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Incidental and subjective opinion; but I do think that The Restaurant at the End of The Universe is the best book in the series.
The commentary is deeper, the jokes are funnier and the story arc feels a lot less random whilst still being surreal. The scenes at the end of the book with the Golfrinchans is a masterclass in humourous writing with a truly nasty vein of bleakness.
It also features the ultimate question, of course.
The sapient cow that wants nothing more than to be eaten has stuck with me since the very first time I read it. It's like it was targeted right at militant vegans before there were militant vegans.
Schopenhauer used an equation with the answer of 42 to make a metaphysical point in “The World as Will and Idea.” I suspect this is the meaning Adams had in mind:
As time has only one dimension, counting is the only arithmetical operation, to which all others may be reduced; and yet counting is just intuition or perception a priori, to which there is no hesitation in appealing here, and through which alone everything else, every sum and every equation, is ultimately proved. We prove, for example, not that (7 + 9 × 8 - 2)/3 = 42; but we refer to the pure perception in time, counting thus makes each individual problem an axiom. Instead of the demonstrations that fill geometry, the whole content of arithmetic and algebra is thus simply a method of abbreviating counting. We mentioned above that our immediate perception of numbers in time extends only to about ten. Beyond this an abstract concept of the numbers, fixed by a word, must take the place of the perception; which does not therefore actually occur any longer, but is only indicated in a thoroughly definite manner. Yet even so, by the important assistance of the system of figures which enables us to represent all larger numbers by the same small ones, intuitive or perceptive evidence of every sum is made possible, even where we make such use of abstraction that not only the numbers, but indefinite quantities and whole operations are thought only in the abstract and indicated as so thought, as [sqrt](r^b) so that we do not perform them, but merely symbolise them.
I tried to add this on Wikipedia a while ago, but was overruled by an editor.
Source: https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/38427/pg38427-images.html
More on Schopenhauer: https://www.locserendipity.com/TitleSearch.html?q=Schopen
> Schopenhauer used an equation with the answer of 42 to make a metaphysical point in “The World as Will and Idea.” I suspect this is the meaning Adams had in mind:
I think that DNA was satirising the idea of one number, or phrase, or any singular thing being "the" meaning of life—the meaning of life, I like to think he'd think, is life itself, not any minuscule segment of it.
The many interpretations that people can hang on even the most transparently ridiculous of answers is, I believe, part of his point. ("How many roads must a man walk down?" and "what do you get when you multiply six by nine?" as questions I think indicate how seriously he took the answer.)
I'm really sorry, but this is distressing me no end: It should be (((7 + 9) x 8) -2) / 3 = 42. As written, it equals 25.6666...
I was 9 when he published Hitchhiker's guide. I'd just started reading and would go on to spend my teens reading ANYTHING I managed to lay my hands on. And throughout my teens everyone went on and on about Hitchhiker's Guide, and it just didn't... push me to read it. I eventually read it after being consrcipted. And it left me feeling as ambivalent as I felt before reading it.
As the comments here evidence, people read much into it, and the number 42. This is great. I felt books like The Ugly American [0], Honey Badger (Robert Ruark) and King Rat [1] had more to offer. My opinion hasn't much changed - but I feel the problem lies with me, in that depth and meaning are what I value.
Is humour the entirety of the draw for Hitchhiker's Guide, or (probably more likely) have I missed something?
Hitchhikers is more or less a series of vignettes that describe some human activity or historical event in such a way as to foreground it’s inherent absurdity. In a way, it’s meaning is to strip other things of meaning. Appreciating it goes hand in hand with appreciating Monty Python, who do the same thing. Hitchhikers is brilliant not insofar as it is layered with meaning as a work of literature, but in that it is quite dense with successful and memorable “skits” that poke fun at English society’s sacred cows. It’s a great example of science fiction as an analytical tool, where by redescribing something outside of its culturally weighted context a new perspective can be gained. I’d say that’s the primary “meaning” to be gained outside of the humor itself. As an example, one of the sections where he describes a whole series of absurd events that culminates in someone getting nailed to a tree for suggesting that everyone should get along, at which point you realize he’s describing the Jesus story. I think it’s a great read for someone in their adolescent years, to help them build some deconstructionist tools, but in a gentle way (Adams is quite humanist in the midst of all the absurdity).
You statement that "in that depth and meaning are what I value" is an explicit argument that there is no depth or meaning in what other people here value.
Your question can't be taken in good faith when that's the ground you plant your feet on.
My opinion is that much of what Adams was getting across is that meaning is where and when you find it. Something that means nothing to others can mean the world to you, and vice versa. Other's in this conversation have said much the same thing.
I think there is a lot of depth in HHGG. I read the whole 42 saga as a parable on society's tendency to trust computer outputs without understanding what they really mean. There's a lot of great social commentary in there, one example that springs to mind is a planet run by middle managers declaring leaves as fiat currency as that way money really does grow on trees. Eventually this leads to mass deforestation in an attempt to halt inflation. A good critique of the economic status quo about 20 years before such things were widespread.
