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1979 Interview With Douglas Adams
An anonymous reader points out the inaugural issue of the online sci-fi mag Darker Matter, which start off with a bang by publishing an interview with the late Douglas Adams that has not seen the light of day in 28 years, except for brief excerpts published in the magazine that commissioned the interview. The first two parts are now online with the last part coming next month.
How froody.
Douglas Adams
English humorist & science fiction novelist (1952 - 2001)
Although at the time he was slightly less late.
Tom Baker was my favorite Doctor, and I see Douglas Adams wrote a few of those episodes. I wonder how much of Adam's influence was present in Tom Baker's tenure outside of those 4 episodes he wrote. I later latched on to reruns from the crudgy old white guy and that blonde haired chap.
I hope, when they die, cartoon characters have to answer for their sins.
Great for Dark Matter to get their hands on this. Must be fun for the journalist too to come back to this article so many years later.
I know no one on Slashdot reads TFA, but you need to. Some things should be required, like building your own PC or Lightsaber, or reading HHGTTG. Those who wish to learn more should go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/game_andre w.shtml.
"Be grateful for what you have. You may never know when you may lose it."
"I'd finally given up on the idea of science fiction comedy, simply because no-one was interested. But then Simon Brett suggested the idea to me. 'I'd like to do an SF comedy, and I think you might be the guy to do it.' And I sort of fell out of my chair."
The Red Sea had parted, and Douglas had the opportunity he had been waiting for. Delicious
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
"The ships hung in the air in much the same way that bricks don't."
There's a special, reserved place in heaven for anybody who can turn a phrase like that.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
"An anonymous points out the inaugural issue of Darker Matter, which start off with a bang by publishing an interview with the late Douglas Adams that has not seen the light of day in 28 years, except for brief excerpts published in the magazine that commissioned the interview. The first two parts are now online with the last part coming next month."
(in case they fix it)
-d
"Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
They're usually very dull and boring. Stupid questions like "what's your favorite color", etc.
It may not be the case with this one, but I've read enough "unlreleased" interviews and short stories to see a pattern.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
How nice it is to see DNA give his respects to Pan Stanislaw - and his translator, Michael Kandel, though not by name. I've read Lem in Russian, a language very close to his native Polish, which makes the translator's job significantly easier, and still some places are better in English. Go get yourself a copy of the "Cyberiad".
I can assure you, the best way to get rid of dragons is to have one of your own.
His death, at only 49, was one of the saddest events in recent memory for English literatue. Apart from being brilliantly funny, he also made very keen observations on society and culture. One of my favorites: "... To summarize, the people who want to lead the government, are, by virtue of wanting to lead, the least qualified to do so. To summarize the summary: people are a problem." May he be remembered fondly, with tea and biscuits.
But 6 * 9 is 42 in base 13.
No. Turn in your UID now for one at least 100 times larger. The Answer is 42. The question was "what do you get if you multiply six by nine". Chapter 33, The Restuaruant at the End of the Universe.
(SPOILER ALERT)
In The Restaurant ah the End of the Universe when Arthur is stranded on the planet with all the Golgafrinchans and early Earth computer man he tosses out the scrabble pieces to form the Question for the Ultimate Answer. He tosses out:
W H A T D O Y O U G E T I F Y O U M U L T I P L Y S I X B Y N I N E
So the 'from' department is correct.
There are two kinds of people: 1) those that need closure
"Human beings are not an endangered species; however, this isn't for a lack of trying." - DNA
If I mod you up, it doesn't necessarily mean I agree with what you've said, sorry.
"I may be a pretty sad case, but I don't write jokes in base 13!" - Douglas Adams
See Wikipedia and Wikiquote. This quote is also in video form on the DVD release of the Hitchhiker's TV series.
From The Restaurant at the End of the Universe:
No, the 6*9 is "correct" (in the story, if not in mathematics); the Answer to the Ultimate Question (being calculated by the young Earth) got screwed up by the arrival of the Golgafrinchans. cf the original radio series.
How fitting that this is posted on the date 4-2
Maybe if this sig is witty or clever enough, someone will love me...
Well, I am a sad case, so I like jokes in base 13.
Serendipity. That's why it's amusing to me. DNA picked two numbers that shouldn't produce 42, but did, entirely by accident. It's so ridiculous, I love him all the more for it.
And as we find out later, it's impossible to have both the question and the answer in the same universe. We know that 42 is the answer; "What do you get when you multiply six times nine?" is a question, but it can't be the question.
Good, inexpensive web hosting
Eh its Monty Python in space. Look at it that way and its not too bad. I suppose its kind of science fictiony...some interesting ideas...but ultimately, only really funny and intriguing if you're blitzed out of your mind.
6*9=42 is correct, if one uses base 13 and not 10 (Yes, I checked. Sad, isn't I) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Answer_to_Life,_t he_Universe,_and_Everything
accept no limits but time
Adam... Douglas?
Says the Independent Zero.
How topical - what with it being exactly a bit less than six years since he died and nearly precisely two since the movie HHGTTG was released.
Only three things are certain; death, taxes, and apocryphal quotations - Ben Franklin.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
Well, swut! I got it wrong myself... I of course meant the Question to the Ultimate Answer got screwed up by the unexpected arrival of the Golgafrinchans (who, incidentally, were what we now know as the human race. Explains a lot, really...)
Remembered seeing him at the 1999 JavaOne conference (anyone else?). Did that anecdote about eating the biscuits of the guy opposite from him at the train station. One of the best key-notes I've *ever* been to.
What's so unpleasant about being drunk?
You ask a glass of water.
-- Arthur and Ford, from the first episode
this is pretty much a dupe of a slashdot posting about 27y 10m ago!
Sheesh, slashdot, old news for old nerds, stuff that no longer matters!
Who's Adam Douglas, and what does he have to do with this story?
I wouldn't say he sucks, but he is overrated. Or rather, HHGG is overrated. I haven't read his other stuff. I thought HHGG was hilarious in 7th grade. Now, it strikes me as some amusing concepts and a bunch of nonseqiturs. It's kind of like reading Mad Libs.
For the first time in a long time people are RTFA! I did.
And, in fact, as the man who got the overdose of truth serum in Life, The Universe, and Everything admitted, the question and the answer are mutually exclusive. The correct question, and the correct answer, cannot coexist in the same universe.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
"Adam Douglas sucks. He's overrated. You can only handle so much of his nonsense until it starts to get really unfunny."
Yeah, yeah. Haven't you got some poetry to write?
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
So did one of my maths lecturers at Uni - we had "What do you get if you multiply six by nine" on one of our hand outs - I was the only one who had read HHGTG in my class and got it right. Shame it didn't get me an A in the assignment though... RIP Douglas (Or continue RIPing, where ever you are. Probably on the Starship Heart of Gold - (At an improbability rating of... )