So Long, Hitchhiker: Douglas Adams Dead At 49 473
Motor was among the first of the hundreds of readers with this sad news: "Douglas Adams, author of the Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy
has died of a heart attack, aged 49." I still remember the first time someone pointed out the Hitchiker's Guide to me, and what a changing point even the first few pages were. It's easy to see he'll be missed.
Respects (Score:2)
Sad day. (Score:2)
Sorry, theists... (Score:2)
That clinches it. There is no God.
You wasted post #42 for THAT? (Score:3)
Thank you so much. (Score:3)
So long (Score:5)
Oh God, I'm so depressed...
Re:So long, and thanks for all the fish. (Score:2)
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I wish today were April 1-st (Score:2)
for the love of god mod parent down (Score:2)
Douglas Adams = creator of HHGTTG among many other things, and who just died
you = karma whore who used google to create a post, who has obviously never even read the books, and whose post is an insult to those who are still reeling from this news
this is a sad sad day. (Score:2)
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Re:42 (Score:2)
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Re:wow (Score:2)
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Just like to point out... (Score:5)
That could be you at age 49, too.
So perhaps all you sixty-hour work-lifers should think about it. Before you get a chance to enjoy life, it could be over.
He leaves behind a wife and a seven year-old daughter. The people that were most important to him, and who he was most important to. Poof! Their Douglas is irrevocably gone from their lives.
I'm not saying everyone should become completely hedonistic and live only for the moment... but you gotta make sure that you do get to live.
Out of respect for the people who care for you, take a few minutes to assess your life. Make sure that you've got a good balance between work, family, and play. Make it a life worth living.
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Re:The Revelation of The Meaning of 42 (Score:2)
When they get old and start to fear death.
Go read about complex systems, self organization, auto catalytic sets, the genome projects underway and the relationship genetically between all living things.
Hope does not make it true. Faith does not change fact.
Re:Favorite Line (Score:2)
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So long and thanks for all the fish (Score:2)
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James Michael Keller
Re:49, not 42? (Score:2)
Hmm. (Score:2)
RIP (Score:2)
Evacuate Earth, now!!! (Score:2)
And if the coverup isn't enough proof for you, the fact that the dolphins are leaving [indiainfo.com] should clinch it.
Leave now, while you still can!
Re:My favourite joke (Score:2)
It's unpleantly like being drunk.
What's unpleasant about being drunk?
Ask a glass of water.
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Words alone... (Score:3)
My condolences to Jane, Polly and all of DNA's family, friends and fans.
Re:49, not 42? (Score:5)
"The thing I love most about deadlines is the wonderful WHOOSHing sound they make as they go past." - Douglas Adams.
Re:Sad (Score:2)
I'm deeply concerned that he isn't just doing this for tax reasons. I selfishly wanted him to outlive me just long enough so I could appear to him in a dream and tell him what it's like outside the Asylum.
I guess he'll find out first.
We missed the Last Chance To See... (Score:2)
Apart from his all-time master piece, a trilogy in five parts, I think it's worth pointing out his other works, about strange Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, the Starship Titanic picking up travellers on Earth and my favourite piece of non-fiction, Last Chance To See [douglasadams.com] . I'd really love to have seen more like this from his quill and meet him live on one of his public readings, even if he'd be talking to me in a foreign language...
We all will surely miss you, even the most stubborned Terry Prattchet fans. Farewell.
Re:Secret writings ? (Score:5)
#define NINE 8 + 1
#define SIX 1 + 5
int main() {
printf("%i times %i is %i\n", SIX, NINE, SIX * NINE);
return 0;
}
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Re:Why 42? (warning long post). (Score:2)
There is also proof from the books that 42 stopped being the valid answer to The Question, the instant that it was presented as the answer.
