Slashdot Mirror
Douglas Adams' Last Book
mixedbag writes "A BBC news article suggests that a sixth book in Douglas Adams's Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy series will be published next May. It will be unfinished from files found of his computer. The title is to be A Salmon of Doubt."
I don't know how I feel about this. While I'll be glad to have another book from such a great author, I worry that this will in some way corrupt the memory by putting an unfinished work-in-progress up against his polished final drafts. I hope at least they'll leave it unfinished, and not have some hack come in and tie things up for him.
In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
WHAT WAS THE FINAL QUESTION? PLEASE PLEASE TELL ME PLEASE PLEASE...
Ceci n'est pas une sig
I am excited in one sense, I will definitely read it, but is this entirely ethical? I mean, I don't think I want the contents of my computer published when I die. Especailly since they made such a big point about his being a perfectionist. Maybe he wouldn't have wanted people to read this. What does everyone else think?
How were all worryed that someone will finish his book, when if fact someone is about to finish the the exisitance of our planet....
"All I can tell the "lesser of two evils" folks is that if they keep voting for evil, they'll keep getting evil."-Lp.org
Didn't Adams not want this work published ( didn't ./ post an article to that effect?) So is it wrong to do so? I guess it comes with being a popular author though
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
I was going to make the comment (like everyone else) that they shouldn't publish this. Except I can't -- I'm going to be one of the first to read it!
Sounds like posthumous releases of tupac's recordings that he may or may not have wanted released.
I thought that the Salmon of Doubt started off as a Dirk Gently novel, but then Douglas Adams realised that the ideas he had didn't fit in with Dirk Gently, so part way through writing it he decided to change it into an entirely new story, i.e. neither a Hitch Hiker book nor a Dirk Gently book.
-- "Love is a device invented by bank managers to make us overdrawn." - Arnold Rimmer
...a review Mr. Cranky wrote of Almost Heroes.
"Almost Heroes" is such an abomination that one actually wishes Chris Farley had kicked off long before he got anywhere near this script. The filmmakers would have been kinder to Farley's memory by taking a collective piss on his rotting corpse."
Let's hope that the new Adams book is a better experience. Don't most authors include something in their wills about not publishing unfinished materials?
This worries me slightly, since I was under the impression that part of what made his previous books so good was that he slaved over every word, writing and re-writing until it was perfect. Fingers crossed.
Looking for to reading one last entry from my favorites series...
I feel sad because once so bright soul went away from us. Reading uncomplete book would feel quite bad since it remainds me of that there will not be more...
I will rather buy the earlier ones as one big book. What was special with DNA wasn't that he was funny. A lot of authors are funny. He wrote in a way that no one else did. The special thing is, he didn't think very much of it.. He just did it, no matter how silly. He knew how to smile on this planet that makes most of the people most of the time just plain sad.
Unfinished files used to finish the unfinished book.
Finished from files found on his computer?
Finished from unfinished files found on the computer.
None of the above?
Does it matter? Is it part of the hitchhiker enigma?
Remember the 80's? You could not walk into a software store without seeing that green planet with it's tounge sticking out.
That was my first introduction to Douglas Adams.
The marketing on the PC version of Hitchhikers was so heavy I wonder if a lot of people did like I did, buy the game first, then out of curiosity bought the book. Man what a weird series of books (good weird) I remember picking up Resturant at the end of the universe with one notion of what the title meant, only to discover in the book that it's meaning was something completly different.
I think that is one of the neatest things about Adams books, they really paid homage to that old saying "You cannot judge a book by it's cover" Does anyone remember what the secret of the universe is?
Ron Hubbard published at least a dozen books after dying. Asimov, Heinlein, Roddenberry, Herbert, Toklein had amble stuff published too. Sometimes notes, as-is, or completions by "ghost" authors.
When I die, I hope they publish all those half completed letters to Penthouse I was working on.
"I never thought this could happen to me, but when I saw the six buxom cheerleaders knocking at my door..."
I just hope it does not end as it was with Tolkien, with lots of books published from temporary files/materials and in general so much stuff that it really looked like they were squeezing all the possible money from it....
While almost-completed stories are ok to publish, when the level reaches 10 lines of text and 10 pages of comment by someone else then it's sad.
