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.
Careful, yESTERDAY mAN, didn’t you see what happened to the poster who asked for help with his homework on “To Kill a Mockingbird”? 
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.
I found something that may be of use…
This site 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):
So the “perfectly harmless” people would be Christians? Or Jesus?
Fran
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.
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
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.