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Warped
audacity
Life, the Universe, & Everything
By Douglas Adams
Pocket Books
22 pp., $3.50
By Bob King
W HAT KIND OF WARPED writer
would have the audacity to title a
book Life, the Universe, & Everything;
and more importantly, could he be held
libel for false advertising? As for the
writer, if he sounds to you like someone
who might film five minutes of
vomiting along with a hyper-disgusting
liver removal, add a few scenes, and
then package the whole ordeal under
the title of The Meaning of Life, you're
almost right.
Though Adams didn't dirty his hands
in Python's recent tribute to ill-taste, he
was a writer for the Python troupe
before turning to novels in the late '70s.
And yes, the title is probably overly op-
timistic.
What Life, the Universe &
Everything does deal with are most of
the dilemmas created in the first two
books of this trilogy (The Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy and The
Restaurant at the End of the Universe),
such as the impending destruction of
the universe at the hands of small
robots from the planet Krikkit (after
which, in a ghastly bit of irreverence,
the English have named their ball-
game), the past destruction of the Ear-
th, a terminally depressed hyper-
intelligent robot named Marvin, and an
intricately imbalanced alien by the
name of Zaphod Beeblebrox (the
president of the universe), who has
more heads than most people have
noses.
The hero of Adam's trilogy is a little
kneebiter from England, who when he's
lucky is called Arthur Dent. His mentor
- and also the person who removed
him from Earth in the nick of time
(regrettably) - is a sarcastic in-
dividual from some planet that you
don't learn about until third semester
astronomy.
And what happens to a wayward
human in this universe of Douglas
Adams, a universe in which warps in
time probably coincide with those in the
author's cortex? Well, he goes in-
teresting places: Dent begins the book
on a vacant planet whose future
population will be descendants of a
shipload of accountants, bureaucrats,
and salesmen who were shipped off of
their own planet (for obvious reasons).
He meets interesting people: Dent
experiences Wowbagger, the tall grey-
green alien whose immortality was
driving him mad until he acquired a
pastime, which consists of insulting
every intelligent form of life in the
universe - individually, and in alphab-
etical order.
And he kills people: Dent finally
meets Agrajag, a pathetic soul who in
each of its countless incarnations in this
universe has been killed by Arthur
Dent, accidentally. While trying to
escape from Agrajag's desperate at-
tempt at revenge, Dent fatally crushes
his trachea. Dent was a happier in-
dividual before the Earth was
destroyed.
But coming back to the impending
doom of the universe. Why would a
society decide to try and destroy the en-
tire universe? You shouldn't be infor-
med, but this seems so philosophically
meaningful that there might be some
type of moral obligation involved.
Krikkit's was a dark solar system. It
was surrounded entirely by a cloud of
inter-stellar dust. When the sun set, the
people of Krikkit were in complete
darkness. From Krikkit's perspective,
the universe was a very simple place.
One day, Krikkit sent up a spaceship,
and as it passed through the dust its
people suddenly were aware of the im-
mensity of the surrounding universe.
And they had an immediate and
unanimous reaction - "It has to go."
Now you see what Dent is dealing with.
For all of his bizarre humor, though,
Adams also demonstrates a deeper
level of human understanding (intellec-
tual phrase), one that keeps his novels
above the level of cheap comedy. And
though this combination should be
especially palatable for fans of Von-
negut, Life, the Universe, and
Everything is a good purchase for
anyone looking for Pythonesque fun
reading.
Join the
Daily
Arts Staff
Ann Arbor Civic Theatre presents
THE
PHILADELPHIA STORY
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THE CONCEPT OF ENDURANCE,
THE FACES OF INTEGRITY
Rolex Datejust, self-winding chronometer,
stainless steel and 14kt. gold Oyster case,
Jubilee bracelet. Rolex Lady-Date, self-winding
with stainless steel and 14kt. gold Oyster
case, Jubilee bracelet. Both models
auaranteed oressure-oroof down to 165 feet.
Box Office Opens Daily of 12 Noon
November 2-51983
curtain 8pm Sat. 2 pm
Michigan Theater
tickets 668-8480
STUDENT SPECIAL DISCOUNT $1.00 ON ALL TICKETS
12 Weekend/November 4, 1983