The Intergalactic Adventure Continues Part IV

They say that the road to success is rarely straightforward. Take the case of British writer and satirist Douglas Adams. At a young age, he exhibited promise of being a brilliant writer. Setting out on this path, he attended Cambridge where he completed an M.A. in English literature in 1974. After graduating from Cambridge, he moved to London with the resolve of breaking into the television and radio scene as a writer; at Cambridge, he wrote comedy sketches for Footlights, an exclusive performing arts society. His breakthrough came when a 1974 television version of Footlights Revue was noticed by Monty Python’s Graham Chapman. He and Chapman collaborated and formed a brief writing partnership. Adams was given writing credits for a sketch called Patient Abuse which appeared on episode 45 of Monty Python; He is one of only two people apart from the original Python members to earn a writing credit.

This was only the beginning for Adams. Ordinarily, this would have opened a window of opportunity for him. However, the opposite happened. At this juncture, he hit a snag in his career. His writing style was deemed inapt for the prevailing state of radio and television comedy. This did not preclude him from writing and submitting more sketches, most of which were rejected. While waiting for his career to take off, he took on a bevy of odd jobs, including as a hospital porter, a chicken shed cleaner, and even a bodyguard for a Qatari family who struck a fortune in oil. However, his failure in his chosen field kept nagging him although some of his minor sketches were featured in radio. A second opportunity to write with Chapman came in 1977. However, Adams’ biggest breakthrough is yet to come.

While lying drunk in a field in Innsbruck, Austria, Adams was struck by inspiration, almost akin to how J.K. Rowling conceived Harry Potter while waiting for a delayed train in Manchester. This light bulb moment which came while he was gazing at the stars and carrying a copy of the Hitch-hiker’s Guide to Europe birthed one of the most successful and lauded works of science fiction: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. He pitched the idea for the science fiction comedy radio show to BBC Radio 4 in 1977. The first radio series was broadcast weekly starting on March 8, 1978, and lasted until April. It was warmly received. The success of the radio series paved a new opportunity for Adams: adapting it in novel form. In 1979, the first book of the series was published as a book to critical and commercial acclaim. The rest, they say, was history.

“He almost danced to the fridge, found the three least hairy things in it, put them on a plate and watched them intently for two minutes. Since they made no attempt to move within that time he called them breakfast and ate them. Between them they killed a virulent space disease he’d picked up without knowing it in the Flargathon Gas Swamps a few days earlier, which otherwise would have killed off half the population of the Western Hemisphere, blinded the other half, and driven everyone else psychotic and sterile, so the Earth was lucky there.”

~ Douglas Adams, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

The series was supposed to end as a trilogy – Adams referred to it as a trilogy even after publishing sequels – with Life, the Universe and Everything serving as the conclusion. But Adams had a different idea. In 1984, he published the fourth book of the “trilogy,” So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish. In the fourth installment in the popular comedy science fiction series, the book continues to follow the adventures and misadventures of an eclectic cast of characters introduced in the first three books of the series. Following the destruction of the Earth by the Vogons, Arthur Dent – an Englishman who was the only human being able to survive the catastrophe – along with an interesting set of extraterrestrial beings embarked on a journey that took them all over the universe.

While on a hitchhiking trip through the galaxy, Arthur was dropped off on a planet in a rainstorm. Imagine his surprise when he found himself in his hometown, in England on Earth. His memory of the Earth’s destruction was vivid; his initial reaction was one of incredulity. He hitches a ride with a man named Russell and his sister Fenchurch, nicknamed Fenny. During their ride, Russell kept Arthur updated on the developments while he was away; Russell was unaware of Arthur’s galactic adventures. Russell explains that his sister is believed to be mentally stable. She had apparently gone mad while in a café in Rickmansworth at the exact moment when the Vogons were about to destroy the Earth.

Fenny captured Arthur’s curiosity but they arrived at his home before he could even probe further. Again, Arthur was incredulous at the state of his house. It was a far cry from the last image he had of his home. Back in his unscathed home, he found a package containing a bowl inscribed with the words So long and thanks for all the fish; hence, the book’s title. While several things about his “new” still mystified Arthur, he put his life back into order. He also tries to forget about Fenny but he simply cannot shake the feeling that Fenny and his destiny are somehow connected. He has this nagging feeling that Fenny is connected to the destruction of the Earth. This lit a burning desire in Arthur to learn more about Fenny.

