Author: He Early
A Guide to the Galaxy is a five-part set of science fiction novels written by British writer Douglas Adams, first appearing in 1978 as a radio drama. This set of fanciful novels is often called the "science fiction bible" in British and American cultures, and as early as the 70s and 80s, it predicted future elements such as supercomputers and e-books, which had a great impact on the Internet world we know today. For example, the predecessor of IBM's famous "Deep Blue" computer, "Deep Thought", was taken from elements in the novel. The concept of the novel, the direction of the story, and the British humor are all nonsensical and unbelievable. The novel's most famous phrase, "Don't Panic," has become an important label in popular culture.
Let's relax and fall into the author's bottomless brain hole together.
Volume 1: Aboard an almost impossible spaceship
At the beginning of the story, the Earth is blown up.
The male protagonist, Arthur Dunther, an ordinary middle-aged man, is rescued by his good friend Ford Grand Master at the last moment on a spaceship. It turns out that Ford is an alien who came to Earth to investigate in order to patch the book "The Guide to Hitchhikers in the Galaxy" (hereinafter referred to as "Guide"). The Guide is the best-selling encyclopedia published by the constellation Ursa Minor, containing everything there is to know about the Milky Way. On his subsequent journey, Arthur was disappointed to discover that there were only four words in the book's chapters on Earth: essentially harmless.
At the moment of Earth's destruction, the hitchhiker (or rather, the boat) they hitched belonged to the Vogons, an ugly alien with a simple mind and a strong will. It was they who blew up the earth that stood in the way in order to build a hyperspace tunnel.
Meanwhile, Galactic President Zamford Bibbbrooks is presiding over the launch of the high-tech spaceship Heart of Gold. The president, he must be a very remarkable person. However, the galactic president in the novel completely subverts cognition, which is a position without real power. Zamford's sole purpose as president is to steal the Heart of Gold. He did—he escaped in the spaceship after giving a speech. The rest of the passengers included Trisika Macmillan (now known as Trinity), a girl he had picked up from Earth many years ago, and Marvin, a robot who had all his knowledge but always sighed. In fact, Arthur and Trinity are the last two humans left on Earth.
[All passengers on the Heart of Gold.] Yes, Dent was played by dent in the movie "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and became the famous Watson... Martin Freeman is really born to play this kind of cute man.
Back on the side of the Vogons, since the creature hated hitchhikers so much, their commanders did not hesitate to refuse to board, throwing Arthur and Ford into space. The Guide states that if you take a deep breath, you can survive in the universe for 30 seconds. The chance of being rescued by another ship within 30 seconds is slim, but a miracle happens, and it is the Heart of Gold that was stolen by Zamford before.
The spaceship's cutting-edge technology is called "infinite non-probability driven", which means that its pattern is the reciprocal of the actual probability, so it can make any event with an infinite probability close to 0 occur with a probability of 1. It's too complicated, which means that as long as you hold down the "non-probability" button, the more unlikely things will happen. thereupon! It did the most unlikely thing about saving Arthur and Ford.
[Non-probability will make anything happen, such as becoming a yarn]
The group of five embarks on a space rafting trip to Manglas, whom Zamford is looking for. Mangglas is a legendary and wealthy planet that used to do the business of customizing planets for cosmic customers - you see, after a lot of money, any creature can get tired of their homeland and life, so Manglas's business is very hot. However, because custom planets are so expensive, soon no one can afford to pay the high fees. The people there fell into chronic depression, and no one has heard of them since.
Most people, including Ford, believe that Mangglas is just a legend, but they really land on this barren planet. While exploring separately, Arthur encounters an old man named Slatti Batfast (the name is too long, hereinafter referred to as the old man). The old man took him to visit the planet-making laboratory and explained: (Please hold your breath and read the next sentence) In fact, we are not dead, just asleep waiting for the economic recovery to wake up, and the earth is actually our work, which rats have entrusted us to do in order to run a program... Arthur was, of course, confused at this moment.
It turns out that rats are superintelligent creatures who have been pondering for years what the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything is, and have built a supercomputer "deep thinking" for this purpose. After 7.5 million years of calculation, deep reflection finally began: "The ultimate answer to life, the universe and everything is... 42”。 The whole rat world was even more confused than Arthur at this moment: What does 42 mean? What question can be answered with 42? Deep Thinking means that it is only responsible for providing answers, and it needs a more intelligent computer to calculate the corresponding problem. So the rats built... earth.
Yes, the Earth is the mouse's computer. Unfortunately, five minutes before the answer was calculated, the Vogons blew up the Earth for the sake of the Hyperspace Tunnel. The two rats that Trinity took with him to the ship believe that the only information left about Earth is in the mind of Arthur, who finally left the earth, so the problem must be in his mind.
