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.