Internet FAQ (ans to freq asked questions) for fans of Douglas Adams, author of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series etc. Downloaded from the Internet Archive-name: douglas-adams-FAQ Maintained-by: douglas-adams-faq@vuw.ac.nz Last-Changed: 04Dec93 Changes: dont-panic ---------------------------------------- FOREWORD Buy "Don't Panic" by Neil Gaiman. It is the best guide to 'The Guide' that is around. Relevant details are : TITLE: Don't Panic SUBTITLE: The Official Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy Companion AUTHOR: Neil Gaiman PUBLISHER: Titan Books Ltd, 58 St Giles High St, London WC2H 8LH PAGES: ? ISBN: 1-85286-411-7 PRICE: UK price ? ---------------------------------------- This is the list of frequently asked questions (and their answers) for the newsgroup alt.fan.douglas-adams. There is biographical information about Douglas Adams, a list of his books and their ISBN numbers, as well as information about his books and other fun stuff. Information is provided without guarantee -- if you get stung using any of the information provided here, or send off your personal fortune and are stuck, then I accept no blame or responsibility. It's your own damn fault. This FAQ was mostly written by Nathan Torkington, with numerous contributions by readers of alt.fan.douglas-adams. Comments and indications of doubt are enclosed in []s in the text. Each section begins with forth dashes ("-") on a line of their own, then the section number. This should make searching for a specific section easy. Contributions, comments and changes should be directed to douglas-adams-faq@vuw.ac.nz ---------------------------------------- List of Answers 1 Biographical Information 1.1 Who the heck is Douglas Adams 1.2 What's this about the barrister? 2 Douglas Adams and Computers 2.1 Macintoshes 2.2 Computer Games 2.3 CD-ROM Edition of "Last Chance to See" 3 Merchandising 3.1 Audio Tapes 3.2 Albums 3.3 CDs 3.4 Videos 3.5 CD-ROM Edition of "Last Chance to See" 3.6 The Order of Everything 4 Explanations 4.1 The Ending to "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" 4.2 Young Zaphod Plays It Safe 4.3 Paul Neil Milne Johnstone (aka Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings) 5 Miscellaneous 5.1 Stuff 5.2 Number Games 5.3 Other Authors 5.4 The Future 5.5 Related Electronic Information ---------------------------------------- 1 Biographical Information In this section you will find information on Douglas Adams. The information isn't very detailed, because of (a) a desire to respect his privacy, and (b) you might as well buy "Don't Panic" anyway (see the very start of the file for information on Don't Panic). ---------------------------------------- 1.1 Who the heck is Douglas Adams Douglas Noel Adams (DNA) was born in 1952. [Anything else we need to know?] ---------------------------------------- 1.2 What's this about the barrister? After nearly a decade of saying in his blurbs that he was nearly married to a lady barrister, on November 25 1991 Douglas Adams and Jane Belson tied the knot in a quiet ceremony at Finsbury town hall in London. Bad luck, ladies. They live in Islington. ---------------------------------------- 2 Douglas Adams and Computers DNA definitely has a close association with computers. Here you will find about his love for Macintoshes, computer games he has (and hasn't) written, and electronic versions of his books. ---------------------------------------- 2.1 Macintoshes Douglas Adams likes Macintoshes, and at one stage lived with one in Islington (see the dedication to The Complete Radio Scripts). He says that computer have completely changed the way he writes (he has gone from avoiding writing by finding food to eat, to avoiding writing by reconfiguring his Macintosh's operating system). He has even written a foreword to "PowerBook, The Digital Nomad's Guide" (ISBN 0-679-74588-2), saying how he couldn't see how he ever did without his PowerBook before. ---------------------------------------- 2.2 Computer Games With Infocom's Steve Meretzky (who no longer works for Infocom after their takeover by Mediagenic), he wrote "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" adventure game. "Bureaucracy" was credited to "Douglas Adams and The Staff of Infocom" - there were lots of Infocom people involved (Jeff O'Neill, Dave Lebling, Fred Morgan and others). The end sequence to the game "Hitchhiker's Guide" mentions a second game called "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe", but this game doesn't exist. Douglas Adams started to write it, as because "Bureaucracy" had poor sales, Adams and Infocom dropped the project. Infocom tried to revive the project later, but the virtual death of Infocom in 1990 brought this idea to an end. Douglas Adams also started work on another game, where the emphasis was to be on creating a virtual reality in the adventure, but petered out after his partner lost interest. Meretzky is still writing computer adventure games for "Legend Entertainment". Infocom only exists as a label for Activision, the company having been closed in 1989. The games are available from Virgin Mastertronic in "Infocom From Mastertronic" (a budget games house in the UK). Their address is : Customer Services, Virgin Mastertronic Ltd, 16 Portland Road, London W11 2LA, Tel: 0171 - 727 8070 It is also included in a package of 20 games called "The Lost Treasures of Infocom", released by Activision. "Bureaucracy" is available in "The Lost Treasures of Infocom II", also by Activision. These packages should be orderable or purchasable from any decent computer store :-) ---------------------------------------- 2.3 CD-ROM Edition of "Last Chance to See" See section 3.5 ---------------------------------------- 2.4 His e-mail Address(es) Owing to his globe-trotting, and his relatively late involvement with the Internet, DNA