Chance and the Self-Driven Reality in Adams and Vonnegut

Kelsey Londagin

An Honors Thesis Presented to the Department of English University of Florida

Dr. Terry Harpold Dr. Phillip Wegner

December 5, 2016

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The absurdist science fiction of and share the common theme of a universe in which events—and, seemingly, the plots of fiction—are left to chance.

Characters living in this universe must decide for themselves how to live and act, rather than taking directions from a higher authority, such as governments, religion, or moral conventions.

In Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, brute laws of probability govern the universe in such a way that it feels ungoverned and ungovernable. In Vonnegut's novels, despite chaotic senselessness visited upon protagonists, there is an undercurrent of hope.

Douglas Adams’ novels draw much of their dark humor from repeated demonstrations of the inefficacy of human and non-human authorities. In The Restaurant at the End of the

Universe, (1980) the Great Prophet Zarquon makes his ‘second coming’ with only seconds to spare before the universe is destroyed. Later in the book, Zaphod and meet the ruler of the Universe, who is a man who is not entirely certain that anything exists at all beyond what he can perceive. Even local bureaucracies appear feckless: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

(1979) opens with the destruction of the Earth to make an (instantly obsolete) hyperspace bypass, mirroring a similar event with the local English government and the main character’s house.

The lack of a government or spiritual authority prompts individuals to take authority for themselves from within; they must govern their own actions and be accountable for themselves.

Arthur Dent sees the absurdity in the universe around him and understands that there is not any greater meaning to be gleaned, no real “Answer” to Life, the Universe, and Everything – at least, not one that makes sense or can be found comforting. Because of this, Arthur must and does create a life for himself. He will take this insane and absurd set of circumstances given to him and do for himself what he can. Londagin 3

Similarly, Billy Pilgrim in Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) is dropped haphazardly into a warzone for which he is not prepared, and suffers the effects of comparably absurd chance events. Billy, like Arthur, must do what he can to survive during a time of war, which in Vonnegut’s books appears as absurd and without reason as the universe that Adams describes. In Slaughterhouse-Five, however, there is a message of compassion and peace that is missing from Adams; the lesson to be learned from chaos in Vonnegut is that, simply, the madness of wars should one day lead to people not having them anymore.

Alternatively, if one recognizes the meaninglessness of the world/universe but does not choose to take authority for him/herself, one risks slipping into unreflective nihilism. In that case, every individual action must be also meaningless, and all the larger powers either do not exist or do not affect or care about the life of individuals. This, however, is what both authors are trying to avoid by providing examples of individuals who have embraced nihilism as the response to chance. Marvin the Paranoid Android in the Hitchhiker’s Guide series demonstrates that an overly negative worldview and not believing in anything can lead to absolute misery.

Bokonon in Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle (1963) has a comparable worldview, though he tries to make the best of what he has and make life better for other people. Bokonon is an interesting case, in that his words and actions end up helping others to some degree; he is, however, a hypocrite who does not believe that his own teachings apply to himself. Bokonon combines the aspects both of a religious leader and a dictator, in that he created the religion to give the people of San Lorenzo something worth living for, since they lived in extreme poverty. Bokonon is not, therefore, strictly a nihilist, because he does try to improve the world around him.

In Vonnegut’s Sirens of Titan (1959) a “Tralfamadorian” robot (different from the

Tralfamadorians of Slaughterhouse-Five) is stranded on the moon Titan and prevented from Londagin 4

delivering a message of “Greetings” which happens to be a simple dot. The robot, not having been allowed to know the content of the message and having been told it was vital, signals home for a replacement part for his damaged spaceship. All of human history, the novel reveals, was created and contrived in order to bring the part that the robot needs. In this case, there is a meaning to life on Earth, a purpose for all humans to exist and civilizations to rise and fall: in order that this one, eminently absurd, task can be completed. The human characters of this novel react negatively to the knowledge that they (and all of humanity) were used to this absurd end, and some of them conclude that they would have been better off not knowing the real answer to why they existed, or any answer at all.

My analyses of these works by Adams and Vonnegut will show how these authors use probability and chance, in conjunction with a human search for meaning in an absurd universe, to convey a message that, while there may not be any rhyme or reason to the universe, one must make the best of things, strive to show compassion for others, and make peace in a chaotic world: as the cover of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy counsels, “Don’t panic.”

Chance as a Governing Factor

In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979), President of the Galaxy Zaphod

Beeblebrox’s stolen ship Heart of Gold operates on the principles of the Infinite Improbability

Drive. This device, created spontaneously, has the power to manipulate the probability of ordinarily “impossible” events or extraordinary “coincidences,” and makes those events occur whenever the exact improbability level is achieved. This allows the ship to move mind- bogglingly fast throughout every conceivable point in the universe simultaneously, and it allows for several fantastic coincidences and plot-driving events to occur. For example, when Arthur Londagin 5

Dent and are first picked up by the starship after having been shot into the vacuum of space, the probability of them having been picked up matches the phone number of the other human passenger already aboard the craft, which is also the probability at which the ship happened to be “going” when Arthur and Ford were found. The incredible coincidences involved in such a maneuver are conveniently—conveniently, that is, for Adams’s absurdist techniques— attributed to the Infinite Improbability Drive: if there is any chance of an event occurring, however improbable, the event will occur under that given improbability ratio set by the ship.

Such a fantastical, coincidence-driven plot is oftentimes troublesome to these protagonists, but the comedic effect of these circumstances is worth the absurd means of putting them there.

Using the properties of chance and probabilities as a (literal) absurdist engine of forward progression, the novels manage to defy the reader’s expectations in order to show the inherent meaninglessness of coincidences and other absurd events. The Infinite Improbability Drive is a brilliant solution on Adams’ part to bring absurdity into the novels, because it allows for any situation to occur. Adams can and does bend the rules of fiction without breaking them because he has the freedom to make any situation occur, and explain it with this device. The idea that this is an actual machine, logically (or perhaps illogically) found in the storyworld, justifies the absurdity of the plot; where the characters are actually going is dictated by absurd outcomes of chance. The rules of this fictional universe are determined and governed by an open, knowing abuse of the forces of chance.

The characters of Adams’s novels have different ways of dealing with the implications of this irreducible, absurd reality of their universe. Marvin the robot, for example, sees life itself as pointless and not worth the bother of living, and adopts an overwhelming, universal nihilism.

