國立政治大學英國語文學系

碩士學位論文

大材小用:《銀河便車指南》中的無趣和創意
Wasted Talent: Boredom and Creativity in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to

the Galaxy

指導教授：施堂模 博士

研究生：邱郁純 撰

中華民國 111 年 6 月
Wasted Talent: Boredom and Creativity in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

A Master Thesis

Presented to

Department of English,

National Chengchi University

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Master of Arts

by

Yu-Chun Chiu

June, 2022

ii
 Acknowledgement

I would like to express my deep gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Thomas J. Sellari, who

has offered constructive advice, careful instructions, and continual calm reassurance

throughout my research for this work. I appreciate Dr. Sellari’s guidance in the helpful and

friendly moments of the supervisory meetings. Dr. Sellari’s assistance has been invaluable to

the completion of this thesis.

I would also like to express my heartfelt appreciation to my friends. During my

graduate study, Tsai-Ying Fang and Yen-Hao Huang were my best teammates, who always

supported me. I am grateful for Yong-Ling Peng’s care and comfort. I should thank Chen-

Yang Lin, who had confidence in me. I must also thank Amos Wu, who gave me words of

encouragement. My special thanks also go to Bing-Tsung Chiang and his family, who showed

a touching faith in my ability to resolve any and every difficulty.

Finally, my warmest thanks go to my family. The wholehearted support and blessing

provided by my father, my mother, and my brothers were and are greatly appreciated. I wish

to acknowledge the financial aid from Jennifer Chang, my godmother, who played a

significant role in my life. Her kindness and backing have allowed this work to be completed.

I would like to thank the people who helped me to finalize the project during my academic

pursuits. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

iii
 國立政治大學英國語文學系碩士班

碩士論文提要

論文名稱: 大材小用：《銀河便車指南》中的無趣與創意

指導教授: 施堂模

研究生: 邱郁純

論文提要內容:

本論文探討道格拉斯·亞當斯的《銀河便車指南》中無趣的勞動和創意的追求。生命

的意義與小說中機器人角色與無聊的衝突以及藝術創作的潛能密切相關。如同卡繆的
薛西弗斯，許多人發現他們的工作和生活毫無意義。要真正面對荒謬，一個人必須意

識到自己的處境並從事創造。本論文認為，亞當斯對荒謬的刻畫是不可避免且洞察入

微的，他筆下帶有缺陷的角色被詼諧而細膩地描繪出來。亞當斯以幽默反映出社會的

通病和人性的弱點，饒富生趣亦發人深省。

關鍵詞：道格拉斯·亞當斯，《銀河便車指南》，人生哲學，荒誕主義，無趣，創意

v
 Abstract

This thesis explores the boredom of labor and the pursuit of creativity in Douglas

Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The meaning of life is closely involved in the

robotic character’s conflict with boredom and the creative power shown in the artistic

process. Like Camus’s Sisyphus, many people find their work and life meaningless. To

authentically face absurdity, a person must become aware of his or her situation and engage

in creation. The thesis argues that Adams’s portrayal of unavoidable absurdity is insightful,

and his flawed characters are comically and sensitively depicted. Reflecting the common

social problems of the world and human weakness, Adams’s humor is both entertaining and

enlightening.

Key Words: Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Life philosophy,

Absurdism, Boredom, Creativity

vi
 Table of Contents

Acknowledgment……………………………………………………………………………..iii

Chinese Abstract………………………………………………………………………….…...v

English Abstract………………………………………………………………………………vi

Chapter One: Introduction……………………………………………………………………..1

Chapter Two: Absurdity and the Boredom of Labor…………………………………………15

Chapter Three: Creativity and Comedy……………………………………………………...38

Chapter Four: Conclusion……………………………………………………………………62

Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………………..66
 Chiu 1

Chapter One

Introduction

It would be overstating the case to ascribe to this novel profundities that simply do not

exist. Rather, it is more to the point to see, in the way Adams can make the reader dismiss

the universe with a laugh and a shrug, how he can also lure the reader into looking into a

dark mirror.

—Thomas. R. Whissen, Classic Cult Fiction: A Companion to Popular Cult Literature

I. Introduction to the Text

Douglas Adams’s serial novel, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979-1992), is

well-known for its humorous depiction of the human world. It tells a story of a space voyage led

by the last earthlings and an alien crew to find out the ultimate meaning of life. Reflecting the

reader’s social reality, Adams’s universe mocks the silliness and absurdity of the human world in

chaos. Adapted from a radio program for BBC, the original story was expanded to five

sequential 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

(1984) and Mostly Harmless (1992). Over the last forty years, the five novels have been

translated into many languages and are all best-sellers. A triumphant success, the Hitchhiker

series has been adapted into a TV show, a play, a record album, a computer game, and a

Hollywood movie.
 Chiu 2

II. Literature Review: The Research Problem

Although Adams has earned his place in popular culture, academic research on The

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is still not very abundant. In the last ten years of research,

scholars have focused on either its genre or its philosophical inquiry. Some scholars attempt to

define what category the Hitchhiker series fits into best by labeling the novels as a cosmic horror

subgenre, a postmodern science fiction parody, or an invention elevated parody. Dina Šoštarec, in

her BA thesis, Douglas Adams’s “[The] Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” as a Representative

of Cosmic Horror, discusses the similarities and differences between H.P. Lovecraft’s and

Douglas Adams’s work to point out the same horror effect they achieved in the setting of a

fictional universe (14). Çelik Ekmekçi’s MA thesis finds Postmodern elements structured in

Adams’s literary expression of parody, irony, satire, and laughter to define the series as a

“postmodern-parodic-SF text” (53). In his BA thesis, Michal Horák compares Adams’s use of

parody to Arthur C. Clarke’s narrative strategy to indicate Adams’s contribution of making the

status of parody more important (43).

In fact, it is hard to pin down what category the novels only belong to. The Hitchhiker’s

Guide to the Galaxy is a mixture of science fiction, comedy, satire, parody, and philosophy. With

so many features at the same time, the novels are well rounded, with elements from each

particular genre. Instead of using different approaches to define its genre, I argue that to

specifically classify the novels as sci-fi, satire, parody or not does not help to understand their

main themes, but leads the reader to overlook the whole picture. In his investigation of genre,

Kinds of Literature (1982), Fowler argues that genre functions as description rather than as a list

of requirements, criticizes the overly narrow use of concepts of genre, and looks forward to
 Chiu 3

witnessing the coming of style changes in various literary forms (1). Adams’s work exemplifies

the concept of literature in variety, and his witty and ironic humor blends these elements to offer

critical insight into the mundane human world.

Besides, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was written from 19771, and it may be

influenced by concepts that changed in the decade from 1960 to 1970, a time during which a

development in science fiction known as the New Wave was heading towards a revolution:

While this period certainly saw a broadening of the style, themes, and tropes typical of

[SF], fears about the demise of “old style” [SF] were by the 1970s already shown to be

unfounded. In retrospect, what the “battle” of the New Wave most obviously highlighted

was an ongoing professional and critical anxiety over the cultural positioning of the

genre. (Merrick 102)

Adams’s work followed the trend to change what people imagined typical science fiction could

be, and Merrick points out the distinctiveness of Adams’s work and that of others to mark the

significant improvement in the history of SF which “solidified many of the facets of the genre as

we know it today” (110). Being well-considered in every aspect, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the

Galaxy amuses through its great imagination of alien outer-space and enlightens by observing the

flaws of the world. Overall, combining different features of genres or recognizing his writing

style seems to uncover only the tip of the iceberg of Adams’s creative thinking. 2 It is better to

center on the ideas within the novels to tease out the main themes.

1
In Don’t Panic: Douglas Adams and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2009), Gaiman records the first outline
of the story (239) and the initial concept of the Hitchhiker series (24-30).
2
This thesis does not imply that the study of genre is of low value to other researchers, but some studies about
Adams’s use of genre lack explanations to the text itself. To identify Adams’s writing style may be helpful to
appreciate his artistic techniques, but the main topics in the novels still need to be explored.
 Chiu 4

In a discussion of the main ideas of the novels, the purpose of life and human feelings are

inseparable topics. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy reveals its concern for human society

by asking what the meaning of life, the universe, and everything is and by displaying dramatic

emotions of people reacting to the world:

Hurrahs burst from the ecstatic crowd.

“Never again,” cried the man, “never again will we wake up in the morning and think

Who am I? What is my purpose in life? Does it really, cosmically speaking, matter if I

don’t get up and go to work? For today we will finally learn once and for all the plain and

simple answer to all these nagging little problems of Life, the Universe and Everything!”

(Adams 118)

The topics above are closely connected to philosophical inquiry, especially existential anxiety.

Surprisingly, only five available texts discuss existentialism in the Hitchhiker series.

First, Van der Colff’s Douglas Adams: Analysing the Absurd analyzes the absurdity

within the Hitchhiker series. Divided into three parts―the psychological function of fantasy, a

philosophical exploration of Existentialism, and Adams’s satirical observations―this dissertation

focuses on Adams’s intellectual and philosophical contribution and compares the book to other

literary works involving absurdity. Van der Colff gives a panorama of the existential condition of

human beings and promotes an execution of constructing meaning for one’s entertainment. I

agree with the main points of this dissertation, but one of the main themes Van der Colff

repeatedly mentions, boredom, lacks understanding and interpretation in her analysis. Van der

Colff points out the “prevalence of boredom in Adams’s work” (112) but she does not explain it

in any detail. She considers it merely a situation of “nothing about to happen” (56) or “the act of
 Chiu 5

waiting for meaning, and the frustrating boredom which ensues if one is unable to entertain

oneself ” (85). Van der Colff believes that humans have to fulfill their life purposes by “making

subjective meaning out of the meaningless world” (114). In other words, humans need to amuse

themselves to avoid feeling bored. Following Van der Colff’s conclusion, this thesis attempts to

point out specific working conditions which result in boredom to further discuss the characters’

solution to existential anxiety in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

In my view, some characters are unable to amuse themselves because they are busy stuck

with a low work status and thus waste their talent, and are not just absentmindedly sitting and

waiting for meaning. I suggest that creativity is the solution to the meaningless world since

creativity involves one’s enthusiasm and challenges one to produce imaginative things or new

ideas. This thesis aims to delve into the theme of boredom to explore its relevance to the

characters’ conflict between their dead-end jobs and their true wishes to adapt their talent, their

creativity, to create things for a seemingly purposeless world.

Van der Colff’s subsequent article, “Aliens and Existential Elevators: Absurdity and Its

Shadow in Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker Series” follows the main argument of her dissertation

and briefly provides an analysis of four characters to define them as either absurd heroes or

hopeless nihilists. “Adams’s characters, be they human, alien, or sentiment machine, all face the

same existential choice: actuate individual meaning, or resort to despondency”(Van der Colff 1).

I find her argument about the absurd heroes persuasive, but I disagree with the part that simply

depicts Marvin and the existential elevators of Ursa Minor Beta simply as desperate quitters.

This interpretation ignores the problem of how Marvin and the elevators gradually lost their

interest because of their menial jobs, and misunderstands the differences in representation
 Chiu 6

between these two kinds of robotic figures. Marvin represents a worker who is not only

incredibly intelligent but also aware of his low and fixed social status. Other robots act as

workers whose thinking capacities are restricted but they cannot help but have doubts about their

wasted abilities in their undemanding jobs. Marvin’s disgust for his work comes from not only

his great ability being unappreciated but also the complete job satisfaction his robotic peers

gained. The other robots, on the other hand, enjoy their pettiness because they are programmed

to overcome the weakness of the prototype, which is Marvin’s main character flaw.3 With an

enforced belief in happiness, the upgraded robots have been fixed to be more like “Your Plastic

Pal Who’s Fun to Be With” (Adams 64). Like Marvin, the elevators of Ursa Minor Beta get tired

of the futility of their work (Adams 177-79). This thesis seeks to find the answer to the problems

of overlooking these robotic characters’ motives by assuming that the biggest obstacle in their

way to find meaning is their boring jobs and their identities as ‘forced laborers’.4

In addition to Van der Colff’s studies, Philosophy and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the

Galaxy, edited by Nicholas Joll and organized in four sections, includes eight essays that discuss

ethics, the meaning of life, metaphysics and artificial intelligence, and logic, method, and satire

recurring in the novels. My thesis uses three scholars’ contributions to this book: Amy Kind’s

idea of absurdity, Timothy Chappell’s discussion of timelessness and interest, and Jerry

Goodenough’s analysis of self-image and emotions. Kind’s article, “Life, the Universe, and

Everything” is useful for deepening and broadening my understanding of the connection between

absurdity and human reactions:

3
Marvin is the prototype for a working machine simulating real human personality, but, unlike others, he is a brainy
yet depressed robot. Although Marvin can solve almost anything, he is always frustrated to be asked to do small
chores. Marvin’s impressive intellect makes him suffer from depression and boredom, which is his major character
flaw.
4
The term, robot, actually comes from a Czech word, robota, meaning “forced labor.”
 Chiu 7

[L]ife is absurd because of a similar mismatch or incongruity. Like Arthur Dent, we often

think there is a deeper purpose to our existence; we routinely have that strange and

unaccountable feeling that something is going on in the world, something big− and we

just wish that we could figure out what it was. But though we take our lives to have some

deep purpose or importance, it turns out that there is none. (78)

As the clown-like characters travel in outer-space to search for the meaning of life, the adventure

of finding nothingness supports the contention that one’s wish is mismatched to the world’s

order. The protagonists’ anxiety about the unreasonable environment invites the reader to

identify with existential crises. In the section “Resistance is useless,” Kind critically emphasizes

the fact that Adams’s depiction of absurdity as inevitable and ubiquitous intersects with Camus’s

perception of existentialism. Addressing the above two’s viewpoints of absurdity, this thesis aims

to respond to the question: If activities in life become like Sisyphus’s repetitive and tedious

burden, why is it worthwhile to live? This thesis finds this problem as a starting point to argue

that the feeling of meaninglessness mainly comes from unskilled work to investigate how the

characters gradually become like Sisyphus or how they can possibly differ from him.