Part Ii: In the restaurant at the end of the universe
Why is the ultimate answer to 42, does the question matter? Maybe it doesn't matter to us humans at all, after all, as long as we can eat, sleep, laugh and cry, it is very good, but in the novel, human beings have basically perished? Therefore, when the reader reads this novel, it is best to forget that he is a human being.
The above is a friendly reminder, and we continue. The second part, "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe," as the name suggests, tells the story of these five unlucky eggs who go to the restaurant built at the end of the universe to eat. As soon as they left Manglas, they were attacked by the Vogons, and in a hurry, Zamford summoned the help of his grandfather's soul. Grandpa reminds Zamford not to forget his true purpose of finding the ruler of the universe and throws him and Marvin out of the building of guides in the constellation Ursa Minor (the other three remain in the Heart of Gold, which is in sleep mode). In the building they were attacked again, and the whole building was pulled up out of thin air. Those were the Frogmen who came to capture Zamford and brought the whole building to the second planet of the Frog Star System.
Zamford, who escaped the clutches of the Frogman, reunites with his friends in the Heart of Gold. They ordered the computer to set the destination to the nearest restaurant, but the spaceship took them to the restaurant at the end of the universe. The restaurant is built on the ruins of the frog star of the future and is wrapped up in a "relative time static field". Wealthy people can enjoy food while watching the scene of the end of the world, without being disturbed by external time. It turned out that the spaceship had crossed time and taken them to the nearest restaurant in the "geographic" distance, 576 billion years later.
Restaurant at the End of the Universe by TIMOTHEE
Full of wine and food, the crowd met Marvin in the parking lot, which remembered that they had forgotten it before, and the little robot had been waiting in the same place for five hundred seven hundred and sixty billion years... Zamford saw a novel black spaceship with a big heart, but after setting off, he found that its setting was to hit the sun and could not be changed. So the crowd decided to leave Marvin to operate the emergency teleportation device and rescue the others. Oh my God, robots don't have human rights! No wonder it's depressed. Before leaving, Marvin told Arthur that he could see from the waveforms of his brain that the explanation for 42 was in his head.
On the one hand, Zamford and Trilian return to the Heart of Gold to continue their search for the ruler of the universe, only to find that it is a skeptic living in a dilapidated hut. The rulers of the universe question the reality of God, all things, and even the universe outside the hut. Ford and Arthur, on the other hand, were thrown into the spaceship of the Golga Frinchams (the name is too long, hereinafter referred to as the High Starmen). It's an extremely stupid and stubborn alien — perhaps even dumber and stubborn than the Wagons — who are fleeing to another planet due to an existential crisis.
Arthur and Ford explore new worlds along the coastline after landing, only to be surprised to find that this is clearly a prehistoric Earth. Remembering his ruined fate and the results that had not been calculated, Ford advised Arthur to close his eyes and grab the stone with the letters engraved on it, leaving the subconscious mind to look for the problem that had come up with 42. Arthur did so, but spelled out a sentence: "How much does 6 times 9 equal?" Looking at the high-star people who were wreaking havoc, the two finally realized that in fact, the ancestors of human beings were not these friendly but uncivilized primitive people in front of them, but this group of alien fools who fell from the sky. All this shows that natural evolution has long since been interrupted, that the earth's parameters have been wrong from this moment on, and that the problem can never be figured out.
Part III: The Story of the Star Seeker
It was in this repressive tone that Arthur and Ford lived in frustration on prehistoric Earth for five years before finally seizing a vortex of time and being teleported to rhodes Cricket Ground.
[Yes, this is the sport of cricket]
Cricket is roughly similar to baseball, except that pitchers and baserunners score points by hitting a three-posted three-post gate and causing a wooden block on the goalpost to fall. The book says that the symbol of the Milky Way is the three-pillar gate, and the Earthlings are the only race that uses cricket as a fitness activity.
Arthur was surprised and delighted to see his familiar hometown, the ball game, and the hot tea, only to discover that it was two days before Earth's Day of Destruction. Even more frightening, a small team of white robots suddenly appeared and attacked the crowd in the stadium, stealing the trophy of the ball game. The old man with the long name reunites with the two at this time, rescues them on his spaceship and asks for help.
On the way, the old man explains that he is trying to save the universe. It turns out that a long time ago there was an idyllic planet called Ban Qiu Xing (the harmonic sound of cricket). The people there never thought about the existence of an alien world and lived a peaceful life in paradise. Unexpectedly, one day, a spaceship suddenly crashed on the planet, which made them extremely frightened and enchanted. A year later, the Ben seeker learned to build his own ship from the ruins, realized the repulsive world outside, and decided to destroy it. The orbman launched a war against the entire universe, and the result was, of course, defeat. After the defeat, the judge ruled with a punishment that had the best of both worlds: the slow-time envelope would envelop the entire version of the star, and when the universe ended, it would automatically unseal, allowing them to fulfill their wish to live alone in the end of the world. And the key to open the cover is the symbol of the universe: the three-pillar door.
