Mark Rice's story about The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

As a child, I frequently sneaked out of bed at night to sit in the back garden and gaze at the stars in wonder. Though barely out of nappies, I was hungry for answers to the deepest existential questions. I didn’t yet realise that in order to make sense of the answers, I first had to understand the questions. This knowledge came to me one dreich day in 1982 while my Dad and I sheltered from the rain in an East Kilbride bookshop. One book grabbed my attention more than all the others: amid the psychedelic colours on its cover were the words 'The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy'. The back of the book’s jacket proclaimed ‘Don’t Panic’ in large, bold letters, so I didn’t panic. Instead, I asked my father if he would buy me the book. That serendipitous event introduced me to the wonderful humour and inventiveness of Douglas Adams.

I’ve read the book multiple times. My enjoyment doesn’t diminish with each read; quite the opposite. When, as a ten-year-old, I read it for the first time, I had an epiphany: writing could be both side-splittingly funny and jaw-droppingly creative. 'The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy' showed, in a way I’ve never seen bettered, that literary genius and mastery of humour need not be mutually exclusive. It made me want to write, not in the cold factual way I’d been taught to write, but by setting my mind free to create its own Universes. Douglas Adams taught me that a beautiful juxtaposition is born when stories of human (and alien) silliness are recounted against a backdrop of cosmically relevant events. Perhaps that’s the thing I like most about Adams’s writing: it celebrates the preposterous, doing so without apology and on a breathtaking scale. He had an amazing ability to point out the absurdity of human behaviour, but to do so with humour rather than nastiness. The light-hearted sense of wonder which permeates every page resonated so strongly within me that it filtered into both my life and my writing. Thank you, Douglas Adams.

My first novel, Metallic Dreams, would be less profound, less funny and less Universal had I not discovered 'The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy'. My novel’s exploration of Heaven, Hell and heavy metal morality draws much inspiration from Douglas Adams. Perhaps I may never have been moved to create a book were it not for the inspiration I have soaked up from Adams’s work. His writing has that effect on me: it inspires; it makes the Universe seem funny but scarily vast, simultaneously silly and significant; it broadens horizons to a staggering degree; it raises the bar for undiluted creativity. 'The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy' is cleverness and creativity run amok. Adams’s description of the way in which the Vogon spaceships’ hang in the sky when they arrive to destroy Earth showcases his unquestionable genius.

Douglas Adams died in 2001, but his legacy lives on. His writing continues to amaze and amuse me.