In the section of “Panic” and “Don’t Panic,” Kind indicates Adams’s humorous attitude

toward absurdity. Kind illustrates her point by providing Slartibartfast’s happiness as an example.

Because of an incongruity between an internal perspective and an external perspective, a person

is eager to find an explanation for his or her everyday life. Slartibartfast’s context, nonetheless,

reveals that one can enjoy his life even if he has no knowledge of his purpose of living. I agree

with her idea that people who spend little time on grasping the meaning of life may still lead a

joyful life. However, I find that in this case Adams does encourage people to indulge in activities
 Chiu 8

interesting yet challenging, such as Slartibartfast’s design of landscapes, Arthur Dent’s practice

to fly, and even the Vogon commander’s composing amateur poetry.5 By doing such effortful

projects, a person is capable of discovering or demonstrating his or her talent. Activities

requiring talent give a person a sense of achievement which helps him or her to work out the

value of life. That is, instead of asking questions and waiting for the ultimate answer anxiously,

creative activities develop one’s talent and zest for life.

Chappell’s “The Wowbagger Case: Immortality and what makes Life Meaningful,”

mentions the plight of the Wowbagger as an extremely bored immortal and emphasizes the

significance of a person’s interest in various forms of entertainment. Wowbagger embodies the

state of being utterly bored and justifies the contention that one loses his or her interest in

mundane and routine work. For instance, he sees tons of movies thousands of times; he combats

his never-ending boredom every afternoon; he finds nothing left to do but decides to scold

everyone in the universe (Adams 317). Chappell’s article supports my contention that a person’s

enthusiasm is sparked by his or her devotion to creative things; Chappell believes that if a person

actively involves himself or herself in what he or she is doing, every minute gives meaning to his

or her life.

Goodenough’s “ ‘I Think You Ought To Know I’m Feeling Very Depressed’: Marvin and

Artificial Intelligence” examines Marvin’s strong emotions to find out that robotic feelings are

very much like human feelings. Goodenough marks Marvin’s uniqueness and his character

conflict against himself, other characters, and society. To Marvin’s dismay, his self-expectation is

too high to be fulfilled; his ability extends beyond the task he performs. To Marvin’s disgust, his

5
Vogons are known for their bad poetry, which always tortures the listeners (Adams 45). Although Vogons are awful
at writing poems, they are enthusiastic about writing them and reading them to others.
 Chiu 9

automated peers are easily satisfied with unskilled labor; he alone cannot bear his dissatisfaction

with boredom. To Marvin’s grief, the crew cannot stand in his shoes to truly understand his

difficulty; there is evidently a lack of empathy. To Marvin’s great annoyance, his society values

efficiency of work much more than his sensitivity to monotonous chores and his thirst for a sense

of achievement. Moreover, I suggest that character conflict between Marvin and the society in

the Hitchhiker series represents downward social mobility. The social hierarchy in the series is

characterized by alien domination and robotic subordination. There is a hint of class struggle

between the working class of robots and the upper class of aliens. The elevators, for instance,

protest for better working conditions against the alien users. Marvin also complains to Trillian

and Zaphod, his managers, about his job but he simply gets ignored by them. What’s worse, in

the Hitchhiker series, the incompetent are ironically more influential in political authority than

the competent.

Along with the studies above, Bamle’s MA thesis, Ethics of Infinite Improbability and the

Logic of Jokes: A Look At the Philosophical Inquiry in Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker-series’ aims

to “investigate Hitchhiker’s participation in literature as a work of philosophical inquiry, and to

examine its philosophical content in philosophical terms, in order that it may be recognized as

work of philosophical fiction” (6). Bamle compares Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the

Galaxy to Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged to analyze their both themes which lead to philosophical

discussion. I find Balme’s study persuasive when it takes a positive attitude to face absurdity:

“What are the insights to be gained from the philosophical inquiry of Hitchhiker? One insight is

that our lives persist even though the universe seems absurd, and the only thing that we can do is

to make the best of that situation” (114). I believe that “to make the best of that situation” is like
 Chiu 10

the positive response of Camus’s Sisyphus’ to the heavy rock. Trying their best, Adams’s main

characters persistently act like Sisyphus but they face the absurdity with a sense of silly humor.

In Bamle’s explanation, although life is almost absurd, it is important to keep being the best of

oneself:

Adams navigates a world of disputes among the learned when it comes to great questions.

The quarrel between Vroomfondel and Majikthise [, for example,] reflects how difficult it

can be to agree on reality (114). In a world of dogmatism, where science and increased

knowledge increasingly seem to trivialize man’s experience, intuition and solidarity are

replaced with bureaucracy and moral ineptitude. We would instead be wise to remember

the words of Ford Prefect, that “in an infinite Universe anything can happen” (275). We

would be wise to remember that life is infinitely improbable, and we should value it as

such. In a world that is saturated with absurdity, it is still important to be nice (115).

Aside from the philosophical discussion, Opahdal discusses Adams’s use of absurdity as

a literary expression. Opahdal points out two kinds of use of existential anxiety in The

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. According to Opahdal, Adams either brings forth such anxiety

to the characters or evokes it in the reader to reveal the mismatch between the irrational world

and a person’s psyche. Sometimes while there are certainly other opportunities to run away from

the absurd situation, the characters would rather decide to stay. At other times, the characters are

unable to escape from the insane incident because the anxiety is beyond their knowledge and

displayed to the readers on purpose. Opahdal mentions the participation of the readers who share

their anxiety as the characters do to indicate that Adams’s absurd world is full of hidden truth
 Chiu 11

about our real life. Above all, when it comes to the towel, 6 “Adams promotes the concept of

finding new ways to use the things we already have. If we stop searching for greater meaning

and for something new or other to solve things, maybe we can look at reality and discover new

aspects of what we have” (15). Opahdal’s analysis inspires me to ponder over Adams’s portrayal

of free choice and the ultimate answer, 42.7 Providing a number, Adams ambiguously answers

the question but allows both the reader and the characters to interpret the meaning of life wildy

and personally. A person’s free choice is the crucial part of this thesis since the characters who

live and work tediously lack the ability to control their life.

By building on these foundational critical works, this thesis intends to emphasize the

importance of boredom and its relationship with absurdity and creativity. Absurdity as the

worldview is inescapable but introspective in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. In the

theater of the absurd, meaninglessness is the main guideline of the story with characters isolated

in a barren world. In the novels, the plot follows the pattern of absurdity but the characters

uncover the true facts of a situation even if they seem unbelievable. Like the rebirth of the

petunia, many peculiar events are coincidental and unexpected to great comic effect. In search of

the universal truths of life, the novel is an account of a philosophical journey. Boredom, a

situation of absurdity, reveals the characters’ wasted talent in their low jobs. Adams advocates

the benefits of a task giving people scope for creativity. Facing life with scorn is the attitude of

Camus’s Sisyphus, but the demeanor of Adams’s main characters who panic-lead their humdrum

existence will reveal the goodness of absurdity in the end. By providing more detailed textual

6
In Adams’s creative writing, a towel is a multifunctional tool, and, most important of all, people can use it when
hitchhiking into outer space.
7
In the novels, it takes years and years for a most powerful computer named Deep Thought to calculate the meaning
of life, the universe, and everything. Deep Thought, however, answers the ultimate question with the number
forty-two, which further requires an appropriate question.
 Chiu 12

analysis, this thesis aims to closely investigate how the characters deal with boredom in order to

interpret the meaningful facets of life in Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

III. Approaches and Theoretical Concerns

As its methodological focus, this thesis adapts Albert Camus’s perspectives on absurdity

and creativity in The Myth of Sisyphus in order to raise three central questions: how are absurdity

and futility juxtaposed with the characters’ feeling of boredom and happiness in The Hitchhiker’s

Guide to the Galaxy? Moreover, to what extent and in what ways does the awareness of boredom

enhance the mismatch between the external world and the human psyche? Last but not least, how

does Adams develop or modify Camus’s concept of creativity and absurdity in the novels to

comedically narrate the life-adventure of his signature characters in a disordered world?

This thesis will be thus divided into four chapters including an introductory chapter, two

chapters on absurdity and boredom, and on creativity and comedy, respectively, and an overall

conclusion.

The second chapter will explain the detailed connection between absurdity and boredom.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (the electronic encyclopedia in the novel) contains many

examples of absurdity to mock the imperfections in the human world. Modern living is

problematic because it requires people to spend too much time and to work-off their energy in

meaningless labor. For at least some of Adams’s characters, to face absurdity, a type of conflict

between a person’s inner self and outer environment, is to become conscious of a human’s true

purpose of living. Working tediously is an expression of the absurdity of overlooking one’s

wishes for one’ own life. Wasting a worker’s whole career, work could be boring, repetitive, and

monotonous like a cruel punishment. To some extent, working, as a common way for people to
 Chiu 13

earn a living, becomes a waste of lifetime because it satirically squanders the opportunities for

fulfilling one’s limitless potential in various capacities.

The third chapter shows how creativity bonds with the ultimate meaning of life.

Creativity is shown in constructive ways to elevate one’s life: it brings passion to a person,

allows a person to cultivate his or her talent, and helps a person to have a sense of achievement.

Besides, in Camus’s words, “[c]reating is living doubly” (70). Responding to absurdity

authentically, a great artist seeks to imitate the reality he or she experiences and incorporates his

or her view into the creation. That is to say, to grasp the ultimate meaning of life, is to learn by

experience. Likewise, Adams, in his original storytelling and his unique perspective, captures

human life experience which can be seen as his reflective thinking about facing absurdity.

Comparing Marvin’s fate with Sisyphus’, the third chapter also focuses on how comedy

functions to alleviate or intensify human existential anxiety in Adams’s novels. The noticeable

differences between these two figures are fundamentally tragic and comedic. Camus has

Sisyphus negate his destiny hopefully, but Adams amusingly makes Marvin lament his

unhappiness wholeheartedly. Instead of helplessness and unwillingness, humor and comedy offer

relief to the state of boredom. Rather than a mythic unbroken noble, Adams’s characters are

more likable and relatable because of their self-pity and fragility.

The concluding chapter summarizes the whole context of this thesis to review the life

philosophy within Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. This thesis examines

the influence of both creativity and boredom on self-worth, an examination that offers an

opportunity to review the problems of self-acceptance. Marvin’s boredom and depression during

his lifetime extremely exemplifies the torture of self-negating. Marvin’s shaping identity, in fact,
 Chiu 14

teaches us how we tend to judge or evaluate ourselves by social status, but it is actually

acceptable to have our own weakness. Although we seem to be imperfect in introspection, it is

‘mostly harmless’ to be an irrational creature living in an absurd world. The Hitchhiker’s Guide

to the Galaxy proves its artistic value by providing nourishing food for thought, but it also cracks

jokes about human beings being ignorant in many expected yet unreasonable ways.
 Chiu 15

Chapter Two

Absurdity and The Boredom of Labor

It said: “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 Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The boredom of labor is an expression of absurdity since it reveals a gap in a person’s

self-image between ideal life and reality. A laborer aims higher to achieve his or her personal

goal but others value his or her social worth differently. Adams narrates miscellaneous kinds of

absurd situations in a boundless universe to show one fact: fate is unpredictable, regardless of

peoples’ wishes. Among many absurdities shown in the novels, the boredom of labor, a

day-to-day dissatisfaction with one’s career, is a waste of his or her talent and precious lifetime.

