After reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, I, much like the characters in the novel, went searching for answers because I was at a loss for where to even begin analyzing such a chaotic, nonsensically esoteric story hitting blockbuster status. In a Youtube post by Jess of the Shire, she breaks the story down to “the universe is a confusing and often disappointing place, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
This sums up how I felt as a reader at the end of (and largely throughout) the story. This theme is comforting in a nihilistic kind of way, and there can be an argument made for it being a universal theme (a trademark of blockbusters), but the manic dialogue and cyclical nature of the plot made my head feel like a two-day-old boba tea. Not very tasty.
The writing is almost purple prose, but it’s so strange I don’t even want to qualify it as that. Perhaps a better term for Douglas Adams’s writing style is periwinkle prose. It’s purposefully dense to showcase its absurdity (which seems to be the main draw of the text?), but it’s borderline too dense to attempt to enjoy.
To its credit, the story is wildly creative, if not wholly random, and the voice is unique and quirky. This was a check in the plus column for me in chapter one, but by chapter ten it became exhaustive. I felt like I was reading the rantings of a manic pixie sci-fi boy. Much like the often criticized manic pixie dream girl trope, I was not impressed by the manic pixie sci-fi boys that populated this novel.
That said, many other readers were impressed, obviously. So, what makes this blockbuster bust? The one mass-appeal aspect I could find was how the story pokes fun at human behaviors. It’s a universal human experience to laugh at ourselves, right? If you can’t laugh off the meaninglessness of life, how can you live it?
Perhaps that’s the question that keeps readers coming back to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Especially, in the times that we’re living in (or through might be more accurate) today, an absurdist view of our universe might be the only way to survive.
XO
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I, too, did research on the book! It's such a nonsensical novel that is meant to make people smile, but I was left partially confused. I can't tell if the math in it is correct, but considering the book is meant to be a play on human behavior, it wouldn't surprise me if it's just bent mathematics. I also can't help but laugh at your comment on Adams's writing. "Periwinkle prose" is a great way to sum it up!
ReplyDeletePeriwinkle prose just won the internet
ReplyDeletePeriwinkle prose indeed! I enjoy the book because of how chaotic everything about it is, but it is hard to not acknowledge that sometimes the avenues Adams takes us down actually don't always lead to a point. In fact sometimes he will go on for a whole page or two explaining something, and a reader will be sat there expecting some revelation or witty punchline only to be left with, "And that's why Ford doesn't understand this thing about humans."
ReplyDeleteSometimes there is a hilarious payoff, but sometimes it fizzles and that's where the periwinkles for me comes in.