Influences Part 2

A lot of people think that philosophy can only be learnt through reading super dense and hard to understand books that are too thick for own good, the kind of books that you can kill people with by throwing it at them. That could not be further from the truth. Lessons in philosophy can also be learnt through novels and story books that are easy and enjoyable to read. In fact through reading this kind of books you might be learning philosophy without even knowing about it. Such is the power of subtlety.

But it is not a book, but a series of books I read that made an impression on me. In fact the blog you are reading now actually pays a small tribute to these series of books. I am talking about the HHGG(Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy) series of books written by Douglas Adams. He wrote five in total. There are numerous multiple subplots to the story so it is difficult to summarise in detail (you will have to read the book to find out more) but the main plot (which is set in our modern era) involves a human called Arthur Dent who is forced to travel the galaxy as a hitch hiker because earth has just been blown up and he is the only survivor.

The character that made the deepest impression on me was a robot named Marvin. According to the book, Marvin was built with "Genuine People Personalities" technology and was the most advanced robot ever built... period. He is in fact 50,000 times more intelligent than any human and even that is an understatement. Marvin often appears to be depressed and bored throughout the book series because no task he could be given would occupy even the tiniest fraction of his vast intellect and that is the true horror of Marvin's existence. In fact, there is only one time he seemed to appear happy, after seeing "God's last message to creation" after which he died.

I think Marvin is the most human character in the book even though he is a robot. We humans often feel sad and depressed even though we have everything we could ever want in life, and a little message from God no matter how nonsensical is all it takes to make all the sadness go away even though we might be staring death in the face. I find it wierd that Douglas Adams who is a fiercely atheistic man would write a character like Marvin into his novels. Perhaps in writing the character of Marvin, he unintentionally let his guard down and acknowledge that there is a human need for God no matter how atheistic one might be. Food for thought