[HN Gopher] So Long and Thanks for All the Words: A Toast to Dou...
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So Long and Thanks for All the Words: A Toast to Douglas Adams
Author : 6forward
Score : 179 points
Date : 2025-03-11 12:18 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (multiverseemployeehandbook.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (multiverseemployeehandbook.com)
| quijoteuniv wrote:
| Ode to Douglas Adams: A Vogon Tribute
|
| Oh blubbering nebulae of bureaucratic slime, Hearken to this most
| dolorous rhyme! For Douglas Adams, that scribe of renown, We
| vomit forth verses of gelatinous brown.
|
| With squelching syntax and belching prose, We honor his mind
| where improbability flows. Hitchhiker's Guide! A tome most
| absurd, Turning logic to gibbering, flailing bird.
|
| Behold the beauty of bureaucrats vile, Whose forms in triplicate
| stretch mile by mile. For Adams, dear Adams, saw through the
| farce, And sculpted with words a galactic arse.
|
| The number 42! Oh cosmic decree! A joke of the universe, but not
| for thee! With Marvin the Paranoid, sighing so deep, And whales
| who contemplate death in their sleep.
|
| O Adams, grand spinner of nonsense profound, May your soul in
| hyperspace ever be found. Yet should you return, we promise you
| this: More poetry! More Vogon! More hideous bliss!
| kk6mrp wrote:
| Arg!! My ears!!!
| dmd wrote:
| Aha! The answer to "who writes poetry worse than Vogons, and
| even worse than Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings" turns out to be
| "large language models".
| rusk wrote:
| Does anyone know was Tim Berners Lee a fan and was he influenced
| or did he have any inkling he was manifesting the infrastructure
| for the guide?
| zabzonk wrote:
| I think both Adams and Berners Lee were influenced/inspired by
| Ted Nelson and Project Xanadu.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Xanadu
| predictsoft wrote:
| Ted actually collaborated with Adams on Hyperland TV show.
| mike-the-mikado wrote:
| It's quite likely that he heard the original radio broadcasts
| in 1978. Entertainment choices were much more limited then and
| it was very popular, particularly among young people with
| technical interests.
| hinkley wrote:
| "As We May Think", Vannevar Bush, 1945
|
| Mother of All Demos, Douglas Engelbart, 1968
| keepamovin wrote:
| Multiverse Employee Handbook is like something from the _Time
| Variance Authority_ , the _Adjustment Bureau_ , or _Everything
| Everywhere All at Once_ - with a few shades of _Severance_
|
| I like these themes about the seeming absurdness and banal
| transcendence of capitalist systems and work today. _Fight Club_
| also echoes.
| 6forward wrote:
| The TVA comparison is spot-on, bureaucracy across realities is
| universally soul-crushing. Severance's work/life divide feels
| like our quantum break room that exists in multiple states (you
| never know what you'll find in the fridge). And yes, Everything
| Everywhere captures that cosmic-meets-mundane vibe I'm after.
| Corporate structures and cosmic physics share an absurd truth:
| both function through rules nobody fully understands but
| everyone pretends to follow
| keepamovin wrote:
| Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the riff and associations. Have you
| see TAB ? Do you feel there's any Fight Club connection? If
| you haven't seen either (for a while) they are definitely
| worth a rewatch!
| RGX9 wrote:
| 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 architect who's
| all by himself in a weird future architect's utopia, and one
| about an escaping rhinocerous that's mainly narrated in terms of
| what it smells.
|
| It's fantastically creative and incredibly sad that we won't get
| to read AD's ending, although I doubt that he actually knew where
| he was going with it at the time he wrote the bits that are
| there. It's this grand setup that really leaves you wondering
| what it means and how it's supposed to come together.
|
| I'd encourage anyone to read it and try to come up with an
| ending. It feels like a fiendishly hard puzzle, and really gets
| you in the authors head. And do let me know if you have a good
| one!
| BLKNSLVR wrote:
| 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 books than the British TV show is.
| But it's chaotic, it has interesting characters, and the whole
| crazily chaotic storyline is choreographed well and ties
| together cleverly.
| usrusr wrote:
| Oh, that US series! Never has a book license been touched
| more gently (pun really not intended, can't think of a good
| replacement to avoid it). "Yeah, we can't turn this into an
| at least tolerably good TV series, let's do this completely
| unrelated things instead". And yet they captured the spirit
| so well!
