Douglas Adams: Mostly British

The wild beasts of Grantchester Common, England

 

In Douglas Adams' novel Mostly Harmless, his last novel in the Hitchhiker's Guide series, seasonal migrations takes place near the village where Arthur lives. Great beasts sweep majestically across the vast plains on their way somewhere else. When Ford Prefect arrives, he is struck by these herds of wild beasts that annually appear, and the local villager hunt to fill their storerooms with meat. This aspect of the story, along with a meeting late in the novel with a certain iconic rock musician, gives this British novel a decidedly American vibe. 

Seven years after he published Mostly Harmless, Douglas Adams emigrated to the United States, and lived there for the rest of his life. Or perhaps, as an American author, I should say that he lived here.

The way Douglas Adams ended his novel, as well as the entire Hitchhiker's Guide series, left me more than a little sad. Still, I'm glad I reread this classic series. It was one I fell in love with in my teens. After decades of loving the stories Adams wrote for Doctor Who, as well as those he oversaw and shaped in his role as the TV series' Script Editor, I can appreciate his Hitchhiker's Guide novels more. The way his characters navigate the complex possibilities of space and time travel still evokes a sense of awe, which is the signature of great Science Fiction.

Trinity College, Cambridge, England

When I visited Cambridge three years ago, I could see the town that E. F. Benson had described so lovingly in his novels Limitations and The Babe, B.A. I sensed a little of the university life that Adams' Doctor Who story "Shada" alluded to. Although I did not get to meet many students, the few I met showed an interest and respect for science. This helps me appreciate the fertile ground in which Adams' ideas were germinated. 

And yet, somewhere in Cambridge, peopled by today's aspiring comedians and dramatists, is the Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club. Perhaps, if I ever return to the university town, I can catch a performance of the storied group known as the Footlights. It'd be interesting to see what this troupe of performers, whose membership once included members of Monty Python and Douglas Adams, is currently doing. 

 

St John, Douglas Adams' college, Cambridge, England

The fact that Douglas Adams gave his final Hitchhiker's Guide novel Mostly Harmless an  American flavor, and eventually emigrated to the United States, reminds me of how much I have enjoyed traveling to England, and even considered living there. It makes me wonder if, through writing the series about exploring the universe, Douglas Adams discovered his own love of travel, and this caused him to consider living elsewhere. It makes me feel a little closer to the author I never really knew, apart from the stories he created. 

So long Douglas, and thanks for all the stories.

Dragon Dave

 

Douglas Adams: Mostly About Family

Grantchester, a village outside Cambridge, England

In Douglas Adams' novel Mostly Harmless, the fifth installment in his Hitchhiker's Guide series, the spaceship Arthur Dent is traveling aboard crash-lands on an alien world. Inhabitants of a nearby village accept Arthur, and he discovers that they've never heard of sandwiches. So Arthur assumes the role of Sandwich Maker for his village. This gives him an important role in the community, and he hires an apprentice to keep up with customer demand. 

After Trillian and Zaphod dropped out of the series in book three, we never learned what happened to them in book four. In Mostly Harmless we learn that Trillian has traded in her vagabond status for a career as an interstellar reporter. On her way to covering the next big news story, Trillian stops off on Arthur's adoptive homeworld, and introduces him to their daughter Random. 

As Arthur never had a close relationship with Trillian, you can imagine his surprise at Trillian's bombshell.

King's College, Cambridge, England

It seems that sometime after both Zaphod and Thor left her, Trillian decided she wanted a daughter. She reached out to the interstellar gene banks for a compatible match. As Arthur had sold his genetic material to travel aboard spaceships in First Class, she was able to get the requisite genetic material from a fellow Earthling. Now she has a daughter she's never has time for, as her interstellar reporting duties prevent her from having a stable homelife. 

During his travels, Arthur had thought he was getting something for nothing. Now, he realizes that, well, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Whether it includes sandwiches or not. 

She may have just arrived, but Trillian doesn't have time to stop and catch up with Arthur. Nor can she be bothered to bring Arthur with her, so they can function as a family while she's covering stories across time and space. Instead, she announces that she's leaving Random with Arthur because, well, she's his daughter too, and he should share in the responsibility of raising Random. One moment Arthur is content, if not completely happy, in his new life as chief sandwich maker for his village. The next, he's a father who must work to connect with a daughter who is a complete stranger to him.