The following is a logic exercize i did on the matter a few weeks ago (actually it was about some other stuff but contained this, so heres a modified version):
In Life, the Univers, and Everything the character Prak (who was given too much the truth drug) states this when Arthur Dent asks him about what the question is:
"... The Question and the Answer are mutually exclusive. Knowledge of one logically precludes knowledge of the other. It is impossible that both can ever be known about the same Universe. Except, that if it happened, it seems that the Question and the Answer would jus cancel each other out, and take the Universe with them, wich woul then be replaced by something even mor bizarrely inexplicable. It is possible that this has already happended, but there is a certain amount of uncertainty about that."
From this we get:
1. there is a question and an answer
2. Knowledge of both is impossible without forever altering everything.
3. This may already have happened.
So:
First, the people who knew the question were long passed when the answer came out. So no person knew both the question and the answer. However, in the computer that calculated the answer, the question and the answer had to exist simultaniously for an instant.
Now, the Earth as it turns out, is a giant computer designed to accertain(sp?) the question. When Arthur and Ford land with the Golgofrincams, they play scrabble fairly early, before the computer is completely fsked. So the primitive cave men may actually be trying a brute force attack, and happen to be trying out "what is six by nine". Eventually they would try 6x7, or already had, and were just comparing other questions for proof.
Either way, it is entirely possible that 6x7 is in fact the real question, however when there was finally an answer to it (42) the result was that, both cancelled each other out and the universe shifted inexorably to the complicated.
In this case one of the new inexplicable facts is that:
42 is the new answer, to which there is no question (according the above rules, or you could just say the new question is 42, and the answer is in the form of a question, the "Jeopardy Universe theory").
Another of the new complications is the religious fervor about the answer to the old question, making it an integral part of the new question-answer pair.
But it also could be that one of the complications (bizarre) is that 42 is just a false trail to keep people away from the latest universe's question-answer pair, and therefore 42 is actually quite irrelevant.
Of course this is all based on evidence that it may have happened, which must be seen with a certain amout of uncertainty.
ANYWAY, any author that could cause my brain to do that much thought and analasys over a couple of jokes will be greatly missed. HHGG has been a major part of my life and sense of humor since i was a freshman in highschool.
Take care Douglas Adams, and best of luck in the great unknown, ill look you up when i get there.
Re:wow (Score:2)
"I refuse to prove that I exists", says God. "For proof denies faith, and without faith, I am nothing."
"But the babelfish is a dead giveaway", says man. "It could not have evolved by chance. It proves that you exist, and therefore, by your own argument, you don't. Q.E.D".
"Oh, I hadn't thought of that," says God, and promptly vanishes in a path of logic.
Re:The Late Douglas Adams (Score:3)
Late, as in the late Adams Douglas Adams.
I feel a little weird about making jokes about his death, except that I'm confident he'd approve.
Re:I hate to pick a nit at a time like this. . . (Score:2)
a sad day indeed.
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Re:Why 42? (Score:2)
Re:Favorite Line (Score:2)
ound.. round... ground. Ground! I wonder if it will be my friend?
This is the worst news since Jerry Garcia died. (Score:2)
Lee Reynolds
Re:So long, and thanks... (Score:3)
Re:So long, and thanks... (Score:3)
I'm feeling something like... (Score:2)
"...like having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick."
My e-mail .sig has for several years now been: "...a liquid which was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.", and I nearly stopped posting to /. after my karma hit 42 (I'm jeopardizing this by posting, I know...)
I've always enjoyed his writings ever since I first discovered them about 8 years ago. I feel sad that he won't be around to write more of them. I will drink some very expensive alcohol later and mourn the loss. May he rest in peace.
Farewell, Mr. Adams. (Score:5)
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So long, and thanks for all the fish. (Score:5)
They gazed at God's Final Message in wonderment, and were slowly and ineffably filled with a great sense of peace, and of final and complete understanding.
Fenchruch sighed. 'Yes,' she said, 'that was it.'
They had been staring at ut for fully ten minutes before they became aware that Marvin, hanging between their shoulders, was in difficulties. The robot could no longer lift his head, had not read the message. They lifted his head, but he complained that his vision circuits had almost gone.