Well, I suppose not everyone can understand everything, so, yes, it seems you’ve missed something. Both the humor and the depth.
But that’s ok as I’m sure you like books that others don’t. And you understand things that others don’t.
Humour is what drew me to it the first time I read it. A friend pointed out that there are some hidden jokes that only make sense when you already know how it will end, so I read it again, and again... And kept discovering new layers. With years (I take it in my hands from time to time) these discoveries became a rare occurance, but I'm quite sure I still missed some of the gems. And it took some growing up to understand some of the messages.
Adams really was a master of observation. Especially if you consider that many things we take for granted today either didn't exist or were in very early stages (like Internet). Predicting basically "wikipedia on a phone" that far back is mindblowing. And of course, the exaggerared (but still believable) characters are a work of genius.
Maybe give it a second chance if you have spare time?
That said, I only read the last book twice because it makes me depressed. Ymmv of course.
I read Voltaire's Candide a few years before reading The Hitchhikers Guide. I'm glad I did.
The characters, style, themes, were all taken from Voltaire's master work. I still enjoyed reading Douglas Adams. Comparing the two gave me an understanding of what English Lit is. Enjoying each, in a different way, taught me to appreciate works as stand alone objects, and in a larger canon of literature. Though I'm still glad I read Voltaire first.
I am a huge HGTG fan, but just driving by to say...
King Rat is a massively underrated masterpiece. Read it in my teens and regularly re-read. Astonishing book.
I think that the quaint wackiness in HHTTG is simply a cult thing; it provides its fans (plus a broader body of geeks) with a body of references they can draw upon in order to communicate. Like this 42 thing. You don't need depth for that, or even humor that is rib-splitting. I think that the work simply holds a charm for some people, which may be all stylistic; it's okay to dig style. Just like quantity can be a quality of its own (who said that, Stalin?), style can be a depth of its own.
But why did Douglas Adams think of 42? My theory is that it is from "times table" memorisation questions.
Back in the day in the UK we learned "times tables" at school as a verbal by rote memorisation technique. For each "times table" you memorised up to "times twelve". And then the teacher might ask you in class the answer for a table you were supposed to have learned.
First one to learn was "two twos are four, three twos are six... twelve twos are twenty four". (I'm writing out the numbers rather than using numerals because this was specifically a spoken recitation).
Then you learned the three times table "two threes are six, three threes are nine, ... twelve threes are thirty six".
The four times table is a selection of the two times table up to "six fours are twenty four" and then the next member "seven fours" is an easy addition from 24 to 28.
The five times table is obvious.
The six times table is a selection of the three times table up till "six sixes are thirty six".
Say that (emboldened by the obviousness of the five times table) you didn't do your homework and verbally memorise the six times table.
And then the teacher asks you what are "seven sixes". You are acutely aware that this isn't in your verbal memory (as it would have been if you had done your homework as instructed). You add 6 to "six sixes" which I calculate as "use 4 to get up to 40 then the other 2 are the units so 42".
You say "seven sixes are forty two". There was a one second panic while you worked this out instead of just reciting the rote memorised fact.
But it's the right answer.
Tension then resolution - that is why 42 is the answer to the ultimate question.
3rd reply (4th item in the thread) from the man himself:
https://groups.google.com/g/alt.fan.douglas-adams/c/595nPukE...
> The answer to this is very simple. It was a joke. It had to be a number, an ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that one. Binary representations, base thirteen, Tibetan monks are all complete nonsense. I sat at my desk, stared into the garden and thought '42 will do' I typed it out. End of story.
The question was revealed to be "what do you get when you multiply 6 * 9." This is, of course, 42, when you have thirteen fingers. (Mr. Adams denied this, but clearly he was being controlled by the Illuminati.)
Stephen Fry knows. And from what I heard 42 is probably close to meaningless. Or a point that its meaningless is a meaning in itself.
After hitting my 42nd birthday this year, I thought for a while that Douglas Adams had layered the joke with a bit of truth: at 42, a man is more or less confident in his skin, having lived through enough to feel somewhat unflappable; he's probably raised kids, bought a home, got a decent job, and can pretty much choose what he wants to do for the rest of his life. Hence "the answer" - the answer is to be 42.
... Alas, it was just a random number he came up with, without any deeper meaning. I was a bit disappointed, although I'm sure he would have found my serious speculation about it extremely funny.
You sought for meaning where there was none, and you found it. Then you lost it when you realized it was never there to begin with. I'm sure there is a lesson to be had here.
I mean, he wrote the radio play aged 25, so that would have been an odd basis for it.
Though, funnily enough, Adams' child was born when both he and his wife were 42! So you might be on to something.
> bought a home
Maybe in Adams' time. These days it takes an entire lifetime to buy a home.
It seems a year out to me. The original radio series was broadcast in 1978, so 42 is now 43.
