Chapter 13
Marvin continues to lead Ford and Arthur, grumbling all the while. When Arthur enters he is shocked by Zaphod’s two heads, especially as his right hand is picking his teeth on his left head and the left one is grinning at Arthur and Ford. Ford and Zaphod exchange wary and familiar greetings. Ford tells Arthur that Zaphod is his semi-cousin, and tells Zaphod that Arthur is a friend whom he saved when his planet blew up.
To both Ford and Zaphod’s surprise, Arthur states that he’s met Zaphod—or, should he say, Phil? He reminds Zaphod of a particular party, which Zaphod finally remembers and smiles amusedly. Arthur angrily explains that Zaphod came to that party and looked normal and picked up a beautiful and intelligent girl that Arthur was interested in by using a line about being from another planet. From behind Arthur comes Trillian’s voice, wryly saying he was indeed from another planet. She smiles at him. He is stunned, and he asks “Tricia McMillan” what she is doing here. She replies that she hitched a lift just like them.
The computer chatters that the improbability sum is now complete.
Chapter 14
The four people feel an acute sense of unease that a perversion of physics has brought them together like this. None of them can sleep that night except Arthur. Trillian thinks about her surprisingly negative reaction to her planet being destroyed. Her two white mice she’d brought sit in a cage next to her. Zaphod thinks about not being altogether there mentally, and how these arrivals exacerbated that feeling. Ford wonders about his cousin’s ascent to power.
Trillian wakes up Zaphod and takes him to the control room. The insomniac Ford joins them. Trillian is pointing out how there is a planet at the exact set of coordinates Zaphod predicted. Zaphod calls for the computer to show the Horsehead Nebula, which ought to have nothing in it. He orders it to rotate its angle a bit and suddenly they see a red star the size of a small planet, and then another. It is a binary system.
Zaphod gasps that he’s found it—“the most improbable planet that ever existed” (114).
Chapter 15
The following is an excerpt from the Guide. In the earliest days of the Galactic Empire men and women were bold and mighty and did great things. They were rich and proud. However, they were also dull and assumed it was because of the planets they were on. Soon they created a specialist industry that was centered on planet-building. The home for this was Magrathea, which, in its capacity as the home where dream planets were built, became extremely wealthy. Eventually, though, the Empire collapsed and the planet disappeared.
Nowadays no one believes Magrathea really existed.
Chapter 16
Ford and Zaphod are arguing when Arthur joins them. Ford is very skeptical about Magrathea and claims it never existed. The computer announces that they are near it, and Trillian tells them regardless of what they think, they are close to somewhere.
Zaphod calls for more views of the planet. The group sees a fantastic binary sunrise and Zaphod has a shiver of excitement. He breathes that he is watching the twin suns of Soulianis and Rahm.
Ford scoffs but is impressed at the beauty of this new planet, whatever it is. The fact that Zaphod thinks it is the mythical planet of Magrathea simply seems juvenile to him.
Arthur asks Trillian what is going on and she explains. He then asks for tea.
The planet unfolds beneath them. Its surface is bleak and forbidding; it is “gray, dusty, and only dimly contoured” and “looked cold and dead as a crypt” (120). The surface seems “blurred by time” and “very very old” (120). Zaphod announces that they’ve got to explore, partly because he’s curious, partly for fame and money and adventure. Ford looks at him in annoyance; even if it is the famous planet, there’s definitely no treasure there.
The narrator cuts in and explains that yes, this really is Magrathea. Also, it is about to launch a deadly missile attack as part of an automatic defense system. That will only bring about a few broken coffee cups, a mouse cage, a bruise to someone’s upper arm, and the creation and demise of a sperm whale.
Chapter 17
Arthur’s mind is slowly reviving after his traumatic prior day. He drinks a substance very much like tea and feels better. He watches the gray planet slide by on the screens and asks aloud if its safe. Zaphod replies that of course it is, as it’s been dead for five million years.
Suddenly the group hears a voice that the computer tells them is a tape being broadcast from the dead planet. The cold but courteous voice explains that the planet is temporarily closed for business. It switches off. A moment later, it returns to thank their clients and say business will eventually be back.
Arthur muses that perhaps they ought to go, but Zaphod hushes him. The voice flicks on again, this time slightly angrier. It thanks them for their interest but says that there are guided missiles converging on their ship now.
The group is decidedly uncomfortable but Zaphod chides them and says it’s merely an old recorded message. Ford taps him on the shoulder and points to the rear screen, which reveals two massive rockets barreling at them. Zaphod is astonished that someone is trying to kill them and says it must mean they are onto something.