They found a coin and helped him to the telescope. He complained and insulted them, but they helped him look at each individual letter in turn. The first letter was a 'w', the second an 'e'. Then there was a gap. An 'a' follow, then a 'p', an 'o' and an 'l'.
Marvin paused for a rest. After a few moments they resumed and let him see the 'o', the 'g', the 'i', the 's', and the 'e'.
The next two words were 'for' and 'the'. The last one was a long on, and Marvin needed another rest before he could tackle it.
It started with 'i', then 'n' then a 'c'. Next came an 'o' and an 'n', followed by a 'v', an 'e', another 'n', and an 'i'.
After a final pause, Marvin gathered his strength for the last stretch.
He read the 'e', the 'n', the 'c' and at last the final 'e', and staggered back into their arms.
'I think', he muttered at last, from deep within his corroding rattling thorax, 'I feel good about it.'
The lights went out in his eyes for absolutely the very last time ever.
Luckily, there was a stall nearby where you could rent scooters from guys with green wings.
Aaargh. (Score:2)
Aaargh!
You expect your idols to live to a ripe old age. Who's next, Tatsuya Ishida? Linus? Stallman? Vincent D'Onofrio? Grr. Cruel and uncertain world!
I don't even want to to think about if this had happened to Heinlein. Of course, he died when I was seven, and I didn't read anything of his until senior year of high school, but... sigh.
It's a black day for all of us.
-grendel drago
"There was a long, terrible silence" (Score:5)
Douglas Adams had an uncanny sense of wit... one that most authors would give a lung and a kidney just to have for one novel. Although the "Dirk Gently" books never quite caught on with me, I do own all 5 Hitchhiker's Trilogy books (yes, an increasingly inappropriately named trilogy... and yes, the leather bound version) and they rank among the top 10 books/authors I have ever read. There is something quite upsetting about someone dying this young, someone with so much creative force left in him, but his contributions to our souls and to all of pop culture will exist forever and ever. We will never lose them.
The feeling is not entirely unlike Arthur Dent's feeling after losing Fenchurch in a hyperspace jump, though. This is beyond unexpected, and there's a feeling of helplessness as well. Plus, we all want to see that movie made the RIGHT way, and eventually I want to be carrying around my "Don't Panic" PDA. Palm might generate great business by selling one of its' wireless access models with those words on the cover, as a tribute.
I might add that I have two favorite authors, and I expected one of them to be dead any time soon now... except the other died extremely unexpectedly, and the other isn't getting any younger. So, someone, please, call and find out how Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is feeling today...
Re:So long....and thanks for all the books. (Score:2)
Altavista (Score:2)
Who will feed the fish, now ?
Maybe we should give the babelfish to Theo de Raadt, so that OpenBSD [openbsd.org] will run all hardware (past, present and future) over the universe ? And we will give back the ex-OpenBSD blowfish to the Altavista dudes, they won't see any change, anyway.
Re:The Late Douglas Adams (Score:2)
--GnrcMan--
Re:Don't want to spoil the party.... (Score:2)
--GnrcMan--
Response to God's Final Message: (Score:3)
I suppose I ought to accept God's apology for the inconvenience of losing Mr. Adams at 49. Very well, God. Apology accepted, though I'm sure it was more than an inconvenience for Mr. Adams himself.
Speaking of whom, suffice it to say that he has nothing to fear from the Total Perspective Vortex.
I've retrieved my autographed recipe (signed at a book-signing of his some ~13 years ago) for the Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster, put it up on the wall, and am about to smash my brains out with a slice of lemon wrapped 'round a large gold brick.
Multiple times, if I last long enough after the first one.
So long, Mr. Adams, and thanks for all the radio plays, books, works of interactive fiction, more books, more interactive fiction, and yes, fish.
Re:42 (Score:3)
It goes like (translated from german):
"... converges at 10x10x6 k-points, which can be reduced to 42 Points [Ada89] by applying symmetries."
where [Ada89] is the first entry in the Bibliography (alphabetical sorting):
[Ada98] D.Adams. The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy. Harmony Books, ISBN 0517542099, 1989.
