![]() ![]() He buys them both several pints of beer and instructs Arthur to drink up. Theme Stated (page 12): When Ford would get overly drunk, longing to be rescued and returned to the place he belonged, policemen would often ask him, “Don’t you think it’s about time you went off home, sir?” To which Ford would inevitably reply, “I’m trying to, baby, I’m trying to.” Finding one’s way home (or to the place one belongs) is a major theme in the course of the novel-for more than one character.Ĭatalyst (pages 24 – 25): Ford drags Arthur away from his soon-to-be-destroyed house and takes him to the local pub, trying to explain to his human friend that he is, in fact, an alien, and that the world they’re living in is about to end. He’s desperate to return to his home planet, which is somewhere “in the vicinity of Betelgeuse,” and has been waiting for any opportunity to escape. Ford is secretly a roving researcher for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and has been stranded on Earth for the past 15 years. No one around is aware of this impending disaster except for Arthur’s good friend, Ford Prefect, who is not an out-of-work actor, as he’s pretended to be for the last five or six years since he and Arthur met. ![]() It’s in the direct path of an alien construction fleet set on plowing down our “mostly harmless” planet to make way for a hyperspatial express route through the star system. Unbeknownst to any of the humans involved in this exchange, their very own Earth is likewise scheduled for demolition. That he has no right to argue about it now.Īrthur is displeased and plants himself in the mud in front of the yellow bulldozer to keep his house from being demolished. That the plans have been “on display” for months (in a dark and locked filing cabinet, located in an unused lavatory in a basement of the local planning office, as it turns out). Arthur is told by the person about to bulldoze his house that he should have known about this. His house has never been a source of problems for him until very recently (read: just yesterday) when Arthur learned it was scheduled for demolition to make room for a new bypass. Set-Up (pages 5 – 28): The house belongs to Earthman/Englishman/Everyman Arthur Dent, who is 30 years old, single, and works in radio. Opening Image (pages 1 – 3): The introductory pages inform the readers in a delightfully satirical tone what this story will be about, which is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy-a remarkable book, slightly cheaper than the great Encyclopedia Galactica and, rather importantly, “it has the words DON’T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover.” The novel is also about a catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions and a house. Here are my take on the beats for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: May Adams’s distinctive sense of humor and insight bring some lightness to you, too, whether you’re reading this story for the first time… or, like me, for the gazillionth. The legacy Douglas Adams (1952 – 2001) left us-aside from this cleverly written and long-lasting comedic series, among his other works-is also this short but important message: “Don’t Panic.” I find these reassuring words (located on the front cover of his fictional guide) to be a much-needed reminder to relax and take a deep breath as I deal with whatever I must face next in the world/universe around us. All this, and fans everywhere still celebrate May 25th annually as “Towel Day” in his honor. In homage to his beloved story, Adams even had an asteroid named after his main character (18610 Arthurdent) and another one named after himself (25924 Douglasadams). It also inspired a five-book “trilogy,” a television series, a 2005 feature film, a number of stage plays, comics, and a video game. Its popularity continued when published in book form, selling over 250,000 copies in its first three months alone and over fifteen million in Adams’s lifetime. As a science fiction comedy on the airwaves, written by Douglas Adams of Doctor Who and Monty Python fame, it was a huge and immediate hit. The novel had its origins in a BBC Radio 4 radio series in the late 1970s. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, or HG2G, as longtime fans sometimes call it, is a weirdly wonderful and sentimental favorite, even among readers whose literary preferences don’t typically bend toward zany space travel. How does The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy hit Blake Snyder’s story beats? Here is the Save the Cat!® beat sheet for the classic novel: Genre: Dude with a Problem having a dash of Golden Fleece adventure Publisher: Pocket Books paperback-original publication in 1979 by Pan Books, based on the BBC radio series from 1978
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