For Entertainment Purposes Only: Lost and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
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By karmavore
- For Entertainment Purposes Only: Lost and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
- Created: Sep 5, 2007
- Last updated: Aug 14, 2008
- After episode: 3.22: Through The Looking Glass
- Status: Current
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Oh, no. Not again.
— karmavore
I’ve noticed several parellels between Lost and the Douglas Adams inappropriately-named trilogy The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Just for fun, let’s explore!
First off, the Guide and Lost both feature a character named “Ford”. I grant that “Ford Perfect”, the Guide contributor from Betelguese V, has little in common with James Ford, although they do both enjoy a good stiff drink.
The occurence and reoccurance of the Numbers, as well as all the interactions between characters pre-crash, is reminiscent of the side-effects of the propulsion system of the stolen spaceship Heart of Gold: the Infinite Improbability Drive. For the uninitiated, the premise behind this engine is that it can create an Improbability field of any strength. So, you can go anywhere instantly, all the drive needs to do is determine exactly how improbable it is that you’ll be there in the next moment. Of course, as the engine revs up or down to that level, you may improbably turn into a penguin, but, c’est la vie.
The Guide features the premise of a multiverse. The Vogons keep destroying the Earth to, they say, make way for a new hyperspace bypass, but the Universe keeps course correcting and new Earths keep popping up in place of the old one.
Of course, we all know that the Vogons are actually destroying the Earth at the behest of the Psychiatrist Union, since in reality, the Earth is actually a giant biological computer built by another computer built by an ancient advance race. The Lost island, too, is run like a giant computer experient. As we all know, the Earth is trying to compute The Question to the Ultimate Answer of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
And, as we all know, The Answer of Life, the Universe, and Everything, is 42. One of the numbers.
I rest my case.
LOL…!
amusing
LOL ! from me too
I just finished the 5th and final book of the trilogy (I love that joke) and was thinking the whole way through the books the parallels, specifically #42, and in a few critiques of the book I’ve read (i forget where) there’s mention of the casimir effect (oooooooo). In both cases no human in either plot of fiction knows whats going on and is in a state of confusion, but the confusion in lost creates great drama and H2G2’s confusion creates great comedy. I think it’d be class if lost ended similarly to h2g2 though….
Someone took this fun little theory and minus’ed it?!
Whoever you are, you need to still down by an idyllic little pool, take some deep breaths, and search inside yourself for an inner calm. Peace, people. Peace. :P
While the similarity to Hitchikers ends here I think the notion of the island, assisted by the addition of some dharma technology, as a sort of (im)probability generator is close to the money.
There is definately a ‘centre’ to the island that we, the others and the survivors are all moving toward. I can’t think of a better one than some kind of cosmic singularity, which would also account for the time slippage as anyone gets closer to the gravity/probability well.
Obviously I am no scientist.