Hitchhiker's Guide question

[yESTERDAY mAN]

In the short story "Young Zaphod Plays it Safe," who are the three identical Designer People that were on the Starship Billion Year Bunker? I'm writing a term paper over the trilogy, and I can't figure out what this story is trying to say.

[nerv]

Careful, yESTERDAY mAN, didn't you see what happened to the poster who asked for help with his homework on "To Kill a Mockingbird"? ;)

[yESTERDAY mAN]

OK then, does anyone know of any interpretations of Adams' work that I could find online? I've searched the web several times and found nothing.

[Francesca]

I found something that may be of use...

This site (http://mirrorshades.org/wc/archives/00000021.php) points out that the bit about a man babbling gently about a shining city on a hill is a possibly a biblical reference to Jesus:

Gospel according to Matthew, Chapter 5 verse 14 (during the Sermon on the Mount):
"You are like a light for the whole world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden."

So the "perfectly harmless" people would be Christians? Or Jesus?

Fran

[plankter]

Francesca wrote:

"...the bit about the man babbling gently about a shining city on a hill is possibly a biblical reference to Jesus..."

I was sure it referred to Ronald Reagan.

[Cliffy]

It was Ronald Reagan. During the (I think) 1984 campaign, Reagan likened America under his presidency to a shining city on a hill. At a speech at the 1984 Democratic Convention, Mario Cuomo used this metaphor to attack Reagan for widening the gap between the haves and the have-nots.

--Cliffy

[yESTERDAY mAN]

Thanks for the help. I thought that it might be a religious reference at first, but the Reagan idea makes sense. The story was published in 1986, so a reference to the 1984 campaign seems likely.