There seems a tangent of bitterness and self-refrential commentry in the third title of Adam’s now infamous (mislabeled) trilogy of Arthur Dent’s adventures in a galaxy far, far away.
Not intending to embark on a mission to boldly go where no man has gone before, of course but a different kind of mission; one where he embarks to get cosy with Trillian, have a cup of tea and be home for an afternoon of some engrossing, fast paced 5 days of a cricket test.
Which cleverly leads into the subject of third book, which is the planet Krikkit and the homicidal and maniacal ambition of the inhabitants of said planet to pretty much destroy everything that exists around them, beause frankly it doesn’t match up to their decor. Or something to that effect.
Of course in order to achieve such a task, they have much ahead of them which needs to be done including the finding of several objects that will create a catastrophe which will be so powerful it will pretty much turn the universe into the equivalent of tea leaves floating in space.
That is the main plot of the book. The early part of the title takes up with five years having passed since Dent and Prefect made some profound discoveries about the land they now lived on, and eventually decide to part ways to find their own path, as it were. Arthur’s idea of his path seems to be dwelling in a cave and talking to himself, something you could argue most Londoner’s do on a regular basis.
I wondered if Adams was in a dark place, or whether his intention was to purposely strike a darker tone in the life of Arthur Dent
You could argue that their escape from captivity is almost convenient in it’s circumstance, and really felt a bit too easy to get out of. On the other hand, if you understand Adam’s writing, it’s more about getting somewhere and not really wondering about how they go there. Details be damned, and let fun reign supreme.
It certainly adds something to his work that many writers today feel so inclined to purposely fatten out their book with monotonus, repetitious minute details of character movement. Adam’s writing is simple, fun and it’s effective at pushing all the right buttons to get all the right emotions out of the reader: a smile, a laugh, or a big cheesy grin.
The third book does have a certain feel for it that the previous two don’t. Where as the previous titles seemed almost juvenile in their content, and almost random at some points, Life, The Universe and Everything takes a much more structured, and focused attitude. It’s content is far more coherent, and less fickle with Adam’s possibly negating a short attention span for some consistent content?
Although intiailly I disliked the second seperation and reuniting of the protagonists, with Arthur Dent having mysteriously appeared before a figure to whom he has unexpectedly killed repeatedly through its several lifetimes and reincarnations and is now rather bitter, upon further reading it is perhaps some of the most enjoyable moments in the book; almost child or dreamlike in their sequence, you could almost imagine Adam’s had watched Disney’s flawed interpretation of Peter Pan and thought, “I bet Arthur could do that” and so Arthur did do that.
Dent having mysteriously appeared before a figure to whom he has unexpectedly killed repeatedly through its several lifetimes and reincarnations and is now rather bitter
A brilliant comedic dichotomy of whether to remain airborne or pick up a suitcase which was lost in Greece many years ago, and contained items that he considered invaluable, especially a bottle which is perhaps the only remaining bottle of its kind, is just brilliance. With any other author, we may have got some sort of action packed fiasco, or some moralistic judgement on the part of Dent.
What we get with Adams is his ability to make his character real; to add the flaw of curiosity that we all have, of inquistiveness and the desire for things we don’t particularly need or want, but just think we need or want. It takes a certain kind of writer to create someone that everyone can identify with, if not all the time, some of the time with such simple human character traits that the most will accept they have, since we act out such foolishness on a regular basis.
Still, early in the book there is a dark bitterness to the proceedings, and I wondered if Adams was in a dark place, or whether his intention was to purposely strike a darker tone in the life of Arthur Dent. For all his escapades, that was always an element of pure jovial humour, but with the first few chapters of Life, The Universe and Everything there is a definite air of unhappiness and malice about things.
a catastrophe which will be so powerful it will pretty much turn the universe into the equivalent of tea leaves floating in space
This is particularly apparent when Dent is faced with his demon in a one on one confrontation, which although pretty funny, is also very cold at times. It’s welcome, but it does seem out of place at times. The remainder of the book, however, remains faithful to the tried and tested formula of creating the Mr Bean of the Universe before Mr Bean ever existed. If it can balls up around Arthur Dent, then it bloody well will.
It’s a very delicious book, and perhaps, for me at least, the strongest written of the three books so far in the series up to now. Even with the second book, coherence and some semblence of reason was developing from the muddled recesses of the first title, but it seemed not to strike quite the right balance.
The third book is still adolescent, and childish for the most part, but it really brings out the imagination of a child with the writing skills of an adult, and the satire the comes with maturity in a nicely collected set of pages that will make you grin from start to end.
Verdict: So far the best, and it just keeps getting better. Funny, at times vindictive and malicious, but always fun.