This is not the worldview that Adams intends for his readers to adopt, however; it is merely an Londagin 6

example of a negative reaction to the reality of a universe ruled by chance. Marvin’s incessant complaining and negativity are intended to deter the reader from taking things too seriously or being too downtrodden about the lack of a higher purpose or calling in life. Adams intends for

Marvin’s example to illustrate that, although the universe is fundamentally absurd, one ought not respond to it robotically without reflection or perspective, because that only leads to nihilism and depression. Marvin feels like he is never living up to his full potential, because he has a “brain the size of a planet” (Adams 65) but is never asked to do more than simple, menial tasks. His depression leads Marvin to conclude, in a paranoid mood, that no one likes him and everyone is trying to get rid of him. Marvin is right, to a degree – Zaphod certainly does not like him, and would get rid of him given the opportunity – but Marvin also makes himself very useful to others. His depressive personality gets the travelers out of many a predicament. Even so, as

Adams shows, no one is fond of a naggingly pessimistic robot.

Arthur Dent, on the other hand, is the character that Adams uses as a model for a more appropriate reaction to the lack of a higher meaning in life. Arthur, the last and one of the only two surviving human beings to escape the planet Earth before its destruction, is yet one of the most cheerful and easygoing characters in the novels. Arthur’s worldview is that one must ‘go with the flow’ of wherever the universe is taking you, and confront any problems along the way as they come. Arthur, despite all the turmoil and pain of having lost his home (and his home world), has come to terms with this and moved on. He is able to create a life for himself to live as he desires, taking what the governing order of chance has dealt him, and making a purpose for himself to live. (Arthur’s purpose eventually being becoming the local sandwich master in a small village on a remote, unsophisticated planet, in addition to preserving the knowledge of humans and the culture of Earth). Londagin 7

Ford Prefect is the more balanced and rational character, but is at the same time the one that is least willing to accept responsibility. Ford’s general mentality is that of being “too drunk to notice” whenever bad things are happening. In Life, The Universe, and Everything (1982)

Ford argues with , saying, “‘My doctor says I have a malformed public duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fiber,’ he muttered to himself, ‘and that I am therefore excused from saving Universes’” (Adams 343). In general, Ford would rather be happy and dead than put forth extreme effort or charge into the face of danger to save himself and the rest of the universe. Ford believes to some extent that the purpose for living is to have fun and get as much booze into his system as possible. Ford’s lavish, erratic lifestyle is not quite as noble of a purpose as preserving the knowledge of a whole planet, or trying to find out who’s really in charge of the universe; he is mostly content with his life, roaming the galaxy in search of a good time. Even so, this purpose does not ultimately fulfill him, and he later finds in Mostly Harmless (1992) that he does care about his friend Arthur, and is willing to go out of his way to stop the endless partying and join him.

A minor character in Life, The Universe, and Everything deserves a note on this regard: the immortal Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged. Having been made immortal by way of an accident, Wowbagger at first was enjoying life, but eventually began to grow bored and hate the

Universe, and everyone in it. Therefore, Wowbagger decided that he would insult everyone in the universe, in alphabetical order. He thus created a purpose for his life, albeit an absurd purpose, and he took charge of his immortal existence to accomplish a goal that gives him direction.

Zaphod, too, takes control of his own life, but not in a way that makes inherent sense.

Zaphod (currently) follows a path that was planned out for him by himself from the past; but this Londagin 8

past version of himself has blocked current Zaphod’s memory in order to qualify him for the position of the President of the Galaxy. Zaphod has a plan and a purpose for his life, but having this forced upon him, even by “himself,” causes him anguish and trepidation. His purpose was to find out who was really in charge of the Universe; his role as President is more of a figurehead.

Once this purpose has been fulfilled, Zaphod, lacking any further instructions from his past self, falls into a depression. Zaphod’s character shows how intelligent beings search for a meaning or goal for their lives, but sometimes, on achieving this goal, they cannot be content with living.

Zaphod is therefore somewhere on a spectrum between Ford and Marvin: he has a purpose, but once it is achieved, loses touch with his reason for being for a while.

In the opening scene of Tom Stoppard’s play Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead,

(1966) the titular characters are making bets on flipping a coin. Their discourse on the probability of the coin landing on heads ninety-two times in a row (at that point) helps to explain why seemingly absurdly improbable events baffle and distress humans. As Guildenstern puts it,

“A weaker man might be moved to re-examine his faith, if in nothing else than in the law of probability,” (Stoppard 12). Humans, being at least to some degree rational creatures expect reasonable and reproducible results to occur under given conditions; they alarmed when events do not repeat, or appear to repeat too much, or tend toward an outcome that appears out of keeping with reason. It is therefore understandable why the characters in these novels feel anxiety about the outcomes of these vastly improbable events. In the universe of the Hitchhiker’s

Guide to the Galaxy series, the events of the plot are improbable because they are, explicitly, driven by the perturbations of chance. Characters’ reactions to their world must be understood through this lens, not just that things seem unlikely or odd, and that there is a reason for things being as they are which is simply not understood by the characters; it is instead that events are Londagin 9

absurd, and there really is no point to any of it beyond the chance and probability – and even those are stretched to beyond capacity with the Infinite Improbability Drive.

David Ruelle examines the rules of probability and the meaning associated with it in his book Chance and Chaos (1991). Ruelle notes that just because something happens by chance does not mean that it is without meaning; meaning is determined by the context of the chance event. Ruelle recounts a series of probability outcomes and explains why humans tend attribute meaning to the results of chance. In the case of the events of Hitchhiker’s Guide, events contrived by chance often do in fact have meaning—for the individual characters. Arthur cares a great deal that he happened to have been picked up by a spaceship carrying a woman in whom he previously had a romantic attachment. The forces of the Infinite Improbability Drive and chance in general create a ‘random’ but meaningful chain of events which allows the plot to progress the way it does, thus making possible events that would be wildly improbable without this device.

In Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), events are seen less as factors or effects of raw probability, and more as the result of predetermined outcomes or a general fatalism. For example, Billy asks the Tralfamadorians how the universe ends, and their reply is that they

“‘blow it up, experimenting with new fuels for our flying saucers. A Tralfamadorian test pilot presses a starter button, and the whole Universe disappears’ … [Billy asks] ‘isn’t there some way you can prevent it? Can’t you keep the pilot from pressing the button?’ ‘He has always pressed it, and he always will. We always let him and we always will let him. The moment is structured that way’” (Vonnegut 117). The Tralfamadorians, through their firm belief in predetermination or fatalistic order, give rise to the absurdist credo by recasting the human perception of events as structured by order or disorder. Vonnegut does not want us as readers to follow the

Tralfamadorians in believing that there is no way of changing the past, present, or future, for Londagin 10

then there must be no order or reason for anything that happens outside events of chance. In fact, most individual circumstances themselves within the novel are seen as the results of chance, and the absurd consequences of this are exemplified in the character of Billy Pilgrim. Billy, much like Hitchhikers’ Arthur, is dealt a series of extreme and absurd blows, but must make of them what he can to give himself a meaningful life. Billy has gone through the Second World War and survived the firebombing of Dresden, as a consequence of which he suffers an extreme case of