Marvin, also known as the paranoid android, and other robots best exemplify the plight of being

bored because of their work experiences and their identities. In the novels, the robots are solely

responsible for unwanted chores such as opening and closing doors, giving directions to guests,

and making tea or coffee. Although the robots’ existence is to replace humans for easy tasks, the

robots constantly appear to question their life purpose as chore-savers for humans. The robots are

depicted as laborers who have no choice in lower social class and laborers who fixate on their
 Chiu 16

boredom and lose their interest for life, but Adams apparently aims to draw a line between social

roles and the expectations people have for themselves. In this chapter, I will discuss the conflicts

of boredom, the framework of self, and the confrontation with absurdity in The Hitchhiker’s

Guide to the Galaxy. The conflict of boredom reveals the laborer’s discontent with social norms

and leads to the better understanding of one’s self-identity. Sisyphus’ trial of rolling the boulder

supports the idea that a person’s attitude toward absurdity determines his or her perception of the

self. By analyzing the relationship between absurdity and the boredom of labor, Douglas

Adams’s life philosophy in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy becomes lucidly decipherable.

Facing the absurd, a trial of boredom, is Sisyphus’ main challenge but also places Marvin

and other robots in a predicament. For both of them, the struggles against boredom involve not

only the physical stress of being exhausted but also the mental difficulties of losing their

self-esteem. To elucidate this point, I will compare Albert Camus’s idea of absurdity in The Myth

of Sisyphus with the portrayal of absurdity in Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the

Galaxy. Adams’s robotic characters and Camus’s Sisyphus are alike in many ways, especially

their forced laboring, passion for life, and their view of absurdity. Unlike Sisyphus, however,

Adams’s robots are humorously characterized with sensitivity.

With a sense of absurdity, the laborer fails to find inherent value in his or her tiresome

work. Absurdism concerns the happiness of individuals and discusses the complex issue of

human life and death. Camus, the foremost thinker on absurdism, analyzes the subject of

absurdity and human exploration in The Myth of Sisyphus; his interpretation of Sisyphus reveals

the irony of the boredom of labor as a main purpose in life. Overall, Camus’s argument focuses

on futility, consciousness, and Sisyphus’ counteracting the absurd.

 Chiu 17

In The Myth of Sisyphus, boring labor is a penalty which makes Sisyphus suffer from his

passion for life. Sisyphus is forced to roll a gigantic boulder which will fall down again and

again when it reaches the summit of a mountain. The gods believe that the most severe

punishment is boredom since the repetitive action will end up causing futility and hopelessness.

Camus, however, emphasizes the importance of a person’s awareness, and he indicates that

misfortune befalls a person only when he or she is aware of the absurdity in his or her situation.

In spite of the endless torture, Camus argues, Sisyphus is meant to be happy. Although

Sisyphus is condemned to work absurdly, he does not succumb to his fate. Sisyphus, on the

contrary, lives willingly to face his tragedy no matter how difficult the ordeal is. Accepting

everything he has to endure, Sisyphus is in control of his own destiny. Camus concludes with

Sisyphus’ satisfaction to reveal that happiness could possibly be achieved in an absurd world.

This thesis finds Camus’s ideas corresponding with the robotic characters’ main conflict

in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Like Sisyphus, Marvin and other robots are doomed to

work boringly from the moment of being manufactured to the minute of becoming dysfunctional;

despite their purpose of being made, the robots have their own wishes for their lifetime. Marvin,

especially, envisions a more inspiring life for himself because of his great capabilities. Besides,

as Camus said, “[t]he workman of today works everyday in his life at the same tasks, and this

fate is no less absurd. But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious” (90).

Analysis of the characters’ growing consciousness of their mundane work helps to find a way to

review the problems of modern living and lead a meaningful life in Douglas Adams’s irrational

universe.
 Chiu 18

At first glance, boredom seems to be a minor issue in the novels, but it actually

exemplifies the most important recurring theme in Douglas Adams’s writing: the sense of

absurdity. Before the ultimate answer to life, everything, and the universe is offered by Deep

Thought, crowds of men gather desperately to wait for an explanation. The boredom of labor is

the elephant in the room when speaking of meaninglessness and human existential anxiety:

“Never again, '' cried the man, “never again will we wake up in the morning and think[,] Who am

I? What is my purpose in life? Does it really, cosmically speaking, matter if I don’t get up and go

to work? For today we will finally learn once and for all the plain simple answer to all these

nagging little problems of Life, the Universe and Everything!” (Adams 118). The sense of

absurdity is universal and ubiquitous in the novels; if it is necessary for people to work, what will

be the aftermath of taking a boring job for survival? The boredom of labor demonstrates the

ironic aspect of our human lifestyle and thus indirectly reflects the author’s perspective on a

person’s identity and its connection with the disorderly world.

In the novels, laboring is an unpleasant struggle for most of the characters. Many

instances show the feelings of unhappiness as well as the inner expectations of a laborer. Arthur

Dent, after a reluctant trip into space and a long period of absenteeism, is completely forgotten

by his broadcasting colleagues. Ford Prefect is an encyclopedia editor whose work is

insignificant and undervalued all the time. The jobless Trillian has doctoral degrees in

astrophysics and mathematics but never has an opportunity to demonstrate her ability before she

slips away to the galaxy with Zaphod. The police duo, working for the mice, are tired of being

seen as flat characters with a single appearance or pure evil minions, so they claim to write

novels and support humanitarianism in their off-duty hours. Mr. Prosser is a county council
 Chiu 19

worker, who has to convince Arthur to allow his house to be destroyed so a new bypass can be

built. As a bureaucratic employee, Mr. Prosser is responsible to the government and citizens, but

he feels only frustration and defeat. Mr. Prosser’s dilemma of choosing between arguing with

Ford’s fallacy and lying in front of the bulldozers encapsulates the absurdity of work. “As soon

as Mr. Prosser realized that he was substantially the loser after all, it was as if a weight lifted

itself off his shoulder: this was more like the world as he knew it. He sighed.” (Adams 15).

Regarding Mr. Prosser’s observation of the relationship between him and his work, these two

seemingly open options all lead him to helplessness and meaninglessness. What’s more, it is

noteworthy that these examples of laboring are actually comedic dramas based on real issues.

Laboring is the common way of living for humans, but, in many cases as above, it

paradoxically makes the laborer feel worthless. The difficulty of making a living in the modern

world for people is also implied in the beginning story of the novels, “[t]his planet has―or rather

had―a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of

the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely

concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the

whole it wasn’t the small pieces of paper that were unhappy” (Adams 5). The profound

melancholy of the workers is a realistic portrayal of life. In Working, a Pulitzer-winning book of

the workers’ personal reflection in America, Studs Terkel investigates the reason for the workers’

innermost negative emotions:

It is […] about daily humiliations. To survive the day is triumph enough for the walking

wounded among the great many of us. […] It is about a search, too, for daily meaning as

well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor; in
 Chiu 20

short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying. […] To be

remembered was the wish, spoken and unspoken, of the heroes and heroines of this book

(13).

The triviality experienced by workers is a day-to-day quest for meaning; this everyday reaction

against work is no less straightforward than Sisyphus’ trial. Whether it occurs through malice or

indifference, it is nearly impossible for the workers to overlook. Even worse, in the novels, when

workers intend to argue, their requests for better work conditions are easily rejected.

Beside feelings of insignificance, the inner voices of these workers’ expectations can be

clearly heard in the complaints of Marvin and other robots. The huge gap between the personal

and social views of work is made vividly unbridgeable through Marvin’s eloquence. As Marvin

argues, “Here I am, brain the size of a planet and they ask me to take you down to the bridge.

Call that job satisfaction? Cos I don’t.” (Adams 65). This quote clarifies how ridiculous it is for

the most intelligent person to be forced to do only small and simple tasks. In the novels, robots

replace humans in unwanted work, but, being overqualified, Marvin earnestly expects to achieve

things that require more skills or involve greater challenges.

Although Van der Colff in “Aliens and Existential Elevators: Absurdity and Its Shadows

in Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker Series” tends to describe Marvin and the elevator as a purely

“nihilist shadow of absurd heroism” (132-33), since they fail to “actuate individual meaning” but

“resort to despondency” (122) , it is important to reconsider the robots’ conflict with the

boredom of labor and their relationship with humans, and more importantly, to scrutinize

Marvin’s long-term confrontation with the absurd before his death. Terkel’s words resonate with

Marvin’s grief: “most of us are looking for a calling, not a job. Most of us, like the assembly line
 Chiu 21

of the worker, have jobs that are too small for our spirit. Jobs are not big enough for people”

(21). Since the robots cannot have an alternate way of living but face a sense of absurdity, the

conflict of boredom remains consciously inescapable: nothing notable is accomplished, no one is

memorable, and none is worthwhile.

The boredom of labor is shown dramatically through Marvin and other robots, whose

anthropomorphic characters reflect how humans behave unwillingly during work. The feeling of

being underrated, in fact, is not only the laborers’ suppressed emotions but simmering discontent

with the social role they are forced to play. Hiding negative passiveness like an emotionless

machine, laborers are used to faking their feelings to meet the requirements of society.

Sarcastically, the descriptions of the robots are provided in the Guide: “[t]he Encyclopedia

Galactica defines a robot as a mechanical apparatus designed to do the work of a man. The

marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation defines a robot as “Your Plastic Pal

Who’s Fun to Be With” (Adams 64). Nevertheless, in contrast to this image of a harmonic

working companion, there is a clash over belief in social norms and personal value in a worker’s

mind.

The conflict of boredom is a tug of war between the laborers’ inner voices and the social

values they must follow. The mismatch between self-image and public image in reality can be

observed clearly in the plot. Marvin and other robots, for example, have no choice but to perform

easy tasks without expressing any grievances to their human managers:

“Just that?” he said.

“Yes,” said Trillian firmly.

“I won’t enjoy it,” said Marvin.

 Chiu 22

Zaphod leaped out of his seat.

“She’s not asking you to enjoy it,” he shouted, “just do it, will you?” (Adams 63)

When robots obey orders involuntarily, their dissenting voices are muted. Carrying out others’

commands, they gradually lose their voices to express their own ideas. Being working machines

for chores, the robots have to face boredom in their everyday lives.

In the case of Marvin and other robots, it is evident that laborers are aware of their status

from different perspectives. Their identification with their boring work is complicated. The

robots ponder the question of what role they really play and who they truly want to be. That is to

say, a person’s sense of self is developed from various points of view. In Sources of the Self,

Charles Taylor introduces his observation on human identity in modern times:

In general, one might try to single out three axes of what can be called, in the most

general sense, moral thinking. As well as the two just mentioned——our sense of respect

for and obligations to others, and our understanding of what makes a full life——there is

also the range of notions concerned with dignity. By this I mean the characteristics by

which we think of ourselves as commanding (or failing to command) the respect of those

around us. (15)

The framework of self, overall, is a dual recognition consisting of social norms, a person’s deep

thought, a person’s actual reaction to and response from others’, and a person’s notion of leading

a moral life. In light of this, Marvin and other robots’ identification with the boredom of labor

indicates that one’s self-image is prone to be influenced by his or her social role.

To clarify this point, a character analysis of the robots’ failure in working and

interpersonal relationships is crucial because it helps readers to understand the author’s stance
 Chiu 23

toward basic human needs for work and unfulfilled life goals in a world full of absurdity. In

many situations, the identification of the self is troublesome for the robots. In spite of their

appearance as humanoid androids, they are exploited laborers, whose feelings are deeply hurt. In

fact, “[t]he robot is that place in [a] SF text where technological and human are most directly

blended. The robot is the [dramatization] of the alterity of the machine, the paranoid sense of the

inorganic come to life” (Aldiss 161). Aldiss further indicates Adams’s comic characterization of

the robots to emphasize that they are not just humans covered in metal. A complex mix of human

personality and high technology is revealed in robots. We can infer from Aldiss’s argument that

Adams’s exaggeration of the robots forms a distorted mirror to look at human emotions toward

boring work and our discontent with the social order.

The hidden needs in work and negative feelings of the robots are two central keys to

realizing the setbacks in shaping the robots’ identities, but also represent a standard to evaluate

the qualities of one’s happiness. Their hurt feelings, furthermore, highlight the impact of good

faith and bad faith in humanity. The robots cannot fully express their opinions since their

long-term pent-up emotions are always unimportant or socially annoying to humans. The

awareness of the lack of feelings of freshness, positive feedback, and the sense of achievement

are contextualized in the characters’ attitude toward their work. From a sociological perspective,

Herzberg in Work and the Nature of Man explains how human nature and work satisfaction are

intertwined as he states that “man has two sets of needs: his need as an animal to avoid pain and

his needs as human to grow psychologically” (71). Herzberg’s findings on job satisfaction help

to identify the characters’ displeasure resulting from work and how exactly their expectations

come to nothing.
 Chiu 24

These hidden wishes are fundamental to one’s happiness both in Adams’s novels and

Camus’s delineation of Sisyphus. From the gods’ point of view, the boredom of labor exhausts a

person’s body and mind simultaneously. It is a cycle of never-ending labor, a repetitive failure

and a trigger to meaninglessness. It is supposed to diminish Sisyphus’ love for life. Likewise, in

Adams’s novels, the need for feelings of freshness is shown by an immortal being, Wowbagger,

who embodies the utmost boredom through his unusual pastime. To kill time, Wowbagger curses

everyone in the universe word by word; he even has watched almost every movie thousands of

times. Wowbagger’s boredom is tremendously unbearable yet relatable to readers in daily life.

