Usenet 1993 July/InfoMagic USENET CD-ROM July 1993.ISO/answers/douglas-adams-FAQ

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Subject: alt.fan.douglas-adams FAQ
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From: [e-mail] (Nathan Torkington)
Date: 30 Jun 1993 12:00:05 GMT
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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 ([e-mail]) for
kindly posting this data so that we may all benefit from his great
knowledge and wisdom)

There is allegedly a new edition of this, in the works.  Stay tuned.
----------------------------------------

This is the list of frequently asked questions (and their answers) for
the newsgroup alt.fan.douglas-adams.  There is biographical
information about Douglas Adams, a list of his books and their ISBN
numbers, as well as information about his boks and other fun stuff.

Where possible, pointers to existing information (such as books,
magazine articles, and ftp sites) are included here, rather than
rehashing that information again.  Information is provided without
guarantee -- if you get stung using any of the information provided
here, or send off your personal fortune and are stuck, then I accept
no blame or responsibility.  It's your own damn fault.

If you haven't already done so, now is as good a time as any to read
the guide to Net etiquette which is posted to news.announce.newusers
regularly.  You should be familiar with acronyms like FAQ, FTP and
IMHO, as well as know about smileys, followups and when to reply by
email to postings.

This FAQ is currently posted to news.answers and alt.fan.douglas-adams.
All posts to news.answers are archived, and it is possible to retrieve
the last posted copy via anonymous FTP from pit-manager.mit.edu as
/pub/usenet/alt.fan.douglas-adams/douglas-adams-FAQ.  Those without
FTP access should send e-mail to [e-mail] with "send
usenet/news.answers/finding-sources" in the body to find out how to do
FTP by e-mail.

This FAQ was mostly written by Nathan Torkington, with numerous
contributions by readers of alt.fan.douglas-adams.  Comments and
indications of doubt are enclosed in []s in the text.  Each section
begins with forth dashes ("-") on a line of their own, then the
section number.  This should make searching for a specific section
easy.

Contributions, comments and changes should be directed to
    [e-mail]

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List of Answers

1   Biographical Information
1.1 Who the heck is Douglas Adams
1.2 What's this about the barrister?
2   Douglas Adams and Computers
2.1 Macintoshes
2.2 Computer Games
2.3 Magazine Articles
2.4 CD-ROM Edition of "Last Chance to See"
3   Mechandising
3.1 Audio Tapes
3.2 Albums
3.3 CDs
3.4 Videos
3.5 CD-ROM Edition of "Last Chance to See"
3.5 The Order of Everything
4   Explanations
4.1 The Ending to "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency"
4.2 Young Zaphod Plays It Safe
4.3 Paul Neil Milne Johnstone (aka Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings)
5   Miscellaneous
5.1 Stuff
5.2 Number Games
5.3 Other Authors
5.4 The Future
5.5 Related Electronic Information

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1   Biographical Information

In this section you will find information on Douglas Adams.  The
information isn't very detailed, because of (a) a desire to respect
his privacy, and (b) you might as well buy "Don't Panic" anyway (see
the very start of the file for information on Don't Panic).

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1.1 Who the heck is Douglas Adams

Douglas Noel Adams (DNA) was born in 1952.  [Anything else we need to
know?]

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1.2 What's this about 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 live in Islington.

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2   Douglas Adams and Computers

DNA definitely has a close association with computers.  Here you will
find about his love for Macintoshes, computer games he has (and
hasn't) written, and computer magazine articles he has authored.

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2.1 Macintoshes

Douglas Adams likes Macintoshes, and at one stage lived with one in
Islington (see the dedication to [?]).  He says that computer have
completely changed the way he writes (he has gone from avoiding
writing by finding food to eat, to avoiding writing by reconfiguring
his Macintosh's operating system).

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2.2 Computer Games

With Infocom's Steve Meretzky (who no longer works for Infocom after
their takeover by Mediagenic), he wrote "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy" adventure game.  "Bureaucracy" was credited to "Douglas Adams
and The Staff of Infocom" - there were lots of Infocom people involved
(Jeff O'Neill, Dave Lebling, Fred Morgan and others).


The end sequence to the game "Hitchhiker's Guide" mentions a second
game called "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe", but this game
doesn't exist.  Douglas Adams started to write it, as because
"Bureaucracy" had poor sales, Adams and Infocom dropped the project.
Infocom tried to revive the project later, but the virtual death of
Infocom in 1990 brought this idea to an end.

Douglas Adams 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.

