Douglas Adams Continuum (DAC)

Me too.

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I'm just here

You can have Viggo Mortensen. I'll take the real bookish Strider...

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A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal. - Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)
[img]http://www.millan.net/minimations/smileys/kittifer.gif[/img]

But that's pretty much the only Viggo I know.
Guess I'll just have to take what I can get.

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(... don't piss us off)

I just want to point out that I'm not jealous. Not the slightest. Not at all.

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Niklas
Thanks to Claire for the artwork.

For the ladies:

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WWJD... for a Klondike bar?

OK ... we're flexible ... we can tie you up instead. Afterall, we have seen you in your running shorts.

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(... don't piss us off)

I'll get the ropes, or shall we take leather restrains, or do you want to go for simple fluffy cuffs?

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A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal. - Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)
[img]http://www.millan.net/minimations/smileys/kittifer.gif[/img]

Gnnnhh... Me and my big mouth...
* Hides behind Viggo *

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Niklas
Thanks to Claire for the artwork.

Men... first they beg, then they run...

Heel!

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A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal. - Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)
[img]http://www.millan.net/minimations/smileys/kittifer.gif[/img]

Ah well ... guess we'll just have to make do with what we've got.

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(... don't piss us off)

No, no, I'm with you, mg. I think Mortenson is kinda cute, but I'll go for the actual book guy. Give me a fictional character every time!

especially if we're using the fluffy handcuffs

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I'm just here

Viggo: Who? Me!?
* Sound reminding scarily much of a can of beer getting opened in another thread. *
Drag36793/"&: Obey!...&/392Alsdk#%& kneels down HWYgg%&# Viggo &%&/(#& Nklas #¤^^üeed Snider's sweaty ejp3em,3 dskje&#54 hairy j4ö3 blurb...
* ...actually a rather bizarre blurb-sound that could almost be mistaken for someone checking the waterproof-ness of DAC and its backup copies *
...steamy hot %#¤& decided to do a complete structural and data backup of the entire site ¤&^^*ksj eop 24 pack of beer Bzzzz... handcuffs knekbne w2öoo2 ¨q 8 to go, cheers!zzzwq2) crying, asking for mercy966/23#&"%3lly shocking bizarre "362()"(kjdjmne, Dragonqueen 2)(/" 3 mg ${££ kwjl12 inches xcdekl welectric #%674 ekpmeblurb blurb blurb Carlsberg (/"& 4j naked #&¤h2k (#837 No no no!!! "&/#3uhh43 shorts kdö d&#& Yes! Yes! Yes!! LEJn2387/2827/#&AAaAAARRrrrggghhh...hkshn ehk3 More more!!m /()"#7683 wsddlo eop kiiiinky ssop jerking desperately! sls p20qjhhj blindfolded o4u 4o jfjkl4 lekjdfkl örl44 oh dear, you really bothered reading thid tiny text hoping to find some final dirty words? Shame on you! ;) /"( 439j3k 3l2...

* Looong silence and darkness followed by a DAC-re-powering-up-after-collapsing humming-kind-of-sound. *
* Almost not hearable echo of someone saying "Gee, that was closche, but I'm good at thisch, so I do not think that anyone noticed..." *

... damn, this place is a mess! We must do this more often!

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Niklas
Thanks to Claire for the artwork.

Niklas! Om du inte slutar nu så kommer hela jävla Internet att pajja bara för att du dreglar!

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Before long now, I'll reach the age where farting will be an essential part of propulsion.
(...don't piss us off)

Yeah - wot Dukey said!

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(... don't piss us off)

I find it very hard to believe Viggo Mortensen is the same age as me :(

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D.
The Thirteenth Triskaidekaphobe
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Aww...who wants to look like Max Headroom anyway?




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(accidental porn edited out by mg ... why can't the jerks just ask nicely if they don't want folks hotlinking?)

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The drug purportedly affected an area of the brain called "Shatner's Bassoon"

I used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I realized who was telling me this.
http://s267.photobucket.com/albums/ii297/h2g230/

