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Arthur’s monologue

“It’s a magnificent view from top of this radio tower! The clouds are so thick that
you can almost walk on them and even though the visibility is not great, it’s a
glorious sunset both above San Francisco and in my own soul. The wind is
whispering in my ear to jump, let go, follow my senses…

My friends, please go home and don’t worry about me, I can do this, in fact I
seem to even have a recollection of doing it in the past. It’s all a bit blurred now.
I wonder if the café downstairs is still open. A cup of tea would… NO, not yet. I
need to build a coherent picture about my purpose.

So, the multidimensional nature of our own galactic sector ZZ9-Plural-Z-Alpha


ensures that the Earth keeps reappearing after being destroyed, being simply
pulled out of another dimension into this one, thanks to the Whole Sort Of
General Mish Mash (WSOGMM). As my friend Ford explained it, all plural
dimensions are WSOGMM, ie all the different ways, times and probabilities
through which you could look at things. Me being pulled out of one dimensions is
one thread that keeps the Earth alive, impossible to destroy for as long as I live.
Well, isn’t the world lucky that its fate rests on my shoulders?

Why is that so? Marvin, the maniacally depressed paranoid android with the pain
in its left arm, is the smartest person-thing-being I ever met and he did mention
that the answer lies in the God’s last message to their creation. But Marvin hates
life, so how far can I trust him? As far as I can throw him, so let’s stick to my
own intellect. Oh my God, how sad!

WSOGMM bothers me. A lot! If there are so many dimensions, than it certainly
means that there is one of me in every dimension. I’ve been all over the time
and space and never met another me. Do I live or die in other dimensions? How
identical are we? Do we share memories? And how do I know who I am? Is it me
from this dimension or Arthur Dent from another one? We have been in California
for a month now and nobody tried to kill me, throw me out of a spaceship or
exfoliate my brain so this reality doesn’t feel very real to me. Who am I? Can I
die? Can I fly?

Sometimes I seem to have a real problem with my life choices. Need to make a
decision, prioritise, here. First things first: let’s see what’s all the fuss about
flying. Ford Prefect also claimed to have flown numerous times and if that half-
wit can do it, how hard can it be? Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy explained the
process of flying as a simple one. Pick a nice day. Throw yourself. Get distracted.
Miss the ground.

Well, let’s give it a try: 3,2,1 JUMP!”


REFLECTION
The characters of my story are borrowed from the Hitchhikers Guide to the
Galaxy books, but my story is unique. I like Margaret Atwood’s monologue
“Voice” because writing in first person is so intimate and personal. Theme of the
story: A confused man is trying to make sense and find a purpose in his life.
Also, conflict in where he belongs.

Style: I used varying sentence length to create appropriate effect for the reader.
Climax-suspense builds up to the point of no return, but I’ve left the conclusion
open to interpretation. Like the “Voice”, my story is a monologue because one
character speaks in first person, both addressing the audience (“My friends…”)
and in introspective language (everything else). It has an anecdote (the part
about nobody trying to kill him) and revealing insights into personality (admitting
to have a problem with life choices, or realising the sadness of his predicament
as his own intellect is no match for Marvin’s).

Conceptually, the story sends a subliminal message to the reader that, even
though in realms of science fiction, Arthur’s attempt is ill conceived and unlikely
to succeed.

Themes and poetic devices:

Linear narrative (timeline is in chronological order)


Escape and death
Mood/atmosphere
Setting, isolation (at the top of the tower)
Self-discovery (all questions about self)
Ambiguity (is Arthur Dent mad?)
Dramatic Irony (HHG2G readers know that this incarnation of Arthur Dent dies)
Personification (robot feeling pain and paranoia, wind whispering)
Simile (clouds description)
Rhetorical question, alliteration (“can I die, can I fly”)
Imagery (at the top of the tower)
Idiom (“trust him as far as I can throw him”)
Sarcasm (“nobody tried to kill me…”)
Metonymy (“The fate of the world rests on my shoulders”)
Colloquial language (halfwit)
Assonance (paranoid android)
Exclamation (“Oh my God, how sad!”)
Fractured Sentence (“A cup of tea would… NO, not yet”)
Intertextuality (reference to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy)
Irony (Well, isn’t the world lucky that its fate rests on my shoulders?)
Syntax (flying lesson)

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