--Spoiler alert-- And the answer 42 turned out to be "What do you get if you multiply six by nine" in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
Some comment I read ages ago convinced me that the real Ultimate Question is “pick a number, any number.” The two bits of evidence for this are paraphrased below.
Marvin talking to the mattress: “I’m roughly a billion times smarter than you. For example, pick a number. Any number.” Mattress: “Ummmm…seven?” Marvin: “Wrong. You see?”
Arthur, while aboard the Heart of Gold, says, “I’m disappointed we never figured out that Ultimate Question business.” Eddie the ship’s computer immediately after says, “Pick a number, any number!”
Given the abilities of each of those characters, it’s a plausible theory. It’s also how the author chose the Answer, so at least at a meta level it is true.
Yeah but that was because the program running on Earth was corrupted by the presence of the Golgafrinchans arriving in prehistoric times, thus corrupting the output.
That was a bit of retcon though - I remember Adams saying it was just a random number he saw on a fridge, or something equally inconsequential.
wouldn't six by nine be 54?
Is this one just soaring over my head?
It's not by nine
I like the theory that 42 was chosen because ASCII 42 is *, as in the wildcard character. It matches everything!
> On 3 November 1993, he (Douglas Adams) gave this answer on alt.fan.douglas-adams:
> > The answer to this is very simple. It was a joke. It had to be a number, an ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that one. Binary representations, base thirteen, Tibetan monks are all complete nonsense. I sat at my desk, stared into the garden and thought '42 will do' I typed it out. End of story.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrases_from_The_Hitchhiker's_...?
Damn, took me a moment; I'm so used to seeing 0x41414141 (AAAA) that I didn't notice you were talking in base 10 ;)
I think the point is that it's just a random number.
And here we are trying to associate meaning to a random number like we do to all the other random events/things that happen in life.
Like writing an article after 42 years as if it means something.
HHGTTG series is a perfect book to read if you are learning English as a second language. It's instantly funny, you can go back a few pages and read again.
My book starts with underlined words every few lines. I underlined words I did not know at the time I read it the first time.
Seen a few Ask HNs where people asked that question: `What is the meaning of life?`.
Well one thing I believe is: `The meaning of life is to find meaning in life`
Another quote I live by is, by Bukowski:
“Find what you love and let it kill you” – Charles Bukowski
I mean it makes sense right? Many people just haven't found their passion and go round like headless chickens!
I would have hoped to see the tech take on "42". It's ascii for the widely used wildcard, the asterisk.
But of course we now know it's actually 137 :)
What’s yellow and dangerous?
A couple of interesting 42 links:
42 is the largest answer to the Diophantine puzzle, solved by using a "world computer"
https://phys.org/news/2019-09-sum-cubes-solvedusing-real-lif...
Douglas Adam's 42 puzzle:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrases_from_The_Hitchhiker%27...
“The idea for the title first cropped up while I was lying drunk in a field in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1971. Not particularly drunk, just the sort of drunk you get when you have a couple of stiff Gössers after not having eaten for two days straight, on account of being a penniless hitchhiker. We are talking of a mild inability to stand up.”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
"The book follows Englishman Arthur Dent as he wakes up to find that Earth is about to be demolished to make way for a space highway."
It was a hyperspace bypass. As far as I am aware that is neither "space" nor a "highway". I guess it is a "kind of space" but I just feel that this is a terrible way to describe it by the authors of the article.
However, I could be wrong, I have been multiple times in the past.
"42" being the "Answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, the universe, and everything" was the basis for selecting it as the racing number for this car in Ferrari's XX Racing Programme:
42 ~= 137 / ((pi * e)/phi^2)
(phi = golden ratio)
42 is probably used in so many passwords, in so many lottery number choices, etc.
Right now there's 42 comments on this post about 42.
This is comment 43. I broke it.
I have a pet theory that though Adams believed he picked the number at random, that it probably had some significance to a person of his social background at that particular point in time. That is, in the spirit of the books themselves he drew it unknowingly from his environment.
I think that 42 rang for him due it’s association with WW2. The type of (particularly British) humour he deploys in his writing is the sort that makes fun of unspoken awkward thoughts and experiences. I reckon it might have been a subtly taboo number due its association with the horrors of WW2 and Adams being of the first adult generation to not experienced the horrors the time might have been right to “make light of” this number.
TL;DR The number 42 maybe did have a significance beyond what he was himself consciously aware of; he describes the process of such exigesis in his books, perhaps also subconsciously!
The ASCII code 42 is for the asterisk symbol, and we all know the /*/ regex matches EVERYTHING.
I am sorry I ruined it for you.
42
Why is the answer to "the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything" the number 42? An interesting Christian twist might be ...
* GIVEN ...
* the number of (hu)mankind, 3x for emphasis in some contexts where
humans want to stand completely alone, is "666"
* the atom for human is "6"
* the number most often associated with divinity in the bible is "7"
* THEN ...
* the product of interaction of the divine with humanity is 7 * 6 = 42
(of course this firmly puts humanity at the apex of earthly, and perhaps
universal, entities, and many would object)