Mostly Harmless
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Mostly Harmless (1992, ISBN 0345418778) is a novel by Douglas Adams, the fifth and final book of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. It is described on the cover of the first editions as the "Fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhikers trilogy".
Contents |
Title
The title comes from a joke early in the series, when Arthur Dent discovers that the entry for Earth in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy consists, in its entirety, of the single word "Harmless". His friend Ford Prefect, a contributor to the Guide, assures him that the next edition will contain the article on Earth that Ford has spent the last few years researching—somewhat cut due to space restrictions, but still an improvement. The revised article, he eventually admits, will read "Mostly harmless."
(The above scene was filmed for the 2005 motion picture adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy but was cut before the movie's release, rendering Mostly Harmless the only novel in the Hitchhiker's series not referenced by name in the film. The scene is available under "Deleted Scenes" on the film's DVD.)
Plot
Mostly Harmless picks up the story of Arthur Dent some time after the events in So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish. Fenchurch, Arthur's love interest in the previous book, does not appear since she has completely disappeared from the face of the universe, a hyperspace travel casualty. Zaphod Beeblebrox, already absent from the last book, does not appear either.
The plot revolves around the concept of parallel universes (though according to the novel, they're not really parallel universes at all but only a model to capture the continuity of space, time and probability) and the introduction of a new, sentient version of the Hitchhiker's Guide which can perceive, and act upon, all possible universes at once. Ford steals The Guide from his old office, which is in turn stolen from Ford by Arthur's newly-introduced, schizophrenic biological daughter Random, and brought to a doomed Earth — to which Arthur and Ford go in pursuit.
The book ends as the first book began, with the Earth being blown to bits. "For good", this time — in addition, all other possible versions of Earth are destroyed, and The Guide dies. As Arthur, Ford and most of the principal characters were on Earth, they all die as well. The book finally fulfils the promise made at the very start of the series that the fates of Arthur and the Guide are intertwined.
Adams on Mostly Harmless
In an interview reprinted in The Salmon of Doubt, Adams expressed dissatisfaction with the "rather bleak" tone of this book, and said that he "would love to end Hitchhiker on a slightly more upbeat note" by writing a sixth installment in the series. He blames personal problems, saying "for all sorts of personal reasons I don't want to go into, I just had a thoroughly miserable year, and I was trying to write a book against that background. And, guess what, it was a rather bleak book!" Nonetheless, the story does a good job of tying together most of the plot elements introduced in the previous novels, in a typically quirky fashion.
Being the fifth book in a trilogy, and Adams wanting to write a sixth one, it wasn't entirely granite that this was the concluding book in the series, until his death (due to a heart attack) on May 11, 2001 made it one.
Although the complete destruction of every version of the Earth in every possible timeline, along with the death of nearly all the regular characters would seem to make a continuation extremely unlikely, Adams had remarked that the afterlife-enhanced state of the regulars merely meant he would not have to waste time at the beginning of the next book gathering them together or explaining what they'd been up to in the intervening period.
Radio
Dirk Maggs adapted the book as the "Quintessential Phase" of the radio series, and it was broadcast in June 2005. The radio version has an entirely new, upbeat ending, appended to the existing story.
In the alternate ending, after the destruction of Earth, the description of the Babel fish from the earlier series is replayed with an additional section, which states that dolphins and Babel fish are related, and that the dolphins' ability to travel through possibility space (first mentioned in So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish) is shared by the Babel fish as well. All the major characters are carrying Babel fish in their ears, which rescue them at the moment of Earth's destruction by transporting them to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe. The characters are reunited with Marvin, and it is revealed that beyond the Restaurant (and beyond the car park in which Marvin works) lies an endless series of blue lagoons - the final destination of the dolphins. The series ends with Arthur asking, "Fly with me, Fenchurch?", and her reply, "Always."
The version released on CD contains an even longer set of alternate endings, including one set after the events of the twelfth radio episode (with Arthur Dent and Lintilla), and on an alternate Earth where Arthur Dent and Fenchurch engage in a stand-off against Mr Prosser, together.
de:Einmal Rupert und zurück
fr:Globalement inoffensive it:Praticamente innocuo he:לא מזיק ברובו sv:I stort sett menlös