h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Why 42?

I once worked this out. It is a joke. A mid-novel signature wrapped up in a Numerology joke.

If A = 1, B = 2 up to Z = 26 ...

D + A + D + A + M + S = 4 + 1 + 4 + 1 + 13 + 19
= 42

It also reads DADA MS, Dada Manuscript, a shorthand way to refer to the novel, therefore.

This was published, under my name, in the Creativity column in the Independent, in response to a question asking why the answer was 42. About 5 or 6 years ago.

Douglas Adams died before I could put this to him. But I note that elsewhere in h2g2 he is quoted as saying 42 was a joke. Perhaps if we meet up at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, I shall ask him then.

Meantime, back on Mostly Harmless, does anyone know if Adams was into Numerology?

If he had have included his middle initial, N, the Answer would have become 56, of course.

An alternative solution would be that he was thinking of Arnold Wesker's Centre 42 project.

Bruce Birchall