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. While it is implied that the events of the Hitchhiker’s Guide series—however improbable—are actually happening, there is some ambiguity in

Slaughterhouse-Five, which makes it a different case. To take the novel directly from Billy’s perspective, ignoring for the moment the conclusions of his daughter Barbara and the very reasonable clinical explanations of his behaviors, Billy Pilgrim experiences a sort of time-travel

– he is, we are told, “unstuck in time” – in which he lives and relives episodes from his past and future, in a random, achronological disorder. These episodes also include his having been kidnapped by aliens (the Tralfamadorians) and displayed in a zoo. But none of these is the most absurd aspect of the novel. That prize is claimed by events of the Second World War itself, an historically real, globally traumatic event that Vonnegut, and many of his readers when the novel was published in 1969, had experienced. Vonnegut intentionally sets up Billy’s adventures this way, presenting the reader with the idea that real wars are more absurd than any science-fiction scenario could be. For example, the circumstances caused by Billy’s ill-preparedness for the war cause him to look ridiculous, at first like a flamingo, and later somewhat like a wizard. The various means Billy uses to stay warm cause him to seem absurd to the other characters who have “normal” clothing, and he is criticized for ‘making fun of the war,’ which Billy did not intend. I will discuss more about Vonnegut’s intended message with this idea in a later section. Londagin 11

Rulers

In this section, I will analyze a few ‘rulers’ of the fictional universes of Adams’ and

Vonnegut’s books, and discuss briefly how the inefficacy of these rulers forces characters in these novels to carve their own paths without the help of any higher authorities or external benevolent forces.

Bokonon

In Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle (1963), the character Bokonon has a major impact on the lives of the natives of San Lorenzo as a religious leader and a partial political ruler. Vonnegut shows us how fine the line is between the two roles by demonstrating the people’s willingness to follow Bokonon’s orders, even to kill themselves with the ice-nine. Bokonon’s basic teachings are that absolutely everything that happens does so for a reason (the antithesis of absurdism), mandated and only known by God Almighty. It is difficult to believe anything that Bokonon says, however, because he does not believe in it himself. Bokonon “‘always said he would never take his own advice, because he knew it was worthless’” (Vonnegut 273). Bokonon’s religion, however, if believed, would solve a lot of problems for a lot of people. The people of San

Lorenzo are avid Bokononists because they live in extreme poverty, and Bokonon created the religion as an augmentation of his and the dictator’s rule over the people of the island, giving them something to believe in and to live for, even if Bokonon does not believe a word of it for himself. His purpose is to give a meaning, however phony, to hundreds of other people’s lives.

His hypocrisy is what eventually leads the narrator to take on a mission comparable to that of

Arthur Dent in Hitchhiker’s Guide, of preserving the memories of humanity and life on earth before an apocalyptic catastrophe. The narrator writes the book that the reader is reading, a Londagin 12

“history of human stupidity” (Vonnegut 287). Unlike Dent, however, John/Jonah the narrator decides to snuff out his life after he has written his book, committing suicide by ice-nine and making a “statue” of himself “thumbing his nose” at God (Vonnegut 287). Paradoxically, instead of having no faith in a religious purpose for his life, John/Jonah as too much faith in Bokonon, and follows his teachings and carries out this one final task.

Vonnegut here uses science fiction as an approach to handling the absurd. Ice-nine, the substance created by Dr. Hoenniker, is the instrument for the destruction of the whole world. The compound was created as a solution to a problem pointed out by a military general, who suggested a solution be found to eradicate mud, to freeze it solid, so that soldiers and convoys could just walk over it instead of trudging through. This aim is itself absurd, in that someone could be so enraged with mud as to wage a kind of war on the very earth itself. The substance is a polymorph of water which melts at a temperature much higher than normal ambient temperatures. When it comes into contact with normal liquid water, it causes the water to freeze.

The risks of such a substance, were it to be released into the world – that of freezing all liquid water, everywhere – are plain. Why anyone would try or even risk destroying life with such a compound, just to vanquish one’s enemies, it is impossible to fathom. The overwhelming meaninglessness of existence cannot be that strong in any individual unless they are in a way insane. This is what Vonnegut is suggesting when the San Lorenzan dictator ‘Papa’ Monzano becomes the first person to die from contact with ice-nine: “Now I will destroy the whole world”

(Vonnegut 238). Coincidentally, (but coincidences do not exist in Bokononism, for everything happens for a reason); his dying words are what Bokononists say when they are about to commit suicide. Little did ‘Papa’ know that he would actually destroy the world as a consequence of this Londagin 13

action. Vonnegut shows here both the absurdity of individual nihilism and the absurdity of weapons of mass destruction.

Great Prophet Zarquon

In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, few characters express religious sentiments. However, when the group finally reaches Milliways in the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, they encounter a group of devotees there who represent the Second Coming of the

Great Prophet Zarquon. These people have waited a long time to see the return of their savior, and in this instance, Zarquon comes to them in the restaurant with just seconds to spare before the Universe comes to an end. This apparent lack of competence, in even bona-fide religious figures in the book, shows the author’s disdain for those who follow such leaders blindly without making their own decisions. Other deities mentioned in the books are ridiculed, including the

Norse god Thor.

Vogons

Early in the first book of the Hitchhiker’s Guide series, all the way up until the very end of the last one, the have been a major threat to humanity. Vogons are characterized by their repulsiveness, idiocy, extreme anger, and love of torture. These are naturally the creatures who are to be conscribed by the ‘government’ to do interstellar construction work. Upon one of these projects, the Vogons are instructed to demolish the Earth to make room for a new hyperspace bypass. Ford and Arthur are the only ones to survive this event, because they take the immense, improbable, risk of boarding one of the ships. The Vogons are strictly and painstakingly bureaucratic, and a biting parody of municipal and state governments. Londagin 14

One particular Vogon, the one in charge of the demolition of Earth, is also controlled by his therapist, who instructs him to complete this apocalyptic task in every parallel universe until

Earth is completely wiped out. This psychiatrist is worried about the future of his career should the Question to the Ultimate Answer come out of Earth as it was intended to do. Therefore, not only are the authorities of this part of the galaxy vastly incompetent and crude, they are also corrupt and concerned only for their reputations.

The Ruler of the Universe

For the actual governing factors in the Hitchhiker’s Guide series, beyond just chance alone, the powers in government must adhere to some absurd guidelines. According to the narrator in Adams’ The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, “The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them…Who can possibly rule if no one who wants to do it can be allowed to?” (Adams 278).

