New summer reading: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Author: Douglas Adams

Genre: science fiction

Pages: 224

Things to think about:

1.) How might the book be considered satire?

2.) Beneath the surface, is Douglas Adams saying something about society?

Summary:

Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor.

Together, this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker’s Guide (“A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have”) and a galaxy-full of fellow travelers: including Zaphod Beeblebrox—the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy and Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronologically depressed robot. (Summary from Publishers Weekly)

According to Amazon, “You’ll never read funnier science fiction; Adams is a master of intelligent satire, barbed wit, and comedic dialogue.”