has several e-mail addresses. Try: dna@dadams.demon.co.uk (while in the UK) and adamsd@nic.cerf.net (while in the US) Because of the volume of questions, one more polite method of getting questions answered is to mail them to ask-dna@vuw.ac.nz where they will be batched, before being sent to him. Answers will be included in the FAQ. The idea of this is to tie up as little of DNA's time as possible, thus increasing the likelihood he will stay on "the Net". ---------------------------------------- 3 Merchandising There are lots of merchandised products around. Here you fill find where to order the cassette tapes, albums, CDs and video from. ---------------------------------------- 3.1 Audio Tapes The canonical address is: BBC World Service Mail Order, P.O Box 76, Bush House, London WC2B 4PH Tel: +44 71 379 4479 The price, for a box set of 6 audio tapes is œ26.00, but this may have changed --- ring to check. This price excludes VAT and post and packaging. ---------------------------------------- 3.2 Albums In the autumn of 1979, a double record album was released, which was a slightly contracted version of the first four episodes of the radio series. These were new recordings of essentially the same scripts. In the autumn of 1980, a second album was made, consisting of a rewritten and expanded version of radio episodes 5 and 6. This was called _The Restaurant at the End of the Universe_. ---------------------------------------- 3.3 CDs The canonical address is: BBC World Service Mail Order, P.O Box 76, Bush House, London WC2B 4PH Tel: +44 71 379 4479 The price, for a box set of 6 CDs is œ41.00 but this may have changed --- ring to check. This price excludes VAT and post and packaging. ---------------------------------------- 3.4 Videos In the UK, a two-cassette video was released in mid-1992, including all 6 TV episodes. These are the full-length versions as originally screened in the UK (for subsequent UK showings, most episodes were cut down to fit them into neat 30-min time slots --- so, for example, the scene in the Vogon airlock was lost.) In addition, some EXTRA pieces are included, which were filmed, but never included in the original TV screening. (For example, Ford and Arthur searching for Slartibartfast's signature on a glacier.) The video cassette also features Hi-Fi Stereo sound. The order numbers are BBC47512 (Part 1, 96min) and BBC47522 (Part 2, 98min). Originally scheduled to be released on 1st March 1993 is the video "The Making of HHGG", This has been put together by Kevin Davies, lifelong HHGG fan, and a person who was very much involved with the TV series (see Neil Gaimen's book). This includes out-takes from the show, behind-the-scenes shots, clips from earlier productions which the cast had appeared in, as well as newly-recorded interviews. The whole thing is put together as a story of Arthur Dent going back to his house, and finding many strange things going on. The order number is BBC 48952 (~60min). In Australia, at least, the VHS videos of the TV series are distributed by PolyGram with catalogue numbers. The canonical address is: BBC World Service Mail Order, P.O Box 76, Bush House, London WC2B 4PH Tel: +44 71 379 4479 The price, for one video tape is œ11.00 but this may have changed --- ring to check. This price excludes VAT and price and packaging. A videocassette of the BBC television adaptation of Hitch-Hiker's is available in the US from Fox Video. The address on the box is: FoxVideo Inc. P.O. Box 900, Beverly Hills, CA 90213 and it is item number 5799. ---------------------------------------- 3.5 CD-ROM Edition of "Last Chance to See" Featuring Douglas Adams reading the voice, information on the animals by Mark Carwardine, numerous photographs. Available for the Mac only from Voyager. Voyager Expanded Books are sold through the Voyager company: The Voyager Company, 1351 Pacific Coast Highway, Santa Monica, CA90401, 301-451-1383 ---------------------------------------- 3.6 The Order of Everything 1978: Fits 1-6 of the radio series were aired. : Fit 7 (The Christmas Episode) aired. 1979: Pan Books releases "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" book in Britain (expanded Fits 1-4). : Double album released (contracted Fits 1-4). 1980: Fits 8-12 of the radio series were aired. : Pan Books releases "Restaurant at the End of the Universe" in Britain (contracted Fits 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 5 and 6). : Harmony Books releases the first book in the United States. : Second record album recorded (expanded Fits 5 and 6). 1981: Six television episodes aired by the BBC, based on Fits 1-6 (used revisions made in the books). 1982: Harmony Books releases the second book in the USA 1982: "Life the Universe and Everything" released simultaneously in Britain and the United States. 1984: "So Long, And Thanks for All the Fish" released simultaneously in Britain and the United States. 1985: Harmony releases "The Original Hitchhiker's Radio Scripts" in the US, and Pan Books releases the same book in the UK as "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: The Original Radio Scripts". 1986: "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" computer game released 1989: "The More Than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide" published in the US by Wings Books in 1989. 199?: "Last Chance to See" released. 199?: "Last Chance to See" CD-ROM released. 