When is finally forced to go along with his mission of seeking out the real ruler of the Universe, he and Trillian and Zarniwoop come upon a planet hidden by an

‘unprobability field’, arriving at a small shack in the rain. Inside lives a man who is very peculiar in nature, in that he does not believe with absolute certainty that anything at all exists beyond what he can perceive. This, by the above standards, makes him a perfect candidate for being the ruler of the Universe, because he ‘tries not to’ (281). This man lives alone with his cat, discovering and rediscovering repeatedly how to do so much as use a pencil and paper. While this man is technically the ruler of the whole universe, he does not actively govern. This is, in part, Adams’ way of showing the reader how ineffective or nearly nonexistent the governing Londagin 15

factors of the universe are. Zarniwoop becomes furious, berating the man for being in control of

“hundreds of millions of people” and not even seeming to care. On the other hand, when Zaphod and Trillian leave, they are convinced that “the universe is in pretty good hands” (Adams 284).

Is anarchy really the best policy? On a cosmic scale, the lack of overall authority in governing one’s life and choices gives a great deal of freedom to the individual. This may in some contexts be a good thing, because it allows, or rather forces, the individual to make choices for him/herself. These choices are what drive the ‘plot’ of their own personal universe, giving them a reason to exist—their very own set of questions and answers to what the meaning of life is. Because the answer is not cut and dried. If humanity were to suddenly discover its purpose for existence, and it were something silly – for example, as in Sirens of Titan, to provide a robot on the moon Titan with a replacement part for his spaceship – most of humanity would be rightfully enraged. Even if this purpose seemed noble to some, it may not be so to others; it is highly unlikely that all could agree to find meaning in an absurd foundation for everyone’s existence.

This situation applies fairly well to actual human beings, but it must be noted that the characters in Adams’ and Vonnegut’s novels are just that—characters in a book. Their very existence is a product of the deterministic, even if apparently, improbable, universes they inhabit.

Every decision made, each phrase spoken, and every event that happens to them is determined by the writer of the book. One can write all one wishes about how there is no order or meaning to the universe, or how characters have a freedom of will to do as they will choose, but for fictional characters, seemingly free though they may be, everything they will do is pre-determined. As the

Tralfamadorians observe, each of the moments of the characters’ lives are like ‘bugs in amber,’ which the readers can go back and look at again and again. The sperm whale and the bowl of petunias in chapter 18 of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy are falling, have always fallen, Londagin 16

and will always fall onto the ground of Magrathea, and the bowl of petunias has always said, is saying, and will always say “Oh no, not again,” every time the reader turns to page 91. Thus the one and only real ‘ruler’ of any of these novels is the author himself. Of course, Adams and

Vonnegut know this; so does the reader. The illusion of fictional free will is a target of their absurdist argument.

Returning to events of the Hitchhiker’s Guide novels, there may or may not be other governing factors that have a higher power than the man with the cat. As Trillian’s mice (who are actually extradimensional beings that built the Earth to generate The Ultimate Question of

Life, the Universe, and Everything to which the Answer is 42) explain, “‘I’m afraid where you begin to suspect that if there’s any real truth, it’s that the entire multidimensional infinity of the

Universe is almost certainly being run by a bunch of maniacs’” (Adams 132–133). This observation means that every position of power imaginable (and many unimaginable ones) are inefficient and incapable of properly ruling the galaxy, or whatever their domain may be. The intelligent beings under their control must therefore make meaning for themselves, without being told precisely what to do, because the ‘higher authority’ is either nonexistent or “a bunch of maniacs.” This must take place every stage along the way, in that the universe is in fact an odd and cruel place to have to find one’s way to live.

Outside of fiction, the search for the meaning of life is pertinent to everyone at some point or another. Whether a person believes in a divine agent for whose larger plan all human activity is gauged, or that there is no meaning to anything, the question remains. What all can humans do to leave a legacy to those around us? What is our purpose for being? I will discuss this more in a later section, but for now, it is abundantly clear that the answer is (probably) not

“42,” as Adams proposes, unless some numerologists would like to take a crack at it. But the fact Londagin 17

that Adams gives us an answer without the question is so much more interesting than if he had given the question first. The answer, being so simple, could be the solution to all sorts of questions, simple or quite complex. Such, also, is the nature of human progress. In a post-

Enlightenment age, we practice science to further understand the secrets of our Universe, but the more we approach confident knowledge, the more reality seems to bend away from itself into something different. The interest we have in absurdist fiction seems to be that while the novels profess that the world does not have any meaningful order, it is in fact highly ordered—on the level of fiction. The problem is that humans try to seek this level of order in our own, nonfictional, world, where it does not—or probably does not—exist. Adams, in his own fictional

Universe, is suggesting that perhaps the Universe is trying not to be found out, or whatever higher power one chooses to believe in is intentionally confusing so that humanity will have no choice but to remain under its power, and continue to believe in a meaning that has no ground other than our need for it. We get to the point where we think we have all the answers, but suddenly, we no longer know which questions are the right ones to ask. While there is an important distinction here between our real universe and the one Adams creates, his careful framing of the absurdity of free choice in a fictional universe can help us understand why humans feel the need to continue the search for meaning in our own universe, even when it wildly eludes our grasp.

Message

Vonnegut’s purpose, at the very least in writing Slaughterhouse-Five, but perhaps in most of his novels, is to show the absurdities of war. As I have observed, one of the primary absurdities of World War II depicted in Slaughterhouse-Five is that the soldiers of the American Londagin 18

army are so ill-equipped for war that Billy Pilgrim ends up becoming a parody of a human being just in trying to stay warm. However, in Cat’s Cradle, and in other parts of Slaughterhouse-Five,

Vonnegut’s focus is on how the greater victims of wars are always children—boys, not men.

This is emphasized particularly in Cat’s Cradle, when the American Ambassador is giving a speech to honor the “Hundred Martyrs to Democracy.” He points out that the soldiers are just children, all murdered in war, and that the real way to honor them would be to “‘take off our clothes and paint ourselves blue and go on all fours all day long and grunt like pigs.’” This is because the reason war exists at all is “the stupidity and viciousness of all mankind” (Vonnegut

254). Ambassador Minton here is another stand-in for Vonnegut’s own point of view, much like many of the minor or unnamed characters in Slaughterhouse-Five. Vonnegut is here trying to illustrate why wars must be stopped: to end the martyrdom of children for the freedom of the adults. He is comparing the act of war to humans acting like crazed beasts. His anti-war strategy as an author of fiction is to show human nature’s own absurd fascination with violence, to hold the mirror up to our ugly faces so that we might not walk away from it unchanged; that we might look at circumstances more carefully when considering whether or not to go to war.