Trillian asks what they're going to do and the computer informs them that there are no evasive maneuvers available, as its guidance system seems to be jammed. Zaphod suggests they fly the ship manually, but when Ford asks him if he knows how to, he says no. Zaphod says they will just all have to do it together, and makes the computer give him manual control.
Ford leaps to the controls as well. The ship twists and roils about in space and the group is thrown about. Someone gets a bruise. The computer intones the countdown to impact as the missiles zoom toward the ship.
Arthur is struck by a thought, and asks why they don’t turn on the Improbability Drive. Zaphod bursts out that anything could happen, but Arthur retorts that they have no more options.
Arthur scrambles up to turn it on and, finally, a “mind-mangling explosion of noise and light” (131) occurs.
Chapter 18
The Heart of Gold continues smoothly along its course. Inside the interior is slightly different in that it is more beautifully and fashionably decorated. The ship appears to be in the exact same place as before. Zaphod commends Arthur for thinking to turn on the Drive without first activating the proofing screens.
One of the crazily improbable things that had happened, sadly, was that a sperm whale had been called into existence. It experienced consciousness for only a few moments when it plummeted to the planet and splattered in a messy, unfortunate death.
Chapter 19
The Heart of Gold lands on the planet. Ford asks if they are taking the depressed robot with them and Marvin glumly tells them it’s harder to be the robot than to deal with the robot. Trillian bursts in and says that her white mice are gone. Zaphod does not seem to care, but he should because white mice are the most intelligent life forms on the planet Earth (but no one knows that).
The computer greets them but now has a different, twangy and female voice. When she will not open the hatchway for them until someone apologizes for being rude, Ford decides to count because nothing is more aggressive to a computer than counting.
The new Eddie relents, annoyed, and opens the hatchway. She calls out that “it’ll all end in tears, I know it” (138) as they step out onto the icy planet.
Chapter 20
Five figures wander across the dull, bleak, and freezing planet. Zaphod seems disappointed; Ford is irritated that he was stranded for fifteen years on Earth and is now here. Arthur is excited to be standing on another planet for the first time, and Trillian is a bit unnerved because she thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye.
The group approaches what seems to be a massive crater, and, to their disgust, they see clumps of whale meat everywhere. Zaphod happily points out the silver lining to this -that the whale’s fall opened up the interior and there is an underground passage. The others apprehensively follow Zaphod down.
The interior of the planet that they are in is a network of galleries and passages. Zaphod explains that the Magratheans largely lived underground. Trillian is nervous but Zaphod assures her no one is here. He does tell Arthur to stay with Marvin and guard the entrance for safety.
Zaphod, Ford, and Trillian move down the passageway. Trillian stops to look at symbols on the wall mosaics and asks Zaphod if he knows what they mean. He shrugs that he does not. There are small chambers along the passageway, sometimes filled with old computer equipment.
As they are exploring Ford asks Zaphod to explain just how he found this planet in the first place. Zaphod replies succinctly: “Research. Government archives. Detective work. Few lucky guesses. Easy” (144). Ford figures out that he must have stolen the Heart of Gold for this purpose, and all Zaphod will say is that he stole the ship for many reasons but he doesn’t quite know what he’s looking for. Ford is confused, but Zaphod states that yes, maybe he is crazy but his mind works this way and he’s got to go with it. After all, every time he freewheels and gets an idea it ends up working out. He does worry about himself sometimes, and once he decided to figure out how his mind works by plugging himself into the encephalographic screen. It said he had no anomalies and was clever and imaginative and extroverted and untrustworthy -all obvious things. But then he saw that someone had “cauterized all the synapses and electronically traumatized those two lumps of cerebellum” (146) for some reason.
Ford is aghast and Trillian turns white. They ask who and why, and Zaphod tells them that the person left their initials there. Those initials are "Z.B."
After he says this, gas begins to fill the chamber and they all pass out.
Chapter 21
Arthur, left alone, decides to look at the Guide. He then watches the two suns set over Magrathea. It is gorgeous and he wakes up the robot to share in it because no one else is there.
Marvin says drolly that the sunset is dull and rubbish. Arthur is annoyed and says he is going for a walk alone.
The atmosphere is thin and there is no moon, so it is very dark. Arthur doesn't see the old man until he runs into him.
Chapter 22
The man is tall, elderly, dressed in a long gray robe, and possesses a careworn but trustworthy face. There is a small craft nearby.
The man looks at Arthur, perhaps a little sadly, and says he chose a cold night to visit his planet. Arthur asks who he is but the man says his name is not important. He adds that he will not harm Arthur.