Mrs. Max Headroom?



~~~~~~~~~~
(ditto on the accidental porn)

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This has been another random act of nonsense.

i wonder if they'll make this new book into a radio series?

sorry to bring it up again

Paul

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Caution: sudden tea breaks

Oh dear, was it in this thread the Viggo incident took place!?

Anyway, back on topic again then.

Time will tell, but I suppose it all depends on how sucessful (or not) the book is. I find it hard to even imagine also making a new radio series of it, without first reading the book and see if it's worthy of that. And even then I think that it must be quite sucessful and popular for that to happen. Right now I doubt it. But nothing is impossible.

No harm though if a new book stirs up some new interest for the original books, radio series etc, possibly increasing the probability of a future second movie.

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Niklas
Thanks to Claire for the artwork.

Your vitals back to normal yet? Or should I send a nurse?

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A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal. - Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)
[img]http://www.millan.net/minimations/smileys/kittifer.gif[/img]

In the same fine shape as always. Is the nurse female?

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Niklas
Thanks to Claire for the artwork.

I can't see that matters. S/he is just going to check your blood pressure, heart rate, temperature and such. Can't be much gender biased collecting that information.

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A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal. - Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)
[img]http://www.millan.net/minimations/smileys/kittifer.gif[/img]

Ooooh, I thought you were suggesting to send someone over for a cup of tea. (Which certainly isn't very gender biased either, but yet a possible reason for curiosity.).

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Niklas
Thanks to Claire for the artwork.

This isn't entirely true. The books were written by one person, but Douglas had a history of collaboration with people when applying HHGG to different media. John Lloyd, anyone? Steve Meretsky? Similarly the rather unsuccessful delegation of Starship Titanic by Adams himself, and the even less successful delegation of the Milliways computer game to Michael Bywater are further evidence of this.

That's not to say Adams wasn't proprietorial - he allegedly received many collaborative offers by people who wanted to gee up his writing speed during his lifetime - but the notion of continuing to do things with the HHGG universe isn't a bad one per se.

My personal objection, certainly upon hearing the news, was to the continuation of the story of Arther Dent in book form as a means of "completing" the trilogy.

That premise is poppycock.

I had no objection to Dirk Maggs' continuation and development of HHGG in its original form, becuase that, to me, was the true completion of the series.

I'd similarly have no objection to a collaborative effort by people connected to Douglas, and/or by people paying homage to him for the purpose of... paying homage to him.

My other objection, I guess, is to the fact that Eoin Colfer's name may appear bigger on the cover of the book than that of Douglas Adams.

However, being realistic, one day this stuff will be in the public domain, and anyone can use it, with or without the DNA Estate's approval. How many sequels, authorised or otherwise, have The War of the Worlds or the Time Machine had? Were the originals diminished in any way?

The word 'sequel', I suspect, is much less threatening than the word 'completion', and therein lies the rub.

Adams' writing style shifted considerably from the first groundbreaking HHGG novel and Mostly Harmless, and I remember being disappointed by the change because while the prose style improved, the plotting and the pace never, for me, completely recaptured the sheer brilliance of the original.

A sixth novel by Adams could have been just as much of a turkey as a sixth novel by Colfer or anyone else. The difference is we would have forgiven him, and still purchased the seventh.

If Colfer doesn't deliver, this will be his one shot, the book will fade into obscurity and be forgotten. Maybe another authorised sequel will turn up by some other author a few years later, maybe not. I don't think Douglas Adams' name on a book is a licence to print money anymore, so if this does fail it could protect the DNA legacy until 2078, which is when our sons and daughters will start touting our old hitchhiker fan fiction to publishers far and wide.

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Don't Panic! is a not-for-profit role-playing game produced by and for fans of the late Douglas Adams. If you're looking for something fresh, funny, irreverent, and different to every other role-playing experience out there visit http://hitchhikers.wetpaint.com/

For me H2G2 was never about Arthur Dent or Vogons or Ford Prefect. The characters served merely as vehicules for the far more interesting musings of the author.

For me it was never about what happened next to Arthur, not in the James Bond sense nor in any sort of narrative sense, the whole thing was about personal observation and an outlook on the world.

Trying to write the further adventures of the characters has about as much point as trying to write a new Jeeves and Wooster. A new plot about a potentially to be stolen cow creamer and some bod falling in love with the wrong girl whilst throwing young relatives into ponds all being tidily resolved at the last minute by the valet will be meaningless without Plum's turn of phrase, smack you in the face similies, and snappy dialogue.

Sure it can be done but it won't be better, nor will it be as good, so it begs the question why not just do something else rather than tinker about with what is great already?

Another series of Fawlty Towers maybe? How about some new scripts for the Goons?

I'm afraid I see no artistic merit to this project whatsoever, money for money's sake!

Iain,

You told me in a PM that you hadn't yet listened to Dirk Maggs' new radio adaptations of the last three books. By all means you should. You have been very verbal in your dislike of the movie. By no means do I dislike it as much as you but I can't blame people who dislike it. However, Dirk's radio adaptations make up for them, as even though Douglas wasn't alive to write them, his voice was there constantly unlike in the movie.

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"If there's anything more important than my ego around here, I want it caught and shot now!"

-- Zaphod Beeblebrox

-- Wrestling is a spectacle all right. But believe it or not, some of the most devoted fans are highly intelligent people

I'll second my recommendation of the three Dirk Hitchhiker's series. Brilliantly done radio work and a touching (and fitting!) end the Hitchhiker's saga.

Also recommended are the script books, where Maggs goes into detail about how and why he made the choices he did in adapting the work for radio. If there's any doubt that he went the extra mile to honor Adams' wishes that book should put the issue to rest.

