April 28, 2005
By Matt Savelloni
“DON’T PANIC!”
The late ’70s seem to be the era in which modern satire and spoofs were invented. Sure, BENNY HILL and MONTY PYTHON had been around and certainly influenced their share of lunacy, but towards the end of that seminal decade, NATIONAL LAMPOON had taken off in print and picture, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE was a staple of young audiences across America and smart-alecky fiction was starting to emerge, none more so than with an English writer by the name of Douglas Adams.
Perhaps in response to the resurgence in popularity of Tolkien and the arrival of bestsellers like Brooks’ SWORD OF SHANNARA and Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant series, Adams’ THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY seemed like an antidote to these renewed entries of sci-fi and fantasy. Coupling a far-flung imagination with absurdist wit and truly bizarre whimsy, HITCHHIKER’S…follows the exploits of Arthur Dent, one of the few humans spared during Earth’s destruction for the creation of a galactic superhighway. Despite the eradication of humanity—which Adams quiet clearly does not mourn—the book is never maudlin. In fact, it revels in the creation and presentation of larger-than-cosmos personalities, starting with Dent’s best friend, Ford Perfect, an alien reporter who was sent to study the earthlings prior to their subsequent elimination. The idiosyncratic structure of the book allows Adams to delve into hilarious anecdotes and asides without heed to any sort of forward momentum. HITCHHIKER’S…is all about the discovery of an incredibly vibrant universe, which until now, humankind has been arrogantly unaware.
“IT IS A MISTAKE TO THINK YOU CAN SOLVE ANY MAJOR PROBLEMS JUST WITH POTATOES.”
It isn’t long before Dent is zipped aboard Perfect’s ship, The Heart of Gold, and runs into the main cast of lunatics that fuel this trilogy (consisting of five books). Among them is the former president of the universe, Zaphod Beeblebrox, a slick multi-headed and –limbed playboy whose assured, smooth posturing can quickly turn to raving. Dent also encounters another human, the beautiful Trillian and the funniest character of the series: Marvin, the despondent robot. As the ship hurtles through space, Dent and the others are routinely saved by the Infinite Improbability Drive that powers the Heart of Gold. After detailing these personalities, Adams eventually reveals the main plot, which concerns super-intelligent mice and the number 42. Dent ends up at the center of a conspiracy to piece together a secret lost with the destruction of earth but HITCHHIKER’S… essentially becomes a canvas upon which Adams can deconstruct and ridicule every aspect of human sociology, philosophy, ideology and religion. There isn’t a belief system spared and readers will either dig his vibe that humans ain’t all that great (meaning the reader has a sense of humor) or they will react against it (meaning they don’t).
HITCHHIKER’S…has been compared to just about every work from Vonnegut, Irving, Swift and Twain but I believe it to be singularly Adams. It isn’t a slight satire in which the jokes grow tired but prose that can be revisited and rediscovered. I’ve read it three times now and each time I am surprised by a new sling or arrow previously missed. Somehow, Adams turned a (nearly) plotless, existential treatise with a rancorous style into a monolithic international phenomenon. Only an original force such as Douglas Adams could generate hilarity out of everything we hold dear being suddenly and irrevocably destroyed. Like its hero, Arthur Dent, THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY is literature’s most unlikely hero, a rambling space opera with almost nothing—and yet everything—at stake.
“YOU LIVE AND LEARN. AT ANY RATE, YOU LIVE.”
THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY exists in many forms. It actually began life as a radio series, then was written into novel form by Adams before being adapted into a stage play and a pair of comedy albums. I have only viewed the 1981 BBC miniseries and at the risk of sounding like a grump, I thought it was awful. And no, it wasn’t the cheap sets, poor sound or obvious TV-ness of it but I found the entire venture lifeless and too cute.
Douglas Adams began life as a TV writer for such landmark programs as DR. WHO and MONTY PYTHON’S FLYING CIRCUS but it was THE HITCHHIKER’S…series that defined his legacy. Over the last three decades, his reputation has inspired, entertained and wowed critics, audiences and fellow creators alike. His droll sensibility seems perfectly suited for radio and comedy albums but has only produced mixed visual results. I fear that adapting Adams is just not possible given the inherent intellectualism of his writing. Reading funny and seeing funny are too entirely different experiences and one does not translate directly to the other. The reason the miniseries did not work was that the comedic asides were too spot-on, too artificial, too eager for laughs, whereas in print form, the humor plays much more naturally even at its most peculiar.
That is why my enthusiasm is tempered for the newest big screen version arriving tomorrow. Certainly, the cast heartens me. Those who haven’t experienced the original THE OFFICE, they have been denied the genius of Martin Freeman. His role as Tim, our bemused and often horrified tour guide, certainly lends itself to the character of Arthur Dent, our eyes and ears into Adams’ world. Freeman can do more with a deadpan look than most popular comedic actors can summon through their entire repertoire. Mos Def routinely impresses with his range and Zooey Deschanel is simply the best young actress this side of Natalie Portman. Two other castings of note are Sam Rockwell as Zaphod Beeblebrox and Alan Rickman as the voice of Marvin the robot. Rereading the novel with these two performers in mind, I was startled at how perfectly I could hear their voices coming from these signature characters. Rockwell has a way of humanizing zaniness, keeping it reined in just under cartoonish. And Rickman is quite simply a master, a refined presence that should lend Marvin’s depressed angst hilarious subtext.
The producers should be commended for casting against the stars and entrusting the megabudget production to a relatively newbie director in Garth Jennings. With a script by Adams—and a touch-up by Karey Kirkpatrick—the intent seems to be to serve the author’s zealous viewpoint first and not fill the screen with the most expensive special effects. With any luck, THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY will be the mass-market introduction of a legendary scribe taken from us far too soon.
“The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.”
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