Hitchhikers is more or less a series of vignettes that describe some human activity or historical event in such a way as to foreground it’s inherent absurdity.

Hitchhikers is more or less a series of vignettes that describe some human activity or historical event in such a way as to foreground it’s inherent absurdity. In a way, it’s meaning is to strip other things of meaning. Appreciating it goes hand in hand with appreciating Monty Python, who do the same thing. Hitchhikers is brilliant not insofar as it is layered with meaning as a work of literature, but in that it is quite dense with successful and memorable “skits” that poke fun at English society’s sacred cows. It’s a great example of science fiction as an analytical tool, where by redescribing something outside of its culturally weighted context a new perspective can be gained. I’d say that’s the primary “meaning” to be gained outside of the humor itself. As an example, one of the sections where he describes a whole series of absurd events that culminates in someone getting nailed to a tree for suggesting that everyone should get along, at which point you realize he’s describing the Jesus story. I think it’s a great read for someone in their adolescent years, to help them build some deconstructionist tools, but in a gentle way (Adams is quite humanist in the midst of all the absurdity).