The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Summary

BOOK TITLE – “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy”

By Douglas Adams

About the book
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is the first novel of a trilogy of 5 books by Doulas Adams. It quickly became a bestseller and sold more than 15 million copies. This short science-fiction novel (around 280 pages) was based on a radio series which was also made by Doulas. A TV show based on the trilogy was filmed. In 2005, a movie of the same name based on this novel was released, but the author of the series never lived to see the moved as he died in a heart attack in the may 11th of 2001.
Short Summary
One day, Arthur Dent, the main character, woke up and saw bulldozers outside of his house. He realized that his house was scheduled to be destructed to make way for a highway bypass. He quickly ran outside of his house to protest against the demolition by lying in front of the vehicles. A few hours later, his friend, Ford Perfect, arrives and tries to convince him to go with him to a bar. Arthur follows and they went to a bar while the demolishers destroy his house after he’s gone. Ford tells him that he’s actually an alien from a planet near Betelgeuse stuck on Earth for 15 years. He said that he senses that Earth is about to be demolished by the Vogons, another species of alien, to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Minutes later, large alien spaceships arrive on Earth and announce the fate of their planet. Fortunately, Ford knew how to hitch a ride from Vogon ships and our 2 main characters embark on the spaceship just in time (even if it’s against the law), seconds before Earth is annihilated.
When the Vogons discovered 2the two hitchhikers aboard, they immediately ejected the duo out the spaceship. In space, they are luckily picked up by the Heart of Gold, a spaceship powered by the infinite improbability drive (a space drive which manipulates the laws of probablity), and was been stolen by Ford's semi-cousin and President of the Galaxy, Zaphod Beeblebrox. Zaphod, Trillian and Marvin, a depressed robot, are searching for the legendary planet of Magrathea, which had built luxury planets for the rich before the economic collapse. Ford is initially skeptical, but they find Magrathea a while later.
On Magrathea, Arthur finds out the truth behind the existence and destruction of Earth. Our planet is actually a supercomputer commissioned and paid for by a race of hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings. These creatures had earlier built a supercomputer named Deep Thought, to calculate the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. But after seven and a half million years of calculating, it had announced that the Answer is in fact 42, but the question itself is forgotten. Being unsatisfied with the Answer, they set about finding the forgotten Question, but Deep Thought says he’s not powerful enough to calculate and he designs an even more powerful computer, the Earth, to calculate the Question. Calculating the Question takes ten million years. However, just five minutes before the completion of the research program, the Earth is demolished by the Vogons.
The Ending
Unfortunately, the police found Zaphod and want to arrest him for theft of the Heart of Gold. Our heroes had to escape and go back to their ship. Back in space, they decided to have lunch at The Restaurant at the End of The Universe. From here on, the story continues in the next novel: “The Restaurant at the End of The Universe”, but I have yet to read it.
The Characters
The main characters are Arthur Dent, the sole human survivor from the destruction of Earth. He was born in England.
Ford Perfect is Arthur’s friend since 10 years. He is a human-like alien from the star system of Betelgeuse. He was doing a research on Earth but he was accidently stuck on Earth for 10 years.
Zaphod Beeblebrox is the President of the Galaxy, but he lost his job when he stole the top secret government ship, the Heart of Gold.
The Setting
The story happens in the present, but the technology used by the aliens is far more advanced than ours.
My report
I liked the book, because I like science-fiction novels and space. The vocabulary is very rich, but I think it’s too complicated for the new readers. The story is quite hard to understand, but most people should manage to understand it. Fortunately, I fully understand the book. However, I think the novel is a little long (250 pages).
I would recommend this book to my friends only if they are good in English and like science-fiction books.

There is already a second book in this trilogy, “the Restaurant at the End of The Universe”. There are even 5 more books.

The Teen GPS tracker law

Today, most car accidents are caused by reckless young adults or teens. Politicians have decided to step in and introduced a law where teens have to wear a tracker GPS while driving anyone speeding or driving dangerously will be caught.
On the bright side, this law will reduce the danger on the road, because drivers will pay more attention when driving if they know that the police are watching them.
On the other side, I think it is unfair to make this proposed law pass, because it’s violating the privacy and the freedom of today’s teenagers. Teens have the same right as every other human and they deserved to be treated with respect. No one likes to be monitored and be tracked; I don’t think anyone would agree to have the police track their every movement.
I think this problem have to be solved elsewhere, like not giving the driver’s license to reckless people or people with police records. Forcing people to wear a GPS can do no good, because the drivers can just modify the GPS to report false data or simply not to wear them when they know they’ll drive fast. The criminals will always find a way to bypass this law and we will only hurt the innocents. Most of all, most teens drive responsibly, only a tiny number of young drivers are reckless. So by passing this law, we punish teens even if they did nothing wrong.
In other words, this law is a bad idea and by making this a law, we hurt the innocent people and not the criminals.

Theme in common in Anthem and V for Vendetta

In both the book Anthem and the movie V for Vendetta, the government completely controls the society. They are willing to do anything in order to retain their power. For example, the government in V for Vendetta created a biological virus in order to create fear and make the people obey them. In Anthem, children are brainwashed since infancy to agree with the Councils mindlessly.
Governments are supposed to be run by the citizens and not the other way around. In this quote “The Teachers were just, for they had been appointed by the Councils, and the Councils are the voice of all justice, for they are the voice of all men. And if sometimes, in the secret darkness of our heart, we regret that which befell us on our fifteenth birthday, we know that it was through our own guilt.” We can see that in the world of Anthem, the Councils control everything the people does. The people also learn that they are nothing and the authority, the councils, controls everything: "We are nothing. Mankind is all. By the grace of our brothers are we allowed our lives. We exist through, by and for our brothers who are the State. Amen." In V for Vendetta, the government prosecutes and torture anyone who dares to speak against them.
Another similitude between the two is fear, the people who are in power creates fear in their people so they do not dare to riot against them. In V for Vendetta, the fascist government manipulates the news by censoring and adding false news. The St-Mary virus incident was planned by The Party so the people would be scared and vote for them. In Anthem, people fears to speak freely, because they aren’t sure if their thoughts are the thoughts of all, as shown in this quotation: “And as we all undress at night, in the dim light of the candles, our brothers are silent, for they dare not speak the thoughts of their minds. For all must agree with all, and they cannot know if their thoughts are the thoughts of all, and so they fear to speak. And they are glad when the candles are blown for the night. But we, Equality 7-2521, look through the window upon the sky, and there is peace in the sky, and cleanliness, and dignity. And beyond the City there lies the plain, and beyond the plain, black upon the black sky, there lies the Uncharted Forest.” The governments also modify the history so they look benevolent. For example, in Anthem, the Councils claim that the time before the Great Rebirth was full of evil and if we don’t listen to the Councils, chaos will return. “But we must never speak of the times before the Great Rebirth, else we are sentenced to three years in the Palace of Corrective Detention. It is only the Old Ones who whisper about it in the evenings, in the Home of the Useless. They whisper many strange things, of the towers which rose to the sky, in those Unmentionable Times, and of the wagons which moved without horses, and of the lights which burned without flame. But those times were evil. And those times passed away, when men saw the Great Truth which is this: that all men are one and that there is no will save the will of all men together.” The same happens in V for Vendetta, The Party claim that they unify the country together; without them, the country will fall into chaos and lawlessness.