51–60 of 81 posts
Just this week i was looking for more humour writing like Douglas Adams, PG Wodehouse. I came across this award which seems interesting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bollinger_Everyman_Wodehouse_P...
I plan to read some of them this year.
The Radio Series was the best, followed by the scripts to the radio series (more random access!)
The TV series was actually pretty good too (like a Tom Baker Doctor Who (Adams was also a Who editor/writer during that time and had access to all manner of polyurethane monster kit!))
I also loved the Dirk Gently books but I always felt like they needed more of a denouement. Every passage before the end was like a hand carved chocolate frog, and the endings were said frog hitting a publisher at speed.
I remember tuning in to the first episode on BBC Radio 4, having heard about it the previous evening. It was so absolutely tuned into my way of thinking it could have been written just for me. Even now, as they say, the pictures are better on radio. Other adaptations have always disappointed me, apart from the subsequent books, for the same reason. Douglas Adams was a great loss when he died, but what we had from him…
Exactly my feelings. The CD boxed set, now scratched and basically unplayable, is still one of my prized possessions. I've probably listened to it hundreds of times, often back to back.
One of my greatest regrets in life is seeing a "ticket" on the back of an EE trade magazine to see Douglas Adams give a presentation. I believe the event was in San Diego, and I was living in Arizona. The event was that upcoming weekend. I was tempted to drive out for the event, but thought, "nah, that's a torturous drive, I'll catch him another time." He died within a year. "The ships hung in the sky in much the sam…
It's unpleasantly like being drunk. What's so unpleasant about being drunk? You ask a glass of water.
???
Bits of me keep passing out
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"I still find the end of So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish quite moving." Moving, but maybe still depressing? So warning of spoilers, but Arthurs sole mission is to find the place he is supposed to visit, before he can finally die. (His only wish because his girlfriend vanished from existence) And in the end he finds the place, which is not what anyone expected and they indeed all die, including his daughter. Afte…
That's Mostly Harmless, and yes, Adams was quite depressed when he wrote it. I still don't hate that ending - I segued in my youth from these books straight into existential philosophy (I was a tiresome bore then and still am, apologies) and I could very much sympathise with Ford at the end finding it all hilarious. But you could easily stop reading at So Long and feel quite satisfied no matter your outlook, I think,…
But I also don't hate the ending of "Mostly harmless". It is a fitting end alltogether. Absurd and dark, just like the very beginning of the books are.
There's "The Salmon of Doubt", an excellent collection of misc essays and writings of Douglas Adams published after his death, and it contains his last unfinished Dirk Gently novel. It's about one third finished, and it's really just wild: There's one narrative strand about Dirk Gently, a private detective, receiving mysterious anonymous payments and deciding to follow random strangers, one about a paragliding genius…
There were four episodes of a Dirk Gently TV series done by the BBC which I really found both clever and charming in just the right way for Dirk Gently. Some of it grated, but in a way that I feel it was correctly intended to. It's a shame it was cancelled before it could do a bit more exploration. They seemed to be onto a good thing. The US TV Series I also enjoyed, but it's much more of a radical departure from the…
He wrote back:
"Thanks for your note. Glad you enjoyed the books. I'm glad if I got you interested. But I'm always surprised that people are surprised to find that the world we unexpectedly find ourselves in is interesting.
Best, Douglas Adams"
Not his most pithy writing to be sure, but I love that I have this personalized bit of Douglas Adams wisdom that nobody else has ever seen (well, now they have).
In 1988 I was working on a Mac software package and I remember the thrill of his returned “Customer Registration” card arriving. We had a small display cabinet and it went in there (along with Stanley Kubrik’s and as few others) The Radio Series was the best, followed by the scripts to the radio series (more random access!) The TV series was actually pretty good too (like a Tom Baker Doctor Who (Adams was also a Who…
I always kind of wish HHGttG was as good as the geekdom's fondness of it suggests. I read it, I enjoyed it, but really, it is such a depressing series. And there is very little that's particularly funny or interesting after the first book and a half. So many dull and drawn out scenes of characters in miserable situations. And that whole tortured Krikkit gag trying to explain the origins of cricket. Sigh.
I remember the 4th and 5th books as pale shadows of the others. I got the impression they were only written for the money.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In case you are unaware, the hhgttg “trilogy” is actually 5 (or 6, depending on your view) books long. “So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish” and “Mostly Harmless” are definitely worth a read!
I remember there being a collection of the first 3 called the Complete Hitchhiker's Guide. In typical Adam's fashion, after the 4th book was released a new compendium was released called the More than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide. That titling should have continued, so we'd have gotten the Even More than Complete Hitchiker's Guide and, finally, the Completest Complete Hitchiker's Guide.