From: gnat@kauri.vuw.ac.nz (Nathan Torkington)
Subject: alt.fan.douglas-adams FAQ
Followup-To: alt.fan.douglas-adams
Originator: gnat@kauri.vuw.ac.nz
Supersedes: <alt.fan.douglas-adams_702043234@kauri.vuw.ac.nz>
Reply-To: gnat@kauri.vuw.ac.nz
Organization: Victoria University of Wellington
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 12:00:40 GMT
Expires: Tue, 28 Apr 1992 12:00:34 GMT

Archive-name: douglas-adams-FAQ
Last-modified: 04Apr92
Maintained-by: gnat@kauri.vuw.ac.nz <Nathan Torkington>
Changes: 8 17

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:	182pp.
  ISBN:		1-85286-013-8
  PRICE:	UK price L3.95.

(with appropriate salaams to Scott Telford (s.telford@ed.ac.uk) for
 kindly posting this data so that we may all benefit from his
 great knowledge and wisdom)


TOPICAL INDEX

 1. What are all the books Douglas Adams has written?

 2. What are they all about?

 3. What "Dr. Who" shows did Douglas Adams [co]author?

 4. Where can I find the HHGTTG tapes/albums/CDs?

 5. Hey - 6 times 9 ISN'T 42!

 6. But 6 times 9 IS 42 in base 13!

 7. Can someone explain the ending to "Dirk Gently's Holistic
    Detective Agency"?

 8. Why don't we start a "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe"
    ourselves?

 9. Doesn't "the long dark teatime of the soul" appear somewhere in
    another book?

10. What's this business about the monkeys?

11. What was the song that Arthur plays for Fenchurch?

12. What was the short story about Zaphod?

13. Does Douglas Adams like Macs?

14. What computer games has Douglas Adams written?

15. What's the business with the barrister?

16. What is the order of the numerous Guide books/records/shows?

17. Who else writes like Douglas Adams?

18. If I ring the Islington telephone number, do I get Deep Thought?


(ULTIMATE) QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

 1. What are all the books Douglas Adams has written?

    "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"
    "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe"
    "Life, The Universe, and Everything"
    "So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish"
    "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency"
    "The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul"
    (with John Lloyd) "The Meaning of Liff"
    (with John Lloyd) "The Deeper Meaning of Liff"
    (with Mark Carwardine) "Last Chance to See"
    (with foreward by Geoffrey Perkins) "The Complete Radio Scripts"
    (with lots of others) "The Utterly Utterly Merry Comic Relief
	Christmas Book"
    "The Hitchhiker's Trilogy" (a collection of the first 3 books)
    "The Hitchhiker's Omnibus" (a collection of the first 4 books)
    "The More Than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide" (leather-bound omnibus
	which features the short story "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe")

 2. What are they all about?

    Buy them and find out. 
      Essentially "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", "The
    Restaurant at the End of the Universe", "Life, The Universe, and
    Everything" and "So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish" form a
    trilogy in four parts about one man's travels through the universe
    after (and before) the Earth is accidentally destroyed.
      "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" and "The Long Dark
    Teatime of the Soul" form a loosely-bound series.  They are
    detective stories after a fashion.
      "The Meaning of Liff" and "The Deeper Meaning of Liff" are
    dictionaries, which give meanings to words which formerly spent
    their lives loitering about at the top of signposts.  "Deeper" is
    an expanded form of "Liff", with some definitions changed, and
    others omitted all-together.
      "Last Chance to See" was written after Douglas Adams went around
    the world with Mark Carwardine, a zoologist, looking at
    near-extinct species.  It is humourous, and non-fictional.
      "The Complete Radio Scripts" is (surprise, surprise) the
    Complete Radio Scripts to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
    radio series.

 3. What "Dr. Who" shows did Douglas Adams [co]author?

    "City of Death", "The Pirate Planet" and "Shada".  Shada was never
    screened.  City of Death and Shada were worked over and became
    "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency".
    He also wrote a treatment (plot synopsis) for a film called "Dr Who
    and the Krikkitmen".  It was never made into either a film or a TV
    show, but most of the pertinent plot points reappeared in "Life, The
    Universe and Everything."