You can still get some mileage out of that joke, when you use it in unexpected places. Well, i laughed.
Re:Why 42? (Score:2)
Just because Arthur had the wrong question doesn't mean that a Golgofrincham couldn't produce the correct question once they were fully integrated into the Earth application. Arthur had the wrong question because (a) he was part of a routine that was evaluating a computational dead end; (b)the correct question is unhavable, and (c) he's a schnook. If he weren't a shnook, the Trilogy would not have been nearly as enjoyable.
Besides, I'm sure you read the fourth book in the trilogy, and all that business with Fenchurch? About her having the solution and all of a sudden it getting wiped out by the universe? The stuff from the preface to the first book? How a girl in a cafe got it right, and this time nobody would have to get nailed to anything?
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Re:So long... (Score:2)
Imagine coming home disappointed because there wasn't a new Adams book and finding out there wasn't going to be one at all, ever. I'm so bummed.
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Re:The Radio Show (Score:2)
However you obtain it, listening to the radio series is the best way you can pay your respect to Douglas Adams. The radio series is the brilliant humor that made Douglas Adams famous in the first place. So please, listen to these episodes, and laugh your ass off in memory of him.
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75 years till H2g2 joins the public domain. (Score:2)
Why will I be dead 20 years by the time that h2g2 joins its place in our culture with Santa Clause in the public domain?
Eh... Maybe my great grand kids will be able to enjoy Aurthur Dent with santa clause.... Here's hoping that the estate isn't a dominating **** that'll try to milk h2g2 for all the money they can.
It is a sad day.
Re:Died young (Score:2)
I will miss Douglas Adams.
Nothing like ... (Score:3)
You know, I'm actually glad
I just finished reading "The Prydian Chronicles" by Lylod Alexander again (hadn't read them since elementary school.) I got to the last book, and had a tear in my eye. Why? Because a good thing had ended.
And I feel the same way about Douglas Adams. He sure brought a lot of joy in my life with his writings. I can't think of a nicer gift for a person to give.
Have you lately told your parents, friends, loved ones that you value their love and friendship?
Stop and smell the roses along the path of life.
Monday morning will come soon enough.
Re:"There was a long, terrible silence" (Score:2)
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he also wrote non-fiction .... (Score:3)
Just after that I had the pleasure of listening to him speak at an Apple WWDC (developer's conference) - he gleefully skewered the Apple people who had brought him :-) .... He also spoke about some of the animals he'd been studying ... one has stuck in my memory - it goes something like this:
There are only about 1000 Komodo Dragons left .... but as far as anyone can tell there have always been only about 1000 .... they have an interesting way of feeding .... basicly they don't brush their teeth ... they eat rotting meat and it sticks in their teeth where all sorts of nasty bacteria breed .... when anything comes near a KD they bite it .... and let it wander away .... where the wound festers and eventually the aanumal dies .... days later the KD (or another) comes along and finds some dead meat to eat. This is all very wonderfull but it has come to my attention that european visitors are upsetting the balance of nature .... basicly they are getting bitten .... and then going off the island to die.
Thanks Douglas - I still snicker whenever I recall that passage
Re:The Radio Show (Score:2)
Thanks Douglas for giving me more laughs than anyone else I know for the last 8 years (since I discovered the books). In my household (and may others I am sure), you will be sorely missed.
A sad day to be sure... (Score:2)
I hope they respect him and leave it alone.
Douglas Adams - You will be truely missed.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Re:A great obituary (Score:4)
Unfortunately, it probably means that the movie will finally be made, badly.
I think that the reason we haven't seen it yet is that he never got the movie deal that he wanted in terms of control. (I can just see studio execs now "This Marvin is all wrong, too depressing for a comedy, we think he should be more of a 'surfer dude.'" or "Slartibartfast is not going to work for marketing tie-ins. We are thinking more of a furry E.T. named 'Giget.'") Ugh.
-Peter
So many plans...movie + more... (Score:2)
He was as funny, witty, and charming in person as he was in his books (and then some!). What a blast that was....he did a reading from 'Last Chance to See' and, of course, ad-libbed well beyond that.
