The Guide to Sci-Fi Satires

For this week, I listened to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio recordings, which was incredibly fun to listen to. This popular british sci-fi comedy book series have been adapted into many different medias; for example radio shows, a live tv series, a typing PC game and film. This is a perfect example of a futuristic sci-fi adventure series that tends to deal with similar, everyday issues found on our present Earth. The Narrator has addressed the issues of events that have, is or will happen across the universe. Most of the issues mentioned in the story from time to time are referenced directly from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy guide book since it is the most famous, popular, and cheapest source of information for space traveling across the universe. Another interesting aspect that the characters encountered throughout the story are some of the items, tools, and technology used in this universe. The things encountered in the story are sometimes ironically convenient: like the translating Babel Fish, the helpful Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy with the words “DON’T PANIC” at the front cover written in large friendly letters, and the Improbability Drive Generator that anything improbable could happen that has helped the main characters through the most intense situations. As for the other halve of the things found in the story, are ridiculously redundant. Many of the alien races found throughout the story tend to have a specific role to the world, for example, the Vogons. They are the literal representation of bureaucrats of the universe in the story.  They are described to be mean and cruel, but not necessarily evil race of aliens that would not take any action, even to safe their own grandmothers from a ravenous monster, unless it gets documented, filed, stamped, sent, stamped again, sent back, lost, found, lost again, and finally buried under dirt. They are also known to write the third worst poetry in the entire universe. One character that could also apply to issues in the present are the concepts behind Marvin the Paranoid Robot: an android built with a personality program that failed miserably (literary), though it has a brain the size of a planet it ended developing an extremely negative, depressive, pessimistic, and paranoid robot capable of destroying the mood with his complains. Overall, I really enjoyed listening to the audio show and the story has many interesting ideas and concepts that make the story more fun to read and listen.