In a twist of fate, Arthur and Fenny once again crossed paths when he found her hitchhiking. Together, they forged a friendship. As they learn more about each other, Arthur uncovers more pieces of evidence and circumstances that tie them together. Fenny confessed to Arthur that before she was seized by hysteria, she had a eureka moment. She found the answer to how to make everything right. However, she blacked out and once she gained consciousness, she was unable to recall the substance of her epiphany. An interesting phenomenon also happened after the moment of hysteria: dolphins disappeared. To understand the fate of the dolphins, Arthur and Fenny traveled to an asylum in California owned by John Watson (or Wonko the Sane). Watson is a scientist who claims he knew what happened to the dolphins.

“The room was much as he had left it, festeringly untidy, though the effect was muted a little by a thick layer of dust. Half-read books and magazines nestled among piles of half-used towels. Half-pairs of socks reclined in half-drunk cups of coffee. What once had been a half-eaten sandwich had now half-turned into something that Arthur didn’t entirely want to know about. Bung a fork of lightning through this lot, he thought to himself, and you’d start the evolution of life off all over again.”

~ Douglas Adams, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

What ensued was another adventure typical of the Douglas universe. One, however, can’t help but ask, where are the other alien characters who we have grown to love? As Arthur and Fenny are trying to get to the bottom of the disappeared dolphins, Ford Prefect, while in Han Dold City, learns that the entry he wrote about Earth for the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, has suddenly reappeared in its original and complete form in his copy of the Guide. In the published version of the Guide, Ford’s entry for Earth was significantly cut short. Intrigued by this interesting development, Ford decided to travel to Earth, hitchhiking on a ship commanded by a Giant Robot. How will these developments alter the landscape of the story?

On the surface, it all seems that their adventures were mostly lighthearted and fun. Adams has exhibited an uncanny ability for comedy and humor which he honed over the years. Arthur and Ford remain quirky personalities. However. the humor astutely embedded in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy belies the deeper messages the book, and by extension, the entire series carries. The relativity of life and death was one prominent theme. One of the drivers in the characters’ madcap adventures and misadventures is their goal of understanding the meanings of life and our existence. The books also contained several layers of satire and even scathing social commentaries; there were some slyly placed comments about animal hunting in Africa in the third book.

The concepts of time and time travel again remain prevalent in the fourth book of the series. When Arthur finds himself back on Earth, he discovers that only several months have passed on Earth. This was contrary to Arthur’s experience; Arthur spent years navigating the labyrinth of the universe. There was also a layer of mystery to the story as Arthur and Fenny tried to uncover what happened to the dolphins and how this event affected the Earth. This expands to an even bigger question: how did a new Earth materialize after it was decimated by the Vogons? The emergence of an unscathed Earth also caught Ford by surprise; along with Arthur, he witnessed firsthand how the Earth was blown into pieces.

“From another direction he felt the sensation of being a sheep startled by a flying saucer, but it was virtually indistinguishable from the feeling of being a sheep startled by anything else it ever encountered, for they were creatures who learned very little on their journey through life, and would be startled to see the sun rising in the morning, and astonished by all the green stuff in the fields.”

~ Douglas Adams, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

While So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish shares several elements and facets with its predecessors, there was a noticeable shift in the book’s tone that sets it apart from the first three books in the series. Unlike the three books, the fourth book is set largely on Earth. Arthur returns to outer space only later in the book. While the hallmarks of Adams’ storytelling were woven into the novel, the story moved around more inconsistently although the storyline was more straightforward than its predecessors. On top of madcap adventures, overtones of romance distinguish the novel from the earlier books in the series. These romantic overtures provided a different but interesting dimension to Adams’ writing as he tackled the subject with affection. and tenderness. This deviation, however, has not adversely impacted the series’ overall texture.

Just when most of us thought that Adams’ so-called trilogy ended with a third book, he catches us by surprise by writing further sequels to what can be deemed, without a doubt, as his magnum opus. The publication of So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish epitomizes what Adams has demonstrated across the series. It does seem, on the surface, whimsical but as the story moves forward, the deeper messages astutely woven into the story start to manifest. The book grapples with the usual questions of life, death, and time. It is, in a way, a deviation from its predecessors It is less funny and is more serious but the overtones of romance provide it a genuine, heartwarming, and more human touch. With So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, takes the readers on a different adventure, providing glimpses into a different dimension of his storytelling.

Book Specs

Author: Douglas Adams
Publisher: Pocket Books
Publishing Date: 1985 (1984)
No. of Pages: 204
Genre: Science Fiction, Adventure

Synopsis

Was the earth really demolished? Why did all the dolphins disappear? What is God’s final message to His creatures? Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, and the new volvoid gang are off (by commercial airline) on a wacked-out quest to answer these truly unimportant questions.

About the Author

To learn more about Douglas Adams, click here