In Slaughterhouse-Five, Billy Pilgrim becomes dissociated from time, living in a post- war world with an extreme case of post-traumatic stress disorder. His consciousness is so fragmented that he feels like he lives and relives all the moments in his life out of order. Taken at face value, Billy is just a guy who was thrown into a swimming pool as a child and then taken to the Grand Canyon, then went to World War II and was a prisoner of war during the firebombing of Dresden, and then was the only survivor of a plane crash—with a major head injury—that killed all his friends and coworkers, and indirectly, his wife. Seen from Billy’s perspective, however, all these traumatic events coalesce into a profound state of chaos and near- Londagin 19

meaninglessness, as Billy focuses on one, seemingly outlandish solution to his trauma—time travel. Billy, like the Tralfamadorians, can relive many good or happy moments in his life instead of focusing on the bad ones, though he must relive those as well. Vonnegut’s use of science-fiction to rationalize the horrors of war trauma shows just how alarming and disassociating living with that reality, and only in that reality, can be. If one must turn to science- fiction to adapt to reality, just to find terms that the rest of the world can understand, then that reality must be frightening indeed.

Another of the characters who most clearly represent Vonnegut’s point of view in this novel is the hack science-fiction writer . Vonnegut paints this character as an unloved science-fiction author whose “prose was frightful. Only his ideas were good” (Vonnegut

110). Billy has read almost all of Trout’s novels during his stay in a psychiatric hospital after he has come home from the war. Billy and Eliot Rosewater both turn to science fiction for solace after the absurdity they met there: “They had both found life meaningless, partly because of what they had seen in war… So they were trying to re-invent themselves and their universe. Science fiction was a big help” (Vonnegut 101). This, in conjunction with the head injury, may be what lead Billy to claim that he had been kidnapped by aliens on his daughter’s wedding night and subsequently spent a period of time as an exhibit in a zoo on the planet Tralfamadore. Billy, like

Vonnegut, uses science fiction to cope with and help explain his war trauma; in Billy’s case, he gets the idea from the novels of Kilgore Trout, who is clearly a hack, far less talented version of

Vonnegut himself. Billy, somewhat like Zaphod Beeblebrox of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the

Galaxy series, seems to have had a purpose, but lost it somewhere along the way. Zaphod’s self- imposed brain surgery is what causes his troubles; Billy is mentally damaged from the war, and later from a physical brain injury. Where Zaphod feels worse about his life after having Londagin 20

accomplished what his brain told him to do, Billy feels revitalized after his plane crash, and has a new sense of purpose—to teach the world about the Tralfamadorians and their point of view.

Poor Billy’s battered brain has the fortunate consequence of being an excellent model of studying the effect of trauma on the human psyche. One of the ambiguities of the novel lies in

Billy’s unstable reality; it is unclear which events actually happen to him and which are delusions or wishful imaginings. I do not discount the idea, as some readers do, that Billy could have been abducted by aliens and held in a zoo—after all, Vonnegut is free to mix realist and fantastic elements—but it is more likely to have been a fabrication of his brain injury and love of

Kilgore Trout’s novels. The events of the war—equally absurd though they may be—were more likely to have been true, as Vonnegut intends to show. For example, a recurring theme is “poor old Edgar Derby”, who was shot by firing squad for stealing a tea kettle (4), a wartime incident which Vonnegut claims actually happened (1). The absurdity of Edgar’s surviving the war, the imprisonment, and the firebombing, only to be shot dead for looting something so insignificant as a teapot, shows that the absurd arc of World War II extends beyond anything a science-fiction writer would make up. The tragedy of it far outweighs most of what Billy encounters during his time on Tralfamadore.

Winston Niles Rumfoord of Vonnegut’s Sirens of Titan also offers a critique of war.

Rumfoord creates a large-scale ‘invasion’ force of humans from Earth, brought to Mars to be trained, and then sent back to ‘conquer’ the Earth in what was really a suicide mission. In his book about this, Rumfoord says, “Enough of these fizzles of leadership, in which millions die for nothing or less! … Let us have, for a change, a magnificently-led few who die for a great deal,”

(Vonnegut 124). The ‘Martians’ were not any more prepared for the war than were the soldiers in Slaughterhouse-Five. The war between Mars and Earth was more of a massacre than anything Londagin 21

else, because the Martians were vastly outnumbered, and many had never so much as fired their weapons before. Rumfoord planned this to happen, so that he could swoop in after the damage had been done to teach the world of a new religion of which he was the head. His motives for this are not entirely clear. On the one hand, he is trying to help the world and create a

‘brotherhood of man,’ but on the other hand, he brings about the murders of thousands of people to get the job done. Vonnegut obviously does not condone Rumfoord’s behavior, but it is difficult to determine whether the ends justify his cruel and atrocious means.

Billy Pilgrim never held a gun. In fact, Billy was thrust so unpreparedly into the war, with no weapon or boots, hair balding, and freezing cold, that Vonnegut describes him as being rather “a filthy flamingo” (33). This is an unusual approach to the depiction of one’s protagonist, but this is exactly what Vonnegut wanted to show: wars are not so glamourous as Hollywood would have them to be. By showing the absurd, cruel, inhuman, reality of war, along with its psychological consequences, Vonnegut hopes to convince his readers that war is the most absurd of all choices to make in a universe in which meaning seems unavailable to us. He also recognizes the impossibility of realizing this aspiration. As Harrison Starr says to him, “‘Why don’t you write an anti-glacier book instead?’” (Vonnegut 3). Neither glaciers, nor wars, nor death can be stopped, but Vonnegut cares so much that he feels he must try to show people the truth. If more people, especially those in power, admitted what really happens in war, how cruel and arbitrary is its destruction of meaning, there perhaps wouldn’t be so many of them.

The Tralfamadorians in Slaughterhouse-Five do not share this view, however. Taking them as a real element (within the fictional frame of the novel) and not a figment of Billy’s imagination, their perspectives on life are mostly the opposite of what humans believe about their own lives and world. The Tralfamadorians can perceive “all time as you might see a stretch Londagin 22

of the Rocky Mountains” (Vonnegut 85–86); they can choose to focus on one point in time or another, instead of seeing it as a linear progression, as humans do. The Tralfamadorians claim that they have “wars as horrible as any you’ve seen or read about” but they “simply don’t look at them” (Vonnegut 117). This is the opposite of what Vonnegut wants the reader to do. Billy is trying to understand how the Tralfamadorians seem to live in peace, but they tell him that because they can see the whole of time, and how everything has and will pan out, they do not concern themselves with the negative moments of life. Vonnegut challenges the reader to think about this idea, but appears not to actually want the reader to follow the Tralfamadorians’ example. Billy asks if “the idea of preventing war on Earth is stupid” (Vonnegut 117). While the

Tralfamadorians say ‘yes’, Vonnegut says ‘no.’ There will always be wars, but humanity has to try to prevent them, because it is all we can do to survive as a species, to not kill one another off or so irradiate the planet that we have no hope of being able to live there. While Vonnegut addresses that outcome mostly in Cat’s Cradle, the idea still stands in Slaughterhouse-Five.

