The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Revisited: Motifs of Science Fiction and Social Criticism

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This book is a survey of typical Science Fiction elements in Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Christian Erkenbrecher first goes through a short history of Science Fiction and identifies certain motifs of the genre in order to correctly place the novel within a useful context. Classical elements of the Science Fiction canon are identified in the novel and scrutinized. It becomes clear that Douglas Adams was fully aware of the SF burden and we can see how its elements are used in order to create both humour and criticism. The question of whether social criticism can be applied purposefully in SF will be asked. Other big questions which are posed (and answered?) in Hitchhikers are also taken into consideration: Is there a god? Will the breakdown of communication barriers between races put an end to all wars? Can the advancement of technology prevent us from destroying ourselves? Follow the author on his way through Douglas Adams’s wholly remarkable book and see how this exceptional hitchhiking playwright and atheist writer enriched the world with his unique prose.