The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

This short chapter consists of an entry from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, describing the planet of Magrathea. Magrathea specialized in creating designer planets for the wealthiest members of the galaxy during the golden age of the Empire. The venture was so successful that Magrathea became so absurdly wealthy that it plunged the rest of the Empire into “abject poverty” (78). Thus, they no longer had clients for whom to design planets and faded into “the obscurity of legend” (78). Nobody, it seems, believes anymore that such a planet ever existed.

Arthur walks onto the bridge as Zaphod and Ford are arguing over the existence of Magrathea: Ford insists that the planet is only “’a fairy story [that] parents tell their kids about at night if they want them to grow up to be economists’” (79). All four gaze down at the planet and can at least agree that it looks very beautiful and very old. Arthur realizes something is missing: tea. Eventually, the narrator confirms that the planet below them is Magrathea. The narrator also adds that in the ensuing events, nobody will be killed, though someone will sustain a bruise to the arm—this information is relayed in advance so that the readers should not experience stress over the uncertainty of the characters’ fates.