Wars are absurd and pointless, therefore why keep having them? It is easy for the reader to miss out on the nuance of the Tralfamadorians on the first reading of Slaughterhouse-Five, because their lifestyle seems so attractive—simply care about nothing, because nothing can change your fate. There is no free will, and no one can change anything about the way time plays out.

Vonnegut however challenges this idea, hoping that his readers will see that they should do something about the world around them, to help change it for the better whenever possible.

In the book Science Fiction: History, Science, Vision (1977) by Robert Scholes and Eric

S. Rabkin, Vonnegut is described as treating “the scientific aspects of his speculative fiction in an offhand or even parodic manner” (Scholes and Rabkin 98). What they mean is that

Vonnegut’s novels, while they can be branded as science fiction, do not always fit a conventional Londagin 23

balance of genres, and in the case of Slaughterhouse-Five, his fiction draws on many different genres: (auto)biography, anti-war, history, science fiction, parody, etc. As the authors of Science

Fiction observe, Vonnegut uses the science-fictional aspects of his novels as a pretext for critiquing real and widely-felt social ills. In Slaughterhouse-Five, one could argue that the alien capture and zoo imprisonment could be analogous to Billy’s (and Vonnegut’s) time as a prisoner of war. In Cat’s Cradle, ice-nine is the product of science gone mad, akin to chemical warfare or atomic weapons. In , the science-fictional elements support an earnest discussion of religion and humanity’s purpose. For the most part, in these novels, and in some of his short stories, Vonnegut’s idea is that technology can be used, has been used, and will always be used for terrible purposes. Technology like bombs and nuclear fission can be harmful to the world, and if used, could end up destroying the Earth. Vonnegut’s warning about this is loud and clear in Cat’s Cradle. The other science-fictional elements of his novels, such as the

Tralfamadorian aliens in Slaughterhouse-Five, serve as a different but equally important warning to humanity, not to lose heart or become apathetic in the face of tragedy. By warning us against both the physical and emotional dangers that the future holds, Vonnegut hopes to alert us to action that will help ensure the world’s safety and well-being for generations to come. As Billy

Pilgrim knows, there will always be wars, but there is no reason why we cannot try to prevent them, or keep our children out of them.

Vonnegut’s message both in Slaughterhouse-Five and in Cat’s Cradle is that children take the fall for wars started by adults. Many of the soldiers in both the World Wars were barely out of adolescence. As Mary O’Hare rages in the opening pages of Slaughterhouse-Five, “You’ll pretend you were men instead of babies, and you’ll be played in the movies by Frank Sinatra and

John Wayne or some of those other glamorous, war-loving, dirty old men. And war will look just Londagin 24

wonderful, so we’ll have a lot more of them. And they’ll be fought by babies like the ones upstairs” (Vonnegut 14). The recurring motif in Slaughterhouse-Five of babies victimized by adult foolishness and self-deception emphasizes how young and naïve these soldiers really were; perhaps if only ‘adults’ had been sent to these atrocious wars, the outcome would have been very different. In Cat’s Cradle, the American Ambassador’s speech about how his own son died in the war along with the “Hundred Martyrs to Democracy” is particularly telling. That speech is likely another instance of Vonnegut inserting himself into his novels, much like Kilgore Trout.

Ambassador Minton shows the apathy and sadness that is left behind by a war in which children fight for their parents, and the parents must bury their children, unnaturally, as opposed to it being the other way around. As Vonnegut says to his own sons in the beginning of

Slaughterhouse-Five that “they are not under any circumstances to take part in massacres, and that the news of massacres of enemies is not to fill them with satisfaction or glee” (Vonnegut

19). His message is clear. Wars should end so that children can stop dying in them, and the world would be much better off. The line between absurdity and reality, especially in Slaughterhouse-

Five, shows the absurdity and chaos of war, in the hopes that one day, people might realize this, and the wars might come to an end.

Meaning of Life?

Does Humanity have a definite purpose? What reason do we have to live? A nihilist would argue that neither our species nor ourselves can have a purpose. This is not what

Vonnegut and Adams intend by their work.

Each person has a sphere of influence, within which he or she has the power to make local changes to the world. For some people these spheres of influence are greater; for some they Londagin 25

are smaller. But there is not one specific answer to which the whole of humanity can subscribe in order to find meaning; a purpose of living for each individual human being is going to be different, even when presented in the same language or to similar ends. In Adams’ books, the characters do not serve a specific, pre-ordained purpose as perhaps Malachi Constant does in

Vonnegut’s Sirens of Titan. That being said, both authors do have a lot to say about humanity’s search for meaning in an apparently chaotic, absurd world, and humanity’s capacity for conjuring meaning for ourselves if it cannot be given to us from external forces.

As Theodore Sturgeon says in an article “Science Fiction, Morals, and Religion” for

Reginald Bretnor’s book Science Fiction: Today and Tomorrow (1974), “Our strange species has two prime motivating forces: sex, of course, and worship. We do worship. We will worship. We must. Take the temples away from the people and they will worship a football hero or a movie star; they will go to the shrine, they will touch the hem, they will record the words… the most dominant [form of worship] of all in our age is—science” (Sturgeon 99). Sturgeon can see that most humans have a deep psychological need to discover meaning or participate in a role in life that is greater than themselves. Humans will often search for answers as passionately as they search for salvation—both to the ultimate end of understanding the order of the universe around us. But if there is no order, or if order is impossible to discern, then what is to be done? I would argue that there is a point to a quest for meaning because the advancements that have been made along the way, in the search for understanding, have been extremely beneficial to the lives of many people. As long as humans will continue to learn and grow as a species, we will continue in our search for answers, and this search will provide a motivation for many people to carry on with life in an oftentimes absurd and crushingly oppressive world. Londagin 26

In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Arthur Dent’s brain supposedly contains the matrix for the Ultimate Question, since he is an organic part of the supercomputer that was the

Earth. This means that somewhere within him is coded that Ultimate Question to which the

Answer is “42.” Adams’ books tease readers constantly about this answer without a question hidden away in the brain of an everyman, particularly in The Restaurant at the End of the

Universe. Trapped on prehistoric earth, Ford and Arthur play a probability game with a set of homemade Scrabble tiles, coming up with the question, ‘What do you get if you multiply six by nine?’ (Adams 306). The absurd outcome of this event shows the influences of chance and the possibility of meaning within a particular context. As Ruelle notes in Chance and Chaos (1991),

