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4.06 AVERAGE
4.06 AVERAGE
A companion to Douglas Adams' career, this book covers everything from the initial idea of "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" through to the radio series, novels, game, TV series and eventual movie. It also covers Adams' work on Dirk Gently, Doctor Who and his non fiction writings.
As it is mostly written by a young Neil Gaiman it definitely carries the same irreverent voice as Adams' own work, although there are sections added subsequently that are informative but slightly less "Neil Gaiman" in tone.
That being said I did find the later chapters pretty interesting as I'm a big fan of the radio series that were produced after Adams' death.
A lot of this may be well known to fans of Douglas Adams, but a lot of it was new to me, so I suspect would be the case for any slightly more than casual fan of his work.
While I would usually listen to the audiobook of this kind, as soon as I saw that it was narrated by Simon Jones, the original incarnation of Arthur Dent from "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" radio and TV series, I bought it without question.
And it's worth it just to hear him read the following:
"Certainly 'So Long and Thanks For All The Fish' is a widely different book to its predecessor. Gone are the big heroics and wild invention to be replaced by... a love story. We had to somehow marry off Arthur, something that was pretty hard to imagine."
Indeed as much as we all adore Simon Jones' portrayal of the hapless Arthur Dent, he's hardly the obvious romantic lead.
His voice is so reassuring, so familiar that as soon as I heard his voice it took me back to my teen years listening to the original radio series on cassette, yes I'm old.
My biggest criticism is that the book doesn't translate that well to audio, somewhat ironically. There are a lot of sections where it's confusing who is actually spaeking, whether its Neil Gaiman (as he occasionally makes comments in the first person) or it's a quote from someone interviewed for the book. Often it won't be until the end of the paragraph where a "...said Geoffrey Perkins" is added that I can figure it out.
Aside from that I enjoyed it, learned a bunch of things I didn't know and have decided to re-listen to the radio series once again.
As it is mostly written by a young Neil Gaiman it definitely carries the same irreverent voice as Adams' own work, although there are sections added subsequently that are informative but slightly less "Neil Gaiman" in tone.
That being said I did find the later chapters pretty interesting as I'm a big fan of the radio series that were produced after Adams' death.
A lot of this may be well known to fans of Douglas Adams, but a lot of it was new to me, so I suspect would be the case for any slightly more than casual fan of his work.
While I would usually listen to the audiobook of this kind, as soon as I saw that it was narrated by Simon Jones, the original incarnation of Arthur Dent from "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" radio and TV series, I bought it without question.
And it's worth it just to hear him read the following:
"Certainly 'So Long and Thanks For All The Fish' is a widely different book to its predecessor. Gone are the big heroics and wild invention to be replaced by... a love story. We had to somehow marry off Arthur, something that was pretty hard to imagine."
Indeed as much as we all adore Simon Jones' portrayal of the hapless Arthur Dent, he's hardly the obvious romantic lead.
His voice is so reassuring, so familiar that as soon as I heard his voice it took me back to my teen years listening to the original radio series on cassette, yes I'm old.
My biggest criticism is that the book doesn't translate that well to audio, somewhat ironically. There are a lot of sections where it's confusing who is actually spaeking, whether its Neil Gaiman (as he occasionally makes comments in the first person) or it's a quote from someone interviewed for the book. Often it won't be until the end of the paragraph where a "...said Geoffrey Perkins" is added that I can figure it out.
Aside from that I enjoyed it, learned a bunch of things I didn't know and have decided to re-listen to the radio series once again.
A fascinating peak behind the curtain of my favorite sci-fi series and author. There was so much I hadn't known.
I think you need to be an Englishman
The writing was mostly fun and I learned a lot of things about all things Douglas Adams and Hitchhikers that I didn’t know. I still felt like there were a lot inside jokes I didn’t know about and everyone was laughing at me.