What I'm most disappointed about was that he won't have the chance to see the HHGTTG movie finished. He talked about the trials and tribulations of getting a 'cult' movie produced in mainstream Hollywood -- so many of us would appreciate the film, yet so many would leave the theater with a resounding "huh?" (I say, screw those people!
I think, if I recall correctly, that he said a script was done (thank goodness
I'm a sadder guy today....Douglas was my hands-down favorite author and I'll miss him...
nlh
Re:Why 42? (Score:3)
Pardon a quibble here, but according to my copy of the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, the Ultimate Question is actually "What do you get if you multiply six by nine".
When I was in high school, a friend of mine who was very smart (and had much too much time on his hands) figured out that six times nine does equal 42 -- provided you do it in base 13.
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Re:So long... (Score:2)
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Lord Nimon
Yeah But... (Score:2)
49, not 42? (Score:5)
A hacker passes way too soon (Score:2)
Douglas Adams was a real hacker - he hacked the English language and made it do things no-one had ever thought of before. His characters were engaging and his stories were brilliantly original. I'm amazed by how much his writing has affected my own thought process; like Monty Python, whole chapters hang verbatim in my addled memory.
I particularly loved the bit about how most of the actual work on the Guide got done by any hitchhiker that wandered into the offices and "saw something worth doing." That, for me, sums up the hacker spirit better than anything I've ever read. I feel like we've all lost a brother.
Rest in peace.
TomatoMan
copy of my memoriam letter (Score:2)
Scott Adams was by all accounts one of the greatest comic geniuses of all times, and his 5 part trilogy forming the Ultimate HitchHiker's Guide is not only roaringly funny, but deeply philosophical as well. Sum-Total, it sold over 50 million copies, and was translated into more than 147 languages (including Klingon, Ant and Dog). (no, seriously!)
Not only was Adams unique in his suberb writing ability and narrative style, but also featured prominently in radio, effectively bringing back to life the BBC's radio comedy.
In recent years, he had been working hard on a film version of his off-the-mark and sublimely nonsequitur series, with actors Hugh Laurie, Rowan Atkinson, Jim Carrey, Ben Affleck and even Bruce Willis in the running for the lead part.
Adams leaves behind a wife and seven year old daughter.
As he goes to join Graham Chapman, the comedic genius behind many of the best Monty Python sketches (and with whom he worked extensively and whose semi-autobiography "A Liar's Autobiography, Volume VI" he co-authored with Eric Idle), I'm sure his presence, his genius, his personality and his work will sorely be missed.
In his own words,
"Dreadfully sorry for all the inconvenience"
"'Poof!' Vanished in a puff of logic"
"So long, and thanks for all the fish!"
And of course, the answer is 42.
Cheers,
jacobb
PS. to get the original Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series in mp3 format, surf on over to UFIE'S FTP [ufies.org]
They are well, well worth it.
42.
fnord.
Douglas Adams handwriting font (in tribute..) (Score:3)
I just made a font of DNA's handwriting,
http://fonts.tom7.com/fonts98.html
I will miss this man.
Re:Secret writings ? (Score:3)
At any rate, this is a rotten way to start the day. I suppose I'll have to dig out that leather bound edition of the first four novels and thumb through it for awhile....
One minute of silence... (Score:5)
(I've just finished reading "So long, and thanks for all the fish" yesterday. I feel really sad.)
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BBC accuracy (Score:2)
> science fiction novel was turned into a BBC TV series.
This is from the BBC's website. How many things can you spot that are wrong with this statement? I count four. This is a record even for the BBC.
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So long, and thanks... (Score:5)
He helped create the first "hit" computer game based on a novel [douglasadams.com], helped ignite the whole "books on tape" trend, brought his stories to radio and television, helped create the rich, computerized environment of "Starship Titanic" and the concept of a "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"--a massive collection of obscure hyperlinked information (before the www existed) displayed on a small handheld computer (before PDAs existed). He also created the idea of the babel fish [altavista.com]--a universal translator, essentially. Just by writing a good yarn, he helped spur change in the world around him that has benefited all of us. We all owe a lot to the guy and to the kind of changes that one "good read" can bring. Thanks, Doug.
