Subtext
Every dramatic book is comprised of two elements;
- the underlying human drama and
- the setting which provides the context for the drama.
The background setting in the HHGTTG is futuristic and alien, but the dramatic theme is more familiar…
Institutions versus life
A theme that is often repeated in the HHGTTG is where institutional bureaucracy gains a stranglehold on the lives of ordinary people.
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- At the start of the series, we find Arthur’s house being demolished by the local council to make way for a bypass.
| It hadn’t properly registered with Arthur that the council wanted to knock down his house and build a bypass instead. |
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- The world is then demolished by the Vogons, also to make way for a bypass.
| “This is Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council,” the voice continued. “As you will no doubt be aware, the plans for development of the outlying regions of the Galaxy require the building of a hyperspatial express route through your star system, and regrettably your planet is one of those scheduled for demolition. The process will take slightly less that two of your Earth minutes. Thank you.” |
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- The HHGTTG, which started off as a fun venture, is taken over by bureaucrats.
| First beginning to work for the Guide.
Ah! Those were the days. They worked out of a hut on the Bwenelli Atoll on Fanalla… Half a dozen guys, some towels, a handful of highly sophisticated digital devices, and most importantly a lot of dreams… He couldn’t quite remember what the dreams were in fact, but they had seemed immensely important at the time. They had certainly not involved this huge towering office block he was now falling down the side of. All of that had come when some of the original team had started to settle down and get greedy, while he and others had stayed out in the field, researching and hitch hiking, and gradually becoming more and more isolated from the corporate nightmare the Guide had inexorably turned into… |
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- Subsequently, the HHGTTG is taken over by the Vogons.
| He had a nagging suspicion that this was not a business meeting, though. He also had a nagging feeling that these slug-like creatures were familiar to him in some way. Familiar, but in an unfamiliar guise…
Panic, the Guide Mk II said. Ford begin to do as he was told. He had just remembered why the slug-like creatures looked familiar. Their colour scheme was a kind of corporate grey, but in all other respects they looked exactly like Vogons. |
Despite his whimsical style, Douglas Adams is making a serious point about the ability of institutions and organisations to take on a life of their own and obliterate everything they perceive to be in their way.
What is it about being part of an institution or corporation that makes people act in such a mindless manner?