The new book is not a Hitchhiker's book - there are already five of those - or a Dirk Gently book, but "it will be recognizable in style to anyone who knows those books." It also won't be The Salmon of Doubt.
"I abandoned [The Salmon of Doubt] about halfway through because I just thought it was getting too dull," Adams said. "Since then, I've now got lots and lots of different story lines waiting for me to turn them into books. One of them I shall apply the title Salmon of Doubt to, but I don't know which one yet."
Anyone know if the one being published was the "dull" book he never finished or another one?
-Daniel
from the article:
"He would take it and then revise it repeatedly so there were many files.
"As soon as he wrote anything he would say, 'Oh, God that's terrible'. He was a very, very self-critical author and so had a lot of trouble writing. He was a perfectionist."
I would rather that they not publish these final stories unless there was any indication from Mr. Adams before his death that he felt the stories lived up to his standards. It's sad, but they don't even know if he had thought of a completely new way to present the story, but just never had the chance to write it down.
Maybe if they include something in the forward saying that he had never reached a final approval point with these writings, it would sit easier with me. One thing I am glad they are doing, though, is to at least publish it in a collection with other writings, rather than selling it as the final novel in the Hitchhiker's collection.
And I will admit some curiosity to see the same story written in different ways. It might provide some insight into his creative process.
If all you have are silver bullets, everything looks like a werewolf.
Will we be seeing half completed movies that directors started?
oh yea AI.
or half completed software that a developer did not finish.
wait a minute, they dont have to be dead.
Point - its a mistake to publish something that isnt finish. It could have ended up way different that what was recovered on the computer after adams was finished revising it.
But Taco always say:
"Marvin you know we can't allow robots to post to slashdot. This website is for human nerds."
Hear I am. This is my fifth time though the whole expanse of time. I KNOW the secret to cold fusion. I personally talked to Jesus about the afterlife. I've had an XBox 5 TIMES now, and it just keeps pissing me off. Bill thinks he's so cool. Has he ever seen the end of time. I THINK NOT!!!
Tell Taco to let me post! Don't let Taco discriminate against me just because I am a robot.
"Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press"
For that reason, I'd be tempted to stay away from this book by Douglas.
Curmudgeon Gamer: Not happy
The original source of the story is the Sunday Telegraph.
There is a little more information here than at the BBC.
---
http://slashdot.org/moderation.shtml
I'll buy it and read it, but only for what it's worth. I got the feeling at the end of Mostly Harmless that he had pulled a Charlton Heston at the end of Beneath the Planet of the Apes--that he wanted to end the series so finally that no sequel was possible. A little like he was angrily trying to give the HH fans, always clamoring for more, the hint that he didn't have any more to give in the series.
On a side-note, Adams was a devout atheist. It doesn't seem fitting that we should be worried that he's looking down on all of us screaming, "No, you idiots! Don't publish that!"
Once again, I'd like to refer to what Neil Gaiman wrote in his journal once he heard of Douglas' death: I hope that his death isn't followed by the publishing of all the stuff he hadn't wanted to see print. (the Saturday, May 12, 2001 entry).
May we live long and die out
That's what I am talking about. I have to clean the house and play mp3s for this human nerd just so he will let me use this account. Taco won't even let me have an account!
"Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press"
Never read the books, huh?
Will Salmon be Adams' Simarillion? Remains to be seen, I guess. But anyway, who would want to read an unfinished book?
That was a stupid and offtopic comment.
It's sad to see this kind of thing happen. On one hand, its always nice to see "unpublished" material by your favorite author, on the other its explotation. Sure there might be some scholarly value here but mostly its foir the money. Let dead writers rest!
CDE open sourced! https://sourceforge.net/projects/cdesktopenv/
The only way I'd by that book is if the proceeds go to his family or a major charity. It would be true to D. Adams form for him to hate having unfinished stuff printed. The motive of the publishing company should be questioned.
Jon - TheSpork
I have to say, I have mixed feelings on this. On the one hand, a devoted Adams fan, I look forward to reading anything that he wrote. Being that this is a "unfinished" peice of work, is a little insulting, (wrong word but cant think of what to use) and at the same time, seeing as i cried when I read that he had passed. I want to read it, to see a little bit of the raw material that he worked with, to help get a little closer to the man who agonised over every word to ensure that I the reader would love it like the last.