The writing was mostly fun and I learned a lot of things about all things Douglas Adams and Hitchhikers that I didn’t know. I still felt like there were a lot inside jokes I didn’t know about and everyone was laughing at me.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was at one point the most important book in my life. When I was about 11, I reread the whole series monthly. My AIM screename was Zarkology1, after the great Prophet Zarquon and the exclamation 'Zark!'. So I'm only kidding a little when I say that for me, the books approach holy text.
Don't Panic by Neil Gaiman (that Neil Gaiman) is a very different approach to the story behind the story, and the career of Douglas Adams. Adams followed in the wake of a classic tradition of absurdist British humor, most notably PG Wodehouse and Monty Python (though his actual working relationship with the Pythons was minimal). At Cambridge, he was an anti-establishment figure floating around the Footlights comedy troupe. Afterwords, he drifted into radio at the BBC, where the idea for Hitchhiker finally landed. The radio show was a cult classic, the first book an international success, and then it was off to the races, with musical theater, TV adaptation, potential movie deals, and high-tech transmedia ventures.
Gaiman keeps it light and breezy, but reading between the lines, there are struggles. Adams' problems with deadlines was legendary, but where is the line between writer's block and chronic depression? The best of Hitchhiker is in the pauses and asides, the words not written, the perfect absurdity and humanity of the gestalt. Hitchhiker touched me, and it touched millions of people, and there's not much of the 'why' or 'how' except "well, Adams mixed Star Wars and Monty Python in a way that was perfect for the times, and totally beyond the ability of studio executives to understand."
It's been 40 years since the first book was published. I don't know much, except that I know I need to find my omnibus collection and reread them for the first time in a decade.
Don't Panic by Neil Gaiman (that Neil Gaiman) is a very different approach to the story behind the story, and the career of Douglas Adams. Adams followed in the wake of a classic tradition of absurdist British humor, most notably PG Wodehouse and Monty Python (though his actual working relationship with the Pythons was minimal). At Cambridge, he was an anti-establishment figure floating around the Footlights comedy troupe. Afterwords, he drifted into radio at the BBC, where the idea for Hitchhiker finally landed. The radio show was a cult classic, the first book an international success, and then it was off to the races, with musical theater, TV adaptation, potential movie deals, and high-tech transmedia ventures.
Gaiman keeps it light and breezy, but reading between the lines, there are struggles. Adams' problems with deadlines was legendary, but where is the line between writer's block and chronic depression? The best of Hitchhiker is in the pauses and asides, the words not written, the perfect absurdity and humanity of the gestalt. Hitchhiker touched me, and it touched millions of people, and there's not much of the 'why' or 'how' except "well, Adams mixed Star Wars and Monty Python in a way that was perfect for the times, and totally beyond the ability of studio executives to understand."
It's been 40 years since the first book was published. I don't know much, except that I know I need to find my omnibus collection and reread them for the first time in a decade.
Hitchhiker's Guide is something I liked but not necessarily something I loved; it wasn't a formative influence on me. I enjoyed the books less than the radio series (3/5 of which, I've only just become aware, were produced after Adams's death) and I remember the film adaptation very fondly, despite Gaiman's negative evaluation of it in this book. So perhaps Adams's style appeals to me most when it's tempered by other influences. But reading this has made me want to revisit his work.
I'm struck by how little success Adams had before H2G2. Even his collaboration with Graham Chapman of Monty Python, which must have felt like being on the verge of a big break, didn't really go anywhere. I can only imagine how demoralizing it was to go from that to doing manual labor for a while. The massive success of Hitchhiker's Guide seems quite sudden.
Adams can also be an inspiration for all of us who've wished to create something but find the actual process of creation an immense struggle:
Gaiman notes that only one of Adams's books was written at home. My takeaway is that if you're having trouble getting work done, you should try taking a vacation.
Before sharing some of the fan mail Adams received, Gaiman quotes some of Adams's thoughts on fame: how it's important "not to expose yourself too much to people who are going to tell you you are God's gift to the human race - which you're not." I wonder how much of the human desire to become famous is driven by a hope that others will tell us we're amazing - and a belief that if they do, it will mean it's true.
A few of my favorite tidbits from the book:
- The first theatrical adaptation of the Guide involved seating the audience on a movable hovercar. I'm jealous of those audiences.