Arthur is surprised and mentions the missiles. The man sighs that those were automatic. After a moment the man says he is a fan of science. This comment unnerves Arthur, who is no longer sure about his curious and kindly manner. The man asks Arthur if he is ill at ease and Arthur admits that they weren’t expecting to find anyone since they thought they were all dead.
The man smiles that they aren’t dead but merely asleep because of the economic recession. Arthur has to prompt him but he keeps going. He mentions wistfully that they used to do fascinating and wonderful work but then the recession hit and they decided to sleep through it and have the computers revive them when it was over. The computers were linked to the Galactic stock-market prices.
After a moment the man looks at Marvin and asks Arthur if “it” is his. The robot replies that he is his own. Arthur says grimly that it’s not so much a robot as an electronic sulking-machine. The man has a decisive note in his voice when he tells Arthur to get the robot. Then one second later he changes his mind and says to leave the robot and follow him; important things are afoot.
Arthur is perplexed but the man urges him to follow. When Arthur asks where they are going, the man tells him matter-of-factly that Magrathea is awakening. Arthur shivers and sits beside the man in the small craft.
Arthur looks at the old man and asks his name again. The man replies that it is Slartibartfast. The absurdity of this name stuns Arthur. The aircar sails through the night to find the Magratheans.
Analysis
In these chapters, the plot (what little there is of it) comes together more tightly; significantly, this is done by the Improbability Drive, which is a subtle and humorous nod to how any author of a work of fiction has to sometimes stretch the limits of probability to make his or her plot actually work. Zaphod and his cousin Ford are reunited, Arthur and the charismatic “Phil” and the woman they both pursued are reunited, and the planet that Zaphod had been searching for comes into view. The four characters decide to explore the planet of Magrathea, though their individual reasons for doing so range from desire for treasure and fame to intellectual curiosity to merely having nothing else to do.
Zaphod, who initially seemed the most straightforward character in his aggressive self-interest, actually proves to be somewhat of a mystery as well as possessive of more nuance than initially assumed. He thinks to himself that he wished he knew “what it was that he wouldn't let himself think about. For as long as he could remember he’d suffered from a vague nagging feeling of being not all there” (111). On Magrathea with Ford and Trillian he admits he stole the Heart of Gold to look for something but does not know exactly what he is looking for; indeed, he says “I only know as much about myself as my mind can work out under its current conditions. And its current conditions are not good” (144). He has always felt there is something wrong with his brain and thus the night before he looked into it and discovered that he himself had “cauterized all the synapses and electronically traumatized...two lumps of cerebellum” (146) but has no idea why. We learn a bit more later about why Zaphod chose to run for the presidency (at the behest of the former president who suggested he do it to steal the Heart of Gold) but other than that Zaphod remains opaque to readers and to himself.
The somewhat hapless Arthur proves his worth by saving the group from Magrathea’s automatic missile defense system, as well as being the one who actually encounters a Magrathean. Slartibartfast’s name belies his intelligence and gravity, and he provides Arthur with the backstory of the planet and indicates that something significant is going to happen soon. Arthur does not quite have the ability to comprehend everything that is happening to him, but he is game enough in the situations he is in. Critic Joshua Stein comments on the novel’s theme of “randomness of life and the ability to deal with whatever is put in one’s path by it” and how Arthur “as human is thrust into a world not of his making -a world, in fact, actively hostile to his existence. That he survives as long as he does is testament to both chance and to his friends, who must also live with the uncertainty of existence.” Arthur “never fully understands all that is around him, but he never gives up.”
A notable element of the novel is Adams’s narrative voice and how it occasionally breaks through the more traditional, chronological third-person narration. He does this for a few reasons: 1) to provide readers with context as to the history of the universe; this happens with the story of Magrathea’s rise and fall 2) to play with that traditional unfolding of narrative events by providing a summation of what is going to happen and how absurd it will be; this happens with the conclusion of the Improbability Drive being offered before the events transpire 3) to clarify things for the readers so they know what is happening even when the characters do not 4) to elicit amusement from readers due to Adams’s wry, deadpan tone 5) to suggest that there is some sort of omniscient intelligence telling this story of many stories; in this case, there is much more to ponder.
Adams’s fungible narration contributes to the sense which has been building for some time of the universe’s essential randomness. Critic Ira Smolensky sums this up: “reality is elusive, conditions constantly shift, and the meaning of life may be completely unknowable. Douglas Adams’s universe is an existential one in which there is no knowable godhead to supply authoritative guidance and morals are relative.” What there is, Adams suggests, is friendship, curiosity, bravery, and acceptance of vagaries and vicissitudes.