No matter what form, or shape this is in, I am sure it will be a enjoyable read and will earn its place in my libarary, not for the actual words on the paper, but for the dedication and commitment to his fans.
Zaphod
(since 1979)
"No A Zaphod, didn't you hear we come in 6 Packs Now"
-
The Answer to the Question is 42.
-
Marvin, amongst numerous other complaints, claimed to have a brain the size of a planet.
- Marvin, like other robots, has a computer-based brain.
-
The Earth is a planet.
- The Earth was built by the mice as a computer, the only such planet or computer ever built.
- By (2), (3), (4), and (5), the Earth must therefore be Marvin's brain.
- The sole purpose of the Earth's program was to discover the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
- Marvin once announced that he had, in a moment of boredom, found the square root of -1, something never before done in the history of the universe, and previously believed by all sensible hyper-intelligent beings to be possibly the most difficult task to undertake, as it was dependent on the very structure of the Universe. (Most normally- intelligent beings gave up, dismissing it as impossible.)
- Marvin announced that he felt a brief, but deep, sense of satisfaction after having accomplished the achievement in (8).
- The Earth was apparently destroyed just as the purpose of its program was fulfilled, and a Question had been found.
- By (7), the Earth computer would have felt a deep sense of satisfaction at having achieved the task it was designed to fulfil.
- By (10), the sensation in (11) would have been brief.
- By (6), and by the fact that emotional feelings are based in the brain, the feelings in (9), (11) and (12) are the same single feeling.
- Finding the Ultimate Question was deemed to be the single most difficult task undertaken by hyper-intelligent beings in the history of the universe, as it was dependant on the very structure of the Universe -- as well as Life and Everything.
- By (6), (8), (13), and (14), Marvin (the Earth) had clearly solved the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
- By (8) and (15), the Question is "What is the square root of -1?".
- By (1) and (16), the square root of -1 is 42.
Pretty obvious, in hindsight...-grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
Instead of asking ``who the fuck is Ernest P. Worrel'', I'm sparing everyone else the trouble. He's that damned annoying ``Ernest Goes to Camp''/``Ernest Goes to Africa''/``Ernest Goes to Eroticon Six'' guy, played my Jim Varley.
http://us.imdb.com/Mlinks?0119068
That sort of thing.
-grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
I never can understand why people get so upset about "violating the wishes" of the now-dead. The dead shouldn't have rights, for the simple reason that they're not alive.
As for Mr. Adams, he was a very good writer, and an extremely talented man. He showed quite a bit of intelligence and insight, as well as compassion (I recommend that everyone try to get a copy of Last Chance to See. I think he did a great job of using his fame and talent to do good and have fun.
When he was alive, by all means, one should have shown him complete respect for his work and his rights. Treat him the way you'd want to be treated.
But, the fact of the matter is, now he's dead. You can't embarrass him, make him happy, cause him grief or indignation. You can't because he simply...isn't anymore. And, the fact is, there are people out there who are alive, who do want to read this. Why shouldn't they be allowed to, when doing so hurts absolutely nobody?
I'm sure some people will see this as flamebait, but seriously, many of the big problems in modern society revolve around un-dying "rights" and "wishes" -- be it of corporations, dead "prophets", or the ability of the very rich to pass on their inheritance to those who did nothing to earn it...Do we really need to devote any more "respect" to the non-existent when there are so many that could benefit (albeit in a very small way in this case) by considering the living?
If someone wants to show respect to the memory of Douglas Adams by not reading this unfinished material, that's their business -- personally I'd rather show people respect while they're alive and can appreciate it, rather than by making empty and useless gestures after they're dust.
I don't know if I'd enjoy reading an unfinished book. I think the Dune series did something similar where the son of the author took some unfinished manuscripts and churned out House Atradies and House Harkonnen.
Perhaps someone could provide an ending? A close friend perhaps? Meh.. as long as they did it for reasons other than profitability I think I'd take a look.