Grantchester Common, Grantchester, England

 

Random has never had much of a relationship with her mother, as Trillian was always on the go for her job. So she's never really known where she fits in, and doesn't get along with others. How can she be expected to feel love for this man, and honor him as her father? After all, from her perspective, she's never even had much of a mother. 

There's no such thing as a perfect family, and even in the best of times, maintaining healthy family relationships can be difficult. Douglas Adams' parents divorced when he was young, so he knew how difficult it can be to build a happy and nurturing family. He had a complicated relationship with English barrister Jane Belson, whom he married in 1991 after several breakups and a broken engagement. As Mostly Harmless was published the following year, I imagine Adams drew upon his own childhood, as well as his on-again/off-again relationship with Jane Belson, in crafting the complicated dynamics between Arthur, Trillian, and Random in Mostly Harmless.

Dragon Dave 

P.S. Two years after Douglas Adams published Mostly Harmless, his wife Jane gave birth to a daughter.

 

Douglas Adams: Mostly Trisha

 

London, England

While Douglas Adams' first four novels in the Hitchhiker's Guide series appeared roughly a year apart, eight years elapsed before the fifth appeared. I'm not sure when I purchased Mostly Harmless, but I'm guessing it was several years following publication. Sadly, the first time I read it, I never really got into the novel. One thing I remembered as I reread it was my initial reaction that the novel was overwritten, featuring scenes that just seem to go on and on...and on.

Mostly Harmless is longer than any of the previous installments in the Hitchhiker's Guide series, and seems concerned that the changes and paradoxes created by people traveling through time. As an interstellar reporter, Trillian zips back and forth through time. If the events she covers get altered by herself or other travelers, and cause history to be rewritten so that the events she covers never actually happened...well, you can see how all of spacetime could become muddled.

Arthur and his girlfriend Fenchurch leave Earth and travel through space together. One day she just...disappears. Arthur never learns why she simply ceased to exist. Apparently, it's a remote--but very real--danger of hyperspace travel. Forlorn, Arthur continues traveling--not as a hitchhiker, but a paid passenger--and sells his genetic material to upgrade to First Class. 

 

London, England

 

Meanwhile, Ford Prefect notices that his original expansive entry on Earth is now included in his copy of the electronic travel book at the heart of this series: the Hitchhiker's Guide. After traveling to the guidebook's headquarters, he discovers that the Vogons, who destroyed Earth in the first novel to create a hyperspace bypass, are now in charge. 

In some ways, the change in management has proven beneficial. Under the previous management, secretaries often edited travel correspondents' reports. Thus, his entry covering Earth history, culture, and cuisine was reduced to "Mostly Harmless."*

Sadly, not all change is beneficial. Ford learns this firsthand, when the Vogon management attempts to kill him. Still, at least they merely shoot their weapons at him, rather than subjecting him to their poetry.

 

Buckingham Palace, London, England

 

We also met a woman called Trisha, a TV news reporter on Earth (which, remember, isn't supposed to be around, after the Vogons destroyed it in the first book). Trisha once met Zaphod at a party, but turned down his invitation to explore the universe. She has always regretted not going off with him in his spaceship. So when another spaceship lands in London, she makes sure that she is the one to interview the aliens. 

I enjoyed Trisha's journey in Mostly Harmless. We can all relate to regret over paths not taken. Her experiences in the novel are the kind that First Contact chasers dream about. She may have missed out on her first opportunity to travel and experience new things. Still, when that next opportunity came her way, she was ready!

Dragon Dave

*Even after all these decades, I'm still interested in reading the intergalactic guidebook. Perhaps now that the Vogons are in charge, it will soon become available for Earthlings to purchase. Just please, Vogon managers: no poetry!

So Long Douglas Adams, and Thanks for all the Fish

A Road near Holmfirth, England

 

Douglas Adams' fourth novel in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series is the shortest of all, and proved a surprising favorite. I thought it featured some of the best characterizations of any installment in the series, and told a beautiful love story. Like all the best bedtime stories, it begins with a dark and stormy night in England.

In So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish, Arthur Dent returns to England after hitchhiking throughout the galaxy. Unlike the first three novels, in which he was always dragged into an adventure by a character like Ford Prefect or Slartibartfast, he's charting his own course this time. Somehow the Earth exists, even after it was destroyed by the Vogons in book one. As Arthur walks along a highway in the rain, a car stops to pick him up. So now he's hitchhiking on a planet familiar to him, even if it shouldn't exist.

