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Infinite Improbabilities: Mechanisms of Parody in Douglas Adams' Comic Science Fiction Writing.“

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Infinite Improbabilities: Mechanisms of Parody in Douglas Adams' Comic Science Fiction Writing.“ DIPLOMARBEIT Titel der Diplomarbeit „Infinite improbabilities: mechanisms of parody in Douglas Adams' comic science fiction writing.“ Verfasserin Eva-Maria Haslauer, Bakk. phil. angestrebter akademischer Grad Magistra der Philosophie (Mag. phil.) Wien, im November 2010 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt: A 343 Studienrichtung lt. Studienblatt: Diplomstudium Anglistik und Amerikanistik Betreuerin: Ao. Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Eva Müller-Zettelmann Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Eva Müller-Zettelmann, for making this project possible by welcoming my topic so wholeheartedly. I also thank her for her valuable feedback and guidance. Many thanks go to my friends both in- and outside Austria for their encouragement and patience; for listening, watching and reading, but above all – for their interest and enthusiasm that were still there when mine seemed to falter. My thanks also go to all my family near and far for their trust and inestimable support, which they always offer without even knowing it. I would like to dedicate this thesis to my parents, Elgar and Andrea Haslauer, whom I thank not only for their unconditional love and support, but also for their friendship. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction.........................................................................................................................1 1. Parody..............................................................................................................................4 1.1. Definitions of Parody...................................................................................................5 1.2. Functions of Parody....................................................................................................8 1.3. Types of Parody........................................................................................................12 1.3.1. Text parody........................................................................................................ 12 1.3.2. Genre parody.....................................................................................................13 1.3.3. Discourse Parody.............................................................................................. 14 2. Science Fiction............................................................................................................. 15 2.1. Defining science fiction: problems and starting points.............................................16 2.2. Science Fiction: defining features.............................................................................19 2.2.1. Cognitive estrangement.................................................................................... 20 2.2.2. The novum.........................................................................................................21 2.2.3. SF and social criticism.......................................................................................23 2.2.4. The confrontation with alterity........................................................................... 25 2.2.5. Intertextuality..................................................................................................... 27 2.3. A short history of science fiction............................................................................... 29 3. The Hitchhiker series as genre parody...................................................................... 33 3.1. The Hitchhiker's Guide and the science fiction field.................................................34 3.2. Parody regarding the text as a whole.......................................................................36 3.2.1. “There was a point to this story, but it has temporarily escaped the chronicler's mind”: narrative situation(s).........................................................................................36 3.2.1.1. The self-conscious narrator....................................................................... 37 3.2.1.2. Perspective................................................................................................ 39 3.2.1.3. The book within the book........................................................................... 42 3.2.2. Adams' disruption of the SF plot........................................................................46 3.2.3. Mock science fictional antiheroes: the characters of the Hitchhiker's Guide....52 3.2.4. Parodying the themes and motifs of science fiction..........................................56 3.2.4.1. Adams' aliens............................................................................................. 57 3.2.4.2 . “Your Plastic Pal Who's Fun to Be With”: Androids, robots and artificial intelligence.............................................................................................................. 59 3.2.4.3. “Not impossible, just very, very improbable”: Adams' parody of the technological novum............................................................................................... 63 3.2.4.4. “The Ends of the Earth”: apocalypse as entertainment.............................67 3.2.4.5. “To explore the human condition”: Adams' parody of science fiction's self- image and didacticism.............................................................................................69 3.3. Parody on the level of style and language............................................................... 72 3.3.1. Parody of individual texts and styles................................................................. 73 3.3.2. Creating the language of the future: the linguistic dilemma in science fiction..75 3.3.3. The Babel fish and other impossibly useful devices: addressing issues of multilingualism and language variation in the space opera narrative.........................79 3.3.4. Micro-parody: word coinage..............................................................................82 3.4. “We apologise for the inconvenience”: conclusion to chapter three........................84 4. Discourse parody in the Hitchhiker novels............................................................... 85 4.1. “Beware of the Leopard”: the discourse of bureaucracy..........................................87 4.2. The discourse of literature and literary criticism; or, a brief discussion of Vogon poetry............................................................................................................................... 90 4.3. The discourse of politics and economics..................................................................95 4.4. “Please do not push this button again”: the discourse of technology.....................100 Conclusion...................................................................................................................... 103 Appendix..........................................................................................................................105 Bibliography....................................................................................................................106 German summary........................................................................................................... 112 Curriculum Vitae............................................................................................................. 114 1 Introduction [A]nother [...] weakness in the medium as at present conducted: lack of humour and, far more than this, bad attempted humour. There is undoubtedly a kind of priggish pomposity which can afflict even the better writers, enough at times to subvert the moral tendency of what they are saying, and I connect this with the parochial circuit of mutual congratulation, leading in some cases to delusions of grandeur, in which most of them are involved […]. As regards simple absence of humour, I like to think I'm as fond of a good laugh as the next man, but I can stand doing without for long periods when reading, having been trained in the Oxford English school. (Amis 145) With these words author, critic and self-proclaimed science fiction (SF) addict Kingsley Amis bemoaned the lack of humour in the genre in 1960. According to him, most writers of science fiction were too concerned with having dashing young captains of space ships rescue beautiful blond maidens from bug-eyed monsters in fast-paced and often badly written adventure stories. Others yet were preoccupied with offering epic and unsettling visions of the future, frequently providing critiques of human society in which laughter had little or no room. “However, the picture as a whole is not as grave as this”, Amis (146) went on to ensure us, giving a list of science fiction writers who in one way or another had achieved humour in their work, both voluntarily and involuntarily. On the whole, however, the passionate reader of science fiction sensed a relative absence of humour in the genre of his preference in the 1950s, an era also often referred to as the “Golden Age” of SF. The elevation of this period in science fiction writing to “Golden Age” status may also be a reason why Amis seemed to have been of the opinion that the genre was taking itself too seriously. Amis' survey of science fiction was published over fifty years ago and it can by now be said that the mode has come a long way since then. Many of its most original and comic writers, such as Philip K. Dick or Kurt Vonnegut, were yet to publish their works and Amis' anticipation of humorous science fiction surely cannot have been disappointed in the long run. Nevertheless, science fiction
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