In Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the least pleasant race in the galaxy are known as Vogons and they are bureaucratic and highly obedient to rules. Is this supposed to be a satire of English culture?
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7It's supposed to be a satire of bureaucracy, in whatever country it might be found.– OrangeDogCommented Feb 2 at 0:31
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2 Answers
As I have argued elsewhere, Adams didn't particularly depict or satirise national stereotypes; his satire was social observation which happened to be written by a British author for a British audience.
The Vogons are a caricature of a particular aspect of the culture Adams was familiar with. They are not intended to be more representative of Englishness than the other characters who are based on different aspects of that culture.
The frustrating nature of bureaucracy in particular was a theme Adams used repeatedly. The first episode of the radio series (and all subsequent re-tellings) deliberately mirrors the bureaucracy of the local council planning to knock down Arthur's house with the bureaucracy of the Vogons planning to destroy the Earth. He later scripted an interactive fiction video game titled Bureaucracy, with a "blood pressure" mechanic simulating the frustration and anger of dealing with impersonal and illogical processes.
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The mirroring of the bureaucracy involved is paralleled in the movie too, and in the original book - Arthur's house is being torn down to make room for a freeway bypass, the planet is being torn down to make room for an interstellar bypass. Arthur's notice that his house is being torn down is tucked away in a difficult to find archive, the notice of Earth's destruction is in another solar system. It's a very clear parallel in all versions of the story.– ZibbobzCommented Feb 2 at 18:32
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3@Zibbobz That's why I said "the radio series (and all subsequent re-tellings)" - the radio series came before any of the books, or any other version. Adams was somewhat notorious for writing episodes only just in time for the recordings.– IMSoPCommented Feb 2 at 21:03
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1Oh, I actually did not know the radio series came first! That makes perfect sense now. Thank you for explaining.– ZibbobzCommented Feb 3 at 4:32
The wikipedia page gives many clues and references:
The Vogons' behaviour turns out to be "full of very human—and specifically English—flaws and tendencies"1 to the point that Amanda Dillon considered them "probably the least othered alien in Adams's work"2 3 4 The Vogons are an easily recognizable satire of human middle-management culture and bureaucracy.
Many things in the universe are based upon cartoonist James Gillray's work, famous for his satirical depiction of his era's flaws, both politically and socially. According to these corroborative sources and personal understanding, it seems appropriate to conclude that Vogons are definately a satire of various aspects of the English society, but also a broader one, as we find these attributes in other countries. (Gillray's work was one of his time, depicting and mocking people and countries in Europe too). Like they did with Spitting image, you can use home and away inspiration.
Garth Jennings deliberately based his conception of the Vogons on the work of cartoonist James Gillray (1757–1815)5. "His creations were so grotesque...when we looked at them, we realised they were the Vogons"
1. Webb, Stephen (2017). "Engaging Aliens". All the Wonder that Would Be: Exploring Past Notions of the Future. Science and Fiction. Springer. pp. 102–103.
2. Dillon, Amanda (2019). "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". In Levy, Michael M.; Mendlesohn, Farah (eds.). Aliens in Popular Culture. Greenwood. p. 153. ISBN 978-1-4408-3832-3.
3. Van der Colff, Marilette (2010). One is Never Alone with a Rubber Duck: Douglas Adams's Absurd Fictional Universe. Cambridge Scholars. pp. 72–75. ISBN 9781443824385.
4. Fatima, Zohra (2016). "Humor, Satire and Verbal Parody in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: A Relevance Theoretic Approach". NUML Journal of Critical Inquiry. 14 (2): 38–53
5. British caricaturist and printmaker famous for his etched political and social satires. James Gillray
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16There's a bit of confusion here over who created the Vogons, perhaps due to some sloppy wording on Wikipedia. The quotes from Garth Jennings are about the look of the Vogons 2005 movie, created almost 30 years after the radio original, and completed after Douglas Adams had died. The question, however, asks about the characterisation of the Vogons by Douglas Adams himself.– IMSoPCommented Feb 1 at 11:27
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2Also, the sentence "Many things in the universe are based upon cartoonist James Gillray's work" is simply wrong. It might be correct to say "Many things in the 2005 film adaptation are based upon cartoonist James Gillray's work", but even that isn't supported by the quote, which specifically mentions that the look of the Vogons was based on it.– IMSoPCommented Feb 2 at 13:38
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1@OldPadawan As I said in my first comment, I think you have misunderstood the context of the Jennings quote. The Vogons were created by Douglas Adams in 1978, for the original radio series; he created the attitude and behaviour which the question is asking about. Garth Jennings was not involved in that radio series (he was only 6 years old at the time!); he directed a film adaptation in 2005. So the quote is about how Jennings chose to represent the Vogons in that film; he looked at the Gillray cartoons, and decided that would be a good visual representation of the existing characters.– IMSoPCommented Feb 2 at 14:35
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2@OldPadawan Your answer says "many things ... are based upon ... James Gillray". That is simply wrong. The quote does not talk about "many things", and it does not describe the creation of the original characters. The question asks why they were depicted as "bureaucratic and highly obedient to rules" - that is a choice made by Douglas Adams, in 1978; Garth Jennings had nothing to do with it.– IMSoPCommented Feb 2 at 14:58