Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy Analysis

When discussing a work of Science Fiction one thing the reader needs to keep in mind is the novum, or the element of the story without which the plot would disintegrate. Normally, the novum of a story is something that is tangible in the universe that the work takes place. Aliens, space travel, and super computers are common novums that the reader can visually see working throughout the course of the story and are easy to pinpoint. Sometimes the novum of the story is not quite so visible though and has implications that are rooted instead in philosophy. Douglas Adams’ The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is one of these instances. While it would be easy to point out the story’s several different races of aliens or the ship that can travel several light years in an instant as the novum, the true sentiment that holds the story together is the ideology that there is no grand scheme to the universe but rather that life is a series of random, unconnected incidents. …show more content…
The fact that Earth was made as a supercomputer by an alien race means that everything that evolved from the Earth was simply part of the program that Magrathea and Deep Thought, the Earth’s predecessor, invented. Enhancing the sense of pointlessness is the fact that Earth was destroyed, after ten million years, with five minutes left until the completion of the program that was meant to give the ultimate question of the universe. According to Carl R. Kropf, “Adams's novels… deny closure at every possible level. Instead of confirming that the phenomenal universe implies a meaning or purpose, [the books] affirm its meaninglessness” (67). Technology like the Heart of Gold also adds to the chaotic setting of the universe and makes it impossible to account for a sense of order. When the Improbability Drive of the ship is in use, there is no telling what will happen and what impact it will have on the