But without an ending... hmmm.. Imagine what the dictionary would be like if you never found out that the zedbra did it!
Price, Quality, Time. Pick none. What, you thought you had a choice?
If you don't want your unfinished writings to be exploited after your death (or you're just ashamed to have anyone see them), store 'em in an encrypted volume on your hard drive.
:-P
Just be sure to use a Government Approved backdoored cryptosystem, so the goons don't break your door down looking for terrorists.
Given enough monkeys and typewriters ...
So he had a bunch different branches, publish it as an Open Source project and lets the readers sort it out / choose the story they want to read. Long live 42!
Not really if you consider that they are exploiting the dead, legally, in both instances.
Flamebait.
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
Actually read them all over and over. Even have the fake leather Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe. Even read Dirk Gently's Detective Holistic Detective Agency series. Funny as hell. But if I just repeated stuff in the book wouldn't I be violating the DMCA or something ;-)
"Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press"
Well, given that Marvin was, at the time of his death, (some two-digit number) of times as old as the universe itself, and had actually waited until The End Of The Universe at one point, you could say that at least one (most likely several) Marvin(s) existed in the universe at that point.
-grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
Taking bits and pieces of a creative process and trying to publish them as a finished product is almost certainly not what Mr. Adams wanted.
Is your company running tools written by ma
Or your good memory of Douglas Adams will get corrupted. Remember Episode 1 ...
keep it simple.
Whenever things of this sort are done, the end result is usually to sully the reputation of the artist. Witness the many posthumous releases of Jimi Hendrix, many of which -- culled from jam sessions and demo tapes -- are awful. I think Hendrix has had between 3 and 5 releases while he was alive, and somewhere in the 10-15 range since his death. They find every scrap they can because they know hardcore Hendrix fans will buy it, but it is generally not that good. I only hope that this last book from Adams doesn't serve to make his previous work look bad.
rooooar
I have a 1988 printing of "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" that has the following printed on the front cover:
"The dazzling bestseller by the author of 'The Salmon of Doubt'"
This had always puzzled me, as I had never seen TSOD in any bookstores. Perhaps Simon&Schuster began advertising TSOD before Adams had finished writing it?
Actually, I have heard in the SF Fandom grapevine that most of these "Written after Death" novels were written by various SF writers still in thrall to Scientology, and published under the name of L. Ron Hubbard to try and create a decent literary legacy. All they did was tarnish it.
ttyl
Farrell
CAN-CON 2019 - Ottawa's only book oriented Science Fiction Convention! October 18-20, Sheraton Hotel, Ottawa, Canada h
When a meltdown occurs the fissile material can no longer be kept safely cool. When this happens, the nuclear material will detonate. A nuclear explosion is what happened at Chernobyl, sending radiation over hundreds of miles.
Ah, bullshit. A meltdown is when the nuclear material gets too hot to control, and then melts through the floor, basically. Nothing man has ever made can contain 5000 degree material. But it will never, ever dentonate because you need extreme pressure to create what is called "critical mass". Fission (current nuke plants) never happen in nature. Fusion (like the sun) only happen in suns. To create a fission bomb (ie. "detonate") requires serious explosives placed in precise places around the fission material. Just making it hot doesn't do shit.
Also, Chernobyl was NOT, NOT, a nuclear explosion, you ass monkey. It was a pressure explosion caused by an incorrect reactor design, one that the US always knew was a bad design because it could explode like Chernobyl did- and never built a reactor like that one. The Soviets/Russians did because it is a cheaper design. Yes, radiation was spread around, but it was NOT a nuke explosion, and it was caused by a KNOWN bad design.
You do not know your facts. I would also bet that you are an anti-nuke person, and just bash anyone who is pro-nuke without even learning the facts.
Bah.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
This is not that difficult. Publish the book as "Salmon of Doubt: an unfinished work by the late Douglas Adams". That way, everybody knows that it is unfinished and can think of it as such. Take it for what it is worth.
If readers are not capable of considering unfinished notes as what they are, then their opinions should not sully Adams' reputation.
