I was first introduced to Douglas Adams' five book trilogy (yes he calls it that) through its format as a radio drama. As the author describes in his introduction to the books, the stories of Arthur Dent and his interstellar group of friends, aquaintances, and ravenous Bugblatter beasts had been incarnated as a series of novels, radio dramas, and a film almost simultaneously to each other creating a massive set of inconsistencies and alternate avenues which udoubtedly delighted the satiric fancies of the glib author.
The story is absurd enough: Arthur Dent, after an attempt to save his own house from being knocked down to make way for a bypass is abruptly carried into space by a friend, who is actually an alien, who is aware that the earth itself, in a moment of irony, is being destroyed to make way for an interstellar bypass. Hilarity and interstellar travel ensues in a manner that is anything but linear yet still exemplifies Adams' ironic English humor. The novels contained in this book; The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Life the Universe and Everything, So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, and Mostly Harmless, do a great deal to explore the absurdity of human life and convictions. Ray Bradbury has always believed that science-fiction, while it explores the concepts of new lifeforms and new civilizations actually reveals a great deal about the human experience. No less can be said of Adams' novels with the added edge of biting humor.
One of the most exemplary moments of these novels occurs in So Long and Thanks for All the Fish. In this passage Arthur Dent and his girlfriend friend Fenchurch have sought out a man considered by most on Earth to be crazy. This man calls the outside of his home along with the land beyond it as The Asylum and has designed the house's interior in such a way that it resembles the outside of a house, and its exterior contains elements of a home interior. The man, known as Wonko the Sane, explains his reasons for sequestering himself in his home, "outside" of the place inhabited by so may psychopaths as deriving from a set of instructions he saw on a box of toothpicks. This box read: "hold stick near center of its length. Moisten pointed end in mouth. Insert in tooth space, blunt end next to gum. Use gentle in-out motion." Wonko's analysis of this is, "That any civilization that had so far lost its head as to need to include a aset of detailed instructions for use in a package of toothpicks, was no longer a civilization in which [he] could live and stay sane," 585-6.
It does not take long for us to examine our own culture to see that instructions for toothpicks is no isolated incident. On a plane flight recently, the package of peanuts I was given as a snack, though clearly labeled as 'Salted, Roasted, Peanuts' included the warning: "Package contains nuts" as well as the instructions: "Open package, eat nuts." I would like to pause for a moment to let this one sink in...
That should do it. As much as I would like to rant about how ridiculous this is or how frivolous lawsuits are ruining our world, I'm sure this example speaks for itself...loudly.
In writing his novels Douglas Adams was acutely aware that our culture had indeed lost its head, yet thankfully his approach, in true Monty Pythonesque fashion (a programme he wrote for in the 70's) to identify and laugh at its absurdity rather than turning his house inside out and removing himself from it. I feel that a sense of humor may, in some ways, help to reverse the growing straight-faced absurdity that appears to be becoming a part of everyday life.
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Adams, Douglas. "The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide." New York: Portland House, 1997.
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