HHGG essay

"In the beginning the Universe was created… and been widely regarded as a bad move" This is an excerpt in the radio script "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy." It illustrates the absurdist elements, which drives the entire book. Narrative elements are constantly found throughout the serials. Themes such as the "Probability of the Improbable", "42", "the unimportance of humanity" and "Aliens rule" are fundamental in the passage and are driven by different humorous devices, such as Irony. Motifs such as the "earth", "Deep thought" and "the ultimate question" are constantly found throughout the passage. The radio script shows different elements of genre, because it is radio serial, including science fiction and absurdist comedy.

This excerpt occurs at the beginning of the episode, where the main characters are delivered by an explosion to the restaurant at the end of the universe. As with the beginning of each episode of this or any serial program, there is a review of previous events in order to bring the audience back into the story as well as the reintroduction of the cliffhanger moment with which the previous episode ended. Unlike most serials however the HHGG also uses its introduction to tell strange ironic and usually absurd tales intended to amuse its audience.

There is a reminder within this introduction that the earth was in fact a giant computer run by mice and created solely for the purpose of determining the question to the answer 42. This answer to the question of the meaning of life, the universe and everything and the idea of earth as a program is highlighted by the use of a biblical reference and an absurd creation story from ‘another’ intelligent species . Thus the recurring themes of the importance of humanity, mostly harmless, aliens rule, 42 and the probability of the improbable are all reintroduced before returning to the narrative itself.

These themes are of course all intertwined as 42, the all important answer cannot now be properly questioned due to the untimely destruction of earth, raising the importance of the seemingly (until now) unimportant ape like creatures, who populated its surface. The double irony is that they are unimportant, but may now prove to be of great importance (and will later again prove to be of no importance of course). Their unimportance is emphasized by the use of jargon and hyperbole, ‘hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings, gigantic supercomputer,’ juxtaposed against the description of mankind as ‘strange ape like beings’ and ‘totally unaware’. All of this is of course both wildly improbable and totally absurd which is of course the fundamental driving force and intention of this work.

The discussion of creation by means of the biblical allusion, its antithetical response and the absurdist creation story which follows, all serve the absurdist intent of the author which sets the tone for the episode as well as leading nicely into the reintroduction of the creation story of the earth. In the excerpt, the earth functions as a motif that is used in service of the theme. The fact that the earth is a giant computer, processing the "ultimate question" is, again, ironic. The author used this humerous device, in order to make a connection to the theme; "The Probable of the Improbable". In our view, it is highly improbable that the earth functions as a giant computer to process a question. Therefore, a humerous atmosphere was used in service of the theme. In general, this idea is highly absurd, which emphasises the absurdist comedy genre.