When Wowbagger spends an unenjoyable afternoon in a contemplative mood poetically named

“the long dark teatime of the soul” (Adams 317), the telling imagery of boredom is visualized.

With his everlasting longevity, Wowbagger’s odd hobby graphically illustrates the significance

of one’s passion and curiosity for things new or different. Moreover, it is noticeable that “part of

his reason for taking on the project he does is that everyone likes a challenge—and the project of

insulting everyone in the universe, in alphabetical order, is really challenging even if you’re

immortal” (Chappell 103).

Additionally, it is clear to see the eagerness for the feeling of freshness in the elevator’s

playfully disobedient response to an order. When Zaphod asks the elevator to move upward, the

elevator offers him the option of going downward instead. Though the elevators are programmed

to foresee what will happen in minutes to save time for unnecessary greetings and awkward

waiting for customer’s sake, the elevators apparently seek to move variously to counteract

boredom. However, since the function of the elevator is only to lift objects vertically, the one

thing the robots can see for sure is a lack of change within their motions:
 Chiu 25

“Like what other possibilities?” he said wearily.

“Well,” the voice trickled on like honey on biscuits, “there’s the basement, the micro

files, the heating system…er…”

It paused.

“Nothing particularly exciting,” it admitted, “but they are alternatives.”

“Holy Zarquon,” muttered Zaphod, “did I ask for an existential elevator?” He beat his

fists against the wall. (Adams 179)

“[T]he elevator’s existence is defined by the repetitive action of going up, or going down.

[...]They never reach the top or actually achieve something transcendental; neither do they find

meaning at the bottom of their existence” (Van der Colff 135-36). Although Van der Colff

stresses the meaninglessness of the elevators, I argue that they are stuck in a life without

possibilities. The feeling of freshness is nowhere to be found in a monotonous job. The

expectation for a whole new life and a more likable self in their imagination is unattainable. As

in Camus’s sketch of a modern workforce, the elevators eventually consider their work

meaningless and find their prospects limited. In Adams’s satirical writing, although they revolt to

move sideways in experiment and protest against their inability to make decisions on their own,

the elevators end up isolating themselves in basements with heavy hearts. The strike of the

elevators tells us that a laborer’s mentality is harmfully affected by tedious laboring.

Still, it would be myopic to categorize the elevator as a nihilist “in bleak despair” (Van

der Colff 123). This interpretation ascribes the elevator’s disappointment to nothingness and Van

der Colff thinks less about their restriction as involuntary workers who cannot participate in

negotiating for their potential. I suggest that their awareness of reality and their ability to
 Chiu 26

anticipate a near future both serve as focal points of one’s boredom with work. According to

Herzberg’s analysis, “one needs a system for the avoidance of unpleasantness and a parallel need

system for personal growth” (75). In Herzberg’s view, the working system should be designed to

help a worker grow and prevent any cause of dissatisfaction. However, neither of these

requirements exists in the elevators’ work, but their awakening and protest against their boredom

manifest a worker’s true aspiration. In my view, the Vogons8 appear to be caricatures of

bureaucrats who also have little interest in routine work and they are neither kind nor polite in

their services. The need for a breath of fresh air is never fulfilled. Both Vogons and the elevators,

laborers who cannot run away from boredom, are no longer looking forward to their work and

eventually lose hope for a promising future.

In addition to the need for feelings of freshness, the robots scarcely receive positive

feedback during work, which results in their low self-evaluation. They are often treated rudely in

many scenes, no matter what task they do or how many problems they solve for humans. Their

work is mostly taken for granted, and their feelings are rarely respected. The robots are not just

machines embedded with artificial intelligence; in Adams’s delineation, the feature of “Genuine

People Personalities” (Adams 64) shows that they have feelings just like humans. Adams gives

personalities to the robots to display human feelings during work and reveal how laborers are

inferior to the employers. Humanized robots are capable of having emotions, mostly extreme

ones. Other characters find the sensitive or cheerful dispositions of the robots objectionable. The

robot society mirrors laborers’ work conditions and makes the denunciation of the working class

audible.

8
A fictional alien race who is well known for their ruthlessness and low efficiency for work. With a hidden
announcement posted in a place off the beaten road, the government asks to demolish Arthur’s house, but, at the
same time, Vogons demand to destroy Earth to build an intergalactic highway coincidentally.
 Chiu 27

In Technology and Metaphor, Aldiss points out “the glory of Marvin’s characterisation is

that he pursues the expression of his depression with machinelike [rigor], so that he not only

adds human characteristics to his machineness, he adds machine characteristics to his human

traits. He is a potently thorough blending of machine and man” (162). Aldiss stresses Marvin’s

uniqueness in the history of science fiction to argue that he is as powerful as a machine yet as

sensitive as a human being. “Marvin combines the attributes of the most advanced of machine

intelligences with the pathological character traits of a particular flawed human being” (Aldiss

161). Mavin has explained his specialty, “Let's build robots with Genuine People Personalities,”

they said. So they tried it out with me. I’m a personality prototype. You can tell, can’t you?”

(Adams 65). Unlike the rest of the robots in the story, Marvin as a “prototype9” is capable of

being aware of his low social status and how people think of him.

In “‘I Think You Ought To Know I’m Feeling Very Depressed’: Marvin and Artificial

Intelligence” Goodenough echoes Aldiss’s idea that Marvin renovates the traditional

representation of emotionless or villainous robot in science fiction because of his

hypersensitivity to others’ expressions. Goodenough discusses Arnold Schwarzenegger’s role in

The Terminator to show that robots are sometimes depicted as sinister and senseless who lack

human feelings and reasoning. Goodenough asserts that a robot should at least understand how a

human mind works, so it can work well with human beings. This awareness of others is Marvin’s

distinctiveness. Goodenough’s argument supports my contention that Marvin’s “sense of

self-awareness leads him to desire at least a certain level of admiration and respect for his

9
In the novels, Marvin is the pioneering product of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation; his character appears to have
more negative emotions than the updated robots.
 Chiu 28

qualities, but he doesn’t receive it” (149). The thought of others’ opinions of him fills Marvin

with dismay.

Marvin’s interpersonal relationship with his crew is unquestionably unequal. Marvin,

ludicrously yet paradoxically, uses bitter language to express his boredom but he will follow the

humans’ lead anyway. Opdahl specifies Marvin's loyalty as she finds that on several occasions he

would rather stay to overcome the obstacles for humans than escape (10). Nonetheless, he is

hardly treated respectfully as a character with real feelings but is faithfully committed to doing

some dangerous tasks to protect his human crew, such as waiting in the parking lot for thousands

of years, guarding against the enemies’ attack for Zaphod, saving everyone’s life by shutting

down the Krikkit’s War Computer and so on.

Besides, there are many examples in the novels to indicate Marvin’s worthlessness in the

responses to him by other characters, who either turn away from him or force him to be silent.

The left side of Marvin’s body is broken in his first encounter with Arthur and Ford, who sing a

tune to ignore his problem. Marvin complains that, “[…] of course I’ve got this terrible pain in

all the diodes down my left-hand side…” but “I mean I’ve asked for them to be replaced but no

one ever listens” (Adams 71). In the end, he is never carefully fixed before his death and even

paired with an unfit component in Adams’s comedic yet pathetic narrative. The indifference of

humans to Marvin is visible, but it is important to explore Marvin’s loneliness from the angle of

lost empathy and disrespect.

Being frequently offended, Marvin still seeks approval from others. Despite the fragility

he has shown, Marvin’s voice of pain is never attended to. For example, after Marvin’s

disagreement about his boring work, he cares about others’ feelings by cautiously asking, “I’m
 Chiu 29

not getting you down at all, am I?” (Adams 63) or, more directly, assuring them that “I wouldn’t

like to think I was getting you down.” (Adams 63). The worst of Mavin’s insecurities of

self-esteem can be seen easily when Marvin starts to physically abuse himself in a water bucket

and straightforwardly points out other people’s impatience toward him: “You don’t have to

pretend to be interested in me you know,” said Marvin at last. “I know perfectly well I’m only a

menial robot. […] But I’m quite used to being humiliated,” droned Marvin, “I can even go and

stick my head in a bucket of water if you like. I’ve got one ready. Wait a minute” (Adams 233).

Unfortunately, “[t]his leads to a personality that depresses others who then avoid Marvin which

then depresses him even more. So we see a kind of feedback loop here where things just get

worse” (Goodenough 150). A double disapproval of the self, after all, represents how Marvin

realizes his interpersonal relationship with others.

It is undeniable that one’s recognition of the self involves to a very great degree one’s

value as estimated by others. Being a human-like robot, Marvin’s negative feelings reveal a

worker’s dissatisfaction at not being respected and the social rejection of others. Goodenough

further concludes from Marvin’s low self-esteem that he has a strong awareness of others who

constantly depreciate him (Goodenough 147), and he quotes the poet Burns’s words, “To see

ourselves as others see us,” to describe Marvin’s mental illness thus: “what ought to depress us is

that these very same qualities are the ones that could have made Marvin happy—or at least,

happier—if he had been treated as a person rather than a tool or slave” (Goodenough 151).

According to Marvin, “[i]t’s the people you meet in this job that really get you down” (Adams

236). Named “the paranoid android,” Marvin has a compelling reason for his melancholy mood

due to the people who utilize and abuse him in cold blood. To put it bluntly, the relationship
 Chiu 30

between the robots and humans teaches us an invaluable lesson: social acceptance constituting

everyday violence can be a vicious nurturing to self-worth.

Last but not least, the sense of achievement is thoroughly lost in Marvin’s lasting

grumbling as he deals with his tedious work: “Why bother? What’s the point? Nothing is worth

getting involved in. Further circuits amused themselves by analyzing the molecular components

of the door, and of the humanoids’ brain cells. For a quick encore they measured the level of

hydrogen emission in the surrounding cubic parsec of space and then shut down again in

boredom” (Adams 65). Marvin is overqualified for his work so he is bored with every task he

receives. As a matter of fact, in modern life, what we normally trade work for is salary, but I

suppose that the robots do not get paid at all. Therefore, the only thing they can receive from a

job finished is the sense of accomplishment.

In their satisfaction for work, there is a sharp contrast between Marvin and the automatic

doors on the ship Heart of Gold. In Marvin’s first appearance, he amply demonstrates his agony

at the doors’ satisfaction at a simple task being completed. The doors are dissimilar to Marvin in

their optimistic personality and the recognition of finishing a great job: “All the doors in this

spaceship have a cheerful and sunny disposition. It is their pleasure to open for you, and their

satisfaction to close again with knowledge of a job well done” (Adams 65). Marvin is entirely

beyond the automatic doors’ competence, so he is annoyed by the doors’ idea of being menial

but blessed. It is obvious that the difference between these two kinds of robots is their

intelligence. Marvin’s capability, as he ceaselessly mentions, is as enormous as a planet. He is

presumably the most ingenious of all the characters in the series and has an unquenchable thirst

for challenges.
 Chiu 31

What Marvin in the whole series has been searching for is something that demonstrates

his intelligence. To elaborate on Marvin’s high self-expectation, we need to examine how

self-actualization is addressed in social psychology. Herzberg finds the sense of achievement in

the historical study of many psychological theories considering self-realization as a person’s

greatest but the most strenuous ambition for his or her career:

To be sure, the concept of self-actual action, or self-realization, as a man’s ultimate goal

has been focal to the thought of many personality theorists. For such men as Jung, Adler,

Sullivan, Rogers, Goldstein, Maslow and Gardener, the supreme goal of man is to fulfill

himself as a creative, unique individual according to his own innate potentialities and

within the limits of reality. When he is deflected from this goal, he becomes, as Jung

says, “a crippled animal!’ (56)

Very much like the wounded creature in Jung’s remark, Marvin is gifted but wasted. He is distant

from approaching creativity but tightly suffocated by boredom. Despite Marvin’s sincerest wish

for a difficult task, he is never able to find one because he is only being asked to tackle simple

tasks. What’s more, he is far too qualified for almost everything although some of his tasks can

seem not easy at all. Through Marvin, the character who has the most capabilities, Adams

conveys the message that full awareness of the gap between reality and the expectation people

have for themselves is not painless as one stares at the boundaries between one’s calling for

creativity and the actual reply.

