate them," said Marvin. "Where are you going?"
Arthur couldn't bear any more."
As you can most likely easily see Marvin is quite depressing.
Slartibartfast
Slartibartfast is an inhabitant of Magrathea whose job is to design fjords. It turns out that the planet Magrathea in fact manufactures other planets, Earth being one of them, and has been temporarily shut down for millions of years because they ran out of clients who were rich enough. He is quite peculiar (as are most of Adams characters) and in the end plays quite a big role in both the conflict and conflict resolution.
Conflict:
As I had said before any conflicts which arose would be resolved from chapter to chapter and any big conflicts were not apparent. However, this changes as the novel comes to a close and major conflicts arise in the second half. Zaphod as said prior stole the heart of gold in which is a major offence in the galaxy and is hence being chased by the galactic police. As a result anyone aboard the Heart of Gold is an accomplice which means our entire cast (Slartibartfast, being exempt in this case). If being chased by the galactic police (who are armed with lethal killo-zap guns) isn’t enough, another conflict also arises. It is explained earlier in the novel that the most powerful computer in the entire universe was created in order to answer the ultimate question about life, the universe, and everything; this computer went by the name Deep Thought. However, the answer required millions of years to compute and by that time the answer to life, the universe, and everything, the number forty-two, had no apparent meaning. Therefore Deep Thought was tasked with the making of a computer which could process the ultimate question. This computer went by the name Earth, yes our Earth. The maddening part about this however was that the earth was destroyed minutes before the question was about to be processed and therefore it was believed to be lost. Arthur feeling a deep connection to his home planet intends to find out this ultimate answer so his life on Earth and all life on Earth will no longer feel so completely meaningless.
Active Reading:
Allusions:
Star Spangled Banner - The national anthem of the United States of America.
Cricket - A bat and ball team sport played in England and other countries.
You’ll Never Walk Alone - A 1945 show tune from the musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein called Carousel.
Questions:
What is the real Ultimate Question to life, the universe, and everything?
What is the restaurant at the end of the universe?
What is wrong with Zaphod’s brain?
Vocabulary:
Exacerbated - To make a problem, bad situation, or negative feeling worse.
Monotony - A lack of variety of interest.
What I like/dislike:
At the first half of the novel a plot and conflict were not very apparent which bothered me as I am used to reading books in which the plot and conflict are outlined early on. However, in the second half both a plot and conflict have been made and it is clear what the final resolution might be. As this has been outlined I no longer have anything bad to say about the novel and as said prior find myself smiling and many times chuckling while reading it. All of Adam's jokes are in good taste, easy to understand and overall really quite funny. They are almost akin to that of the jokes made in Monty Python. I also quite like all of the characters in the novel as they they are so very sarcastic, boring and quite shallow (especially the main character Arthur), which is almost the opposite of characters in every other novel I have ever read; it is a nice change. The best example of this that I could find is as follows (Although long the whole passage is necessary) :
"As the ship's artificial night closed in they were each grateful to retire to separate cabins and try to rationalize their thoughts.
Ford couldn't sleep. He was too excited about being back on the road again. Fifteen years of virtual imprisonment were over, just as he was finally beginning to give up hope. Knocking about with Zaphod for a bit promised to be a lot of fun, though there seemed to be something faintly odd about his semi-cousin that he couldn't put his finger on. The fact that he had become President of the Galaxy was frankly astonishing, as was the manner of his leaving the post. Was there a reason behind it? There would be no point in asking
Zaphod, he never appeared to have a reason for anything he did at all: he had turned unfathomably into an art form. He attacked everything in life with a mixture of extraordinary genius and naive incompetence and it was often difficult to tell which was which.
Arthur slept: he was terribly tired."
I feel this passage best describes the complete normality of the main character. where you would expect depth, deep thought, complexity and all the things that make up an interesting main character Adams instead gives you complete normality and in this normality lies interest.
Theme:
As the novel continues the theme stays the same, this theme being to enjoy every minute of life and to make the best of every situation in which you come to meet. This theme is communicated through both character and irony. A good example of communicated this theme in character would be shown through both Arthur and Ford. Both of these character share a past filled with anguish and destruction as their homes planets were destroyed. However, Ford for example tries his hardest to make the most out of every day and enjoy himself as much as possible, he doesn't allow his anguish to get the most of him. A good example of this is found in the passage shared prior, this example being:
"Ford couldn't sleep. He was too excited about being back on the road again... Knocking about with Zaphod for a bit promised to be a lot of fun..."
Although Ford had a horrid past he is still quite an upbeat character and drives home the theme of making every day of your life enjoyable. Arthur also shows this although it took him half of the novel for it t show (which is quite understandable considering his Earth was destroyed and everything). Arthur was quite upset after the destruction of the Earth as he lost sight of the point of both his life there and everyone else as all it got them was two words in a book (the book being "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) these words being "mostly harmless". However, Arthur comes around as he discovers instead to enjoy the life he was given. This ideal attitude is acquired after Arthur has a discussion with Slartibartfast:
"You know," said Arthur thoughtfully, "all this explains a lot of things. All through my life I've had this strange unaccountable feeling that something was going on in the world, something big, even sinister, and no one would tell me what it was."
"No," said the old man, "that's just perfectly normal paranoia. Everyone in the Universe has that."
"Everyone?" said Arthur. "Well, if everyone has that perhaps it means something! Perhaps somewhere outside the Universe we know ..."
"Maybe. Who cares?" said Slartibartfast before Arthur got too excited. "Perhaps I'm old and tired," he continued, "but I always think that the chances of finding out what really is going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say hang the sense of it and just keep yourself occupied. Look at me: I design coastlines. I got an award for Norway."
Arthur then discovers that what you achieve in the world does not have to affect it, but instead you should preoccupy yourself from such things as it will only distract you from living. Finally this theme is expressed through irony. In many situations, especially ones involving death, the characters often act the opposite of what is expected. One situation such of this that comes to mind is when the Heart of Gold is in the line of fire of missiles and nuclear warhead. The passage goes as follows:
"Ford tapped Zaphod on the shoulder and pointed at the rear screen. Clear in the distance behind them two silver darts were climbing through the atmosphere towards the ship. A quick change of magnification brought them into close focus - two massively real rockets thundering through the sky. The suddenness of it was shocking.
"I think they're going to have a very good try at applying to us," said Ford.
Zaphod stared at them in astonishment. + "Hey this is terrific!" he said. "Someone down there is trying to kill us!"
"Terrific," said Arthur.
"But don't you see what this means?"
"Yes. We're going to die."
"Yes, but apart from that."
"Apart from that?"
"It means we must be on to something!"
"How soon can we get off it?"
Second by second the image of the missiles on the screen became larger. They had swung round now on to a direct homing course so that all that could be seen of them now was the warheads, head on.
"As a matter of interest," said Trillian, "what are we going to do?"
"Just keep cool," said Zaphod.
"Is that all?" shouted Arthur."
As you can see the characters for the most part make quite little of near death situations which is quite ironic, however this also shows how they try to make the best of the situation. Instead of freaking out and being afraid of death they in their own way almost embrace it. They in their own way make the best of every minute they are given.
