New Beginnings, Douglas Adams's Style and Humour.

As I begin to read the novel "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" Douglas Adams's style of writing becomes more and more apparent. The only possible way I could describe it is by saying that it is "Monty Python-esk". Also the style of the novel as a whole is unlike anythign I have ever read before, as it is a mix of both comedy and sci-fi. Adams's seems to use humour to offset tragedies or break the ice during suspensful parts of the novel. This in my opinion sets up for -what I guess you could call- dark humour. The reader is stunned, and feels terribly for the main character Arthur Dent, but noone, including any of the characters in the novel, seem to care much at all. For example in chapter 5, right after the earth (and all it's inhabitants) are demolished to build a space highway -for lack of a better term- you would expect Arthur Dent (the only surviving Earthling) to be completely and uttely crushed, this is not the case however, when asked how he feels about the earth being demolished he responds simply by saying "I'm a bit upset about that". This downplaying of such a catastrophic event is so unexpected that I myself cannot help but laugh. This is not however the only humour which exists. Another great example of this use of humour can be found in chapter 7 the seen plays out something like this:


"Oh, er, well the hatchway in front of us will open automatically in a few moments and we will shoot out into deep space I expect and asphyxicate. If you take a lungful of air with you you can last for up to thirty seconds of course ..." said Ford. He stuck his hands behind his back, raised his eyebrows and started to hum an old Betelgeusian battle hymn. To Arthur's eyes he suddenly looked very alien.

"So this is it," said Arthur, "we're going to die."

"Yes," said Ford, "except ... no! Wait a minute!" he suddenly lunged across the chamber at something behind Arthur's line of vision. "What's this switch?" he cried.

"What? Where?" cried Arthur twisting round.

"No, I was only fooling," said Ford, "we are going to die after all."

He slumped against the wall again and carried on the tune from where he left off.

As you can see Douglas Adams's seems to have quite a dark sense of humour, as he plays off death and destruction as it were nothing more than a stubbed toe.