Douglas Adams - classic or dud?

What's wrong with Dirk Gently? It's been a while since I read it but I used to enjoy it.

^

Basically, it is a narrative mess, reflecting its origins as a badly joined together mesh of two different Dr Who scripts. Whole plot elements wander in and out to no good purpose. It has some entertaining jokes, but it reads too much like an early draft of a book rather than a finished product.

IIRC The Long, Dark Tea-Time of the Soul was much better.

It's true I could never quite make sense of the plot or tie all the elements together. On the other hand I thought LDTTofT was drastically under-plotted.

I remember TLDTTOTS much better, so maybe the criticisms of DGHDA stand, but really nobody ever criticised Wodehouse for his plots, and I think for Adams it's the same- the writing is what pulls you along paragraph to paragraph, not the resolution.

also I remember the plot making sense after I read it a second time

nobody ever criticised Wodehouse for his plots

Because he's great at plotting? He can be a bit mechanical, but they run smoothly, work out satisfyingly and are a decent part of the fun. Adams is mostly fun ideas and nicely structured comic sentences/dialogue iirc.

(...) but really nobody ever criticised Wodehouse for his plots, and I think for Adams it's the same- the writing is what pulls you along paragraph to paragraph, not the resolution.

Good point. My positive memory of the first couple of HH books is that they were not that plotty (apart from the third, another Dr Who knock-off), but that they did ramble along enjoyably. The first Dirk Gently book, though, does seem like it is meant to be all about the plot, except that the plot is not worked out properly.

However, I appreciate that saying mean things about Douglas Adams on this great day is not cool.

xp

Wodehouse plot-

Jeeves lands Wooster in it in order to go fishing, hilarity & chaos ensues, Father of comely maiden eyes Wooster, nightime debacle involving at least one vicar and one chef, Jeeves sacrifices Wooster, thus resolving all issues.

Ad infinitum, really.

I love Wodehouse, but I stand by the point that nobody reads him for plot, and I think I'd have Adams in that bracket myself.

none of the plots of any of his books ever made any sense to me.

idk, I don't think they read him for plot alone, no, but the ruthless plotting is one of his virtues - like I for one am reading on to find out how Bertie will get unengaged, and I am filled with satisfaction when Bertie is manouevred behind Madeleine Bassett's sofa, etc. He gets everyone in place really nicely, which seems the tricky bit. Just saying he's a pro plotter in a way that Adams isn't, tho that's not meant as a slam on Adams, since there are plenty of other ways to have fun (eg having idea for Golgafrincham B Ark).

A Dirk Gently pilot will air on BBC 4 this autumn.

hmmm... never a big fan of DG but a tv show might (might) be worth it.

Yeah, cautiously looking forward. I quite liked the books.

Uh-oh I'm having that reactionary 'why does everything have to have a screen adaptation?' feeling.

The radio versions with Harry Enfield were kind of okay but as with all Douglas Adams' stuff the funny bits come from the narration and exposition that aren't really part of the actual plot and are very difficult to shoehorn into the live action stuff without ruining the flow.

See the TV series and movie.

Could be good with over-portentous voice-over colliding with what we see on screen

who's to play gently?

do i recall a posited dom joly turn a few years back in the role in some incarnation? shudder.

Steven Mangan in the role. Imagined Dirk to be little more rotund, have a little more gravitas, meself.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2010/10_october/05/gently.shtml

yeah gently should be fat and podgy imo

never had a good mental picture of that character at all, aside from maybe picturing him as tom baker for obvious reasons.

pictured him as douglas adams tbh

i was bored and got that Eoin Colfer book out of the library. ugh, don't do it kids.

it wasn't that bad! although I can't remember a thing about it now.

Weak, tiresome. Here's a hint, if you need to strip out 80% of a book in order to make it filmable, how about you just don't bloody bother doing it at all?

Also, mobile phone signals don't travel through time. Poor attention to detail, or ignoring of for the purposes of the story, that Adams would never have let through.

Somebody clearly hasn't seen Doctor Who.

ah shit it's not even a problem, phone would have got the message from voicemail server in the present day.

battery issues notwithstanding....

been reading thomas pynchon like a motherfucker. sounds weird when i've only read 1 1/2 books, but when they total nearly 1500 densely-written pages, immersion becomes more understandable (against the day being the mighty fine follow-up to gravity's 'greatest artistic achievement of 20th century' rainbow)

anyway, occurred to me out of the blue today. douglas adams is basically pynchon for kiddies! suddenly my youthful enthusiasm for THGTTG is explained...

ggaao2cr

Don't panic

61 all this time later is still so young :(

OTM RIP

I know, that's the thing that still gets me.

It's actually been playing in the back of my mind since I saw the Doodle last night. He was remarkably young when he started out and it sounds like he managed to pack a lot into his relatively short life (as well as a lot of baths, reportedly).

https://youtu.be/5TNXaCBAjpo

new Dirk Gently series

Max Landis - classic or dud?