| stevage wrote:
| 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.
| RGX9 wrote:
| I completely agree, it's one of those works where the pop
| culture lens filters a lot of things. I think Adam Douglas
| himself mentions in an interview that the later HHGttG books
| reflect his personal depression, and the enormous time pressure
| they were written in. Probably the whole series should have
| been one book, but it also makes it feel a bit human - here's
| this really smart guy with a lot of brilliant ideas, he just
| didn't manage to fully finish everything before it's shipped.
| stevage wrote:
| Ah, they were written under time pressure? That actually
| explains a lot.
| atq2119 wrote:
| I believe it's more that Douglas Adams was a huge
| procrastinator.
| sooperserieous wrote:
| "I love deadlines. I love the WHOOSHING sound they make as
| they go be." -- DA
| thom wrote:
| I consider myself an enormous Douglas Adam's fan, but I only
| really enjoy the original radio series of The Hitchhiker's
| Guide to the Galaxy, so I don't think I can get too uppity
| about your comment. I'm not sure I'd call it depressing though,
| if anything it's absurd in the tradition of Camus, and lit up
| my world during some bleak periods in my youth. The cultural
| impact of those early works is still enormous, at least in the
| UK, so I can't begrudge the later works, and I still find the
| end of So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish quite moving.
| lukan wrote:
| "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.
|
| After they concluded, there is no other place, no other home,
| because, every other place is also falling apart. Pretty dark
| ending in my opinion.
| thom wrote:
| 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, even after shedding some tears for
| Marvin.
| lukan wrote:
| Ah yes, "thanks for the fish" was rather the book of
| unusual luck happening to poor Arthur.
|
| 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.
| cjs_ac wrote:
| I think it's a lot like a lot of the Monty Python stuff: a lot
| of it is reflecting on a social order that was particular to
| Britain and no longer exists in quite the same way, so a lot of
| the satire doesn't land any more. The offbeat quirkiness has
| also become mainstream in British comedy, and so has also lost
| its edge. I think the fandom remains stronger in the US because
| American comedy still feels industrially mass-produced, and so
| the absurdism is still a bit novel there.
| jvm___ wrote:
| Animaniacs has the same problem, they mock politicians and
| celebrities from the early 90's, but the person their making
| fun of is just a drawn version of themselves so you're
| assumed to know who they are and why their being made fun of.
| Aeolun wrote:
| I don't think you need to be familiar with that specific
| social order to appreciate the jokes?
| rikroots wrote:
| I really like Stephen Fry's take on the difference between
| American and British comedy:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k2AbqTBxao (YouTube)
| mike-the-mikado wrote:
| Much of the impact of comedy comes from novelty and
| originality. We have had several generations of comedians
| influenced by Adams and Python. Unsurprisingly, younger
| people who didn't hear them when their work was new do not
| appreciate the full impact of their originality.
| t-3 wrote:
| It's a great middle school book, but it doesn't really hold up
| all that well afterwards. I've tried to reread the series a few
| times as an adult and couldn't even get through the first book.
| Aeolun wrote:
| Isn't that more because you re-read it? I read it first as an
| adult, and it was still funny.
| t-3 wrote:
| Being enjoyable the first time is just meeting the
| standard. To rise above mediocrity the book needs to be
| able to be read more than once. Great books get better the
| more times you read them.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| I haven't re-read. Perhaps I was lucky then to have read it
| when it was not yet a "cultural" touchstone. "42" was not yet a
| meme, for example.
| eszed wrote:
| I kind of agree with you, much as I loved them when I first
| read them (and maintain a fondness based on that). I _am_
| looking forward to reading at least the first two books to my
| son in a few years time.
|
| That apart, have you read the Dirk Gently books? I think those
| are DA's best, and I've happily re-read them multiple times.
| stevage wrote:
| I read the Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul, but it's a good
| reminder to read the whole series, thank you.
| hermitcrab wrote:
| >And that whole tortured Krikkit gag trying to explain the
| origins of cricket.
|
| I remember the 4th and 5th books as pale shadows of the others.
| I got the impression they were only written for the money.
