Did this answer to "What is the meaning of life, the universe and everything? originate in “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galacy” or is their an earlier origin?
I attempted to find the answer in the archives, but got so many hits no matter how I phrased it… thought I’d ask.
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, CatFeet, glad to have you with us. Since this is a factual question rather than about the Message Board, I’m taking the liberty of moving it to the “General Questions” forum. No biggie, you’ll learn as you post more… which we hope you do.
The FAQ for the newsgroup alt.fan.douglas-adams has this to say about the number 42:
http://www.zootle.net/afda/mfaq.shtml#sect10
I seem to remember a more detailed account in one of Adams’ nonfiction pieces (maybe an essay in the posthumously published The Salmon of Doubt).
I believe it originated with the Hitchhikers Guide. If there’s an earlier usage, I’ve never heard of it.
AFAIK it originated with the book. I remember seeing an interview with Douglas Adams where he said he just picked the number out at random, so I guess that means it originated with him!
I believe its definition as “the answer to life, the universe, and everything” originated with Douglas Adams, as its the kind of random, but erily(SP?) consistent illogic that seems to show up in all his works.
However, in the final Chapter of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (http://www.cs.indiana.edu/metastuff/wonder/wonderdir.html), there is a mention of “Rule 42,” also apparently a random choice. It’s been used elsewhere in less famous or fascinating things before and since. I remember picking it (and 23, The Sacred Number of Eris) out of the blue whenever I wanted a number before I’d read it about 1/3rd of the time.
I think 42 is just, by nature, a flippant number.
There is a good case that it originates with Lewis Carroll.
The chapters of The Hunting Of The Snark are called “fit the first”, “fit the second”, etc, and so were the radio episodes of HHGTTG. In Snark, the Helmsman is obsessed with rule 42 of the code, and the baker brought 42 boxes of luggage. Lewis Carroll was aged 42 at the time of writing. In Alice in wonderland the King Of Hearts invents rule 42 “All persons more than a mile high to leave the court” (The oldest rule in the book.)
It seems the answer is not quite settled yet, but I appreciate each of your responses.
I seem to remember hearing 42 as the answer before Hiitchhiker’s Guide (1979). Having just re-read the book I was sure I’d find the answer here.
I got so caught up in 100’s of other subjects that I spent about 2 hours looking at all sorts of other interesting questions.
This is a great place.