Meretzky is still writing computer adventure games for "Legend
Entertainment".  Infocom only exists as a label for Activision, the
company having been closed in 1989.  The games are available from
Virgin Mastertronic in "Infocom From Mastertonic" (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

It is also included in a package of 20 games called "The Lost
Treasures of Infocom", released by Activision.  "Bureaucracy" is
available in "The Lost Treasures of Infocom II", also by Activision.
These packages should be orderable or purchasable from any decent
computer store :-)

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2.3 Magazine Articles

A Review of Microsoft Word for the Macintosh [?]
    MacUser Magazine
    September 1987
    Page 144.
The Woes of SCSI Chaining
    Personal Macintosh column
    MacUser Magazine
    [when?]

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2.4 CD-ROM Edition of "Last Chance to See"

See section 3.5

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3   Mechandising

There are lots of merchandised products around.  Here you fill find
where to order the cassette tapes, albums, CDs and video from.

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3.1 Audio Tapes

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

    Tel: [phone]
    Fax: [phone]

The price, for a box set of 6 audio tapes is #21.70 (British pounds).

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3.2 Albums

In the autumn of 1979, a double record album was released, which was a
slightly contracted version of the first four episodes of the radio
series.  These were new recordings of essentially the same scripts.

In the autumn of 1980, a second album was made, consisting of a
rewritten and expanded version of radio episodes 5 and 6.  This was
called _The Restaurant at the End of the Universe_.

You can obtain the albums from:
    Intergalactic Trading Co.
    P.O. Box 1516
    Longwood, FL 32750
    [phone]
their catalog is $2, and the albums cost $10 ($5 each).

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3.3 CDs

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

    Tel: [phone]
    Fax: [phone]

The price, for a box set of 6 CDs is #34.76 (British pounds).

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3.4 Videos

[?]
----------------------------------------
3.5 CD-ROM Edition of "Last Chance to See"

Featuring Douglas Adams reading the voice, information on the animals
by Mark Carwardine, numerous photographs.  Available for the Mac only.
[Order info?]

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3.5 The Order of Everything

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.
1986: "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" computer game released.
199?: "Last Chance to See" released.
199?: "Last Chance to See" CD-ROM released.
1992: "Mostly Harmless" released.

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4   Explanations

Not all of DNA's writing is easily grasped.  This section includes
explanations of some of the trickier sections.

----------------------------------------
4.1 The Ending to "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency"

From: [e-mail] (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 existence. It is set in an existence in which
the second part of _Kubla Khan_ exists. This second part of the
poem tells the ghost about the existence 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.

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4.2 Young Zaphod Plays It Safe

[?]

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4.3 Paul Neil Milne Johnstone (aka Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings)

Paul is a real person, who wrote some appalling poetry.  DNA used his
name, but was forced to retract it for the books and later recordings
of the radio series.  Hence the original programmes have Paul Neil ...
whereas the later works have Paula Nancy ....

Either way the poetry still sucks.

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5   Miscellaneous

This section has stuff that didn't really fit anywhere else.

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5.1 Stuff

The phrase "the long dark teatime of the soul" appears 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."

If you ring the Islington telephone number, you will get some people
who have nothing to do with Douglas Adams and who are very annoyed.
Don't do it.

Arthur plays Dire Straits' "Tunnel of Love" from their "Making Movies"
album to Fenchurch, in "So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish".

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5.2 Number Games

Yes, 6 times 9 equals 54.  Yes, 6 times 9 equals 42 in base thirteen,
and we don't want to know about the implications for the number of
fingers on cavemen.

The bit about monkeys was a reference to someone's comment that if you
get an infinite number of 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.

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5.3 Other Authors

If you like Douglas Adams' writing, you might appreciate books by:
 * Neil Gaiman
 * Terry Pratchett
 * Tom Sharpe
 * P J O'Rourke
 * P G Wodehouse
 * Tom Holt
... but I offer no guarantees.

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5.4 The Future

Having just released "Mostly Harmless", Douglas Adams says he wants to
do a TV series about the Universe and the stuff in it.  He estimates
this will run around 12 episodes in length.

There is a video called "The Making of the Hitchhiker's Guide" in
progress, featuring all the original actors.  They even found Marvin's
costume in a box in the BBC.

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5.5 Related Electronic Information

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
[e-mail] 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
([e-mail]).  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
[e-mail] (remember to say they're for David Hodges as this
isn't his account).

There is a bibliographic FAQ posted alt.fan.douglas-adams and
news.answers.  The title of the article carrying the FAQ is
"alt.fan.douglas-adams Bibliographic FAQ".  It was initially compiled
by David Polak ([e-mail]) and is maintained by
Nathan Torkington ([e-mail]).

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