An Intergalactic Adventure

As one ventures into the world of literature, there are titles that one would inevitably encounter. It is like they are synonymous with literature itself. Among these titles are Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind, Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, among others. Caveat: the list is rather long. These are titles that have transcended time and are recurring presence in must-read lists, such as the 1,001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. It is like they are the hallmarks of literature. Over time, they have become synonymous with literature. With the various genres they represent, they are also like rites of passage to various parts of the vast literary world.

Indeed, these are seminal works of fiction that introduced readers across the world to worlds beyond what they already know. This was something that Douglas Adams’ highly revered The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy soundly accomplished. It was originally a 1978 radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 before it was published into a book a year later. The book literally transported readers into worlds beyond their imagination. The titular The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy is a fictional encyclopedia-cum guide written for hitchhikers. The novel, a satire of modern society, earned the nods from several literary pundits. Even the general reading public was captivated.

“It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination.”

~ Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Building on the momentum established by the first book in the series – Adams fondly referred to the five books comprising the saga as a trilogy – Adams published its sequel, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe in 1980. The second book in the series reintroduces the main characters who were first introduced in the highly successful first book: Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Trillian, and Zaphod Beeblebrox. To the uninitiated, Arthur Dent is a middle-class British man and is the only human character in the story; the rest of the characters are different aliens from different planets and galaxies. There was also Marvin Marvin the Paranoid Android. Toward the end of the first book, the characters were attempting to leave the planet Magrathea to go to the titular The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

However, as the group- was fleeing aboard their ship Heart of Gold, they were intercepted by a Vogon ship sponsored by Gag Halfrunt and a group of psychiatrists. Halfrunt and his ilk believed that all humans were dead; at the start of the series, the Earth was decimated by the Vogons. The Vogon ship was attacking the Heart of Gold but those who were onboard, unfortunately, were unable to escape. The ship’s computer system was rendered inoperable. Arthur, unaware of their situation, asks the Nutri-Matic Drinks Synthesizer for a cup of tea which overloads and freezes the ship’s computer system. A desperate Zaphod then decided to hold a séance to summon his great-grandfather, Zaphod Beeblebrox the Fourth. Zaphod was hoping that his great-grandfather would bail them out of the dire strait they found themselves.

However, before bailing them out,  Zaphod Beeblebrox the Fourth scolded his great-grandson, reminding him that his position as president of the galaxy bears no weight. To find the solution to the political and economic instability plaguing the universe, Zaphod Beeblebrox the Fourth tasked his great-grandson to search for The Ruler of the Universe. After issuing his decree, a bolt of light flashed from the ghost’s hands, warping the Heart of Gold through space and time. This also scattered the characters to various places. Zaphod and Marvin reappear at the offices of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – the repository of all knowledge – editorial building on Ursa Minor Beta where they look for Zarniwoop, the Guide’s lead editor.

Driven by his search for the Ruler of the Universe, Zaphod once again found himself reluctantly transported to another dimension by Frogstar Fighters. Frogstar World B is considered the most evil place in the Universe. It was there that Zaphod encountered Gargravarr, the disembodied mind. Gargravarr was also the custodian of the Total Perspective Vortex, a torture device that destroys an individual’s soul by providing him or her a glimpse of how small he or she is relative to the universe. Zaphod was prodded to go to the Vortex to prevent him from finding the true Ruler of the Universe. There was no recourse for Zaphod as the Vortex was his only exit from Frogstar World B. Zaphod manages to survive and what ensued was a mixture of adventures and misadventures, reminiscent of the first book in the series.

“His mouth started to speak, but his brain decided it hadn’t got anything to say yet and shut it again. His brain then started to contend with the problem of what his eyes told it they were looking at, but in doing so relinquished control of the mouth which promptly fell open again. Once more gathering up the jaw, his brain lost control of his left hand which then wandered around in an aimless fashion.”

~ Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Driving the characters again was their ultimate goal of understanding the significance of the Ultimate Question, the most heavily guarded secret of the universe; this is apart from Zaphod’s mission to find the Ruler of the Galaxy. In the first book, Deep Thought, an immensely powerful supercomputer, attempted to answer the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. However, before the complete answers were provided, the Vogons decimated Earth. But will the motley crew be able to navigate their way across the labyrinth of the universe? To do so, they had to rely on The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

After Zaphod was reunited with Ford, Arthur, and Trillian, they retreated to the nearest restaurant, Milliways, the titular Restaurant at the End of the Universe. Milliways is an entertainment emporium built atop the ruins of a planet. Living up to the book’s title, what made the restaurant distinct was its depiction of the moment the Universe ends. Together with its counterpart, Big Bang Burger Bar, the two restaurants make their customers experience the two most integral events in the universe’s cosmic history: its creation and its demise. Interestingly the book was inspired by Grand Hotel, a song by the British rock band Procol Harum.

Adams, like in his first book, built The Restaurant at the End of the World from strength to strength. Amidst the intergalactic adventure Adams’ humor and wit, prominently displayed in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, were among the key elements that glued the story together. The writing was also laden with sarcasm and was fast-paced. However, the second book’s plot tends to meander; the first book was more straightforward. Nevertheless, the story was as engaging and interesting as the first book. Like the first book, the second book also pushes the readers’ imagination with its sublime worldbuilding. Adams was able to keep all of these elements together in The Restaurant at the End of the World, ensuring a seamless transition between the books.

“One of the major problems encountered in time travel is not that of becoming your own father or mother. There is no problem in becoming your own father or mother that a broad-minded and well-adjusted family can’t cope with. There is no problem with changing the course of history—the course of history does not change because it all fits together like a jigsaw. All the important changes have happened before the things they were supposed to change and it all sorts itself out in the end.”

~ Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

While the series is renowned for its humor and wit, it was not all fun and games. The humor belied the vast territory of subjects the books covered. Time manipulation and the end of time were prominently featured. This is just the tip of the iceberg as the novel tackled more philosophical subjects related to the relativity of life, death, and the afterlife. Unlike the first novel, the second book in the series focused more on Zaphod. This pivot gave the story political overtones. Zaphod’s mission implies the possibility that the universe is being controlled by a secret power hierarchy. This is a subtle reference to how most of the world is run in secrecy by a select few. Albeit the lighthearted atmosphere, the interjection of this subject gave the second book in the series a more sinister overtone.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe lived up to the expectation of a sequel. It had everything expected from a second book. Adams built on the successes of the first book, maintaining the elements that made it soar: humor, wit, and plenty of sarcasm. At the same time, the second book provided new dimensions that one would reasonably expect would be explored further in the succeeding books, the same way that The Restaurant at the End of the Universe provided closure to some subjects explored in the first book. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe is accessible despite the cacophony of intergalactic parlance. Further, it is deceptively slender, belying the philosophy astutely embedded into the story. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe is a wonderful sequel to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

“The History of every major Galactic Civilization tends to pass through three distinct and recognizable phases, those of Survival, Inquiry and Sophistication, otherwise known as the How, Why, and Where phases. For instance, the first phase is characterized by the question ‘How can we eat?’ the second by the question ‘Why do we eat?’ and the third by the question ‘Where shall we have lunch?”

~ Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Book Specs

Author: Douglas Adams
Publisher: Pan Books Ltd
Publishing Date: 1980
No. of Pages: 187
Genre: Science Fiction, Adventure

Synopsis

When all questions of space, time, matter and the nature of being have been resolved, only one question remains – “Where shall we have dinner?” The Restaurant at the End of the Universe provides the ultimate gastronomic experience, and for once there is no morning after to worry about.

About the Author

To learn more about Douglas Adams, click here.