Chapters 9-11 Summary

Chapter 9 shifts the scene to the "Heart of Gold," a fully automated ship captained by a vain, two-headed man named Zaphod Beeblebrox. Zaphod is in a state of near perpetual drunkenness, to the dismay of his girlfriend, Trillian, who tries unsuccessfully to bring him out of his depression. She decides she will leave him and looks through the "Hitchhiker's Guide" to look for an interesting place.

Under the heading "Recreational Impossibilities," she finds the article on learning to fly. The knack to flying is to throw yourself at the ground and miss. The best way to miss the ground is if while on your way down, you suddenly become distracted by something so you simply forget to hit the ground. Done successfully, this will leave you hovering above the ground, the guide explains. With some practice it is then possible to...