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The "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" Revisited

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The Christian Erkenbrecher The "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" Revisited Motifs of Science Fiction and Social Criticism Diplomica Verlag Christian Erkenbrecher The "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" Revisited: Motifs of Science Fiction and Social Criticism ISBN: 978-3-8428-1177-5 Herstellung: Diplomica® Verlag GmbH, Hamburg, 2011 Dieses Werk ist urheberrechtlich geschützt. Die dadurch begründeten Rechte, insbesondere die der Übersetzung, des Nachdrucks, des Vortrags, der Entnahme von Abbildungen und Tabellen, der Funksendung, der Mikroverfilmung oder der Vervielfältigung auf anderen Wegen und der Speicherung in Datenverarbeitungsanlagen, bleiben, auch bei nur auszugsweiser Verwertung, vorbehalten. Eine Vervielfältigung dieses Werkes oder von Teilen dieses Werkes ist auch im Einzelfall nur in den Grenzen der gesetzlichen Bestimmungen des Urheberrechtsgesetzes der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in der jeweils geltenden Fassung zulässig. Sie ist grundsätzlich vergütungspflichtig. Zuwiderhandlungen unterliegen den Strafbestimmungen des Urheberrechtes. Die Wiedergabe von Gebrauchsnamen, Handelsnamen, Warenbezeichnungen usw. in diesem Werk berechtigt auch ohne besondere Kennzeichnung nicht zu der Annahme, dass solche Namen im Sinne der Warenzeichen- und Markenschutz-Gesetzgebung als frei zu betrachten wären und daher von jedermann benutzt werden dürften. Die Informationen in diesem Werk wurden mit Sorgfalt erarbeitet. Dennoch können Fehler nicht vollständig ausgeschlossen werden und der Verlag, die Autoren oder Übersetzer übernehmen keine juristische Verantwortung oder irgendeine Haftung für evtl. verbliebene fehlerhafte Angaben und deren Folgen. © Diplomica Verlag GmbH http://www.diplomica-verlag.de, Hamburg 2011 Table of Contents 1. Introduction: Different Medial Realizations of the Hitchhiker’s Guide ……………... 5 2. On Science Fiction …………………………………………………………………...…. 7 2.1 The Struggle of Defining SF ………………………………………………….. 7 2.2 The Most Important Historical Facts, Icons and Events of SF ……………. 8 2.2.1 Is There a ‘First’ Work of Science Fiction? ………………....….…. 9 2.2.2 The Age of Enlightenment ………………………………….….….. 11 2.2.3 Industrial Revolution ……………………………….....…………… 14 2.2.4 Jules Verne …………………………………………....……..…….. 16 2.2.5 H. G. Wells ……………………………………………………...….. 17 2.2.6 Hugo Gernsback and the Genre-Defining Magazine Era ……... 20 2.2.7 From the ‘Golden Age’ to the 1980s ….……………………...….. 22 2.2.8 New Wave ………………………….……………………………... 23 2.2.9 Notes on the Latest Developments up Until the 1980 …………. 24 2.3 Templates of Science Fiction and their presence in Hitchhiker's ..……… 24 2.3.1 Planetary Romances ………………………………………………. 25 2.3.2 Future Cities ………………………………………………………... 26 2.3.3 Disasters ……………………………………………………………. 26 2.3.4 Alternative Histories ………………………………………….……. 27 2.3.5 Prehistorical Romances …………………………………………... 27 2.3.6 Time Travels ……………………………………………………….. 28 2.3.7 Alien Intrusions ……………………………………………….……. 28 2.3.8 Mental Powers ………………………………………………...…… 29 2.3.9 Space Opera ………………………………………………..……… 29 2.3.10 Comic Infernos ……………………………………………….…… 31 2.3.11 Mock SF ……………………………………………………..…..… 31 3. Motifs, Ideas, Conventions of Science Fiction and their usage in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy ………………………………………………………..….…. 33 3.1 Alien Life ………………………………………………………………….…… 33 3.1.1 Humanoid Extraterrestrials ……………………………………….. 34 3.1.2 Animal-like Extraterrestrials …………………………………….... 35 3.1.3 Hybrid Aliens …………………………………………….…………. 35 3.1.4 Bodiless Creatures ………………………………...…………...…. 35 3.2 Alien Life in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy …………………….…. 36 3.2.1 Humanoid Extraterrestrials ……………………………………….. 36 3.2.1.1 Ford Prefect ………………...……………………………. 36 3.2.1.2 Zaphod Beeblebrox ………………………………...…… 37 3.2.1.3 Slartibartfast ……………………………………………… 37 3.2.2 Animal-like Extraterrestrials ………………………………………. 38 3.2.2.1 Mice ……………………………………………………….. 38 3.2.2.2 The Babel Fish ………………………………………..…. 39 3.2.3 Hybrid Aliens ……………………………………………………….. 39 3.2.3.1 Vogons ……………………………………………..…….. 39 3.2.4 Bodiless Creatures ………….………………………….…………. 40 3.2.5 Conclusion concerning alien life in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy …………………………………………………………... 41 3.3 Technology ………………………………………………………………..….. 42 3.3.1 General Use of Technology ………………………………….…… 43 3.3.2 The Guide …………………………………………………………... 45 3.3.3 Teleportation and Matter Transmission ………….……..……….. 46 3.3.4 Suspended Animation ……………………………….….…....…… 48 3.4 Space Travel …………………………………………………….……………. 50 3.5 Weapons and Interstellar War ……………………………………...…..…... 53 3.5.1 Weapons …………………………………………………...…..…… 53 3.5.2 Interstellar War ………………………………………………...…... 55 3.6 Artificial Intelligence ……………………………………………………...….. 56 3.6.1 Artificial Intelligence with Ticker Tape ………………...