Week of 16/12/13: Life, the Universe, and Everything

Prompt:  Describe the mood of what you are reading.
Pages: 214-355

    I am very happy to have found this prompt, because I don't think I could do this book justice without going over one of it's best parts. It's ambiguous mood.  Although you can tell from the text that it is not the most positive of books, with it's sarcastic remarks about the meaning of life and it's biting (yet albiet very funny) dialogue between the characters. Life, the Universe, and Everything does have some positive and uplifting parts, like when Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect escape from a planet they were trapped on, but like it's predecessors (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and The Restaurant at the End of the Universe) those moments do not last long.  And don't mistake the negative mood to be anything along the lines of melancholy, because melancholy seems very subdued compared to the gloomy, almost doomsday-ish mood of this  book. 

   This book's usually negative and things-are-not-looking-good-here mood has this sort of analytical lens to it.  The part being analysed is the Universe itself, hence the title Life, the Universe, and Everything. The Universe part mostly  Parts of this book when the characters or Universe is in trouble are used to make the author's (Douglas Adams) point that the Universe doesn't always do what we want it to do, and it is far bigger and more dangerous than we think.  When the fate of the entire Universe is in trouble, and there seems to be absolutely no hope for survival (leaving you in a rather depressed mood after reading), you get this feeling like the entire Universe's mood is negative (which sounds like something someone would say when they are not trying to sound pretentious, but are utterly failing at doing that).  I think that means the book's mood comes out very strongly.  

    As said before, this book's gloomy atmosphere and depressing nature lets you take a step back and look more into how life really is.  Putting the "Life" in Life, the Universe, and Everything.  The mood does not portray humanity as either a bad thing or a good thing; rather, it helps to understand the nature of ourselves and the true proportion and biodiversity of the Universe.  After rereading that, I realize how seriously I am taking this humorous (not lighthearted) book, with a negative mood.  It's fiction right?  Well, that's debatable, but truly, this book makes things seem like they are real.  All while bringing you back to reality with it's biting dialogue and sarcastic remarks about, well Everything.