Douglas Adams

Slartibartfast: “Perhaps I’m old and tired, but I think that the chances of finding out what’s actually going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say, ‘Hang the sense of it,’ and keep yourself busy. I’d much rather be happy than right any day.”
Arthur: “And are you?”
Slartibartfast: “Ah, no. (laughs) Well, that’s where it all falls down, of course.”

This weekend, my family again watched Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It got me to thinking just how much Doug Adams’ books made an impression on me.

A little history

Douglas Adams: 1952-2001

Personally, I don’t remember which came first: the Infocom game or the book. My memories are fuzzy. The book came first, of course, but I can’t remember when that entered my world. All I know is that I fell in love.

There was something about the premise; the ordinary nature of the protagonist. Anyone could be Arthur Dent, especially if they imagined themselves as forgettable.

What’s more, as a child embedded in a thick stew of fundamentalist Christianity, Adams was probably my first introduction (in a literary sense) to the idea of a universe where my soul was not the center of things. The protagonist Arthur Dent had a conception of himself that resonated with me.

Earth was destroyed (spoiler alert) and Arthur was caught up in aimless wandering among the stars. He was surrounded by aliens completely at home in their circumstances. He saw sights that were both beautiful and horrifying. Death was faced on a regular basis. Drifting further away from faith, I drew comfort in the idea that I was not alone in facing oblivion.

His blip-like existence was also mine.

What I learned from Adams: Life is a journey, often at breakneck pace, and toward uncertain ends. Every now and then, in between alternating hubris and soul-crushing fear of death, it’s good to glimpse the beauty around us and marvel that we get to be.

Final thoughts

Douglas Adams died on May 11, 2001. Coincidentally, May 11th is my birthday. He was the first author that I cared for that died during my lifetime. Not a day goes by that I don’t have an offhand observation inspired by his writing.

The most long-lasting of his quotes is this:

The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas-covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be. (Douglas Adams)

If you’d like to appreciate him further, read the transcript from the euology. Also, here’s a lost seminar that he gave that I previously blogged about. To do him a far greater justice, read just one of his books and appreciate his good humor and perspective.