 4. Where can I find the HHGTTG tapes/albums/CDs?

    The canonical address is:
	BBC World Service Mail Order
	Room LG26 NE
	Bush House
	Strand
	London WC2B 4PH

	Tel: (071) 257 2575
	Fax: (071) 497 0498

    The prices from there are:
	Box Set: 6 Audios - #21.70 (English Pounds)
	         6 CDs    - #34.76

 5. Hey - 6 times 9 ISN'T 42!

    Yup.

 6. But 6 times 9 IS 42 in base 13!

    Yes, and we don't want to know about the implications for the
    number of fingers on Golgafrinchans, nor their distribution.
    Douglas Adams actually mentions this in his "Complete Radio
    Scripts" books.

 7. Can someone explain the ending to "Dirk Gently's Holistic
    Detective Agency"?

    Here are two postings which explain it best:

    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 existance. It is set in an existance in which
    the second part of _Kubla Khan_ exists. This second part of the
    poem tells the ghost about the existance 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.

    From: Torsten.Lif@eos.ericsson.se (Torsten Lif)

    The second part of KK was written by Coleridge *while possesed by
    the ghost* and is the ghost providing info, not the other way
    around.  I think the info is about the ship that is still in orbit
    around Earth.

    By confusing Coleridge (and introducing the albatross that then
    appears in the Ancient Mariner), Dirk got rid of the directions to
    find the orbiting spaceship (which they also sabotaged, but not
    until Reg had stolen some music [by bringing Bach there?]). Since
    they aparently had access to suitable explosives (the spaceship
    blew up in such a spectacular fashion that it could be seen from
    Earth), maybe it was also they who sabotaged the ghost's shuttle
    so that it all got started, too?

 8. Why don't we start a "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe"
    ourselves?

    We have.  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).

 9. Doesn't "the long dark teatime of the soul" appear somewhere in
    another book?

    Yes.  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."

10. What's this business about the monkeys?

    It is said that if you get an infinite number 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.

11. What was the song that Arthur plays for Fenchurch?

    Dire Straits' "Tunnel of Love" from "Making Movies".

12. What was the short story about Zaphod?

    The short-story "Young Zaphod Plays it Safe" originally appeared
    in "The Utterly Utterly Merry Comic Relief Christmas Book", which
    was edited by Douglas Adams and Peter Fincham.  It was published
    by Fontana in Great Britain in 1986.  The story also appeared in
    "The More Than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide".

13. Does Douglas Adams like Macs?

    Douglas Adams does indeed like Apple Macintosh computers, and at
    one stage lived with one in Islington.  He wrote a review
    of Microsoft Word for the Macintosh in MacUser magazine (September
    1987, page 144).

14. What computer games has Douglas Adams written?

    With Infocom's Steve Meretzkey (who no longer works for Infocom
    after their takeover by Mediagenic), he has written "The
    Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and "Bureaucracy".  He 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.
    The games are available from Virgin Mastertronic (a budget games
    house in the UK).  Their address is :
                Customer Services
                Virgin Mastertronic Ltd
                16 Portland Road
                London W11 2LA
                Tel: 071 - 727 8070

15. What's the business with 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 will live in Islington.

16. What is the order of the numerous Guide books/records/shows?

    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
	  United States.
    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.
    1992: ??"Mostly Harmless" released??

17. Who else writes like Douglas Adams?

    Quite simply, nobody.  However, if you like Douglas Adams' style
    of humour, you might appreciate books by:
	* Neil Gaiman
	* Terry Pratchett
	* Tom Sharpe
	* P J O'Rourke
	* P.G Wodehouse

18. If I ring the Islington telephone number, do I get Deep Thought?

    No, you get the people who *now* have that phone number very
    annoyed.  Please don't do it - Douglas Adams asks that you don't
    in a note in the "Radio Scripts" book.
Newsgroups: alt.fan.douglas-adams