The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Bypasses are devices that allow some people to dash from Point A to Point B very fast while other people dash from Point B to Point A very fast. People living at Point C, being a point directly in between, are often given to wonder what’s so great about Point A that so many people from Point B are so keen to get there, and what’s so great about Point B that so many people from Point A are so keen to get there. They often wish that people would just once and for all work out where the hell they wanted to be.”

An example of Adams’s satirical humor, this passage pokes fun at the frantic pace and restlessness of modern life. Everyone rushes around constantly, wanting (or needing) to get from one place to another as quickly as possible, with nobody ever fully at ease with where they are. In addition, the passage implicitly critiques the demands of a society obsessed with capitalist consumption and the work necessary to afford the material goods one thinks one needs.

“’Drink up,’ said Ford, ‘you’ve got three pints to get through.’

‘Three pints? said Arthur. ‘At lunchtime?’

The man sitting next to Ford grinned and nodded happily. Ford ignored him. He said, ‘Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.’”

This passage makes a humorous aside of the important metaphysical and astrophysical conundrums of the age. The idea that time itself may not be as concretely real as humans experience it is fundamental to an understanding of Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity, or quantum physics. The idea that lunchtime is even more elusive adds to the irreverent humor of the passage.

“The contents of Ford Prefect’s satchel were quite interesting [. . .] Besides the Sub-Etha Sens-O-Matic and the scripts he had an Electronic Thumb—a short black rod, smooth and matt with a couple of flat switches and dials at one end; he also had a device that looked rather like a largish electronic calculator. [. . .] Beneath that in Ford Prefect’s satchel were a few ballpoints, a notepad and a largish bath towel from Marks and Spencer.”

Ford is equipped with all of the items crucial to his work not only as an intrepid researcher for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy but also to his travels as a hitchhiker. Adams’s inventions here presage an age wherein GPS technology, cell phones, and e-books have become a part of the modern landscape. His nomenclature, in contrast, is derived directly from the names and marketing material of products from the post-World War II period.