“You might think that what happens at random or by chance has therefore no meaning. A little bit of thinking shows that such is not the case: blood types are distributed at random in a given population, but it is not without meaning to be A+ or O– in the event of a transfusion” (Ruelle 5–

6). People derive, or perhaps imagine, significant meaning from events that are the results of chance. Which is not to suggest that these events have no meaning whatsoever; the philosophical and critical challenge is determining under what conditions meaning is possible. Adams makes fun of our human tendency to (mis)understand coincidences and the outcomes of chance as objectively significant. Ford and Arthur get very worked up at first when they see that their method of conjuring the question seems to be working. After they discover what question is really laid out in front of them in the Scrabble stones, they are found “apparently lying on the ground in agony, but in fact rocking with noiseless laughter” (Adams 307). The absurdity of the result of their toying with probability brings them joy and relief at the idea that “nothing’s for anything,” (Adams 307) or essentially, that the overall outcome of life doesn’t matter, only the possibility of making—which might also be mistaking—the sense of this or that moment of life. Londagin 27

One ought to enjoy the world the way it is, while one can. Enjoy the vast absurdity of creation, and cherish each little moment spent in it.

While there is no unassailable, real formulation for the meaning of life, these stabs at trying to figure it out prove that humanity does care deeply about this sort of thing; at the very least, some people are rather curious to know how to live one’s life well and be happy. There are entire genres of fiction and nonfiction, and publishing industries devoted to the methods of acquiring inner happiness or outward success. On the absurdist sf bookshelf one such guide to making a meaningful life could be Adams’ So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish. Arthur,

Marvin, and Fenchurch go to see “God’s Final Message to His Creation,” which is “We apologize for the inconvenience” (Adams 610). The biting critiques of the expectation that a better answer than this should be forthcoming are what make Adams’ novels both comical and significant. Readers (with a good sense of humor) are able to laugh at themselves for falling into the romantic notion that perhaps the characters might be able to find meaning after all. The readers are so curious to discover what Adams has to say about the meaning of life that they may forget for a moment that Adams touts the absurdist mantra that ‘there isn’t any,’ just long enough to fall for the joke. The human tendency to search for meaning is ridiculed throughout the books in this way, and it provides the readers with enjoyment in laughing at their own (and perhaps humanity’s) expense.

In Vonnegut’s books, there seems to be no authentic free will for any of the characters, at least no possibility of breaking out of a larger predetermined arc of their lives. The characters in

Cat’s Cradle have a choice only in the way that they die. In Sirens of Titan, there is a fuel substance called UWTB, or Universal Will to Become, which drives all things, including the flying saucers that facilitate the ‘suicide of Mars’ (Vonnegut 123). The substance is what makes Londagin 28

things come into fruition or being, and thus there is not really any way of having a free will, since the willpower that is the essence of agency and existence can be bottled and used as rocket fuel. The Tralfamadorians in Slaughterhouse-Five definitely don’t believe in free will, either, to the point of telling Billy Pilgrim, “If I hadn’t spent so much time studying Earthlings…. I wouldn’t have any idea what was meant by ‘free will’” (Vonnegut 86). To the Tralfamadorians, every instant in time is set in stone, and nothing that one attempts to change in the present will affect any of the outcomes of the future. This leaves no room for free will, since every event in one’s life is predetermined. The meaning of life, if that phrase makes any sense, is whatever happens to you, for there is no hope of changing or influencing the rest of history if it were not already meant to happen. As mentioned earlier on, each moment in life to the Tralfamadorians is like being a ‘bug in amber;’ it is preserved exactly the way it is, and cannot be changed. This is paralleled by the structure of the novel itself, in that on each page one can find an image or a moment that will still be there every time that page is revisited. In this way, there is no such thing as free will in the context of fiction, because every action was invented by the author—the fictional characters cannot have autonomy.

Vonnegut writes extensively on what it means to be a human, and what the purpose of human life may be. In fact, the very first sentence of Sirens of Titan is “Everyone now knows how to find the meaning of life within himself” (Vonnegut 7). Vonnegut writes the story of what life was like before anyone knew this, i.e., now and when he wrote it especially, and probably for several million more years. Rumfoord’s new religion helped to kick-start a change for humanity, altering the way people treat one another. Rumfoord’s ideas and Beatrice’s ideas differ widely on the subject, however. Rumfoord knows from the Tralfamadorian robot Salo that the

Tralfamadorians have been directly manipulating life and civilization on earth so that one day a Londagin 29

boy could travel to the moon Titan to bring Salo a replacement part for his spaceship. Beatrice refuses to believe that this can be humanity’s only purpose, however. Towards the end of her life on Titan, Beatrice writes a huge multi-volume work entitled “The True Purpose of Life in the

Solar System” (Vonnegut 216). In this book, which takes up a lot of room in the Taj Mahal-esque palace that Rumfoord had built on Titan, Beatrice comes to the realization that she is glad that she was ‘used’ after all. She observes shortly before her death, “‘The worst thing that could possibly happen to anybody,’ she said, ‘would be to not be used for anything by anybody’”

(Vonnegut 218). Humanity’s purpose, no matter how seemingly insignificant in the imagined scale of the universe, is an improvement over having had no purpose at all. But: once the task has been completed and the flying saucer replacement part is safely on Titan with Salo, what happens next? Can humanity find a purpose? Looking back to the first page of the text,

Vonnegut suggests that humanity spent a long time doing much of nothing, but eventually went on to discover that the meaning of life really comes from within the self. On the other hand, the actions of humanity contrived together unconsciously to reach this moment, and one must take this moment and use it to make one’s life meaningful for oneself.

Rumfoord’s new religion that he introduces after the ‘suicide of Mars’ makes visible an important notion about human nature. It is difficult for most people to believe that there is no real way to appease their god or gods, no way to earn favors in return for good behavior; that their gods exist but do not care about them in any way. In fact, it is more often believed that there are no gods at all than that they simply don’t care about us. This is why Rumfoord’s “The Church of

God the Utterly Indifferent” (Vonnegut 128) seems odd at first, and why he needs to fuel the spread of this religion by tapping into other important cornerstones of human nature, by predicting the future in great detail, and making the whole business a very profitable spectacle. Londagin 30

For this new religion, Rumfoord proclaims two important points: “Puny man can do nothing at all to help or please God Almighty, and Luck is not the hand of God” (Vonnegut 128). As for this second point, that luck has nothing to do with God, this is an important absurdist idea. There is no higher order or divine being that influences the outcomes of chance, and nothing can be done to appease those forces or make life ‘fair’ in any way.