Why 42? (Score:2)
It is unrelated to the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything, which was determined thousands of years ago by the largest computer ever built at that time to be "42". Since that didn't make any sense, a much bigger computer had to be built to determine what the *question* really was. The bigger computer was The Earth.
So the characters become stranded on earth in prehistoric times, by having a caveman pull scrabble letters from a bag they determine that the question is "What is Five by Nine?"
Yes.
And that is why the Earth is such a fundamentally messed-up place. That and the fact that we are all descended not from cavemen, but from a group of telephone sanitizers who were banished from their planet and colonized Earth.
You really, really ought to read the books. It's definitely been highly influencial to many famous computer science people. Plus, they're funny.
Holy CRAP!!! (Score:2)
Goddamn, well I don't know what to say... It's too bad we'll never be able to read that book he said he was working on in his speech. He had some great insights on intellectual property (he IS an author, after all), and I would have loved to see what he'd do with those insights in the next twenty years.
Fuck.
The only "intuitive" interface is the nipple. After that, it's all learned.
No, trilogy was not over (Score:2)
The only "intuitive" interface is the nipple. After that, it's all learned.
So long... and thanks. (Score:2)
somehost:~> ping www.douglasadams.com
www.douglasadams.com is alive
Not to be disrespectful, but I think he might have found this funny. I owe much to DA. I was a complete outcast in high-school, but when I went to college I met a bunch of like-minded geeks who introduced me to HHGTTG. His works cheered me up on many a gray day.
Re:Secret writings ? (Score:2)
Unfairness (Score:2)
Thank You, Mr. Adams. (Score:2)
I found myself enjoying it as much as I had the first time I read it.
Your writings helped me realize that there was room for eccentric nerds in this world, and I'm proud that your novels have contributed to the person I am today.
Thanks for Life, The Universe, and Everything.
John
So Long, and Thanks for All The Stories (Score:2)
So Long, Mr. Adams, and thanks for all the memories.
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Re:Secret writings ? (Score:2)
Well, yes, but... Many many years ago, everyone dies on a Hagunennon Battle Cruiser (tweaked into Disaster Area's sundive ship forthe books). There was no way any of them could possibly have survived the end ofthe first series. And yet, somehow, Arthur and Ford managed to survive to get stranded on the prehistoric Earth, millions of years beforew any possible rescue method, and, yet...
If DNA had wanted to have another go with the characters, he undoubtedly had the creativity to come up with a get-out from the apocalypse itsef (bill arrives, pay for the meal, deal with the queueueue for the parking lot and head on home to put a penny in a savings account).
Thanks Douglas.
TomV
Re:Favorite Line (Score:2)
"Oh yeah, and just who do you think you are, honey, Zaphod Beeblebrox or something?"
"Count the heads"
TomV
Re:Died young (Score:2)
It's a horribly long and complicated story... The whole Professor Trefusis with his chameleon time machine idea started out as a script for a Doctor Who episode called Shada, which was part-made but abandoned due to union activity in late 1979. But being a great idea, it survived, evolved and became the Dirk Gently material. This morphing of material was definitely one of DNA's strengths - just look at the evolution of the HHGTTG from Radio through the LP versions of the first two series, the stage play, the books, the game, the TV series.
Time to take that pocket-fluff covered aspirin from my dressing-gown pocket, I reckon.
Thanks DNA
TomV
... (Score:2)
I was at a thrift store earlier today, stocking up on t-shirts for the summer weather. There was a shelf of books, and I browsed through them, on the off chance that there was something to glean. Coincidentally, I ended up getting Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency in hardback for just a couple bucks. Man, what an eerie coincidence. I guess I'm glad I didn't grab "Timequake" as well. :(
Anyway, I have to say that Dirk Gently and Long Dark Tea Time are total masterpieces. I could be reborn a million times and I still would never be able to write anything as ferociously witty or clever as Adams' books. He was one of the few who could look at life and manufacture his own absurd, funny, yet uniquely true vision of it.