Marvin’s honesty10 and his knowledge of reality are two of his prominent characteristics

but, as the most brilliant being, he is depressed. In fact, Marvin’s whining discloses not only his

10
Marvin talks with his candor because, comically speaking, his “lying circuits are all out of commission” (Adams
354).
 Chiu 32

negated view of his lighthearted peers but also his ultimate purpose for life: “[p]ardon 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. Here’s another self-satisfied doors. Life! Don’t talk to me about life” (Adams 66).

What Marvin dislikes about his life is his total understanding of how bleak life is for the robots

responsible exclusively for uninteresting work. No one really appreciates their being and they are

used as entry-level tools no matter how all-powerful they are.

To a greater extent, it is hardly possible for him to have a sense of achievement but he

still insists on arguing, “Can I pick up that piece of paper! Here I am, brain the size of a planet

and they ask me to…” (Adams 233)11. As knowledgeable as Marvin, it is very likely that he

perceives the huge gap between his great expectation and reality. His persistence on pursuing a

goal of realizing himself is unrealistic to others in Adams’s absurd world, but why would people

blame him for his passionate perseverance for life? It is not easy to face reality. Take alcoholics

or junkies for example: drinking or taking drugs is not a method to solve the problem but a

temporary placebo to avoid seeing the truth. Facing the absurd is a process of realizing one’s

identity, which for those who strive to survive as menial robots is certainly not a box of chocolate

but “wormgears12” (Adams 352) as Marvin morosely describes it. Regardless of the reality, he

keeps his ambition to dream big.

The perception of absurdity is visible in Marvin’s viewpoint of life: “loathe it or ignore it,

you can’t like it” (Adams 95). While Marvin sees the boredom of his work with crystalline

clarity, others seem only to pacify him to overlook the problem. Trillian comforts Marvin by

11
In this quote, Marvin is interrupted by Zaphod. Again, people are tired of hearing Marvin’s complaints about the
quality of his work.
12
When Marvin introduces himself to the mattress, Zem, he extends their discussion of his left leg to his perspective
of life.
 Chiu 33

saying, “you just act as comes naturally and everything will be just fine” (Adams 63). Zaphod

also wants to persuade Marvin to do his work unconditionally so he tells a white lie: “there's a

whole new life stretching out ahead of you” (Adams 239). Moreover, Marvin is sold to an

exhibition named Mind Zoo where visitors, after hearing his life story, all try to encourage him

to “cheer up and think positive,” and some even yell at him to “give us a little chuckle” (Adams

353). However, what is the point of just smiling at one’s pain? In Bright-Sided: How Positive

Thinking Is Undermining America, Barbara Ehrenreich discusses the overuse of positivity by

discounting the truth: “What it gave me, if you want to call this a gift, was a very personal,

agonizing encounter with an ideological force in American culture that I had not been aware of

before—one that encourages us to deny reality, submit cheerfully to misfortune, and blame only

ourselves for our fate” (44). This explains the reason why Marvin’s personality is undesirable to

other characters: he imparts what he knows about reality without reservation once he has a

chance to speak up, and we can tell that pointing out the trouble of laboring honestly is not

inviting at all. In contrast, robots who have cheerful dispositions like Eddie on Heart of Gold and

Colin the security robot seem to be overly agitated. They are characterized as the irrational

because they cannot realize how dangerous their situation really is. Both Eddie and Colin have

been reprogrammed by humans, but their sunny personalities are completely clueless. It is very

likely that they are too optimistic to be aware of the absurd relationship between themselves and

others.

The awareness of absurd work allows us to see the failures of robotic figures. The robots

are representations of workers, who struggle to be socially accepted and search for challenges as

well as changes. They may not be able to pursue their goals in the mismatch between reality and
 Chiu 34

their expectations but, on the other hand, it could be an epiphany of their relationship with

meaninglessness. It is properly put in Camus’s assertion:

Happiness and the absurd are two sons of the same earth. They are inseparable. It would

be a mistake to say that happiness necessarily springs from the absurd discovery. It

happens as well that the feeling of the absurd springs from happiness. “I conclude that all

is well,” says Oedipus, and that remark is sacred. It echoes in the wild and limited

universe of man. It teaches that all is not, has not been, exhausted. It drives out of this

world a god who had come into it with dissatisfaction and a preference for futile

sufferings. It makes of fate a human matter, which must be settled among men (90-91).

Camus’ belief in happiness and the absurdity of a person’s fate is identifiable with Marvin’s

death. On Marvin's last day, he drags himself to witness God's final message, “we apologize for

the inconvenience” (Adams 610). Marvin’s response to this apology is portrayed in serenity by

his saying, “I feel good about it” (Adams 610). Goodenough has doubts about this expression of

goodness and he assumes that either Marvin recognizes the unreasonableness of the whole

universe and its creator or Marvin is free from the burden with satisfaction (142). Van der Colff

considers Marvin’s death as a destination to “his morbid electronic life” (135) and she believes

that Marvin voluntarily cuts the wire to his battery at last, but I argue that rather than being a

defeatist Marvin is the courageous one who demonstrates the confrontation with absurdity for a

nearly eternal life.

If we recap what Marvin has endured in his life-adventure, it will be doubtless that his

death is no cowardice. As a low-status laborer, Marvin may loudly complain how boring his

work is but he will finish it for others every time. In his statement, “what do you know of
 Chiu 35

always? You say ‘always’ to me, who, because of the silly little errands your organic life forms

keep on sending me through time on, am now thirty-seven times older than the Universe itself?”

(Adams 608). Being perceptive, he is aware of how people think of him, yet he bitterly takes care

of them even though he sees nobody as a friend. When Arthur describes Marvin as an old friend,

Marvin disagrees with him: “don’t think I ever came across one of those” (Adams 608). Marvin,

the most intelligent character of all, is being forced to do his menial job but he never gives up

searching for a sense of achievement. Although Marvin declares that he has no enthusiasm for

anything (240), his ambition for self-realization repeats in his well-known line even before his

last moment, “to come in last. It would be fitting. Here I am, brain the size—” (Adams 608).13

Though some may suspect that Marvin takes all this suffering because he has to follow the three

laws of robotics,14 there are exceptions who break the law as the story carries on. For instance, in

the conversation with the battle machine, Marvin explains how uneven the relationship between

men and robots is and the weaponized machine chooses to committ suicide right away (184).

Replying Camus’s statement that “there is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is

suicide” (3), Marvin faces absurdity with passion for life in a hateful tone and a metal body till

the end of his existence.

Marvin’s ending phrase is similar to the absurd man’s yes, which shows his autonomy not

only because of the proof of God's vacancy, but also because of his self-acceptance of what he

has given to his life unapologetically. Making the best of every worst thing, Marvin is definitely

no faithless nihilist; in Adams’s portrayal, even in defeat his human-like mind may be more

13
Marvin is being told to be silent and failed to finish his words.
14
According to the formulation of Issac Asimov and his editor, John Campbell, a robot may not harm a human
being, must carry out the orders, and should keep its own existence from contradicting the first and the second rule.
 Chiu 36

emotional but surely tougher than Sisyphus’ because he must meet all his misery with a sensitive

personality and a fixable mechanic body that spells for him a kind of timelessness. As Camus

argues that, “[a]t that subtle moment when the man glances backward over his life, Sisyphus

returning toward his rock, in that slight pivoting he contemplates that series of unrelated actions

which becomes his fate, created by him, combined under his memory’s eye and soon sealed by

his death (91). Death is usually considered a tragic ending in literature, but Marvin’s death is

different. For a character who is always unsatisfied but feeling good for the first and the last

time, Marvin’s growth is his self-acceptance. From Marvin’s death, we can see that confronting

absurdity is a means of sorting out the objective truth and one’s belief to gain a more profound

understanding of self-approval.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the electronic guidebook to the universe, entails all

kinds of knowledge of the unknown in an imaginative outer space based on the real human

world. More than containing practical information such as bringing a towel, the novel instructs

the reader to have a conceptual understanding of the true self from an introspective and external

perspective. In Adams’s depiction, destiny is always absurdly unexpected. Nevertheless, seeing

through the gap of one’s wishes and the irrational world offers insight of its own. From the

conflict of boredom, we perceive how modern labor belittles one’s voice, wastes one’s talent, and

diminishes one’s love for life. Living with passion is Adams’s and Camus’s interconnected

viewpoint of life, but Adams’s characters who show extreme emotions are not as impeccable as

Sisyphus but more humanly fragile. Adams’s comedic sense of love for life is expressed by

Marvin in a funny mechanical complaint with absolute resentment. The truth of reality for many

people who live with a low status could be biting, but rather than staying numb, the hysterical
 Chiu 37

and sentimental expressions toward our human existence are natural. For many of us, “[i]n many

ways, Adams’s assessment of the absurdity of the human condition is similar to Ford Prefect’s

assessment of Earth and its occupant: it’s mostly harmless” (Kind 77). If we find out that our

human world and ourselves are saturated with flaws and unreasonableness, we should still live

authentically by following the guide in amusement and enlightenment.

In this chapter, we have discussed how the absurdity of boredom affects the robots’

thinking and feeling correlating with inherent value and value estimated by others. Seeing the

robotic characters’ plight, the conflict of boredom is a result of one’s wasted life, a mismatch

between the inner self and the outer world, and a life-long attempt to challenge absurdity. The

robots who have authentic personalities manifest our human flaws and our expectations for a

meaningful life. Working tediously, many people in real life cannot reach their life goals. Only

when people are aware of living in between absurdity and happiness, could they know what

situation they are in or who they really are. In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, facing the

absurd is the inevitable but thoughtful perception of one’s self. Adams depicts a world full of the

uncontrollable, but his portrait of Marvin makes us believe that one’s love for life is not in vain if

one is honest enough to be himself or herself. Although fate seems always to go against one’s

wishes, every little decision one makes can be influential on social norms and personal faith.

Summarized by the bold warning, “Don’t Panic,” the novel provides more than a space journey:

a philosophical prescription for self-discovery.

 Chiu 38

Chapter Three

Creativity and Comedy

It was Star Wars time, there was a lot of interest in space. Also, when people think of

space they tend to think of something very comic-strip and here was something very

erudite and witty. That surprised people. But it appealed to everyone. The intellectuals

compared it to Swift, and the fourteen year-olds enjoyed hearing depressed robots

clanking around.

—Geoffrey Perkins, DON’T PANIC

In the last chapter, we discussed how the absurdity and boredom of labor coincide in an

incongruity between the characters’ wishing and their existence in Douglas Adams’s fictional

universe. A general overview of the robots’ conflict with boredom concerns a restricted worker’s

hope for various life experiences, social acceptance, and creative challenges. The boredom of

labor and absurdity could be linked to meaninglessness and lifelessness, but, taking advantage of

comedy and creativity, Adams not only guides the reader through his imaginative scenery of the

irrational but also empowers us to interpret the meaning within the novels in a playful manner.

Again, a mismatch between one’s anticipation and one’s reality demonstrates not only the

inner voices of the characters but also the author’s sense of humor. Telling a joke about human

experience, the guidebook for space travel investigates the imperfections of the real world and
 Chiu 39

makes unbearable human customs laughable. In this chapter, I will examine how creativity and

comedy are intermingled in the novels. Combining the comic with creativity, Douglas Adams

probes into the meaning of our human lives. In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, human

culture and humanity are depicted as both entertaining and enlightening.

The ultimate meaning of life is the core debate in the novels, but rather than defining it

affirmatively, it is portrayed in a riddling number, 42, which is like a game of the author and an

invitation to the reader to solve the puzzle or to suggest that there is no solution. Scholars of this

topic have touched upon its relevance to philosophy and existentialism while some critics have

treated it with uncertainty. “According to Deep Thought, the problem is not in the answer, but in

the question. We’re looking for clarity, but in this seemingly endless search, we don’t even know

how to properly formulate the question that we want answered” (Kind 87). Van der Colff lists

existential recognition of meaninglessness to further suggest constructing subjective meaning in

amusement. Opdahl points out that Adams encourages us to zealously reconsider the meaning of

everyday objects like a towel to find a new facet of reality (15). Whissen indicates that “the

novel does not offer a value system or code of behavior to subscribe to, other than the example

surviving with grace and humor, the reliance on luck and the virtue of not taking things too

seriously” (117). Woodford in Novel for Students argues that searching for the meaning of life is

illusory but the humor of the novel represents the aim of living (137). I find their analyses

insightful and interesting because the obscure answer of 42 may seem to be confusing to many of

us; but it is not gibberish. It is an instruction to interpret as freely as one can. To put it more
 Chiu 40

precisely, it invites us to reshape our understanding of ordinary life in an aesthetic and humorous

way.

