The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

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Context
This particular passage is set in a eventful and tense point of the novel. It summarizes the main theme of the novel, in a comical and rather ironic manner, and also in a moment of great suspense, transitioning one scenario into the next. The two characters, namely Ford and Arthur, are thrown off a spaceship and into the vacuum of space, where they are destined to die. This passage reconfirms the fact that they can only last about thirty seconds with a lungful of air, and leads the scene on to where they are rescued about a narrow twenty-nine seconds later. It leaves the reader hanging and moves them into the next eventful section of the novel, where they are saved from death in the vacuum of space by a runaway spaceship of rebels.
The title of the novel is, in fact, emphasized here. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and intergalactic guide written by hitchhikers through space, is explained in length, and in detail, and it's significance of providing useful background knowledge to both the characters and the readers in a narrative tone is why it lives up to it's title.
The author, Douglas Adams, had been largely inspired by Monty Python's Flying Circus, a very old BBC comedy, where a world of new creations is formed, which gave him an idea to create his own world. He had once been hitchhiking around Europe, and was lying drunk and dazed in a field in Innsbruck, Austria, with a book called, The Hitchhiker's Guide to Europe. He had been staring up at the sky and had wondered, pondered and decided that there ought to be a guide for hitchhiking through the galaxy as well, mostly because he believed Innsbruck was very dull and lifeless. This is what set him off to write the novel under such a name.
Significance
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...nstilled a strong atheist background, using the book as a way to mock everyday human affairs concerning religion, politics, science, and basically everything logical and governing in the modern world. He provides a new angle of looking at meaning in life, and brings the notion that people should accept the fact of the universe as it is instead of searching for a deeper meaning. The quest of searching for scientific answers in the book leads to an insignificant conclusion of 42, and even the novel itself ends in an abruptly senseless moment. He uses the novel as a way of demonstrating the meaninglessness of getting answers to the unknown mysteries of the universe. Which is why many of his book's plots remain potholed. His characters are also instilled in the early 60s-70s persona, with their new outlook on life and desire for materialism and carefree social behaviour.

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