| mykowebhn wrote:
| In my senior year of high school, it was midterms and I had to
| study. I had a horrible problem with procrastination. So there I
| was in the library about to start studying when I happened upon
| the first book of his "trilogy". I finished it without stopping
| to study. And then I found the next two books in the trilogy and
| devoured those too. I loved those books and luckily I passed my
| exams. It was stressful at the time knowing I had to study, but
| today I remember that time fondly.
| wrboyce wrote:
| 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!
| cptnapalm wrote:
| 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.
| pnm45678 wrote:
| Hah, yes.
|
| "Mostly Harmless" did have this on the front:
|
| "The fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately named
| Hitchhikers Trilogy".
| chrisweekly wrote:
| Yes! Frank Zappa is the rarest of individuals cut from the
| same cloth as Adams, and your comment reminded me of his
| amazing 3rd release of instrumental cuts, aptly titled
| "Return of the Son of Shut Up 'N Play Your Guitar".
| 110jawefopiwa wrote:
| > I had a horrible problem with procrastination.
|
| "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they
| go by."
|
| -Douglas Adams
| NKosmatos wrote:
| Whenever I see something about one of my favorite sci-fi authors,
| especially if the phrase existential terror is included, the
| Total Perspective Vortex comes to mind :-)
|
| https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Total_Perspective_Vortex
| demaga wrote:
| I've found that in times of great stress, re-reading HHGTTG helps
| the most. Without fail, it makes me laugh and think about world
| more lightly, regardless of the circumstances. Wonderful books.
| cypherpunks01 wrote:
| "Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of
| the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded
| yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two
| million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green
| planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive
| that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea."
| prerok wrote:
| Yeah, climbing out of the water was a bad idea :)
| beardyw wrote:
| 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 was the best.
| thom wrote:
| 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.
| Angostura wrote:
| Sadly the CDs were a little different to the original radio
| broadcasts due to rights issues. Notably Marvin 'humming like
| Pink Floyd' on the surface of Magrathea was missing :(
| snozolli wrote:
| 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 same way that bricks
| don't." This line alone did nearly as much to shape my adolescent
| sense of humor as all of Mel Brooks' movies combined.
| hinkley wrote:
| It's unpleasantly like being drunk.
|
| What's so unpleasant about being drunk?
|
| You ask a glass of water.
| Angostura wrote:
| I feel like a military academy
|
| ???
|
| Bits of me keep passing out
| sidmitra wrote:
| Hitchhikers guide was a personality defining read for me when i
| was younger. I also recommend this video: Parrots, the Universe
| and Everything https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZG8HBuDjgc
|
| 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.
| JadeNB wrote:
| > Just this week i was looking for more humour writing like
| Douglas Adams, PG Wodehouse.
|
| They are both masters of producing an absolutely perfect phrase
| that could have come from no-one but them--so's Pterry, by the
| way--but otherwise it'd never occur to me to lump them
| together. They seem radically different tonally to me.
| Slow_Hand wrote:
| I recommend 'The Cyberiad' by Stanislaw Lem. Get the Michael
| Kandel translation.
|
| As an Adams fan since high school I was floored when I
| eventually read The Cyberiad and realized that Lem had laid all
| of the groundwork fourteen years earlier. It's very much the
| proto Hitchhiker's Guide. It's got it all: Intergalactic
| protagonists on a series of highly absurd adventures, enabled
| by fantastical tech, and a playful approach to themes at the
| intersection of technology, philosophy, and contemporary
| physics.
|
| It is laugh out loud funny. Especially once you get into the
| first, second, and third sallys. The humor is fiendishly
| clever. Lem is incredibly punny and it blows my mind to know
| that it was translated from Polish(!). I hope Michael Kandel
| gets his due for keeping the spirit of this book intact,
| because it really hinges on some very clever use of language.
| salgernon wrote:
| 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 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.
| hermitcrab wrote:
| I've also had a few famous people buy my software. It is quite
| a thrill. Apart from the one that I detested.
| kristianp wrote:
| The tv series was my introduction to Hitchhiker's. I loved the
| presentation of the guide entries.
|
| E.g. the babelfish at 2m5s: https://youtu.be/iuumnjJWFO4?t=125
| klep wrote:
| When I was in high school in the mid-90s, I emailed Douglas
| Adams, who freely gave out his email address at the time. I told
| him how reading "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" got me
| more interested in my Physics class, and generally helped
| introduce me to a world beyond computer games.
|
| 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).
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