1992: "Mostly Harmless" released. ---------------------------------------- 4 Explanations Not all of DNA's writing is easily grasped. This section includes explanations of some of the trickier sections. ---------------------------------------- 4.1 The Ending to "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" From: bhack@mundil.cs.mu.OZ.AU (Brendan Hack) Date: Tue, 12 Nov 1991 23:08:13 GMT First of all you need to know something about Coleridge. There was never a second part of the poem _Kubla Khan_. Yet, at the end of Chapter 6 when The Director Of English Studies is reading _Kubla Khan_ the book says `The voice (that of the director of English studies) continues, reading the second, and altogether strange part of the poem.' In the book, _Kubla Khan_ has a second part. The book is not actually set in our existence. It is set in an existence in which the second part of _Kubla Khan_ exists. This second part of the poem tells the ghost about the existence of the time machine and how to travel back and stop the ship from exploding. As we well know the explosion of the ship is what caused life to begin on this miserable little planet of ours. When Dirk and Reg realised this they simply went forward in time to when Coleridge was writing the second part of _Kubla Khan_ and stopped him. Dirk just interrupted him and talked so much that Coleridge forgot what the second part was going to be about and therefore could not finish it! This change of history sent reality back into our perspective and the human race lived on (Yay, yippee!). Quite simple really. ---------------------------------------- 4.2 Young Zaphod Plays It Safe Good question. The reference to the shining city on a hill is probably a reference to Matthew 5:14. Some people reckon they can see Ronald Reagan in the story. ---------------------------------------- 4.3 Paul Neil Milne Johnstone (aka Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings) Paul is a real person, who wrote some appalling poetry. DNA used his name, but was forced to retract it for the books and later recordings of the radio series. Hence the original programmes have Paul Neil ... whereas the later works have Paula Nancy .... Either way the poetry still sucks. ---------------------------------------- 5 Miscellaneous This section has stuff that didn't really fit anywhere else. ---------------------------------------- 5.1 Stuff The phrase "the long dark teatime of the soul" appears in Chapter 1 of "Life, The Universe and Everything". Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged is described as being eventually ground down by the Sunday afternoons, and "as you stare at the clock the hands will move relentlessly on to four o'clock, and you will enter the long dark teatime of the soul." If you ring the Islington telephone number, you will get some people who have nothing to do with Douglas Adams and who are very annoyed. Don't do it. Arthur plays Dire Straits' "Tunnel of Love" from their "Making Movies" album to Fenchurch, in "So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish". The Radio Scripts book has plenty of information on music used in the show. ---------------------------------------- 5.2 Number Games Yes, 6 times 9 equals 54. Yes, 6 times 9 equals 42 in base thirteen, and we don't want to know about the implications for the number of fingers on cavemen. The bit about monkeys was a reference to someone's comment that if you get an infinite number of monkeys at typewriters, eventually one will bash out a script to Hamlet. If you want to discuss probability, quantum physics or anything else that has nothing to do with Douglas Adams, bugger off to another group. DNA himself has said: The answer to this is very simple. It was a joke. It had to be a number, an ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that one. Binary representations, base thirteen, Tibetan monks are all complete nonsense. I sat at my desk, stared into the garden and thought '42 will do'. I typed it out. End of story. ---------------------------------------- 5.3 Other Authors If you like Douglas Adams' writing, you might appreciate books by: * Neil Gaiman * Terry Pratchett * Tom Sharpe * P J O'Rourke * P G Wodehouse * Tom Holt * Grant Naylor * Dave Barry ... but I offer no guarantees. ---------------------------------------- 5.4 The Future Having just released "Mostly Harmless", Douglas Adams says he wants to do a TV series about the Universe and the stuff in it. He estimates this will run around 12 episodes in length. Plans are being bandied around for a "Last Chance To See" type book with the wildlife photographer Jody Boyman (married to Berke Breathed). DNA says "it won't be happening for a while, though." The movie rights have been regained, apparently, and work is progressing towards a movie of the series being made. ---------------------------------------- 5.5 Related Electronic Information PGG (Project Galactic Guide for long) accepts entries on real-life subjects, as well as unreal-life subjects. A reader for the guide is available, as vela.acs.oakland.edu:/pub/swbaker/guide.zip Don't forget binary mode, ftp outside of business hours and contact swbaker@vela.acs.oakland.edu if you have any questions. Check out the newsgroup alt.galactic-guide, where PGG is alleged to be happening. The person to contact is the Editor-In-Chief, Supreme-God-Over-All-Beings and Leader-of-The-Hack, Paul Clegg (cleggp@aix.rpi.edu). After long and protracted discussions on which format is best for this, a decision was reached and I wasn't interested enough to record it for posterity. Contact Paul for information. There is also a paper-based list, maintained by David Hodges. It is used to raise money for charity and has been approved by Douglas Adams. You can buy copies (for charity), it is very large, and would be tremendously illegal (and most would find it immoral) to put on the net. Contributions to this can be sent to alm@doc.ic.ac.uk (remember to say they're for David Hodges as this isn't his account). There is a bibliographic FAQ posted alt.fan.douglas-adams and news.answers. The title of the article carrying the FAQ is "alt.fan.douglas-adams Bibliographic FAQ". It was initially compiled by David Polak (ak515@cleveland.freenet.edu) and is maintained by Nathan Torkington (Nathan.Torkington@vuw.ac.nz). - o -