“... the Jatravartid people of Viltvodle Six firmly believe that the entire Universe was in fact sneezed out of the nose of a being called the Great Green Arkleseizure.” Absurdities such as this, taken from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy are typical examples of one of the many literary devices employed in this absurdist comedy. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is also a radio serial and furthermore falls under the genre of the science fiction and is driven by a row of themes, some more important than others, such as the themes mostly harmless and aliens rule. There themes are enforced by the employment of motifs, rhetorical devices and imagery for humorous effect by the means of absurdity, irony or intertextuality among many more.
Similarly to any theme in the entire radio script, the theme 42 brings motifs with it, recurring symbols that are indicators of the present themes. In the case of 42 the motifs present are the Ultimate Questions and the mice, who were the ones who gave the order for the construction of the computer called Earth. It is impossible to talk about the theme of 42, which on one hand is absurd, but nevertheless is the Ultimate Answer, without mentioning the Ultimate question itself. The Ultimate Question in fact is only interesting to the mice for money reasons. The mice in this passage are only addressed as a race of hyper intelligent pan-dimensional beings, which wraps around the theme of 42. The themes itself, as well as its motifs are all in service of the overall absurdity of the piece.
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