With an ambiguous answer, everyone is capable of deriving their own meaning to this

number. In the plot, Benjy and Frankie, who refuse to wait for the earth to find the ultimate

question to this answer, hastily make up their own to reply in a rhetorical sentence, “How many

roads must a man walk down?15” (Adams 135). The inquiry is perfect for them because it sounds

“very significant without actually tying you down to meaning anything at all” (Adams 135).

They emphasize the importance of searching by saying “yes idealism, yes the dignity of pure

research, yes the pursuit of truth in all its forms” (Adams 132), but they prefer to fabricate one

plausible answer for their sake to make money and to justify their own existence. Instead of

mumbo jumbo or instruction in details, the whole series is set in this unexpected tone to crack

jokes and to let the readers have their own meaning as Benjy and Frankie weave ideas together.

The meaning of life is said to be funnily inscribed in Arthur’s mind and every other earthlings’

thinking so we can assume that to personally construct or to grasp the meaning in a creative and

comedic way helps the reader to enjoy the author’s brainstorming.16

Absurdity as the worldview of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is inescapable but

inner-directed. The sense of the absurd not only reflects how the characters’ wishes are

contradicted but is also the essential bridge to comedy. In Aristotle on Comedy: Towards a

Reconstruction of Poetics II, Richard Janko reorganizes the lost manuscript of Aristotle and

15
This is the first line of Bob Dylan’s song, “Blowin’ In The Wind” (1963). Dylan reveals doubts for one’s depth
towards maturity in a lifetime, later singing, “the answer, my friend, is blowin in the wind.”
16
In the novels, Earth is constructed as an all-powerful computer to think up the ultimate question of life, but in the
last five minutes of the calculation, it is ruined by the Vogons. The mice somehow believe that the minds of the
earthlings have the ability to find the question.
 Chiu 41

translates it from ancient Greek into modern English. According to Aristotle’s collected

handwritten notes, several elements are vital to play in a comedy, which is defined as follows:

“Comedy” is an imitation of an action that is absurd and lacking in magnitude, complete,

<with embellished language,> the several kinds (of embellishment being found)

separately in the (several) parts (of the play); (directly represented) by person<s> acting,

and <not > by means of narration; through pleasure and laughter achieving the purgation

of the like emotions. It has laughter for its mother. (25)

Aristotle believes that comedy is to provoke laughter and find amusement. Adams’s novels serve

the same purpose. In the setting of a strange but earthlike outer space, acting absurd is through

the alien and robotic characters’ mimicry of human nature. Although the exact genre of Adams’s

hitchhiker series is the topic of a long-standing debate, Adams’s primary concern is simply to be

entertaining. Adams once responded to this issue by laughing at the complexity of his novels in

an interview: “I’ve inadvertently done something quite clever, in that I’ve done a show which

science fiction fans like because they think it’s a science fiction, and which people who don’t like

science fiction like, because they think it’s knocking science fiction. [Above all…] I just wanted

to do stuff I thought was funny’’ (Roberts 91). Aristotle’s recognition of comedy corresponds to

the mirroring of real human behavior in the novels, but Adams seems to hint at many

philosophical questions in the jokes. Many of them are displayed by a mismatch between reality

and one’s anticipation, which is closely related to Aristotle’s explanation of the basis of humor:

[M]ost jokes arise through transference and the arousal of false expectation… (Humour)

arises when it is unexpected, and contrary to one’s previous expectations, but instead
 Chiu 42

resembles parodic turns in jokes (the same effect is caused by puns, as they too lead one

astray) and in lines of verse: the verse “stately he trod, and under his feet were his

chilblains” does not run as the hearer anticipated—he thought it would say “scandals.”

(33)

Humor is founded on the constant use of false expectation, and the demonstration of humor in

the novels is an incongruity between the characters’ inner voices and their fate as well as a gap

between the reader’s assumption and the situation as it unfolds. For instance, in the beginning of

the story, a girl’s realization for the meaning of life is spotlighted but, to the reader’s surprise, she

later turns out to be a minor character who fades from the scene in a flash. “This is not her story.

But it is the story of that terrible, stupid catastrophe and some of its consequences” (Adams 5).

The narrative unfolds with a twist of standpoints and focuses on the turmoil and folly in the

relationship between the last earthlings and non-humans.

Beside surprise and laughter, this intersection of absurdism and comedy can be extended

to the appreciation of creating. In “Absurd Creation,” Camus points out that “[o]ne must live it or

die of it. So it is with the absurd: it is a question of breathing with it, of recognizing its lessons

and recovering their flesh. In this regard the absurd joy par excellence is creation” (69). Camus

quotes Nietzsche’s statement, “we have art in order not to die of the truth” (69), to stress that the

one and only way to face the absurd truth is to create, and he further concludes with the

statement “[c]reating is living doubly” (70). In a writing process of recreating reality, an artist

with an awareness of absurdity focuses on his or her thoughts with freedom as his or her

confrontation with meaninglessness; although no one can escape from death, the creator seeks to
 Chiu 43

incorporate his or her view into the creation as an ephemeral triumph for liberal passion. That is

to say, to grasp the meaning of life is to retake one’s experience by creating with wit. Creativity

is thus bound to the ultimate meaning of life. Embodied by artists such as a view designer, a mad

poet, and a lonely robot, Adams’s praise for an individual’s creative accomplishments is fully

visible in the novels. Each of these artists represents a different meaning of creating.

Furthermore, giving meaning subjectively is also shown in the guidebook as a tool for carrying

on the stories to reflect Adams’s critical thinking on human cultural activities.

This thesis finds that comedy and absurdity both arise from an imbalance between

expectations and reality. The incongruity between what actually happens and the result people

hope to achieve is firmly explorable and diversely comical in these novels. It shows a character’s

struggle for absurd truth but cracks the joke of soft and funny sides in humanity at the same time.

With a unique sense of humor, Adams offers a series of comedic jokes enriched with limitless

creativity. In the novels, the sense of absurdity is clearly undeniable but an authentic experience

of facing it and responding to it is shown in the characters’ pursuit of creativity.

Creativity is constructive in the way the characters’ face the absurd. It gives a person

freedom in his or her acting of thinking and crafting. Creating is artistry which allows one to

show his or her capacity. Developing creativity more or less makes the creator less bothered by

meaninglessness in an absurd world. When Arthur concentrates on making sandwiches, he is

finally satisfied with his “life work”(Adams 730). “For every sandwich the size and shape of the

trimmings were different, but the Sandwich Maker would always effortlessly and without

hesitation assemble them into a pattern which fitted perfectly. A second layer of meat and a
 Chiu 44

second layer of trimmings, and the main act of creation would now be accomplished” (Adams

727). Finding favor with them, Arthur cements his social relationship with others by his artistic

techniques. It is through comedy and creativity, moreover, that Adams faces absurdity and uses

his narrative and invention to reflect the human world.

Playfulness is a principle in the narrative of the novels. Almost everything is taken

cheerfully in the narrator’s tone although sometimes the topic can be a really serious one such as

violence, death, or war. The setting of outer space after the destruction of earth is an imaginary

imitation of human civilization. The way to build this world is to subvert the ordinary and blend

the traditional with some unconventional elements. “In a way, Hitchhiker is a kind of Gulliver’s

Travels in space. One goes out into space, one leaves the world and comes across all sorts of

extraordinary people who behave in extraordinary ways and one discovers that the more things

change, the more they stay the same. One sees human foibles played out on a grand scale

really…” (Roberts 89). In Ford’s welcoming and comforting words in response to Arthur’s

panicking, we get to see that Adams’s universe is like a playground, as Ford says: “You just

come along with me and have a good time. The Galaxy’s a fun place” (Adams 39). In Homo

Ludens, Johan Huizinga argues that the instinct of play is well-grounded in human’s minds and

its necessities contribute to civilization in many ways:

Summing up the formal characteristics of play we might call it a free activity standing

quite consciously outside “ordinary” life as being “not serious”, but at the same time

absorbing the player intensely and utterly. It is an activity connected with no material

interest, and no profit can be gained by it. It proceeds within its own proper boundaries of
 Chiu 45

time and space according to fixed rules and in an orderly manner. It promotes the

formation of social groupings which tend to surround themselves with secrecy and to

stress their difference from the common world by disguising or other means. (13)

In our attempt to understand Adams’s elaboration of his fictional galaxy and his artistic

characters who are in the mood to play, Huizinga’s view of play enables us to identify how the

characters find satisfaction in their self-willing creation, from which they gain social and

spiritual values, and in their individual ritual of making their own works. With the power of

imagination, readers get to see a reflected society which amusingly manifests the silliness and

brilliance of imagery by mocking seriousness. By analyzing the characters’ experiences and

creations, we see how Adams playfully esteems the production of art and makes wisecracks

which focus on the vulnerability of humans and the flaws of the world.

The whole series involves many aspects of human life and concerns with philosophical

discussion. For example, from the whale’s life and death, a brief but lively experience can be

observed. The whale asks about its existence, “Why am I here? What’s my purpose in life?”

(Adams 90). Soon after the whale thinks out loud of its being, it begins to feel its presence as an

“interesting sensation” (Adams 90) and associates with the environment by naming things. The

whale starts to feel the outside world by moving its tail in the wind and has the spontaneous idea

of making partnership with things around it before its subsequent death and immediate

incarnation. It is obvious that life is too short in the whale’s soliloquy, but the whale’s awakening

in its period of existence is a common desire to befriend others and find meanings in one’s own

definition and senses. In Adams’s accurate portrayal, life is an unexpected adventure with
 Chiu 46

activities such as going through unfamiliar things, acquiring kinds of knowledge, and building

relationships with others. Moreover, to the reader’s amazement, the comic sense is layered and

intensified in its repetitiveness as we get close to uncovering the mystery of the whale’s karma of

life and death. The whale gets killed by Arthur coincidentally after it is reborn in all kinds of

forms. While Šoštarec considers the whale’s reappearing death and the Cathedral of Death17 as a

symbol of absurdity (11), I think it emphasizes how human nature drastically changes from pure

innocence to malice by unintentional violence.

Full of surprises and jokes, the novels make fun of many well-known philosophical

theories to show that probability can be very interesting. For instance, in Arthur and Ford’s flight

from the Vogon’s attack, they take a ride on a ship powered by the Infinite Improbability Drive18

(Adams 59), which allows them to witness numerous monkeys becoming playwrights to write

Hamlet in relays. Relating to the infinite monkey theorem, the novel shows how impossible

things can be a source of inspiration for dramatic jokes. According to the theorem, if there are

uncountable monkeys who have limitless time and sufficient resources, it is possible for them to

write literature like Shakespeare’s play. Unexpectedness and philosophical perception coexist

fundamentally in Adams’s sense of humor. Making no boundaries between imagination and

randomness, Adams’s jokes underline an unrestrained and vigorous style that brims with talent.

In Don’t Panic, Gaiman mentions Adams’s ideas on writing humor in 1984. In that article,

17
The soul of the whale is named Agrajag, who transforms to be a bowl of petunia, a rabbit, a fly and many other
living creatures in his numerous rebirth. He is accidentally murdered by Arthur too many times so he builds a
Cathedral of Death to seek revenge.
18
In the novels, the Infinite Improbability Drive is a generator installed on the starship Heart of Gold, which
teleports in transport but has unprecedented side effects. “The theory behind the Infinite Improbability Drive shows
us that there are dimensions in the universe hitherto unaccounted for. The Drive engaging with one of these
dimensions largely accounts for metaphysical randomness. It also to a large extent explains cosmic absurdity…”
(Bamle 78).
 Chiu 47

Adams addressed how he considered comedy a serious business. When Adams passionately

committed to writing humor, it was hard for him to “stay sane” (Gaiman 114). From the

monkeys’ action of writing like Shakespeare, we can also tell that to create imagery of madness

and to think ingeniously are essentially interrelated. In a world full of possibility, the craziest

joke is simply not effortless rambling but “an awful lot of engineering” (Gaiman115).

Moreover, the keystone of this playfulness is evident in Slartibartfast’s sophisticated but

sincere reply to Arthur’s wonder. When Arthur shows his doubts about his mundane life to

Slartibartfast, the landscape designer talks to him with an approving sense of coziness. To answer

Arthur’s existential anxiety, Slartibartfast says that everyone in outer space possesses “perfectly

normal paranoia” (Adams 127), but he believes that it is not actually troublesome:

“Maybe. Who cares?” said Slartibartfast before Arthur got too excited. “Perhaps I’m old

and tired,” he continued, “but I always think that the chances of finding out what really is

going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say hang the sense of it and

just keep yourself occupied. Look at me: I design coastlines. I got an award for Norway.”