Sigh.
(yikes, I didn't even remember until I hit the preview button that my .sig was yet another Adams quote. spooky.)
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New Book (Score:2)
This is only the second book about HHGG (the first is out of print), and is a slim scholarly work providing full details and commentary of every manifestation of the genre from the original BBC [bbc.co.uk] radio series to bizarre stage versions in foreign languages.
Disclaimer: I am related to the author. Before making this post I gave considerable thought to the potential insensitivity of appearing to use this very sad news to promote my brother's book. I can only say that I was very sorry to hear this sad news on the radio today and hope that my brother's book will encourage others to enjoy some of Douglas Adams' wonderful non-HHGG work (which it also covers).
Re:Why 42? (Score:5)
It is made pretty clear in context (and from later books) that this is the WRONG question. Arthur is descended from the Golgofrinchams, not from the original caveman inhabitants of Earth (who were the ones actually determining the Question), so he doesn't have the correct Question. The Earth program was irrevocably screwed up when the Golg. colonized Earth, more or less wiping out the cavemen.
When I was in high school, a friend of mine who was very smart (and had much too much time on his hands) figured out that six times nine does equal 42 -- provided you do it in base 13.
Douglas Adams himself once actually said in relation to this matter: "Nobody writes jokes in base 13."
ASA
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trying to be funny... (Score:2)
See you at Milliways...
/Brian
Died young (Score:4)
He will be sorely missed.
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The Radio Show (Score:3)
Please, if you've only read the books, or haven't read them at all, find the radio shows. Maybe it's because I started with the radio shows, but the books just aren't the same. Yes, the jokes are still funny, but the voices really brought them to life.
I tried searching Amazon, but unforunately they don't seem to be available on CD. I actually have MP3s of all the radio shows, which I would really like to make available, but don't have the bandwidth to handle the onslaught.
Seems a little tasteless to offer up bootlet recordings of the man's material considering the circumstances, and especially when he was very anti-Napster, but I think these deserve a wide a dissemination as possible. Don't let them die! If someone else has the recordings and the bandwidth, offer them up!
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The Late Douglas Adams (Score:5)
So long, and Thanks.
StuP
"The thing I love most about deadlines is the wonderful WHOOSHing sound they make as they go past" - DNA
So long... (Score:5)
Dave
I keep hoping (Score:3)
My favourite joke (Score:4)
Me: It's at times like this I wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was young.
Unsuspecting victim: Why what did she say?
Me: I don't know I wasn't listening!
Maybe I'm just an old geek but it still make me laugh every time.
Thanks Douglas for my favourite joke.
Damn... (Score:3)
This one, though. is different. Waking up this morning the Adams' passing was a shocker. No tears -- just sincere regret, and a selfish sense of "I'll miss him."
My wife and I listened to the Hitchhiker radio play back we were first married; it's been a part of our lives (as a central bit of humor) for so long. It's one of those comedic routines that provides stock lines for conversation; the number 42 shows up an awful lot. His style has been a strong influence on my own writing career...
Damn!
The only bright spot: Perhaps Douglas Adams can now hitchhike the galaxy on his own, giving the gods and angels a chuckle or two...
--
Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
Farewell Mr Douglas (Score:5)
As a tribute, we should all fly our towels at half mast today...
On a more serious note, I will never forget the day I walked into the school library to see the new paperbacks that arrived and the strange book that was sitting near the front of the stack.
At first, I was not sure what to make of it, the title seemed to imply Science Fiction, but the cover, with a strange impish green face sticking its tongue out and cartoonish artwork seemed to imply humor. Still, something about it appealed to me, so I went to a secluded corner to check it out.
What I had not counted on was the addictive nature of this book. It seemed silly and pointless, but I could not put it down. After I read that last line "Okay, baby, hold tight," said Zaphod. "We'll take in a quick bite at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe", I could only think of two things. First, where (or when) would the next book be available, and how could I explain having missed the last three periods of school!
