Month: June 2024

Viktor E. Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist and Neurologist who became a concentration camp inmate during World War II.  He was born in Austria, earned his M.D. in 1930, and had established himself as an experienced physician when he was sent to his first of four concentration camps as an inmate.  Like most holocaust survivors, he was stripped of everything upon being taken by the Nazis. He was stripped of possessions, of family, and of title.

His training as a psychiatrist gave him a very unique look into every aspect of what it means to be human. He saw the extremes of human endurance, of compassion, and of course, cruelty. He saw how he, and those around him dealt with the incredible stress of knowing that each moment may be your last. He saw similarities in the actions and thoughts of those who succumbed to their situation and he saw similarities in those who survived it.

He concluded that humans are capable of enduring almost anything if they feel that they are enduring it for a purpose. Frankl used the idea that he needed to be there for his wife when this hell-on-earth ended. He endured years of hard labor, while consuming just scraps of bread and watered-down soup. He toiled outside in the winter months with tattered, inadequate clothing.  All the while knowing that a pause in his work or a glance in the wrong direction, at the wrong time, may draw a beating, or worse yet, a bullet.

Frankl occasionally saw unexpected kindness from a Nazi guard. He sometimes saw extreme cruelty from a capo. A capo was a fellow prisoner that was favored for some reason by the guards and put in charge of a work detail or barrack. A capo typically received extra rations and privileges. Apparently, a small amount of power was capable of quite a bit of moral corruption.

The life of a concentration camp inmate was the most stressful situation a human being could endure. This unlikely setting served as a sort of psychological observation laboratory for Frankl where he first began to develop a theory of motivation for human existence.  Contrary to fellow Austrian Sigmund Freud’s theory that humans are guided by pleasure, Frankl determined that they are guided by finding a purpose or meaning to their lives.

In the end, the image that kept Frankl alive, that of his wife, was found to be just a memory. His wife Tilly succumbed to illness in Bergen-Belsen well before his liberation.  Not knowing this likely greatly assisted in his survival. He was able to toil on in the hopes of one day being there for her.

The psychiatric field of Logotherapy is largely attributed to Frankl and has shown great success in helping patients with OCD, schizophrenia, and terminal illnesses. Its underlying philosophy is to help a patient find a meaning or purpose to his or her life. This purpose can often differ greatly from individual to individual, but upon finding, and pursuing it, one’s well-being is greatly enhanced.

 

This book is a continuation of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. This is the third book in the inaccurately named five-part trilogy. I have read two of these in a row. I hope I am not boring anyone, assuming anyone is reading this, with another Douglas Adams novel. Once again, the entire cast returns in this book. Even the thought-to-be-dead, perpetually depressed, Robot, Marvin. Marvin took some damage riding a stolen starship into a nearby sun, but somehow escaped incineration. Some of his replacement limbs have been cobbled together with odd spare parts, but he lives on.

The book starts where The Restaurant at the End of the Universe left us, with Arthur and Ford stranded on prehistoric earth. We discover, however, that they have split up. Arthur remained near the location of the original landing site, but Ford left to wander the earth. Arthur, still clad in his pajamas, robe, and slippers, has lived alone in a cave for four years. He has grown lonely and despondent. Finally, Ford returns. Initially, Arthur thinks he is a figment of his isolated imagination. Ford has returned because he believes he has tracked down a space-time eddy in the area where Arthur has been living. It presents itself in the form of a chesterfield sofa. Arthur and Ford chase it around as it moves around going in and out of existence. Finally, they leap onto it and are transported, sofa and all, to the Lord’s Cricket Ground just a couple of days before the timeframe of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. They arrive in the middle of the field as a match is in play. The crowd and announcers are bewildered by the appearance, out of thin air, of two long-bearded men on a chesterfield sofa.

Arthur is carried off the field on said sofa and both Arthur and Ford are questioned by police who aren’t quite sure if the duo have done anything wrong. As this is happening, the sofa vanishes out of existence. The police, fearful that they might be losing their grip on reality, let the two go. This seems to be the end of the excitement until a ship appears from the sky and out from it appears Slartibartfast, followed shortly afterwards by another ship that disperses violent white robots everywhere. The scene quickly escalates to pure chaos as the robots begin unleashing mayhem. The robots have come to steal the Ashes urn. This is the trophy given to the victor of the Australia versus England cricket series.