I remain unsure of whether or not one can pin the blame entirely on Rumfoord for his selfish and cruel actions; it isn’t clear that Vonnegut has taken a firm stand on his character’s motives. On the one hand, the Tralfamadorians are influencing human history to do everything in their power to get that replacement piece to Salo. On the other hand, Rumfoord appears to have cynically made a substantial profit from becoming essentially the next Messiah, charging money for people to witness him perform ‘miracles’ that he was only able to do because of effects of the

‘chrono-synclastic infundibulum’ and the UWTB from Salo. His motivations may or may not have been pure, i.e., uniting the people of the world into a ‘brotherhood of man’; the means toward that stated end include in fact prostituting his virgin wife, wiping the memory of hundreds of people and making some of them murder their best friends, even having them all killed in a mass, unknowing ‘suicide.’

Yet Vonnegut does communicate a definite purpose for living in Sirens of Titan: love.

Once Beatrice dies and Salo and Malachi prepare to leave for earth, Salo remarks,

‘You finally fell in love, I see,’ said Salo. ‘Only an Earthling year ago,’ said Constant. ‘It took us that long to realize that a purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved’ (Vonnegut 220). Love is one of the most powerful driving forces of human nature. Despite everything inherently amiss in human nature, our greed, pride, and fatal flaws, there are the possibilities of love and hope. In the Abrahamic religions, the first man Londagin 31

was made as the pinnacle of Creation and his Creator discovered only then that something was missing, and so the Creator made a companion for the man. Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse-Five has a lot to say about Adam and Eve, but I note only here a following passage from just before he is ‘kidnapped’ by the Tralfamadorians: “And Hitler turned into a baby, Billy Pilgrim supposed. That wasn’t in the movie. Billy was extrapolating. Everybody turned into a baby, and all humanity, without exception, conspired biologically to produce two perfect people named

Adam and Eve,” (Vonnegut 75). Billy imagines a perfect world, where “everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt” (Vonnegut 122). Billy, as traumatized and broken as he is, retains hope for a better life. That is the other triumph of human nature, (or perhaps some cynics would call it our downfall): hope, the one residue in Pandora’s box after all the monsters and plagues are released into the world. Some may argue that hope is the cruelest monster of all, in that we continue striving to make the world a better place, when that endeavor may be, to have no better way of putting it, hopeless. But hope is what humanity clings to; without it, the world would seem in utter chaos. Without the promise of progress, all scientific progress, all material effort, would come to a screeching halt. If you get right down to it, hope is the meaning of life, because without it, life would be not only absurd or improbable, but also meaningless.

This is why I argue that, while these works of Adams and Vonnegut are darkly humorous, bitingly satirical, and unapologetically absurd, they are not nihilistic. The world we live in is full of apparent coincidences and absurd tragedies, but life itself is not without worth and meaning, if it can be made meaningful through the agency of resolute hope. Both authors argue that the value of human life is immeasurably important; in Slaughterhouse-Five and The

Sirens of Titan, the lives of children are especially important because they are both innocent and the most potent protectors of hope and love. Life is meant to be cherished, because it is short and Londagin 32

has no sure meaning outside of itself. There may or may not be benevolent forces that guide or govern our actions but life, because it is free to begin again from this moment on, is extraordinary: the most improbable and therefore the most precious, of chance events. The possibility of renewal and self-creation is the outcome of belief in hope and love. Hope allows for humanity to continue, by providing the idea that there is always space to find meaning.

Conclusion

I have analyzed these absurdist science-fiction works by Douglas Adams and Kurt

Vonnegut to show how science-fiction can be used to exhibit the ideas involved in absurdism.

Adams and Vonnegut portray the idea that while the world around us may be chaotic and may seem meaningless, life itself is not without immeasurable worth and meaning. Each individual person may or may not have a specific, ordained purpose for living, and humanity as a whole may or may not even exist for any definite rhyme or reason, but whether or not this is the case, one must live one’s life so as to cherish each moment to the fullest possible capacity. One ought to enjoy the world while we still have it, and do all in our power to protect it by limiting our negative impact on the planet on which we live. Whether or not there is an active creator who made everything and watches over humanity—whether or not there is a question for the answer

“42”—one must remain positive and productive, and avoid slipping into unreflective nihilism.

Additionally, the forces of chance and probability are powerful machines of plot progression in the context of the fictional novels, but also in the universes which occupy them. Probability plays more of an active role in many of these novels than any kind of higher authority or benevolent external forces. That being said, one cannot forget that these novels are still novels, and must adhere to the fundamental rules of fiction—as free or determined the wills of the characters in Londagin 33

these books appear to be, they are all deterministic to the extent that the characters are characters in a plot that is created by an author, designed to inform, challenge, and entertain the readers.

Vonnegut in particular shows the readers that wars are more absurd than science-fiction at times, and he depicts the horrors of war to help further the notion that we ought to stop having them.

Ultimately, the human tendency to search for meaning in events around us is highlighted by the absurdist movement, and typically, in this context, there is little or no meaning to be found. While these novels point out the humor in the absurd outcomes of chance, as well as the brutal meaninglessness of wars, they also serve as a warning to humanity, to show for example in

Vonnegut’s works what happens when world-ending weapons fall into the wrong hands. The novels of both authors also highlight the failures of government and the aftermath of global tragedy. Adams’ works, while more comedic in nature, can also be examined as I have done for their psychological and social commentary on the absurdity of our modern technology-driven culture. Overall, the readers of all these books are left with a sense of having learned an important lesson about human nature; that the absurdly resilient sense of hope, despite the tragedy of the world in all its crushing weight, still somehow comes through.

Londagin 34

Works Cited

Adams, Douglas. The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Consists of the five novels The

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979); The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

(1980); Life, the Universe and Everything (1982); So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

(1985); and Mostly Harmless (1992). New York: Del Rey, 2002. Print.

“Arthur C. Clarke Looks Back on the Lifetime of Influences That Led Him to Become a

Science-fiction Grand Master.” Interview by George Zebrowski. Sci Fi Weekly. N.p., 30

June 2008. Web. 25 Nov. 2016.

https://web.archive.org/web/20080723051103/http://www.scifi.com/sfw/interviews/sfw1

9051.html

Bretnor, Reginald. (Editor). Science Fiction, Today and Tomorrow. Theodore Sturgeon:

“Science Fiction, Morals, and Religion.” Harper & Row Publishers. New York, 1974.

Print.

Ruelle, David. Chance and Chaos. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991. Print.

Scholes, Robert and Eric S. Rabkin. Science Fiction: History, Science, Vision. Oxford University

Press, New York, 1977. Print.

Stoppard, Tom. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. New York: Grove, 1968. Print.

Vonnegut, Kurt. Cat’s Cradle. New York: Dial Press, 1963. Print.

———. Sirens of Titan. London: Orion Publishing Group, 1959. Print.

———. Slaughterhouse-Five. New York: Dell Publishing, 1969. Print.