……….... 56 3.6.2 Marvin – Artificial Intelligence With a Little Problem …………… 59 3.7 The Towel …………………………………………………………………….. 61 3.8 Plurality of Worlds/Parallel Worlds …………………………………….…… 62 3.9 Answers to “Big Questions” in Hitchhiker’s? ……………………………… 65 4. Elements of Social Criticism ………………………………………………………….. 70 4.1 Science Fiction as Social Criticism? ……………………………………….. 70 4.1.1 Terminology …………………………………………………........... 72 2 4.1.1.1 Social Criticism ............................................................. 72 4.1.1.2 Satire vs. Parody .......................................................... 72 4.2 Criticism of Governmental and Bureaucratic Structures .......................... 73 4.3 Criticism of Human Behavior and Character Traits: An Attack on Human Hubris .................................................................................................. 76 4.4 Does Social Criticism in a Comic SF Novel Work? .................................. 80 5. Summary and Concluding Remarks on The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy..... 80 6. Appendix ............................................................................................................... 83 6.1 Plot Outline of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy ............................... 83 6.2 The Three Laws of Robotics .................................................................... 84 7. List of Works Cited ............................................................................................... 84 3 1. Introduction: Different Medial Realizations of the Hitchhiker’s Guide The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy […] not only is […] a wholly remarkable book, it is also a highly successful one – more popular than the Celestial Home Care Omnibus, better selling than Fifty-three More Things to do in Zero Gravity, and more controversial than Oolon Colluphid’s trilogy of philosophical blockbusters Where God Went Wrong, Some More of God’s Greatest Mistakes and Who is this God Person Anyway? (Adams 5) This description of the fictitious Hitchhiker’s Guide in the eponymously titled novel by Douglas Noel Adams reveals elementary details of the work itself but also of its author. The first and most obvious aspect is the humorous tone of the novel which is maintained throughout the story. Another fact that becomes clear from this short introduction is the comic mocking of philosophical questions. For the non-Hitchhiker it may be startling to learn that the The Hitchhiker’s Guide actually was not intended to become a novel at all; It started out as a radio program. The first radio series came from a proposal called The Ends of the Earth; six self-contained episodes, “each of which would all deal with the destruction of the Earth for a completely different reason” (Gaiman 24). Douglas then changed the structure of the stories from six independent episodes to one continuing story, featuring an alien guide as a field researcher for an interstellar guidebook1. On March 8 1978, the first episode of a six-part series of the radio program was aired on BBC Radio 4. Despite its unfortunate broadcasting time (10.30 on Thursday evenings), Hitchhiker’s became an instant success. Driven by the radio program’s triumph, Adams turned the radio scripts into the novels The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979) and The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980). The first book appeared simultaneously with a double-LP record which contained all the radio episodes. Having been established as a small “franchise” of its own, The Hitchhiker’s Guide had its first visual appearance on BBC 2 in January 1981. Adams, together with producer Alan J.W. Bell, created a total of six episodes out of the material of the first two books. It is remarkable that despite Hitchhiker’s typical British humour, the TV show and the books were also very successful in the USA. 1 It is one of the most prominent anecdotes concerning Hitchhiker’s that Douglas Adams first came up with that idea when he was hitchhiking across Europe in 1971. Lying drunk in a field in Innsbruck, having an edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Europe with him, he imagined a Guide for the whole galaxy. 5 The next medium to be touched by Adams’s creation was the theatre. Altogether, “there have been three major productions of Hitchhiker’s in the theatrical world. Two of these have been successful. The other was a disaster of epic proportions. It is somewhat unfortunate, […] that the disaster is the one that got noticed” (Gaiman 61). The first performance was shown at the Institute for Contemporary Arts in London, in the first week of May 1979. Even though each show’s audience was limited to eighty spectators it can be counted as a success; Even the newspaper reviews “were unanimous in their praise” (Gaiman 62). The next performances were shown in Wales, between January 15 and
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