_____
God is only experiencing itself -- Nisargadatta Maharaj
Everyone complaining that the idea of publishing Douglas Adams' unfinished book posthumously seems somehow wrong, might find it interesting that Douglas himself wrote the forward for his own favorite author P. G. Wodehouse's unwished book "Sunset at Blanding". In it he wrote:
"This is P. G. Wodehouse's last -- and unfinished -- book. It is unfinished not just in the sense that it suddenly, heartbreakingly for those of us who love this man and his work, stops in mid-flow, but in the more important sense that the text up to that point is also unfinished."
...
"Will you, anyway, find much evidence of the great genius of Wodehouse here? Well, to be honest, no."
...
"But you will want to read Sunset for completeness, and for that sense you get, from its unfinishedness, of being suddenly and unexpectedly close to a Master actually at work -- a bit like seeing paint pots and scaffolding being carried in and out of the Sistine Chapel."
So I don't think Douglas himself would really object to this.
It depends on who's releasing the work. Under California law (Douglas Adams was a resident of California when he died), his unfinished work is an asset owned by his estate, which presumably passed to his surviving wife if he died without a will or to the heirs named in his will if he had one.
Guessing that he left everything to his wife and children, his wife and/or children will own, sooner or later, his unfinished work, and can consent to it's publication. I'd hope that they make money on it.
On the other hand, if someone other than the executor of the estate or Douglas Adams's successors in interest (the wife and children) were to publish the unfinished work without authorization, then that person could certainly be sued by either the estate or the heirs.
144l. ph34r my 133t l3g4l 5k1lz!
And you, sir, are an idiot. I have copied below my response to the parent post so you may acquire some knowledge.
When a meltdown occurs the fissile material can no longer be kept safely cool. When this happens, the nuclear material will detonate. A nuclear explosion is what happened at Chernobyl, sending radiation over hundreds of miles.
Ah, bullshit. A meltdown is when the nuclear material gets too hot to control, and then melts through the floor, basically. Nothing man has ever made can contain 5000 degree material. But it will never, ever dentonate because you need extreme pressure to create what is called "critical mass". Fission (current nuke plants) never happen in nature. Fusion (like the sun) only happen in suns. To create a fission bomb (ie. "detonate") requires serious explosives placed in precise places around the fission material. Just making it hot doesn't do shit.
Also, Chernobyl was NOT, NOT, a nuclear explosion, you ass monkey. It was a pressure explosion caused by an incorrect reactor design, one that the US always knew was a bad design because it could explode like Chernobyl did- and never built a reactor like that one. The Soviets/Russians did because it is a cheaper design. Yes, radiation was spread around, but it was NOT a nuke explosion, and it was caused by a KNOWN bad design.
You do not know your facts. I would also bet that you are an anti-nuke person, and just bash anyone who is pro-nuke without even learning the facts.
Bah.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
Nothing man has ever made can contain 5000 degree material
Actually, a very powerful, spinning, magnetic field can contain molten metal. It needs to be much _more_ powerful than a field for either solid metal or plasma, but it can be done. Plasmas are relatively easy to contain, so long as you're not simultaneously trying to fuse them, since they're charged particles.
I have to say that I think I have the perfect ending, one that Douglas Adams would appreciate.
If I was the editor it would end thusly in mid-sentence.
"...sadly the author of this work is now dead and no one knows what the question is."
and then like 42 blank pages. i would laugh my ass off at that I think Douglas would as well.
-
I will encrypt all my files and if someone tries to enter the wrong password, my computer will be programmed to write random data on the hard drive until someone pulls the plug. If I know I'm going to die ahead of time, I'll find a 10 T magnet, pass my hard drives through that, and then burn them.
There's a reason why these manuscripts haven't been published when the author dies: they're not finished. There may be rare exceptions, where the author is approaching a final draft and dies unexpectedly, but usually publishing these unfinished works is a disservice to the author's record. I suspect in many cases it is scumming for cash by the people who get the rights in the authors' estate.
so the question is dependent on:
1)Mr. Adams's whimsy.
-Try not to take things so seriously.
ubi dubium ibi libertas.
A train stops at a train station. A bus stops at a bus station. On my desk I have a work station
I think instead of publishing some unfinished book which probably was far from done, after all Mr. Adams was working on a HHGTTG film. Instead they should get the film project rolling again and maybe get one of the Monty Python dudes do it, after all Terry Jones (Director of Live of Brian) already wrote the book to Starship Titanic so he knows how Douglas thought rather well. But as it is those bastards will go for the easy money instead .
