Researching ideas on Humor and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in ERIC

• I searched the ERIC database in hopes that I could find something on either The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or even just ideas about teaching humorous texts in the classroom.
• ERIC (Education Resource Information Center) is a database of indexes and abstracts of many educational journals and reports after 1967.
• I accessed ERIC through EBSCO on the BYU library wesite.  My intention was to see if anything has been written about using Hitchhiker in classrooms.  I didn't find anything, so I searched more generally for articles on humor in the language arts classroom and humor AND English.  This yeilded many resulsts and I was able to peruse the abstracts of the articles to find out which article might suit my needs. The article I found wasn't available but clicking the get@BYU button, I was able to find a pdf version on ProQuest.
• Goebel, Bruce A.. "Comic Relief: Engaging Students through Humor Writing." English Journal  98.6 (2009): 38-43.
• Goebel writes about the benefits of studying humor as a way to help students become engaged in learning and its use as a vehicle to teach grammar, language analysis, public speaking, and many other important aspects traditionally required in the study of language arts.
• I liked this article for two reasons. First, it gave some great general ideas for teaching humor in the classroom which I could apply to Hitchhiker.  Second, it talks about several ways humor is produced which gave me some new ideas and confirmed others that I already had as correct.

Time is an illusion. Wasted time doubly so

At least, that is how I feel about the opportunities available by blogging our research process.  In the old days, with traditional methods of research and writing, if I were to research something that ultimately led to a dead end I would have been frustrated and disappointed about all of that wasted time. Not so with this blog.  I can talk about the process and my thoughts behind it and it serves a purpose and guides me to the next part of my research.  This post is about what I learned and what I think about the possible connection between Douglas Adams' Vogon poem and Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky.

The answer is a strong maybe in my mind.

Searching for a possible connection between Douglas Adam and Lewis Carroll in the Literature Resource Center

1. Searching for a possible connection between Douglas Adam and Lewis Carroll in the Literature Resource Center
2. My purpose was to see if the LRC (Literature Resource Center) had anything about Douglas Adams and a possible relationship between his work and that of Lewis Carroll.  I saw something while reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and wanted to research the perceived connection.
3. Literature Resource Center This is a great resource for literary topics, authors, and their works, covering all genres, disciplines and time periods.  It has full-text access to articles and also biographical essays and links to other resources.
4. I used the LRC to search any articles I could find on Douglas Adams and Lewis Carroll.  I did a simple boolean search of "Douglas Adams" AND "Lewis Carroll."  I also used combinations of these keywords with "Jabberwocky" and "Hitchhiker's Guide."  They didn't provide any useful results that were different from the first search. I found one article relevant to what I was searching.  Out of curiosity I searched "Douglas Adams" and it only returned about 21 results. This doesn't reflect on LRC necessarily, rather on the fact that not many people have felt the need to write scholarly articles on my chosen author or his works.
5. Nediger, Will. "Lewis Carroll and Douglas Adams." Word Ways 38.1 (2005): 19-20. Literature Resource Center. Web. 24 May 2011
6. The author talks about the relationship between certain aspects of Carroll's stories about Alice and Adam's Hitchhiker writing, saying that Adams was probably inspired by Lewis Carroll.
7. This wasn't the best I could have hoped for but it was the best I could find.  I was hoping that someone had written about Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky" and a possible relationship with the Vogon poem read to Arthur and Ford before they are ejected into space.  This relates to my study of Adams' use of humor and a belief that I have that he was spoofing or even lampooning Carroll. 

Group Discussions about Hitchhiker's Guide

The other day I found some groups about Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on Google and Goodreads.  Part of the way I want to research Adams' skill with comedy is to connect with others who love his works and hear what they have to say about it.  So, I used the discussion sections on these groups and posted this to them.

"The first time I read Hitchhiker's Guide, I was blown away by Adams' uncanny ability to write comically. His books are so memorable largely because of Adams' skill with humor and his great one-liners.
What do you think? How does Adams do it? What is it about his writing that tickles our funny bone every time?"

I have put this question to three different Douglas Adams fan groups now (it has been a challenge to find good active fan pages. I mostly find blogs and other types of websites).  This morning I had some emails alerting me that I've received a couple of answers to my question.  Both have mentioned reasons why they find Douglas Adams so funny and have given me new insights into his writing style.  I can't wait to see what other people have to say.

Towel Day: May 25th

 

It can be argued, I think, that a book's importance can, in part, be measured by the type of impression it leaves upon society after it has been written.  There is, of course, the immediate effects while people are still excited about a given work, but there are also longer lasting impacts that truly show how important a book has been to our culture.  Granted, these influences are not always profound or important, but they do exist and they are important for some people.  I'm talking about something more than Twilight fame.  Twilight has had its moment, but I don't think it will last, or ever have a following like the Lord of the Rings or other stories.  Part of my exploration of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is going to be on the way it has influenced our culture and how it has remained relevant and popular even after more than 30 years.

For this post I want to talk about Towel Day.  Towel Day began May 25 2001, a mere two weeks after Douglas Adams' untimely death.  It has since been a tradition for fans everywhere to carry their towels with them every May 25 to celebrate Adams' life and his genius and creativity as a writer. 