But one ship is not blocked by the slow time cover, and this small group of robots is struggling to find the three pillars and two horizontal logs that make up the key, and the trophy at the Rhodes Cricket Ground is one of the elements. In order to prevent the restoration of the version, Arthur and his party go to a party to find the fourth element, and meet a key figure, Agraagag. This is a very unlucky guy, reincarnated several times in his life, but each time he was brutally killed by Arthur in different situations.
In the process of complaining, he mentions that in the place of "Stavromura beta", someone tried to kill Arthur but unfortunately killed him, but Arthur said that he had not been there. So Agragag broke down and said, "I brought you too early!" This manslaughter episode will appear in the fifth installment. Until then, Arthur will remember in times of crisis that he will not die until he escapes the scourge of Stavromura beta. In any case, the unlucky egg Agragag wanted to die with Arthur, but was once again killed by Arthur.
Unfortunately, Arthur and his party were unable to stop the Star Seekers from stealing the last element, and instead tried to negotiate. To their surprise, these people did not seem to want to continue fighting. Trin believes that the Star Seekers must have been brainwashed by something—after all, they can't be smart enough to create weapons that destroy the entire universe, and at the same time stupid enough not to understand that it will also destroy themselves. (Of course, the clever reader can see that this is nothing more than the author's satire of real-life human civilization — such as the atomic bomb.)
The fourth part, "Goodbye, Thank You All the Fish", is mainly the story of Arthur's classmates falling in love. Arthur finally returns to normal Earth after a long hitchhiking career, only to find it intact, even though he once watched it being blown to pieces by the Vogons. Even stranger, all the dolphins were gone. He then receives a bowl and falls in love with a girl named Fanny, please let me go through this part in one stroke. Oh yes, one thing cannot be taken: they have attained the great harmony of life over London.
Part 5: Parallel Universe
The name of the fifth part, "Essentially Harmless," is Ford's description of Earth in the Guide. Arthur had a girlfriend and began to show her affection everywhere, only to disappear after a time-lapse jump. Then he tragically wrecked with a backward planet, so he decided to stay there and be the best sandwich chef. Meanwhile, Ford returns to Guide headquarters, only to find that it has been controlled by the Vogons. Frightened, Ford ran away and took with him a copy of the second edition of the Guide. Unlike the big, friendly word "don't panic" on the cover of Guide II, there is only one word on Guide II: "Panic"!
Arthur, the great baker who lost his girlfriend, accidentally meets Trinity, and her daughter Random (meaning Random). Trin said she wanted a child, so she used the only remaining human DNA, Arthur's, so it was the child of both of them. Oh my God, isn't this artificial insemination really illegal? Trinity throws Langdon to Arthur to pursue her dreams, not only to have Langdon's little sister be a troublemaker—not only dismantling Ford's Guide TWO that Arthur had sent, but also—with the help of Guide Two—stealing Ford's spaceship and fleeing to Earth.
Here's another character: Trisika Macmillan, an ordinary Earth journalist who lives in a parallel universe and doesn't follow Zamford. She encounters a group of aliens from the solar system's newly discovered new planet, the Gribrons. They begged her for help in adding their planet to the solar system's star map, and in return they were willing to give her an interview. Trisika finds that they are beginning to tire of the mission and have a tendency to destroy The Earth. Before she could digest these things, she heard that a spacecraft had landed in the center of London, so she hurried over (after all, the reporter).
[This should be a tribute to the same plot in Doctor Who]
Coincidentally, Langdon ran out of the spaceship and called his mother when he saw Trisika. Arthur, Ford, and Trin followed, and the four tried to calm Langdon and take her into a bar. Langdon, unable to distinguish where he belonged and who his mother was, broke down again and raised his stolen gun at Arthur. Arthur still believed that he had never been to the planet Stavromurabeta and would not die now, so he bravely appeased Langdon. Langdon was suddenly startled and pulled the trigger, Arthur fell to the ground to dodge, and a man on the stairs was hit.
Remember the Agragag who was constantly being killed in the third book? Finally, the incident he recounts happens: in "Stavromura Beta", someone tries to kill Arthur but unfortunately kills him. At this point Arthur finally realized that he had misunderstood. Stavro Murabeta is not a planet, but the name of a bar on Earth. There is nothing that can be done now, and there will be none in the future. He suddenly laughed with relief.
Meanwhile, the Greblons finally decided to destroy The Earth. It turned out that the Worguns had designed Guide II to anticipate the outcome of every action, so they were finally able to ensure that the infinitely diverse possibilities of the Earth in every parallel world were destroyed.
The Earth was finally gone, and the Vogons were satisfied.
It's hard to explain clearly what the Guide to The Galaxy's Journey says. Is it really the world that comes to an end, or is it just this or so-called space-time where Arthur exists? Perhaps the true universe is like a cycle of reincarnated Agragag. So, don't think about the "ultimate problem", the universe is inexhaustible, and the real "end" is when people's lives are over.