Arthur Dent

Jeg har tilføjet en kategori til min blog og i modsætning til kategorier som Foto, Humor, IT-sikkerhed og Nørderi, så er den måske ikke helt så selvforklarende: Arthur Dent-kategorien.

Arthur Dent er, som det vil være nogen bekendt, den gennemgående hovedperson i Douglas Adams’ trilogi “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe”, “Life, The Universe and Everything”, So long, and Thanks for All the Fish” og “Mostly Harmless”. Med sine 5 dele regnes den i øvrigt for verdens længste trilogi. Arthur Dent er en helt almindelig, måske endda lidt kedelig, mand i 30’erne, som imidlertid udsættes for en række yderst usædvanlige hændelse, såsom at blive samlet op af et Vogon-rumskib i sekunderne før jordens undergang (en beklagelig misforståelse), overvære universets undergang, høre en kriminel genfortælle hele sandheden og blive konfronteret med en person, som i alle sine inkarnationer er blevet dræbt af Arthur Dent!

Det er i forbindelse med sidstnævnte oplevelse, at Arthur Dent, i “Life, The Universe and Everything”, pludselig finder sig selv i en mørk grotte, kun svagt oplyst af et grønt neonskilt med teksten “Vær ikke foruroliget” og, efter en kort kunstpause, tilføjelsen “Vær meget, meget bange, Arthur Dent”.

Fællestræk for indlæg i Arthur Dent-kategorien er, at de beskriver hændelser, tiltag eller tanker, som ikke gør mig foruroliget – de gør mig meget, meget bange!

Som når den amerikanske kongres behandler et lovforslag i mod lydløse kameraer eller når et ungt par arresteres af FBI og anklages for terrorisme, fordi de har kysset og krammet i en flyvemaskine eller når justitsminister Brian Mikkelsen afviser videnskabelige undersøgelsers saglighed, fordi »[..] der er en utryghed i befolkningen og en fornemmelse af, at hård kriminalitet bliver straffet for mildt, og det vil jeg gerne tage alvorligt. For jeg er 100 procent borgernes mand. [..]«.

Her finder jeg det passende at runde af med et citat fra Genesis-nummeret “Land of Confusion”:

Theres too many men
Too many people
Making too many problems
And not much love to go round
Cant you see
This is a land of confusion.

English translation, assisted by Google Translate:

I have added a category for my blog and in contrast to categories like Photo, Humor, IT security, etc., it is perhaps not quite so self-explanatory: The Arthur Dent category.

Arthur Dent, some will know, is the main character in the Douglas Adams trilogy “The Hitchhikers’s Guide to the Galaxy”, “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe”, “Life, The Universe and Everything”, “So long , and Thanks for All the Fish” and “Mostly Harmless”. With its 5 parts, it also counts as the world’s longest trilogy. Arthur Dent is an ordinary, perhaps even a little boring, man in his 30s, who is exposed to a some very unusual incidents, such as being picked up by a Vogon spaceship, bare seconds before the end of Earth (due to a regrettable misunderstanding), witnessing the End of the Universe, having a criminal retell the whole truth and be confronted with a person who, in all his incarnations, has been killed by Arthur Dent!

It is in the latter incident that Arthur Dent, in “Life, The Universe and Everything,” suddenly finds himself in a dark cave, only slightly illuminated by a green neon sign that says “Do not be alarmed” and after a short pause, adding the words “Be very, very frightened, Arthur Dent”.

Common feature of the Arthur Dent category is, that they describe events, actions and ideas that do not alarm me – they make me very, very frightened!

As when the U.S. Congress discuss a bill against silent cameras or when a young couple is arrested by the FBI and accused of terrorism, because they have kissed and coddled in an airplane or when Justice Minister Brian Mikkelsen reject the objectivity of scientific studies because »[..] there is a sense of insecurity among the population and a feeling that hard crime is not punished hard enough, and I will take seriously. Because I am 100 percent a man of the citizens. [..]«.

Here, I think it is appropriate to round off with a quotation from the Genesis song “Land of Confusion”:

Theres too many men
Too many people
Making too many problems
And not much love to go round
Cant you see
This is a land of confusion.