Oh, and started Artemis Fowl on the way into work this morning. So far (only a chapter in) so good.

Yeah, when I was out training it struck me that only by switching from writing to music one can get really bizarre examples. Like a brand new Abba album, written and performed ny the Pet Shop Boys, say.

Ayway, comparing with movies is a more fair comparison. I certainly think that his new guy (I heven't leahned his name yet) might be able to write a great sequel in the same way that I, for example thought that Aliens was a great sequel to Alien. The key ingredients and main characters were there, but not instead of staying too close to the original, James Cameron did it his way and with a very good result. In a similar way I think a new HHGTTG bok mus contain enough key ingredients to reeally feel like a new HHGTTG book. Some of the main characters, for sure, and some similarities in the kind of humour and the universe they live in, but for making an interesting story the author has to add some new stuff, new characters and a really good story line that makes the book very well worth reading. In exactly what way depends on the author, who has to focus on what he does best rather than on what he thinks that Douglas would have written if he still had been alive. I'm sure that it can be done and that there are several authors out there who could do a great job on it an I only hope that one of them got the job. =)

Otherexamples already mentioned are Stat Trek and James Bond. Without having done too much deep thinking on this, I think that some good characteristics of a good sequel is to on one hand stay "close enough" to the previous episodes but also to dare adding some thing completekly new that makes this movie different from the previous ones and in a way that makes it interesting and keeps the full attention of the audience from beginning to the end. Otherwise the audience just thinks that "I've already seen this several times before, where are the surprises? The unexpected new twists that really makes me remember this movie as something more than just wasting money on a re-make in disguise".

Well, that's roughly what I guess would have to be in a goog sixth book. And I've probably rambled too much about it already, so I'll stop now. =)

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Niklas
Thanks to Claire for the artwork.

At Kevin's suggestion, I read Artemis Fowl and now am onto the second one.
There are a few similarities of style between Colfer and DNA. His writing (Colfer's) is very forthright, very "up front" without any flowery tendencies toward description or background info. He's funny -- not like Marvin or Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters are funny, but like Fairies with AK-47s and dwarves pooping concrete missiles are funny. He's more technological than science-y. He does weave a good action-packed tale.

I like the moral incongruities in his writing -- there are no clear cut good guys and bad guys. My favorite part is when one of the lead characters saves another character's life just because it's there, even though it goes against her best interest...

So my assessment so far, for what it's worth.

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I'm just here

Oh okay, I will pick up Artemis Fowl in the school library tomorrow.

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vagabond
birds, any birds, anywhere, any time

Of course, they're all fools and are missing the one man who could (and, indeed, did) write Hitchhiker's both with and for Douglas Adams.

Not only the radio scripts, but material for other media, and indeed co-wrote several books with DNA himself.

John Lloyd.

A very funny man and one who knew (and shared) DNA's humour to a very great degree.

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Frankymole

After the movie debacle, almost certainly.

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Frankymole

Though phrases like "aimed at younger readers" give me skin rashes, I won't condemn this book for its very existence.

Arguments against it: It's simply unnecessary as a sequel, and it will probably be a fun action-packed story, but without the brilliant insights that made the previous ones special. (I read the whole Artemis Fowl series and loved most of it, but for very different reasons than I love Hitchhiker.)

On the other hand, there are enough Hitchhiker incarnations out there so everyone can pick their favorite and happily ignore the rest.
My relationship with that book will probably be the same as with the movie: Watched it once, came to a balanced and sophisticated verdict best summarized as "Meh", and sold the DVD. Now I acknowledge its existence through firmly attached SEP field-generating glasses and don't get worked up about it.

[Unfortunately I'll have to apply the same method to the latest Artemis Fowl book. Using time travel to make your hero fight himself might be fun, but massive retconning of a whole series is never a good idea, and neither is ripping off the premise of Star Trek IV. Shame on you, Mr. Colfer.]

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I have seen the truth and it doesn't make sense.

Run that by me again, the new Hitchhiker's book is going to be aimed at younger readers? have I missed something? Where does that piece of news come from?

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Don't Panic! is a not-for-profit role-playing game produced by and for fans of the late Douglas Adams. If you're looking for something fresh, funny, irreverent, and different to every other role-playing experience out there visit http://hitchhikers.wetpaint.com/

Scratch is going to throw it in the general direction of his kids.

I believe I read somewhere that it was expected to "appeal to younger readers", but right now I can't remember where, sorry. Not in this thread, apparently. I'll see if I can find the source again. Until then, please don't take my word for it. I don't want to be blamed for starting rumors.

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I have seen the truth and it doesn't make sense.

Nah. We usually blame Eric.

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WWJD... for a Klondike bar?

Ah, well if that's true it'll have to be a sequel to the American editions of HHGG where the word fuck has consistently been replaced.

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Don't Panic! is a not-for-profit role-playing game produced by and for fans of the late Douglas Adams. If you're looking for something fresh, funny, irreverent, and different to every other role-playing experience out there visit http://hitchhikers.wetpaint.com/

That reminds me of that episode of Father Ted where a man tells Ted to 'fup off, you grasshole'.

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Batman: Nobody wants war.

Robin: Gee, Batman. Belgravia's such a small country. We'd beat them in a few hours.

Batman: Yes, and then we'd have to support them for years.

Come on, the 'Belgium' joke turned a short gag based on the use of the word 'fuck' into a hilarious, long joke based on whimsical irreverence. It's much better the American way. Also, Wowbagger's insults are stranger.

Good advice from Uncle Ted.

better advice would have been: just don´t do it.

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"The human gene pool needs more lifeguards!
Either that or stronger chlorination...." (Pitbull)