That book, was of course the Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy, and that paperback was later bought by me at a school library sale. It has been with me for over a decade, traveled to 24 countries on 4 continents, and although dog-eared and tattered, remains a treasured part of my collection.
Thank you Mr Douglas, for making fun of our flaws and obsessions, and helping us to laugh at ourselves. From Arthur to Zaphod, and everyone in-between, you have made, at least for me, life a richer experience. You will be missed.
I think I shall honor Mr Douglas in the fashion he would have liked best, by sitting back, curling up with the Guide, and letting his magic touch me again.
Favorite Line (Score:5)
Hope? (Score:5)
Sad news (Score:4)
If you measure a person's value by the happiness they bring to others then we are an immensely poorer world today.
I remember reading the Hitchiker's Guide as a teenager, after watching the BBC series. I was absolutely blown away. What's more amazing is that no matter how many times I re-read those books or how old I get, I am still as amazed with them.
To me, HHGTTG represents the best of satire; it pokes fun at human foibles and failings without ever losing an underlying feeling of good humour. A difficult balancing act.
Oh, yeah. So Long, and thanks for the nick and the .sig, Mr. Adams...
sad (Score:3)
My phone says Don't Panic when I open it. I guess I feel like Ford...
"When you're cruising down the road in the fast lane and you lazily sail past a few hard-driving cars and are feeling pretty pleased with yourself and then accidentally change down from fourth to first instead of third thus making your engine leap out of your hood in a rather ugly mess, it tends to throw you off your stride in much the same way this remark threw Ford Prefect off his."
Re:So long... (Score:3)
The BBC already used that one... [bbc.co.uk] prepare for the writ ;)
Seriously... I'm finding it hard to express how upset I am about this. I got into Hithc-hiker's Guide more than twenty years ago (my father made me listen to it on the radio because they went to the same school)... devoured the books, taped as much as I could manage when the radio series were repeated in 1985-6, then listened to those obsessively ever since.
Douglas Adams, his unfortunate obsesion with Macs aside, was always interested in computers, ever since the original InfoGames adaption of HHG as a text adventure. I saw a piece on that on the BBC's 'Microcoputers' show & taped the audio for that, too - I remember him saying that he offered to do the actual programming, to which the developers "politely told me that they'd like it to come out this century, and if I could stick to writing the jokes,..."
If you haven't heard the original radio shows, do yourself a big favour and get them now *NOT* the audio book - IMHO they're better than the books, as well as following a different (and more coherent) plot as well. And there's lots of stuff that didn't make it to the books: Zaphod and Ford falling from a mysterious cold white cave, fifteen miles up in the air...
Ford: I can't stand heights!
ZB: Don't worry, we're on our way down... listen, we may be alright, we might land in the water you know? Can you swim?
Ford: I don't know.
ZB: You don't *know*?
Ford: Well, I never liked to go into water in any great detail...
ZB: What kind of traveller are you, man? Don't like heights, don't like water...
Ford: Simply natural. I just get a kick out of being on the ground.
ZB: Well any minute now you'll have the biggest kick of your life...
I feel as if I've lost a member of my family. It's only 90 minutes since I heard this, and it still hasn't sunk in.
I really hope the HHG site doesn't get any more messed up by the BBC (see this week's NTK [ntk.net]... and I hope the film still happens, as he was sounding really upbeat about it last I heard (his Ask Slashdot interview I think.)
--
Re:Unfairness (Score:4)
I know... Oolon Coluphid could write a new book on that subject "How God is an Unfair Bastard"
Re:A great obituary (Score:4)
No problem, just replace "www" by "channel", the actual story is at http://channel.nytimes.com/aponline/obituaries/AP- Obit-Adams.html [nytimes.com]
BTW, anybody compared it to the same obituary by CNN [cnn.com]?
Re:Respects (Score:5)
But somehow dying of a heart attack seems an appropriate finale to me, just don't ask me why.