20250620 Friday

Book log: Mostly Harmless (1992)

This is the fifth book of Douglas Adams' so-called Hitchhiker's 
Trilogy, and it was released eight years after the previous entry. 
The relatively long time that passed between the two last books is 
apparent in a couple of places. First of all, the tone is more 
serious and the themes are existential -- identity/belonging, 
survival/destiny, family/parenthood, and so on. The series even seems
to get a definitive and fateful ending on the book's final page. In 
addition, the quasi scientific underpinnings of the series are 
elaborated to include multidimensionality as an explanation for 
space/time travel and parallel universes. Not a lot actually happens 
in the book's 277 pages, though. Our heroes have been separated in 
time and space again. Arthur Dent tries to find a substitute planet 
Earth and becomes a sandwich chef amongst a primitive people. Ford 
Prefect escapes danger and sets up a way to scam the new publishers 
of the Hitchhiker's Guide. Trillian drops her daughter off on Arthur 
Dent's new home planet and leaves them both. A parallel universe 
Trillian/Tricia regrets not taking off into space with Zaphod a few 
years earlier. And then all of them are reunited again. In-between 
all the not-so-much-going-on are pages of diversions, word play and 
Adams' signature humour. I do enjoy most of it, but again am left to 
wonder how these books would have been if plot and direction were 
slightly more of a priority in the writing. 

On the other hand, jokes and serious themes are usually two sides of 
the coin. There's a short, seemingly throw-away, joke about insurance
company executives which resonates particularly heavily in 2024/2025:

"You know they've reintroduced the death penalty for insurance 
company directors?"
   "Really?" said Arthur. "No, I didn't. For what offense?"
   Trillian Frowned.
   "What do you mean, offense?"
   "I see."