[…] “Where’s the sense in that?” he said. “None that I’ve been able to make out. I’ve

been doing fjords all my life. For a fleeting moment they become fashionable and I get a

major award.” (127)

Slartibartfast’s sense of accomplishment can be seen as a tangible proof of Adams’s

encouragement to create. As a landscape designer, Slartibartfast works to customize the landform

for a planet, and Earth happens to be a merchandised creation by him. In Slartibartfast’s taste, the

scenery of fjords is intricately complicated, and the design of landscaping is very challenging but
 Chiu 48

pleasurable. At the end of this discussion, the prize is thrown away by Slartibartfast since for him

satisfaction is not material but spiritual. During the second time of building the earth,

Slartibartfast adapts his skills as usual but places more fjords in Africa since he is really fond of

them. Slartibartfast’s preference for the fjords, his devotion to creating, demonstrates one’s

passion for life no matter what the trend is and no matter who intervenes. Kind argues that

Slartibartfast upholds a lifestyle of being caught up in activities that are appealing in order to

ease the suffering of absurdity or consider it not a problem (96), but I argue that Slartibartfast’s

unstoppable love for designing all his life is how he indirectly achieves his purpose of life.

Besides, Adams’s fictional portrayal of nature is an artificial work of art to be appreciated in

which a pure happiness can be spotted in discovery as well as handcrafting.

Adams’s enthusiastic support of creation is unmistakable. However, the relationship

between one’s capacity and one’s contribution to culture is comedically explicated in the poetry

of the Vogons. Poetry is widely considered the finest type of literature, but, in Adams’s portrayal,

it is a double-edged sword. In the novels, the amateur loves to write bad poetry and the worst

poetry simply shows the creators’ idiocy and awfulness. Art should be beautiful but Vogons’

poetry is infamous throughout the universe for its lousiness. The audience who listened to the

Vogons’ poetry will be damaged, but Vogons still appreciate their creation and sharing:

“The prisoners sat in Poetry Appreciation chairs—strapped in. Vogons suffered no

illusions as to the regard their works were generally held in. Their early attempts at

composition had been part of a bludgeoning insistence that they be accepted as a properly
 Chiu 49

evolved and cultured race, but now the only thing that kept them going was sheer

bloody-mindedness.” (Adams 45)

Thus, we can see that creativity sometimes requires one’s talent to a great degree to be

acknowledged, but the creator can still relish the sense of inventing and presenting

wholeheartedly. While the artist may treat his or her work in all sincerity, the artwork sometimes

may be indecipherable, degraded, and unfavored by the audience. A person’s creation is

nevertheless not exclusively for the viewer but also the creator’s inner satisfaction. Further, if we

keep an eye on Arthur’s forced critical review of Vogons’ poetry, the misreading of the poet’s

stance will show us the fact that one’s work reflects the creator’s personality faithfully. The

artwork itself is an expression of the creator’s voice, and by creating it, the creator practices to

form a better understanding of self-recognition. Regardless of the given oratorical compliments,

the Vogon commander’s sharp defense of their vulgarity and brutality ridicules the shallow art

but also makes an unapologetic gesture to the principle of staying true to oneself. There is a

notorious saying in Vogon: “resistance is useless”19 (Adams 47). For artists, it is very likely that

they gain self-knowledge and portray self-image in their creation. In Adams’s depiction of

Vogons’ obsession with poetry, writing and reading are sometimes irresistible due to their

connectedness to others in spreading knowledge socially and to establishing one’s identity.

Nevertheless, if Vogons have to trap their audience to appreciate their work, rather than being

talented, they heighten a false sense of superiority. Vogons’ pretending to be educated only leads

them to manifest their cruelty. By doing so, creating art becomes a means of consolidating

19
It is a phrase frequently said by Vogons in their first greeting to emphasize that there is no possibility of defending
against their attack.
 Chiu 50

power. As a tyrannic propagandist, the Vogon commander embodies the fostering of a culture of

selfishness and persecution in an uncivilized community.

Likewise, in Marvin’s lullaby, the sense of self-absorbedness is clear. Although Van der

Colff categorizes Marvin as a desperate individual who cannot amuse himself and give in to

nothingness (111), I find Marvin’s artistic composing to be an indisputable and indispensable

indication of Adams’s ingenuity in designing Marvin’s character. 20 The lullaby, which contrasts

between sleeplessness and seclusion, is as follows:

Now the world has gone to bed,

Darkness won’t engulf my head,

I can see by infrared,

How I hate the night.

He paused to gather the artistic and emotional strength to tackle the next verse.

(Adams 444-45)

In this nighttime song, it is discernible that a loner seeks peacefulness from creating. Usually, a

lullaby is sung to children to comfort them. In Marvin’s solitude, the one thing he does to soothe

himself for a little bit is to sing a cradle song alone. “Having solved all the major mathematical,

physical, chemical, biological, sociological, philosophical, etymological, meteorological and

psychological problems of the Universe except his own, three times over, he was severely stuck

20
Adams’s favorite character was Marvin, although he did not affirm this very much. Adams thought that Marvin
“holds himself wrong,” and he found that Marvin’s “patheticness comes from his attitude to himself rather than any
inherent design” (Gaiman 255).
 Chiu 51

for something to do, and had taken up composing short dolorous ditties of no tone, or indeed

tune” (Adams 444). Marvin does feel gloomy for most of the time, but, in this song, we can infer

that he expresses his innermost feelings by composing after he tries many methods to calm

himself. From Adams’s depiction of a misfit’s lullaby, we can see that to create comedically is to

point out the irony such as a dreamless robot’s desire for tranquility and company. In “The Artist

and His Time,” Camus argues that an artist has to “interfere in the affairs of the world” (150) and

“must simultaneously serve suffering and beauty” (151). Camus believes that nihilism, the worth

of creation, and benevolence are inseparable and synchronized, but only a great artist such as

Melville or Tolstoy can make them balanced. Marvin’s insomnia demonstrates the vision of an

artist since his awareness of bleak reality and art is lucid, yet Marvin faces the absurdity with

self-pity instead of kindheartedness. The tuneless song is emotional about a social outcast.

Marvin represents a lone wolf who cannot fit into society. His talent is wasted and his voice goes

unheard. Compared to Vogons’ reading poetry, Marvin cannot bond with others but admires

himself in a mirror. Marvin’s bedtime song is sung for those talented artists who have lost the

opportunity to be validated and respected. In this context, artwork serves as a last hope and

reflects social inequality. The greatest work of art could be produced in the worst time of an

artist, but many of them remain undiscovered. In real life, the influential but incompetent may

take center stage when an outsider like Marvin weeps in the shadows. Although composing,

singing, or listening to music cannot solve any problems, it at least speaks for Marvin’s broken

heart. Moreover, Adams depicts Marvin as a depressed figure to capture negative emotions,

many of them nearly self-projected.

 Chiu 52

Like Marvin, Adams understood a creative slump. He was devastated before he published

his first novel. Jem Roberts notes that Adams’s incorporation of his downfalls while writing

novels and the feedback he received from readers echoes the same mood:

Having started from a position of utter misery, he told an interviewer after publication of

his first novel, ‘In Hitchhiker there’s an element of writing myself back up out of that. I

was surprised and delighted to find a lot of letters from people in the early days would

say, “I was terribly depressed and upset until I sat down and read your book. It’s really

shown me the way up again.” I wrote it to do this for myself, and it’s seemed to have the

same effect on a lot of other people. I can’t explain it. Perhaps I’ve inadvertently written

a self-help book.’ (86)

Revealing one’s vulnerability to others can be mutually beneficial. Adams and his readers both

went through some miserable periods but found enjoyment in reading and writing. John Shirley,

in The Anthology at the End of the Universe, interviewed Douglas Adams to talk about Adams’s

style of humor, and commented that Adams’s books are “therapeutic. When you make great

humor out of the senseless patterns of random violence in your life, you make life more

acceptable and tolerable, because you make it possible to laugh it off” (178). Adams agreed with

Shirley to recognize that the inspiration for making jokes did come from some worst time in life

and making humor of hardship is a common feature of his work. In my view, many facets of the

world are problematic, especially violence and ignorance. People are anxious about dealing with

these difficulties. Since people are able to identify themselves with the sad moment as in

Marvin’s lament, or cackle with laughter in a relatable world mirroring the stupidity of real life
 Chiu 53

experience, the novels somehow achieve an effect of healing in the reader’s and the novelist’s

minds.

Comedic catharsis, an Aristotelian concept, is to find pleasure and laughter. In this case,

Adams transfers his personal suffering for financial issues21 to a fictional work full of absurdity

and fantasy that amazes the reader. By doing this, Adams incorporates his life experience to

create the novels as his authentic way of facing the absurd. The novel portrays many imperfect

sides of the real world but it is not too awful to be laughed at. Pleasure and laughter, “given

moderate expression by mimesis, relieve one's impulse to the immoderate display of these

emotions in everyday life, and in so doing produce pleasure” (Janko 83). If we find compassion

for those who endure “wanton violence” (Shirley 175), perhaps it is relatable to our mutual

experience in the memory of our past, which “attracts our or engages the author’s sympathy”

(Shirley 175) for the characters’ ordeal. In short, the readers and the author have been through

the same plight, and this notion of being understood is precious and helpful to one’s upsets in

everyday life.

The electronic device within the narrative, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, entails

the imagination and introspection of the author’s idea for human behavior, general concepts, and

ordinary items. According to Ford’s explanation, the Guide “tells you everything you need to

know about anything. That’s its job” (Adams 37). In the Guide, every piece of information can

be looked up but the definition is somehow bizarre to our common understanding of the thing in

daily life. Through Ford’s work, the lexicographer, planet researchers, or journalists for travel

21
As Gaiman records in Don’t Panic, Doulgas Adams could not pay the rent for his apartment in London so he was
about to give up on his dream to become a writer in the Christmas season of 1976. After moving back to live with
his parents in Dorset, Adams was really discouraged during that time (18).
 Chiu 54

guides, the meaning of things in the fictional galaxy become astonishing. The information of the

guidebook allows the reader to look at the familiar thing from a new aspect. What’s more, the

Guide challenges common beliefs in human communication and culture. In fact, language has

creative power as its function in teaching, communicating, and commanding, as Huizinga states:

Language allows [man] to distinguish, to establish, to state things; in short, to name them

and by naming them to raise them into the domain of the spirit. In the making of speech

and language the spirit is continually “sparking” between matter and mind, as it were,

playing with this wondrous nominative faculty. Behind every abstract expression there lie

the boldest of metaphors, and every metaphor is a play upon words. Thus in giving

expression to life man creates a second, poetic world alongside the world of nature. (4)

From Huizinga’s perspective, we get to see that the electronic guide in the narrative gives

meaning by wordplay, and this act of creating new definitions demonstrates Adams’s discovery

of the human world and his presentation of picturesque images of an invented universe with its

own peculiar brand of humor.

To begin with, the towel is the foremost item to discuss because of its significance for

hitchhikers in outer space. “[T]he new values and the new meanings are attributed to this item”

(Ekmekçi 30) because the purpose of the towel is not limited. Being used as a defensive weapon,

an indicator for intergalactic traveling, and a great solace to adventurers, the towel becomes the

best aid for space travelers in every possible way. Mostly unrelated to a towel’s normal uses in

ordinary life, the Guide specifies many original uses for it:
 Chiu 55

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 vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so reply 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 round your head to ward off noxious fumes

or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mind-bogglingly stupid

animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you—daft as a brush, but very 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. (Adams 21)

A towel is elemental in everyone’s life, but we hardly look at it from any other angle.

Apparently, it has its own function in Adams’s wild fantastical interpretation. Opdahl believes

that “Adams promotes the concept of finding new ways to use the things we already have” (14). I

strongly agree with her, but I further assume that the towel with so many exceptional uses let us

build up a lifelike alien world map. As we enter this fantastical world, the most familiar stuff in

the bathroom becomes unexpectedly handy. If readers see things from different perspectives, the

meaning is creatively given by one’s imagination. The idea of hitchhiking is to travel

courageously without planning things first, so the voyage to a fictional space is to let go of

prejudice and find the extraordinary facet of everything as boldly as one can. “The idea that

something we humans really need in order to solve many of our everyday problems is not some

alien technology, but actually something common to us, is comforting” (Opdahl 14). Opdahl’s

argument supports my contention that giving meaning to practical life is a gift which offers us

endless possibilities for entertainment and relief. This spirit of audacity is also deployed in
 Chiu 56

Arthur’s and Ford’s attempt to fly. The Guide provides detailed instructions on how to fly. Flying

is impossible to do in the real world, but daydreaming is how inspiration spontaneously comes.