Back in his familiar British surroundings, Arthur falls in love with a troubled soul. Her name is Fenchurch, and she is troubled because she sees things she shouldn't, and exhibits talents her fellow humans do not possess. Arthur is drawn to her, and learns that she has seen visions of Earth's destruction by the Vogons, which somehow, on Earth, or at least this Earth, has not taken place.

 

In the previous book, Arthur developed a new ability. Or rather, he fell into it. It's a superpower many comic book characters exhibit, and if you haven't read the series recently, I won't spoil it for you. Let's just say that, in pursuing Fenchurch, he discovers that she also has this superpower. Finally, after all his travels, Arthur has found a kindred soul.

In the first three novels Arthur often came off as rather muddle-headed, and unable to grasp the importance of the situation he was thrown into. Zaphod constantly belittled him, Trillian looked down on him, and Ford lost patience with him more than once. Yet here, on this still spinning Earth, he becomes, if not a hero, at least the strong protagonist who always belonged at the heart of this series. 

Holmfirth, England

 

Events usually loom larger than the characters in Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers Guide series. So after all his travels, In So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish, the way Arthur finally finds the place he can finally call home, and the person with whom he can share it, is what I most remember.

Dragon Dave

P.S. My late friend, Marvel colorist Justin Ponsor, held a deep and abiding love for Douglas Adams. Although he wasn't much of a reader, he surpassed me by reading every book Adams ever wrote. He told me how sad he became, when he reached the last sentence of The Salmon of Doubt, Adams' final unfinished novel, and the words just...stopped. 

At Justin's funeral, his sister referenced his love for Adams' stories, and concluded her talk with "So long Justin, and thanks for all the fish." Apparently, some readers have found in the title of this Douglas Adams novel a humorous way to say good-bye. For the most part, saying good-bye is, I think, a skill I lack. While the Hitchhiker's Guide series seems to end here, apparently Adams couldn't say good-bye to the series either. Thus many years later, he published his final installment, Mostly Harmless.

Douglas Adams, the Universe, Abandonment and Thor

St. John, Douglas Adams' college, Cambridge, England

Life, the Universe, and Everything, the third novel in Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, sees the unraveling of the not-so-friendly foursome of Arthur, Ford, Trillian and Zaphod. Zaphod, the two-headed ex-president of the universe, decides there's some crucial facts that he's hidden from his conscious (collective) mind. So he wanders off after awhile, and is never heard from again. Likewise, when Arthur meets up with Trillian at a party, she seems cold and distant. Again, she leaves with someone else. This time it's Thor, the Norse god of Thunder. 

The way these two characters just drop out of the novel, as well as The Hitchhiker's Guide series at this point, without any sort of resolution to their individual plot arcs, seems weird. Then again, before this novel was published, Adams had an affair with novelist Sally Emerson while she was separated from her husband. After the affair ended, and she returned to her husband in 1981, Adams dedicated Life, the Universe, and Everything to her. So perhaps, the way Zaphod and Trillian abandon Arthur and Ford ties in with events in Adams' life, and the theme of abandonment I noticed in the first two Hitchhiker novels. 

 

The Round Church (next to St. John), Cambridge, England

 

Thor has been on my mind for many years now, as he plays a large role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. My wife and I collected the comic for several years, after Thor Odin-son lost his worthiness to wield the hammer, and an Earth-woman, much to Odin's displeasure, took on the mantle of Thor. 

Recently, Neil Gaiman published the book Norse Mythology, in which he updated some of the  Norse myths about Thor and Asgard for today's readers. Dark Horse is currently adapting these stories in a comic book series. Thor's hammer hangs on my wife's keychain, and she has read Rick Riordan's series about the Norse gods. A print of the Marvel character Thor, taken from an original painting by my late friend comics colorist Justin Ponsor, hangs in our living room. So it's interesting to me that in a series that extrapolates so heavily on scientific concepts, Douglas Adams chose to make Thor, a character from ancient mythology, a character in two of his novels. 

Grantchester Common outside Cambridge, England

I wonder what attracted Douglas Adams to the Norse god of Thunder, and what he would make of the character as portrayed in the Marvel movies. Did he grow up reading the Norse myths about Thor like Neil Gaiman? Or did he grew up reading Marvel's Thor comics, and that was why he placed the Norse god in two of his books?

Dragon Dave