--Ulrich
On no accounts allow a Vogon to read poetry at you
If you wathc the on-line recordings of DNA's memorial service, his literary agent explained that: ...they intended to include it in a forthcoming collection of his non-book-published work (journalism etc.) simply because the fanatics would demand it.
a) salmon of doubt was extremely unfinished (to be precise, it's not a case of only being half of a book, it's a case of what there is being early drafts from a writer who did many many many revisions of his work) but that even so...
b)
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
I'll read it, but with no hope of a neat ending of a neat anything, for that matter. We know that DNA labored on SoD for years before setting it aside, so while it unlikely to be entirely satisfactory (neither was Mostly Harmless, IMO), it should be fun for those who followed Adams' work and career and admire the Hitchiker Series.
Helium balloons want to be free.
By (1) and (16), the square root of -1 is 42
Incorrect, you can't have a square root of a minus number. Anyway, 42 is the square root of 1764.
I would hate to know that he would be pissed to find out that an incomplete work was being published.
There, that's on topic.
I can't believe my previous post was modded off-topic, I respond to someone who talks about Adams (meaning I'm talking about Adams' beliefs), but I get modded down?
Time to include an IQ test to allow moderation privledges.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
if (Omnipotent_Bearded_Cranky_White_Guy->Exists)
Value (Others);
else
Screw (Others);
I ask, who has more virtue: the person who does good because "daddy" is looking, or the person who does good simply because he/she knows it is right?
Since I got modded Off-topic on my first attempt I'll risk another point or two of karma and try again for a (score:3, Funny).
He would take it and then revise it repeatedly so there were many files. "As soon as he wrote anything he would say, 'Oh, God that's terrible'. He was a very, very self-critical author and so had a lot of trouble writing. He was a perfectionist." Which sounds like so many Open Source projects which never make it to rel. 1.0. If we could set it up as an Open Source project, we'd have a chance of getting to 1.0 in maybe 3 or 4 years.
Earth: Final Conflict
Andromeda
Two things I think Gene Roddenberry held out on for a couple of reasons...
I am very large fan of Mr. Adams' writings. At best, publish them as they were found. At worst...let the man rest.
Its fails to consider the possibility that God might punish people for their belief in Him.
"Why on earth did you believe in me? You had no evidence!"
serious discusion.... yes... that's why you all rant about Microsoft, (generalisation but I'm trolling ^_^)... I propose BSD in it's many free flavours... oh wait BSD is in Windows...
....it has to be a Dirk Gently book. The fifth HHGTTG book ended in a way that did not leave the series open for another sequel. I do remember reading that he was writing a third DG novel, though.
He will be sorely missed. I'll have to get me a copy of that book when it becomes available.
half- finished dna has to be better than perfected much else.
/. - any insights?
he's made me laugh so hard i've had to lie down to catch my breath and had to excuse myself from a meeting once remembering something of his i'd read the week before.
plus, he knows just how hard a ghost has to work to get something done - he can haunt us if he wants.
alan kay - are you scanning
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Hitchhiker's guide isn't a series of books.. It is properly referred to as a trilogy. Don't ask why.. just accept it.
He did a smash up job of writing Starship Titanic for Adams, why not have him finish this one too?
The Geek shall inherit the Earth
Unless you side with the Kafka folks, it's a good way to eliminate grief.
The fact that Adams didn't publish any of this, because he thought it wasn't right, says a lot, I think. This just seems like a way of cashing in .
I personally, think that it shouldn't be published. If Adams wasn't happy with it, then his wish should have been respected.
This reminds me of when Freddie Mercury died, and all of a sudden a whole pile of Queen records got released. Most of them were pants. If they hadn't been released, it was for a good reason.
Very sad indeed. This shouldn't just be an excuse to cash in.
... that "Salmon of Doubt" sounds too fishy?
Pet peeve: Profane people propagating perfunctory pedantry.
In my opinion, if the person / persons die before releasing something to the public at large, then unreleased material should stay that way, pass it down through the family for gods sake... keep something unique belonging to your grandad/granma.