- The TV series included an expensive animatronic second head for Zaphod, which largely went to waste both because it was frequently broken and because the actor sometimes forgot to turn it on.
- One fan letter included an elaborate argument that the Ultimate Question was encoded in Morse code within the number 2^42.
I was totally unaware of Adams's interest in endangered species (he traveled around the world to help create the documentary Last Chance to See) and also of his book The Meaning of Liff. The thing I was most eager to try after reading this, though, is the Hitchhiker's Guide game.
I'm struck by how little success Adams had before H2G2. Even his collaboration with Graham Chapman of Monty Python, which must have felt like being on the verge of a big break, didn't really go anywhere. I can only imagine how demoralizing it was to go from that to doing manual labor for a while. The massive success of Hitchhiker's Guide seems quite sudden.
Adams can also be an inspiration for all of us who've wished to create something but find the actual process of creation an immense struggle:
Writing comes easy. All you have to do is stare at a blank piece of paper until your forehead bleeds. ... All writers, or most, say they find writing difficult, but most writers I know are surprised at how difficult I find it.
Gaiman notes that only one of Adams's books was written at home. My takeaway is that if you're having trouble getting work done, you should try taking a vacation.
Before sharing some of the fan mail Adams received, Gaiman quotes some of Adams's thoughts on fame: how it's important "not to expose yourself too much to people who are going to tell you you are God's gift to the human race - which you're not." I wonder how much of the human desire to become famous is driven by a hope that others will tell us we're amazing - and a belief that if they do, it will mean it's true.
A few of my favorite tidbits from the book:
- The first theatrical adaptation of the Guide involved seating the audience on a movable hovercar. I'm jealous of those audiences.
- The TV series included an expensive animatronic second head for Zaphod, which largely went to waste both because it was frequently broken and because the actor sometimes forgot to turn it on.
- One fan letter included an elaborate argument that the Ultimate Question was encoded in Morse code within the number 2^42.
I was totally unaware of Adams's interest in endangered species (he traveled around the world to help create the documentary Last Chance to See) and also of his book The Meaning of Liff. The thing I was most eager to try after reading this, though, is the Hitchhiker's Guide game.
funny
informative
medium-paced
It was pretty cool to learn about Douglas Adams, who was one of the authors I knew of, but not so much about. The book wanders through the life cycle of Hitchhikers, circ!ing back around on itself a time or two. Still, it was pretty interesting, especially if you are a fan of the series.
funny
informative
lighthearted
slow-paced
it was a bit boring but also fun so overall i just love douglass adam’s
Slightly odd to hear Simon Jones read Neil Gaiman’s writing since often I can hear Neil. Overall great and reminded me why I love Hitchhikers.
This was FULL of very detailed “Hitchhiker” info, literally…. Every format of it from radio, TV, movie, etc etc It’s been AWHILE since I’ve read The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy so some of the things mentioned are already out of my mind. But I guess that means it’s time for a re-read!
funny
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
(Audiobook)
A wonderful kaleidoscope of the varied and contradictory career of Douglas Adams. A genius writer who had a habit of being awfully slow to write, so much so his last book(s) appeared after he died. Which was a shame.
But also made for a great chapter 2/3 in which begins “Douglas Adams died.”
Whether you like Hitchhikers, Doctor Who, or the Cambridge Footlights Extended Universe, you will be pleased.
If you bought this book to help with your panic attacks, I don’t know what to tell you. Except don’t panic, and honestly, that’s a pretty good start.
A wonderful kaleidoscope of the varied and contradictory career of Douglas Adams. A genius writer who had a habit of being awfully slow to write, so much so his last book(s) appeared after he died. Which was a shame.
But also made for a great chapter 2/3 in which begins “Douglas Adams died.”
Whether you like Hitchhikers, Doctor Who, or the Cambridge Footlights Extended Universe, you will be pleased.
If you bought this book to help with your panic attacks, I don’t know what to tell you. Except don’t panic, and honestly, that’s a pretty good start.