There has been a great growth in the importance and presence of entertainment in our daily lives and of course with such great demand there has also been a great supply of content ranging from books, films, comics and a host of others. Science fiction (or science fiction) is one of the genres that has had the greatest growth in this century, accumulating many fans and avid researchers of the genre, exploring many different topics, from wars, to space exploration, to simple survival and even the detective genre . Since one of its main features is high-tech computers, advanced science and many fantastic scientific explanations with no basis in real life, it is able to capture the interest of many different people as a fantastic space, a place where real life doesn't exist. the matter and events of that world are all that matters right now. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay A very common theme explored in science fiction, ironically, has nothing to do with science but with sociology, so much so that an article was published discussing the use of science fiction as an introduction to sociology and thought critic. The article focuses on how, by being able to think about "imaginary" real problems, students may be able to develop a more skeptical questioning position compared to real life because they see the problem from a different point of view than their own personal prejudice towards their real life. own society and status quo. It's pretty easy to see that most science fiction plots are driven by some sort of social question, whether in the popular Star Wars franchise (1977) or in this case Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. He was one of the most influential science fiction writers of recent decades, inspiring many even after his death with his book series, which asked various satirical observations and questions towards our society, morals and values. What really makes his work interesting, and perhaps why he has had an impact on so many people, is his ability to talk not only about society's struggles, but also individual struggles for existence, anxiety and of the fears that hide deep in our consciousness, also resonating with many people. Today. In one of the first lines of the book we are faced with the statement that the human population was unhappy and was trying to solve it by circulating "[...] little pieces of green paper, which is strange because overall it was not the small green unhappy pieces of paper.” In the book Adams trivializes and satirizes big problems using absurdity and humor. At the beginning of the book the Earth has exploded and Arthur Dent, the main character, is the only human being capable of. escape the total destruction of the planet alive by hitchhiking on a spaceship with his alien friend. During this escape sequence, before the Earth explodes, the Vogons (alien race) explain that it is not their fault and that the people. shouldn't complain, because the planet had been demolished to make way for an intergalactic highway and the construction documents had been available for a long time demanding that the planet be moved somewhere else before it exploded impactful as the explosion of the planet is explained by a process full of bureaucracy to build a highway creates two distinct feelings in the reader, one of which is humor projected in such an absurd scenario reduced to paperwork and the other is a sense of fear that the same thing mightalso happen on a smaller scale on our planet right now and that companies will do whatever they get paid to do and have the "legal" paperwork for. Following these events, Arthur Dent embarks on a myriad of different adventures across many planets and galaxies, each more absurd than the last. But since we readers experience Arthur's point of view most of the time, we are also led to feel his anxiety and extreme fear throughout the entire series. While many of the other characters focus primarily on the politics or inner workings of what awaits him, Arthur usually only thinks about how to do nothing to change the state of things, due to the initial shock of losing his home planet, he avoids all possible situations, usually returning to his main scapegoat who is thinking of a nice cup of tea. His anxiety comes from the opening of possibilities that have presented themselves in his life and the fear of what doing or not doing one of them could affect his life even more. (On one occasion, after learning that the Earth was actually a giant biocomputer that was being used to calculate the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything, Arthur explains that he always felt like he was part of something older, that life was always missing a piece, thinking he finally understood what that feeling was, only to be corrected by the planet's producer who is perfectly paranoia and every thinking life form in the universe has the same feeling in the first place about why the Earth was built, taking us on a roller coaster of emotions from the feeling that an answer turned out that we learned very quickly that this feeling is not exclusive to us and that everyone is equally vulnerable and incapable of doing anything to change it. One of humanity's common fears of alien species is that we are somehow inferior to them and could easily dominate or invade if they wanted to, completely overpowering us. This happens in a scene where Zaphod (the ship's captain) entertains the idea of ​​replacing Arthur's brain with an electronic one. “'Yes,' said Zaphod with a sudden evil smile, 'you should just program it to say What? And I don't understand and where is the tea? – who would know the difference?'”. Arthur by this point had already been humiliated several times on the journey, he is barely shaken by the statement that humans are considered as simple as building machines. Elsewhere in the book Arthur gets really offended because the description of Earth in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy only says "Mostly harmless", feeling small and diminished by the fact that his entire planet, its culture and millions of years of evolution have been reduced to just two simple words. In fact, demonstrating how the notion of value or importance derives from the approval of others, Arthur is rather shaken by this statement, once again feeling small and insignificant compared to the scope of the universe. As Adams once wrote, the idea for the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy came from a trip he took to Paris alone, bringing only one copy of the Hitchhiker's Guide to Paris. He suffered greatly from the outdated information and noted that it was only one person's point of view of experience of the place, and no one could really experience and know everything, thus being a fairly superficial representation of what the place has to offer . very clear in the mostly harmless description of the Earth. Not only does the book play with our anxieties and fears, but it also asks some questions about our moral values, how we were educated to think about things and the status quoof the life we ​​live. perceive around us. Arthur and his friend are at a restaurant in space, when they are asked the question if they would like to try the dish of the day, immediately followed by the entrance of a large talking bovine, who willingly offers parts of his body along with suggestions for meals . Arthur is surprised by the whole situation, feeling uncomfortable eating a living being who could speak to him as an equal and wanted to be eaten, so he orders a green salad, to which the big bovine does not agree. After explaining that many plant species expressed concern about being eaten, his species was developed so that it could clearly state its desire to be eaten and so no one would feel bad, before setting off to shoot itself the bovine does a 'sarcastic remark about being very human with Arthur. Here Arthur finds himself trapped in a complex situation, his values ​​fundamentally dictating that we should not eat those we consider equal, but faced with the fact that he would rather eat living beings that he could not understand and did not want to be eaten, therefore eating the one who clearly could stating this, Arthur panics and decides it's best not to think about it, just asking for water. At that moment Arthur decides not to disturb his perception of the status quo on how food should work, even after the whole situation has been presented to him he prefers not to think about it, protecting himself from the anxiety that comes from this new knowledge and the impact that he would have on his life. The character of Zaphod also leads the reader to question free will and what it means to make a decision. As the story progresses, he discovers that his memories have been erased by someone and later discovers that someone is himself. Not knowing why he did this to himself, he is in a constant state of doubt, where every time he makes a decision he doesn't know if he really wants it or if that was an idea implanted in him by himself before death. mental operation, making him question his own will and how much of it was under his control and what was not. Using the absurd again, Adams is able to infer the idea that some of our actions are not under our complete control, but under the control of another part of the self, such as impulsive actions or thoughts that cannot be explained , they almost seem like strangers. , but they come from within ourselves, a metaphor for our subconscious and the constant struggle with the conscious mind to understand what the deeper layers of our consciousness are trying to tell us. Another example of this can be found in another work by Adam called Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987) where after being hypnotized by Dirk Gently, Richard questions his own free will on the night he climbed into the window of the his girlfriend on impulse, only later to learn that he was possessed by a ghost, who was using him to send a message. This lack of understanding and consequently fear of the subconscious is present in all of his works, resonated with people when the books were launched and still resonates today, arguably even more so, now with much more access to information thanks to the internet . and popular media, people are more aware now than ever about the inner workings of the mind, or rather, how much we still don't know about that inner workings. As a society we have had a great increase in therapists and psychologists and even more in people seeking help from these professionals, this is deeply linked to the fear of not understanding how our mind works, because if we are our mind and we don't we don't understand it not even, what do we understand. So we as a society try to find those..