So long and thanks for all the fish!
Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the
Galaxy is not only a gut-busting read but a hilarious radio show, and a
pretty good movie. Taking the mundane and tropes of the sci-fi genre, and
turning them upside down and into an interesting adventure for the ever so
stubborn and very British, Arthur Dent. I haven’t listened to the radio show
before and really quite enjoyed it. It was the book coming to life and felt
like you were there with the characters following along on this strange
adventure. The odd random situations from the bureaucratic Vogons that are
basically alien politicians, to the waiting in the queue to just save a friend.
It’s also hilarious how Arthur has a more practical reaction to how some humans
would react to the Earth blowing up, being thrown into space, and aliens and
new cultures. He is confused, in a panic, and not having any of it. He has that constant ‘I’m not going to be
part of this’ and yet keeps following Ford. That he does have that drive of curiosity
that his is stubborn to follow because experiencing something new is altogether
very scary. I feel Adams really just wanted to show that just going out and
doing something new no matter how scary is important to living that it builds
your character and makes you a better person.
Now to the future of sci-fi, I’m not
entirely sure where it’s headed. I think with such a rich background we’ll see
more twists on the old. But less about just high adventure, I think were at a
time were a story of being human is more interesting than battling it out with
an alien race. But that is also something I see coming up again with peoples
fear of illegal immigrants. There is also, the idea of having to leave Earth,
because it is dying. A lot of our future in sci-fi is looking at the future of
the actions we are taking and not taking. So I guess the future of sci-fi is as
it has always been, the prediction of the changes of our culture through the
fascination and fear of new technology.
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