Towel Day: Enthusiastic Book Lovers Come Together to Honor the Cosmic Emblem of Readiness
‘My guess is that life may be plentiful on other planets, but intelligent life may be very rare indeed,’ says Douglas Adams.
May 25 is Towel Day, a yearly homage to the late Douglas Adams (1952–2001), the brilliant mind behind “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” series.
On this day, Mr. Adams’s fans carry a towel, commemorating the indispensable item for any interstellar hitchhiker.
According to the Guide, a towel is incredibly useful. It can keep you warm, serve as a makeshift bed, act as a sail or weapon, be a distress signal, protect against harmful fumes, and even hide you from the foolish yet dangerous Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal.
But beyond its practical uses, a towel holds psychological significance. If a hitchhiker has a towel, others assume he has all the necessary travel gear and are likely to lend him anything he might need.
This belief has led to the saying: someone who knows where his towel is can handle anything.
Did Adams Really Believe in Aliens?
In 1998, I had the pleasure of interviewing Douglas Adams at the Intercontinental Hotel in Sydney. Defying the conventional wisdom about never meeting your idols, this encounter was unforgettable.
Mr. Adams, towering at six foot six and dressed in a black polo shirt, dark houndstooth jacket, and black pants, exuded an impressive presence.
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When asked about the existence of aliens, he responded with characteristic wit: “It’s rather like saying do I believe there are any socks in the left-hand drawer of the cupboard upstairs?
“At some point, I will go upstairs and find out. The bigger question for me, after assessing the probabilities of life on other planets, is whether there’s intelligent life on other planets. My guess is that life may be plentiful, but intelligent life may be very rare indeed.”
Why Is 42 the Answer to the Meaning of Life?
For two years, I delved into a university thesis dissecting Adams’s “trilogy,” exploring influences like Chaos Theory and the philosophies of Descartes, Saussure, and Roland Barthes.
Despite this deep dive, I still wondered why the answer to the great question of life was 42.
Mr. Adams explained, “It’s a joke, just a joke. Somebody being on a quest for any answer is a frequent story form, so I thought it would be funny to give just a number as the answer. It had to be an ordinary, everyday number, an inoffensive number, a number you can take home and introduce to your parents without embarrassment, so I came up with 42.”
He elaborated, “People still ask if there’s a Tibetan sect called 42. I say no, it’s a joke, honestly. In the trilogy, I talk about the Earth being set up as a computer … but everything goes wrong, and what it comes up with is: What is six times nine? Which obviously isn’t 42.”
“It’s amazing how many people point this out to me. They say, ‘Do you know that 6 times 9 isn’t 42?’ And I say, ‘Yes, I know. I did maths.’
“Then others say, but of course, 6 times 9 does equal 42 in base 13. Was that the joke? I say, No, I don’t make jokes in base 13 and don’t know anyone who does. It was just a joke.”
Meeting Mr. Adams was a case where hero worship bore fruit. He turned out to be, in Zaphod Beeblebrox’s words, the “froodiest dood” I’ve ever met.
He gifted me my most treasured possession: an autographed copy of his four-book trilogy inscribed with, “To Nicole, whose questions were much more clever than my answers.”
Towel Day Events
For those wishing to pay tribute to Mr. Adams, celebrations are held worldwide. For Australians, here’s what to keep an eye out for.
Perth: The observatory hosts a Towel Day Night Tour.
Brisbane: On the radio show “The Witching Hour,” host Nyx Fullmoon celebrates Towel Day on 4ZZZ.fm from 10 p.m. until midnight. A big Douglas Adams fan, Nyx discusses his works, especially H2G2, and plays numerous clips. Tune in live or listen afterward.