Personally, I think thats what should have been done with Earth: Final Conflict and perhaps Andromeda too... although it does mean we get to see the yummy Lexa Doig, and that can't be bad.
--
Wow, my first ever slashdot post in 2.5 years, wonder if I'll get flamed?
If his wife/daughter/puppy receive the proceeds, isn't it very likely that Mr. Adams would have wanted them to publish his work, especially since their loss was so sudden and tragic?
As for all the fans -including myself: I personally believe that anyone who is truly a Douglas Adams fan won't hesitate for a second if he/she sees the Salmon of Doubt in a local bookstore.
Hell, I won't that's for sure.
__
Not believing in force is like not believing in gravity.
You've oversimplified:
You do not need any 'pressure' to assemble a critical mass. As is demonstrated every day in nuclear power plants, critical mass is mainly dependent on geometry and environment (moderator good, absorbers bad, M'kay?).
Heres the critical distinction:
For a bomb, you need a 'prompt critical' configuration. Prompt means you have at least enough neutrons immediately released in each fission to sustain a steady/increasing chain reaction. This is how you achieve so much energy very quickly (before your material blows itself apart or melts, etc.).
This requires hasty assembly (and that is where explosives are useful), as a cosmic ray (or your intentional neutron source) can start an ordinary 'slow' chain reaction before you've got your intended prompt supercritical mass assembled. I.e., instead of a boom, you get a fizzle and maybe a pool of molten uranium/plutonium.
But I heartily agree that most anti-nuclear zealots would do well to do a little research. For some reason the bar is set much lower to denounce something than creditably support it.
You're posting now, right?
I'm a student at MIT, and Douglas Adams spoke here last year. He was awesome, with witty commentary on many different issues. He spoke precisely with the slightly sarcastic tone of his writing, and I enjoyed it very much. I was fortunate to have my towel signed.
But anyway, my point: He mentioned the unfinished 6th Hitchhiker's Guide book, and noted that it was not a priority to him and that he didn't like it because he started it at a sad time in his life, so it was more gloomy than he would have liked it to be. So that's why it's been unfinished for so long. I'm anxious to read what's there, though. He also mentioned that the 6th would be the final hitchhiker's guide book. And now, sadly, it most certainly will be.
I, for one, will never purchase a book that has been published after an authors death.
clearly an attempt by his estate to make a few bucks from fans who miss the author, and what the author had contributed to there lives.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Douglas Adams may be dead, but there is a rather large number of people around that aren't. The six billion of us still kicking include his family, his friends, his collaborators, and a big whack of people who don't want to see his work and his memory sullied by the publication of his unfinished works. If he'd wanted it published, it would have been published.
What about the rights of those of us who hold Douglas Adams dear to our hearts?
It sounds like you are implying that deists only do good deeds because they fear divine tribution. You'll probably tell me that I'm reading too much into it, so I'll let it pass.
Instead, I ask, "who the fuck cares"? To whom does this "virtue" matter?
If I give food to the homeless to take a few bucks off of my taxes, do you think the person who receives the food gives a rat's ass for my "virtue"? Do I care what you think about my donation? No.
Blah
Why do published writers write? There is fame and fortune. And the desire to entertain, to make readers happy. To feel that you have given someone a chance, for a few hours, to live another life, to be another person.
If, after my death, the publication of my unfinished work makes even one person happy, I will rest in peace.
It was with a great deal of elation that I read this.A sixth book from DA is a possibility that is almost too good to be true,considering that the man seems to be taking some time dead for tax purposes.(I can only hope.)
I am elated not only because of the anticipation of reading it, but at the prospect of finally being proven correct! It was my assertion,after reading Mostly Harmless,that the great DA was setting the stage for a sixth book. In HHGTTG Arthur makes the statement,"I wish I had a daughter so I could forbid her to marry one." in ref. to his recent education on Vogons. In Mostly Harmless, Arthur now has a daughter and *big surprise* the Vogon captain,Prostetnic is back.Will this be a plot element in Salmon? The evidence seems to point in that direction,and so for once in my life, I may have actually made a valid assertion.Who would have guessed?