“I like the cover,” he said. “Don’t Panic. It’s the first helpful or intelligible thing anybody’s said to me all day.” Arthur Dent in “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” Of course, fans know “Don’t Panic” is the cover of the fictitious book “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, the book within a book.
“The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t.” I have never forgotten that line from the book “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” the first book of Douglas Adams’ wonderful series of books. But Hitchhiker’s did things a little differently, beginning its life 42 years ago not as a book, but as a BBC radio series, also written by Adams.
It has been made into stage shows, a film, a television series, comics, and of course, books. Two years ago, BBC4 did a new radio series to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the original series.
Yeah. 2 years ago, when it was 40. So why all the whatever about it turning 42? Shouldn’t I wait for the 50th, or shouldn’t I have done something at the 40th? Nope. In Hitchhiker’s, we learn that 42 is the answer to life, the universe, and everything. This is why your nerdy friends go on about 42.
“The Answer to the Great Question…Of Life, the Universe and Everything… Is…Forty-two,’ said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.”
Hitchhiker’s also taught us about our towel.
“A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value – you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to- hand-combat; wrap it around your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindbogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you – daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
More importantly, a towel has an immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, spacesuit, etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitchhiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.” -Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Our hero, Ford Prefect, also explains the importance of the towel to the hapless earthling, Arthur Dent. Listen, it’s a tough universe. There are all sorts of people trying to do you, kill you, rip you off, everything. If you’re going to survive out there, you’ve really got to know where your towel is.
In 2001, a fan began celebrating Towel Day. Now, May 25th is celebrated as towel day around the world, and for the 42nd anniversary, this May should see the biggest towel day of them all. Douglas Adams was a witty, funny, and generally brilliant writer. It is his wit and humor that make Hitchhiker’s, in all its forms, so much fun. At one point, we learn that Hitchhiker’s is the second-best-selling book in the universe. Naturally, Arthur Dent wants to know what is first. Ford Prefect explains that it is “The Proof of the Non-Existence of God”. To understand the best-selling book, we are first told about the Babel fish. A fish you stick in your ear so you can understand any language in the universe.
Adams explains:
“Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as the final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God. The argument goes something like this: “I refuse to prove that I exist,'” says God, “for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.”
“But,” says Man, “The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn’t it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so, therefore, by your own arguments, you don’t. QED.”
“Oh dear,” says God, “I hadn’t thought of that,” and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
“Oh, that was easy,” says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.”
Hitchhiker’s is filled with brilliant characters, like Marvin the Depressed Robot. Marvin is old, incredibly intelligent, and quite depressed. A few thoughts from Marvin: “Here I am, brain the size of a planet, and they tell me to take you up to the bridge.” “Pardon me for breathing, which I never do anyway so I don’t know why I bother to say it, Oh God, I’m so depressed.”
Of course, you may wonder why Ford Prefect even came to Earth in the first place. It was to research the new edition of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. Arthur Dent is very upset that the current entry on Earth in Hitchhiker’s is: “Harmless”. But you and Arthur can be reassured. After 10 years on Earth researching, the new edition of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” is: “Mostly Harmless”.
I’ll finish by quoting the Dolphins after they leave Earth forever.
“Goodbye, and thanks for all the fishes.”
Written by Evan Conroy