For those who aren't familiar with the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, towels were named in the stories as being one of the most valuable possessions a interstellar traveler could have.  This is what the Hitchhiker's Guide says:

"A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough . . . any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with."

In honor of Douglas Adams, I am going to carry my towel with me and of course tell everyone who asks about one of the most entertaining authors that I have read.  I also wanted to write this post to share with everyone who comes across it so that they too can share the love of humor, Science Fiction, and hitchhiking.

Here is a short video talking about Towel Day

This is a Google Doodle done by Vinesh, a student at Lincoln Praire School, where they will be reading Vogon poetry to celebrate Towel Day.  Google Towel Day Logo.

Desktop backgrounds by Travis Avery to celebrate Towel Day 2011

Lastly, Towel Day will also be celebrated in Second Life at Milliways, the restaurant at the end of the universe

If any of this made absolutely no sense to you, please, do yourself the favor and go down to your nearest library or bookstore or get onto Amazon or iTunes and buy this book.  You'll laugh your way through it and have a more light-hearted look at Life, the Universe and Everything.

Modern take on the Hitchhiker's Guide

Here is a funny video a fan made. It's what the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has to say about coffee. I like how he made the Guide to look like an ipad screen.

Curse You Amazon!!

I got my books I bought on Amazon today.  It was, as always, an exciting experience until I realized that they sent me the wrong book.  Having read and loved Neil Gaiman's American Gods, I decided I wanted to read two other books of his.  Stardust and Don't Panic, a companion guide to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  To my dismay, Don't Panic wasn't in the box.  Instead, I had a regular paperback copy of the actual Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  Aaarrrgghhh! The incompetence!  The invoice, of course proves that the error had not been made on my end of the transaction.

My plan is to read Neil Gaiman's companion guide and to write him after and hopefully asking him some questions about his thoughts on the novel, based on what I read from his book.  I still have to call the people at Amazon, but I hope they can get me another copy of that book fast so I can see what Mr. Gaiman has to say.  Until then, Amazon, you're on my list.

"I love deadlines. . .

. . . I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
                                             ---Douglas Adams

I'm having trouble deciding how I want to approach The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  I'm trying to blog my processes of research and what I am learning, and tangle with the text in a literary way.  The problem is, I'm not sure how I want to approach this.  One idea is to look at the humor of the book and Douglas Adams, and analyze how he creates humor and why it works.  This idea appeals to me because it is something new for me, and I think I could learn quite a bit about the craft of comedy.  Another approach that I am considering is to look at the ways the book has influenced pop culture and how the book has stayed alive in the hearts of the general public.  This will be fun because I can look at how people consume the book and create their own content in order to celebrate Adams and his Galaxy.  Lastly, I could study how this book has remained relevant in our digital and scientific culture, even 32 years after it was published.  This is a rare thing for a Science Fiction novel and even more surprising when you think of more serious Science Fiction novels that are terribly outdated merely because they failed at predicting the future of technology and science. 

I am sure I would enjoy any of these options, but I'm not sure which would be most profitable for me to study.  I know that in a way these ideas are interconnected, but to talk about all three would be too general of a topic. 

What do you think I should do?  Leave comments and tell me which idea sounds the most interesting?  Any input will be appreciated.  I can't promise to follow your suggestion, but I will promise to take it into consideration.

Do you make soundtracks for your books?

photo by dalydose

Yesterday I set up a feed into my Google reader through Google's blog search for any posts with the words "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".  It paid off immediately as one of the first things I got was a link to this post.  I love this because these people have created "mixed tapes" to accompany the first three books of the Hitchhiker's series.  The author has asked for people to make suggestions to improve the mix, offering a reward for the best suggestion.  What a great example of someone remixing to create something new and consume media in a different way.

At the bottom of that post are links to listen to all of the songs they have chosen for each book.  So, I listened to this mixed-tape soundtrack for Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  The songs they chose are either songs that were written about the story itself or something that fits with a certain scene in the book.  They placed the music in the same order as the book.  Also, and this is my favorite part, the author gives a small explanation for many of the songs and why they were chosen.  This is beneficial to anyone reading the book because it considers characters, themes, and tone and explains how the songs match enhance these elements.

I think this will enhance my reading of Adam's master work.  Using music and art to interpret literature is nothing new.  Music can help form an emotional connection on a deeper level than just reading can.  Experiencing something in many mediums makes a deeper impression on your mind.   This is a good way to connect people to what they are reading.  It's fun for students to experience their readings on multiple levels.  If listening to this mixed-tape soundtrack causes someone to form a permanent connection between Coldplay and Douglas Adams, I would consider it a good thing.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Douglas Adam's, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, is a wonderfully fun book, and a must-read for anybody who enjoys sarcasm, satire, SciFi, and just good nonsensical fun.  I practically grew up hearing about this book and laughing when my dad and brothers would quote from it at the dinner table; when I finally read it, I was not disappointed.  Adams is a great writer, and a technophile whose imagined gadgets are actually becoming more of a reality than most people probably imagined when it was published in 1979.  I have chosen to take this hilarious book and to look at it and write about it this semester while I explore the potentials of writing about literature online.