July 10, 2013
A few months ago, I was subbing a reading class at a local middle school (I currently have five active job applications out for schools, and this one happens to be one of them). The kids were reading their choice of science fiction. One of the options was this one, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I was surprised to see it included among the young adult options, since my understanding was that the humor it it could be a little...mature. But I imagine that some kids that age would "get" it. Not many kids were reading it, so I was able to get my hands on a copy for a couple of class periods and start reading it (I'd forgotten whatever book it was I was really reading at the time). I actually got a good way's in, since it's not a very long book at all, but I couldn't get another copy until I managed to download it from the library on my Kindle.
I first heard about this book when the movie came out. If I'm remembering right, it kind of tanked. But I remember hearing people say that the book was amazing, so it was kind of one of those books that I've always meant to read, but haven't gotten around to. So for that reason alone, I'm very glad to have read it now, even if I didn't find it to be as amazing as others think.
Don't get me wrong. I very much enjoyed the book. The humor in it is very British, with the logical fallacies and the overall silliness. The scene at the beginning, with Arthur (the main character, the last surviving male from the planet Earth) and Mr. Prosser was very silly, as were the philosophers in the other dimension (where mice, apparently, were like super-intelligent beings or something like that?). The plot of the story is driven by coincidences and absurdity. Though there were several books written by Adams after this first one continuing Arthur's adventures in the universe, there doesn't seem to be any real reason for why he happened to be the only person to survive the destruction of Earth (besides Trillian, who, by complete coincidence, happens to be a girl that Arthur has met previously, and had even been interested in). I was maybe expecting some sort of revelation about Arthur's destiny. You know, like on the cartoon Futurama, where this young pizza delivery guy named Fry is cryogenically frozen for a thousand years, and the real reason for it is that he has to save the planet...the plot lines for that TV show, which take place in a future that could be compared with the cultures and lifestyles of the aliens in this book, are ultimately tied together by this guy's fate. But Arthur isn't some sort of bumbling hero (though he does make himself useful among the people whom he is traveling in space with, especially when he flips a switch and saves them from being blown up by missiles). I find myself feeling a little disappointed that there isn't some big revelation, that somehow Arthur is part of this predestined plan, and he must save the universe or something.
Okay, so there's some hinting at the possibility when Zaphod, the eccentric two-headed humanoid president (and Trillian's boyfriend), reveals that he stole the Heart of Gold ship in which they are traveling for reasons that he does not understand, because after learning them, he had tampered with the connections between his two brains, and basically fucked up his memory (though not permanently, it would seem). There isn't much about this, maybe just a chapter, and I'm still not sure what Arthur's connection would be with that whole thing. I don't feel like I'm jumping out of my seat to read the next one in the series; I don't even know that I would add it to my list at this point.
It should be noted, though, that this book was published in 1979, so it probably would have been a very innovative science fiction text at the time. Adams does create many interesting things in different words and in space, some absurd, some very beautiful. Good descriptions of the interesting inventions (it was almost eerie, as I was reading this on my Kindle, how similar to an eReader the description for the electronic Hitchhiker's Guide..., the text after which the book itself that I read is named, is). I probably would have gotten into this more if the text had been longer! I guess one could argue, well, why don't you just read the next one in a row and just pretend it was one book? I guess I could...I don't really feel like it.
But apparently this book has had quite a cult following for decades, and it really isn't any wonder. The author pushed a long time for the movie to be created. There was some quote from the author included at the end of the text (in my electronic edition, there's like 50 pages worth of crap just about the movie...I didn't read any of it), that said something like, Arthur had to be British, but all the other actors could be any other nationality. Um, okay, I guess, but I really question the casting of Zooey Deschanel as Trillian. See, for one thing, I'm not a fan. I actually have wanted to like her; I used to want to be a whimsical-cute girl, so I think that her shtick appealed to me back then. But in the last couple of years, I find myself just annoyed at her woman-child bit. Now, I'm a bit of a woman-child myself (hello, how many times have I mentioned watching cartoons here?), but I feel that she should give the cutesy stuff a rest. She's in her 30s. There's just something very off-putting about her. She seems smug in her forced quirkiness, knowing that just enough people will buy into it...
Anyway, Trillian is described as being like Middle Eastern, and I'm sure that if Arthur met her at a party in London, she was probably British, too. So to get a pastey white American...I don't know. I don't get it. Hard not to imagine Ford as Mos Def, though (he's hot, but apparently he has taken on a Muslim name, and was very recently filmed undergoing the practice of forcing feeding, ala Gitmo, to protest the cruel practice?), even though the character is described in the book as being red-headed. You know, that made me think of The Shawshank Redemption. The novella after which the movie was based (from Different Seasons! By Stephen King! I used "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" with a couple of senior boys...they liked the cursing, and liked watching the film) was also told from Red's perspective, just as Morgan Freeman narrated the movie. But in the story, he actually has red hair! Imagine that! Well, the red heads of literature just can't make it to the big screen, can they? In the movie, they apparently couldn't give the guy who played Zaphod an extra head. I mean, come on...do Zaphod with two heads, or don't do it at all, I think (though the pictures of a two-head Zaphod from the very earlier stage or TV productions are very silly).
Apparently the story started out as a radio series by Adams himself, so it's no surprise that he'd push for a film. Pretty impressive that it crossed over genres, and some of the humor does translate well to the book, though I could see it getting exhausting after a while. The radio show was probably a hoot. I don't know, maybe I will actually catch the movie sometime; I've seen snippets on IFC, and from the little I've seen, it seems very different (like, I see a scene where Trillian finds out that Earth was destroyed, and it's very different from the book). I suppose that I can't get too upset about a movie that isn't entirely faithful to a book that I'm not emotionally invested in, anyway; I guess as long as the humor is in the right spirit (which is probably how Adams would have wanted it, along with some decent special effects), it would be entertaining enough.
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| Lovable old Bender...definitely a more fun robot than the moping Martin. |
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| Now, Morgan Freeman is a great actor, and obviously a popular film narrator (like this one, or that movie about penguins), and I do love this movie, but...why would they call a black guy Red? |
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