Arthur and Ford join Slartibartfast in his ship and leave earth to head for a party that has been going on for generations in an attempt to get information that will save the universe. Slartibartfast and Ford make it to the party, but Arthur does not. He has apparently upset a being known as an Agrajag. This  being has been reincarnated many times, only to have his existence snuffed out, mostly unwittingly, by Arthur. The Agrajag seeks revenge, but ends up getting killed, once again, by Arthur, who accidentally topples a statue of himself on the Agrajag.

In the end, Ford, Slartifartfast, Trillian, and Arthur are all reunited and learn that the Krikkit race is responsible for the killer robots that wish to end all life. They also learn that the Krikkits are being manipulated by an all-knowing super-computer named Hactar. Trillian persuades Hactar to cease existing, but his plan to end the universe is still in motion. On earth once again, Arthur attempts to return the Ashes Urn just after they have been stolen. He is is unsuccessful in this endeavor, but manages to save the universe by disposing of a cosmic-supernova-bomb and beheading a malevolent Krikkit robot with the robot’s own club. He does this still clad in pajamas, bathrobe, and slippers.

There are two more books left in this series, but for the moment, I am moving on to something else. Perhaps I will revisit this series later.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe is the sequel to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  See that recap to get up to speed here.  It is the second book in the inaccurately named five-part trilogy. This book starts off with the same characters as the first book and starts right where the previous book ends with the cast of four fleeing the planet Magrathea where Arthur Dent’s brain is wanted to decode the meaning of everything.  As they leave in their ship, The Heart of Gold, they are attacked by Vogons. Under most conditions, fleeing from the Vogons would be trivial as The Heart of Gold has an improbability drive that can normally transport the ship to any part of any universe almost instantly. Unfortunately, Arthur has asked the ship’s computer to make tea with milk. This request overloads the computer’s processors and leaves the ship sitting ducks to the Vogon’s weapons.  Just before they are completely annihilated, a séance results in Zaphod’s deceased great-grandfather shrinking the ship and putting it in Zaphod’s pocket while also transporting Zaphod on a journey to find the ruler of the universe.

On his journey, he finds the ruler, who lives in a shack and has no idea he is the ruler of the universe. This is an ode to the theory that only someone who does not want to be in charge is qualified to be in charge.  Eventually, after the journey, Zaphod returns to The Heart of Gold  and sends the ship to the nearest restaurant.  Geographically, the nearest restaurant is exactly where they currently are, but many years in the future. This restaurant is built  at the literal chronological “end” of the universe.

After a dinner of steaks made from a being that introduced himself prior to the meal, Zaphod decides not to leave in The Heart of Gold, but rather in another ship that is in the parking lot. It turns out that Zaphod’s depressed robot, Marvin, is also in the parking lot working as a parking attendant. Many millions of years have passed since Marvin last saw Zaphod. Marvin is, geographically, exactly where he was left when the last book ended. Zaphod has Marvin let everyone into a sleek black ship and Marvin, Trillian, Ford, Arthur, and Zaphod venture away from the restaurant.

They soon discover that the ship is, for the most part, a drone designed to drive into the nearest sun and provide a sort of pyrotechnic display for a rock concert on a neighboring planet. They discover a transporter on the ship that allows everyone to escape before colliding with the sun. Everyone, except Marvin, who stays behind to control the transporter.

The book then loses Zaphod and Trillian who are transported to a different location than Arthur and Ford. Arthur and Ford are transported to an enormous ship filled with frozen, but still living bodies, and a small crew navigators. It turns out this ship was “fleeing” its home world to populate another planet. It was supposed to be one of three ships that was travelling to a new world. It turns out that this ship was really the only one travelling. It was filled with hairdressers, middle-managers, telephone sanitizers, and others who where deemed irrelevant to their society and were tricked into being expelled as a way to rid their planet of its worthless members.

They eventually arrive at their new planet which Arthur and Ford determine to be prehistoric earth. They find a small population of inhabitants already on the planet, but soon realize they are dying off due to the new people arriving. This makes Arthur realize he is a descendant of the cast-offs on the recently arrived ship, rather than the native inhabitants. The book ends with Arthur and Ford stranded 2 million years in the past on a planet of Neanderthals and morons.