“He felt that his whole
life was some kind of dream and sometimes wondered whose it was and whether
they were enjoying it.” (Douglas Adams, Hitchhikers
Guide to the Galaxy)
Douglas Adams is one of my favorite writers. His wit and
intelligence transcends this century and brings us into an all too familiar
future. Niel Gaiman, another novelist, said that Adams was a genius.
“I haven’t known many
geniuses in my life. Some brilliantly smart people, but only a tiny handful
would I class as geniuses. I would class Douglas, because he saw things
differently, and he was capable of communicating the way he saw things, and
once he explained things the way he saw them, it was almost impossible to see
them the way you used to see them.”
This introduction of a different view is a way writers move
the present into the future. Really, Adams brought the future into the present
because of his foresight. Douglas Adams, as a novelist, was a fortune teller. He was adept at technology and even foreshadowed or
predicted about technology before it existed with the Galaxy notebook, an i-pad technology. Before his death, he denied
that he was a science fiction writer. He did not even like science fiction but was
addicted to technology. He looked to technological advances of the time
and imagined what the future was supposed to be. However, the innovative
predictions of technology as well the lifestyle of the future was just a
background to him.
Despite his prophecies, his novel, Guardian of the Galaxy is truly about relationships. He claimed his
priority was as story teller. Attacking social issues is another way that Adams
brought the present into the future. Our planet being inundated by Spartan
minded aliens was at the forefront of his Galaxy
series. In the novel, the aliens come down from another planet to mine
Earth for its resources. The destruction of humans was the plan but an alien warned
and saved his friend, an earthling. The alien felt that there was something redeemable
about the society. Guardian is an in
depth study of human nature. The book reveals how the morals of the present
transcends not only time but societies that inhabit other planets. Adams even
brought up the absurdity of our culture and its praising of celebrities.
Douglas Adams was a true visionary and
predicted several things that scientist did not. It seems that the imagination
of a writer outdoes that of systematic research. Adams’ search was similar to
Arthur Dent as he traveled through the galaxy with Ford Prefect. A search that has
been the same throughout time that joins the present to the future, a search
for the ‘answer to the ultimate
question of life, the universe and everything”.
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