Unlike our common belief, the Guide as an encyclopedia provides much information to

challenge one’s recognition of reality. For instance, anthropocentrism is mocked in the Guide’s

descriptions of the dolphin as well as the experiment led by the mice. As the Guide states,

humans are less knowledgeable than the dolphins and the mice:

[M]an had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had

achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—while all the dolphins had

ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins

had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same

reasons…In fact there was only one species on the planet more intelligent than dolphins,

and they spent a lot of their time in behavior research laboratories running round inside

wheels and conducting frighteningly elegant and subtle experiments on man. (Adams

105)

With a highly developed civilization, many people believe that we are the savior to endangered

animals. In the fantasy of the novels, it is wickedly the opposite. The earth is destroyed by aliens

but dolphins save humans from crisis because they are grateful for the fish humans have fed

them. In Adams’s fictional world, animals are much wiser than humans, who cannot amuse

themselves but are mostly worried about earning money from boring work. The dolphin’s

language and postures are misinterpreted by humans when they try to warn the earthlings by

“attempts to punch footballs or whistle for tidbits” (Adams 105). Such miscommunication
 Chiu 57

indicates how human-centeredness can dominate our perception of nature, but many men know

less than they think about the relationship between the environment and all living things. Take

the mice’s overthrown behavioral test, for example: the controlling power of humans on earth

can be only self-deception and unintelligence. That is to say, what seems to be common belief

may be only misrepresented by fake evidence or misinterpreted by its adherents. Furthermore, if

we try to stand in the shoes of the beasts in the wild, the carefree lifestyle they have perhaps

explains why people fail to achieve happiness in society. In the modern world, it is easy to find

pressure instead of joy in simple sensations such as somersaulting or swimming. What’s worse,

from the dolphins’ view, it is a real danger for humans to overlook the aftermath of the bombs,

weapons, and war but only treasure the merit of high technology.22

Likewise, human behavior is described as stupid in Ford’s first impression and second

thought of the normal greeting habit on earth. As an alien, Ford finds human beings are used to

speaking unimportant and basic information to people they meet. When people say hello to each

other, they like to talk about the very first thing they notice, such as the day’s weather, the height

of a person, or simply the present situation. The everyday language people use to welcome each

other is like, “[i]t’s a nice day, You’re very tall, or Oh dear you seem to have fallen down a

thirty-foot well, are you all right?” (Adams 35). Of course, these phrases are very intuitive.

Pointing out the awkwardness of this social habit, Adams makes a joking theory to ridicule the

relationship between brainy thinking and verbal expression. Ford first thinks that if people stop

talking, their mouths will shrink little by little. On second thought, he concludes that human

brains will begin to work once they cease to move their lips. Ford’s aloof attitude is the crux of

22
In the beginning of the story, it is said that digital watches are cherished by humans, who evolved from barbarians.
 Chiu 58

the joke. The power of disengagement is indicated in Bergson’s saying,“look upon life as a

disinterested spectator: many [dramas] will turn into a comedy (5). In Bergson’s analysis, the

character’s weakness is exaggerated and laughable in a detached attitude. From an alien’s

field-investigation, Adams humorously portrays what may indeed be silly but common in social

etiquette. To laugh at the folly of human activity, the Guide informs by stepping aside to

reconsider things from a non-human viewpoint. Moreover, this detached feeling toward others

could be more than a comedic effect, revealing a usual manner that happens frequently in human

society. Ford declares:

“An S.E.P.,” he said, “is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let

us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what S.E.P. means

Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out; it’s like a blind spot. If you look at

it directly you won’t see it unless you know precisely what it is. Your only hope is to

catch it by surprise out of the corner of your eye.” (Adams 334)

Contrary to the social habit of unwittingly restating the insignificant, the phenomenon of S.E.P.

refers to the tendency to ignore others’ troubles on purpose. In the novels, it can be used to

explain how a science-fictional spaceship hides itself from being discovered in public but, in a

roundabout way, it pokes fun at the indifference in humankind. While considering the least

important thing, people find the emperor’s new clothes unspeakable or negligent. In Adams’s

portrayal, humanity is contradictory and arrogant because of limited knowledge and deep-rooted

prejudices.
 Chiu 59

The jokes in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy have moral values for social criticism.

Bergson analyzes the meaning of laughter in comedy, arguing that laughter can be seen in its

social projection:

[L]aughter aims at correcting, it is expedient that the correction should reach as great a

number of persons as possible. This is the reason comic observation instinctively

proceeds to what is general. It chooses such peculiarities as admit of being reproduced,

and consequently are not indissolubly bound up with the individuality of a single

person,—peculiarities that are held in common. By transferring them to the stage, it

creates works which doubtless belong to art in that their only visible aim is to please, but

which will be found to contrast with other works of art by reason of their generality, and

also of their scarcely confessed or scarcely conscious intention to correct and instruct. So

we are probably right in saying that comedy lies midway between art and life. (170)

In Bergson’s view, the purpose of laughter is not only to please but also to set right. To reflect

what is commonly featured in the human community, laughter is educative and entertaining to

the mass audience. Comedy is a work of art because what is greeted with peals of laughter is

human life and its simulation. Bergson’s view of laughter shows great similarity to Adams’s

comedic techniques in depicting the fragility of humanity and the fault of the world. “The

function of Adams’s fantastic landscapes and characters is to mould humankind into an alien

form. Adams does not create wholly new ‘heavens or hells.’ Instead, he urges the reader to see

human folly and absurdity from a new perspective in the shape of Vogons, Krikkiters, robots,

sentient mattresses and hyper-intelligent shades of the colour blue” (Van der Colff 109).
 Chiu 60

Vogonity and Genuine People Personality are extreme examples of humanity, but they represent

different social classes. Vogons are a bureaucratic race who enjoys torturing others mercilessly.

The robots, who are programmed with Genuine People Personality, are working class.

Vogosphere, the hometown of Vogons, is barren due to their overuse of natural resources. What’s

worse, Vogons destroy Earth to build an intergalactic bypass and they are proud of their

harmfulness. Being busy with their labor, the robots never have the chance to adapt their talent.

The contrast between these two kinds of humanity is whether they have “the poet's

compassionate soul” (Adams 47) or not. Vogons’s purpose of making art is purely “to throw

[their] mean callous heartless exterior into sharp relief” (Adams 47). They do not appreciate

sublime imagery, fun elements in music, or any artistic inspiration at all. However,

sentimentalism is observable in the robotic figures. Through Vogons’ immorality, Adams mocks

human shamelessness and brutality. “To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a

problem” (Adams 278). The phenomenon of inequality, wars, violence, and bad faith are all

sugar-coated in laughter, but, in a lighthearted way, Adams aims to point out the problem that

lies in these serious issues is inhumanity.

Overall, in a comedic and sarcastic manner, Adams depicts a hierarchical alien world to

portray a miniature of human society. Space serves as a stage for Adams’s characters to imitate

human living absurdly. “The function of art is to hold the mirror up to nature, and there simply

isn’t a mirror big enough…” (Adams 244). Adams’s world is full of unexpected fantasy and

hilarious discovery of meanings. Human culture and humanity are tightly connected through the

characters’ and the author’s pursuit of art. Adams gives humorous meaning to things negative

and chaotic in life, but his portrayal of ugliness and idiocy in humanity is insightful. “Those who
 Chiu 61

study the complex interplay of cause and effect in the history of the Universe say that this sort of

thing is going on all the time, but that we are powerless to prevent it. ‘It’s just life, they say’”

(Adams 130). Adams’s novels are full of caricatures of true situations, corrupt politicians, and

mundane people. They are dramatically featured to be recognized and ridiculed. What happens in

fiction is based on reality, so the simulation of human problems is imaginary yet pragmatic. The

creative and destructive powers equally exist in the narrative, but it is humor that blends them

well.
 Chiu 62

Chapter Four

Conclusion

“Exactly!” said Deep Thought. “So once you do know what the question actually is,

you’ll know what the answer means.”

—Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

In chapter one, we reviewed the academic research on Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker's

Guide to the Galaxy. Although many scholars have examined the novel’s groundbreaking

features as a fusion of various genres, this thesis explores the main themes within to find out the

novel’s core message: the absurdity of life and numerous discoveries about what we think we

know. The boredom of labor is the main conflict of the robots, but researchers mostly neglect this

topic and narrowly consider the robotic characters as quitters. This thesis delves into one of the

most common existential questions to explore the relationship between work and a worker. To

put it more succinctly, this thesis analyzes the robotic characters’ confrontation with the absurd.

Furthermore, by providing examples of how meanings are constructed, this thesis also studies

Adams’s use of comedy and creativity.

The conflict of boredom and its link to absurdity are discussed in chapter two. Boredom is

a real-life situation because many modern people cannot find meaning in their work as the

robotic characters do. Boring work is problematic for people who have passion for life but are

not able to achieve their goals. Through the perspective of the robots, we can see the struggle
 Chiu 63

between social norms and personal values. Absurdity as the novel’s worldview is irresistible, but

it allows the reader to understand one’s identity and our craving for a meaningful life with moral,

social, and psychological depth. Although the gap between one’s wishes and reality is

unbridgeable, one’s life purpose can be staying true to oneself like Marvin. Facing the absurd is

shown by the characters’ dramatic emotions, but according to Kind’s analysis, Adams thinks

most of the unreasonable are acceptable if one has an attitude of “benign neglect” (97) and sets

new projects that are distracting him or her from philosophic thinking. Comedically, the things

on Earth are “mostly harmless” (Adams 44), and the advice inscribed on the cover of the Guide

is “Don’t Panic” (Adams 39). The sense of absurdity may not be worrisome if people find their

way of creating meaning. Adams illustrates many kinds of absurd situations, but working, like

Sisyphus’ trial, is noteworthy because the laborer’s plight eventually reveals one’s vulnerability.

The robotic characters, unlike Sisyphus, complain to express their love for life. Adams’s tone of

voice is both sympathetic to and comic about human weakness. A person’s self-worth is

portrayed in the gap between Marvin’s valuation of himself and his value as estimated by his

peers. Adams’s view of an individual’s wasted talent and meaningless work is not exclusive to

the robotic figures. Reading these novels, we inevitably reconsider how we possibly judge

ourselves by social status and others’ opinions. Adams’s design of characters with human-like

identification and their comparison with humanity can be extended and examined thoroughly.

Adams’s world is saturated with irrationality but his love for creating is beyond question.

Chapter three discusses how Adams as a novelist treats his creation and many sorts of creating

meaning in his serial novel as the ultimate meaning of life in a sense of humor. To face the

absurdity, creators seek to apply their knowledge of truth to the work with their talent. The
 Chiu 64

pursuit of creativity can be seen in the characters’ experience and their creation; many of them

are philosophical, hilarious, pitiful, passionate, and playful. Two kinds of combinations of comic

sense and creativity co-exist in the Guide’s information; the first one is to subjectively as well as

comedically redefine ordinary things we are familiar with, such as a towel. The second type also

creates meaning, but it challenges the role of humans in a subversive structure and ridicules some

social customs frequently seen in human culture. In a fictional world mirroring reality, to grasp

the meaning of human life is to make fun of the problematic side of the real world in laughter

and find our human flaws with compassion. Frankly speaking, human culture is an umbrella term

including many facets of our way of living, but this thesis only mentions Adams’s depiction of

human custom, art, literature, and music. “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly

remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times over many years and under

many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travelers and

researchers” (Adams 53). More than a plot device, the encyclopedia within the novel includes

various topics on human living and the ideas within are revised by different writers. In a framing

narrative, the Guide writes up interesting findings for those who need a piece of information with

a sense of witticism. From planet to planet, adventurers refer to the Guide to fill in gaps in their

knowledge as editors investigate to put right the entries. The familiar and the strange in culture

are recorded and revised again and again to keep up with change. Similarly, this thesis can be a

springboard for future study to trace Adams’s elaboration of culture and humanity in the novels.

Beside its main focus, one of this thesis’s goals is to offer an opportunity to appreciate the

Hitchhiker series and Adams’s other works including Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency,

The Salmon of Doubt, Last Chance to See, and The Meaning of Liff series. Academic research on
 Chiu 65

Adams’s novels is still not plentiful, but careful reading shows that his works deserve more

attention and literary study. In Wittgenstein: A Memoir, it is recounted that Ludiwig Wittgenstein

once remarked that, “a serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely

of jokes” (27-28). Adams has depicted an imaginative universe based on our reality to sharply

yet humorously point out several long-existing but careless issues in human life. In Novel for

Students, the historical background of publishing the Hitchhiker series is provided to speculate

about Adams’s critical stance on the race for space exploration between the U.S. and the Soviet

Union during the Cold War (11). Adams’s political views on inequality, endangered animal

rights, and making war are observable in his writings but may not be widely acknowledged by

his contemporaries. However, for the readers, to respond to the right question concerning life, the

universe, and everything is doubtlessly thought-provoking and engaging. Although Douglas

Adams and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy are rarely discussed by scholars, I think his

contribution to literature is still valuable and positive for book-lovers, who have experienced the

whole journey with his fictional characters in amusement and are aware of their existence in an

enormous universe. Adams and his works are not yet included in the canon of great literature, but

his whimsical sense of humor and the reflection of the real world are one way to interpret and to

grasp the meaning of life.

 Chiu 66

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