Volume postumo, con interviste e commenti da parte di amici e colleghi, con alcuni capitoli di quello che sarebbe potuto diventare il sesto libro della trilogia della Guida Galattica o il terzo della serie di Dirk Gently.
Uno sguardo, divertito e divertente, nella vita e nelle opere di Douglas.

By his own admission, Douglas Adams was not a great writer. When you list the names of the authors who have advanced the English language, Douglas Adams will not feature in that pantheon, though it must be said that he loved the language more than most. But never mind that, for his place is secure in a far more important list: Greatest Thinkers. In the simplest sense of the word, Adams was a philosopher. Like his friends in Monty Python, he used comedy “as a medium to express intelligence” and to communicate ideas, the way comedy should be used. Although this isn’t the book that he intended to deliver to the world, it has served as the perfect goodbye to an author who died well before his time.

The book is divided into four parts—the first three being Life, the Universe, and Everything, obviously, followed by a fun short story that I’d read before,  Young Zaphod Plays It Safe, and finally, the unfinished sequel to  The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. In the first three parts, the editor has presented a collection of Adams’ speeches, interviews, website entries, book recommendations, introductions to other books/editions and some unpublished stuff rummaged from his many, many MacBooks. In other words, this is a book for those of us who are already familiar with Adams and were left wanting more, those of us to whom Douglas’ idiosyncratic wit and charm feel like a warm, comforting hug.

In his introduction to this book,  Stephen Fry elaborates on this feeling:

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“Douglas has in common with certain rare artists the ability to make the beholder feel that he is addressing them and them alone: I think this in part explains the immense strength and fervour of his ‘fan base’. [...] When you look at Blake, listen to Bach, read Douglas Adams or watch Eddie Izzard perform, you feel you are perhaps the only person in the world who really gets them. Just about everyone else admires them, of course, but no one really connects with them in the way you do. I advance this as a theory. Douglas’s work is not the high art of Bach or the intense personal cosmos of Blake, it goes without saying, but I believe my view holds nonetheless. It’s like falling in love. When an especially peachy Adams turn of phrase or epithet enters the eye and penetrates the brain you want to tap the shoulder of the nearest stranger and share it. The stranger might laugh and seem to enjoy the writing, but you hug to yourself the thought that they didn’t quite understand its force and quality the way you do—”

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What I love about DNA’s writing is his tendency to flit from topic to topic at supersonic speeds and draw comparisons between apparently unrelated subjects, like Newton and Darwin, for example. It takes a peculiar kind of intelligence to draw such elaborate connections. But Adams has this in common with both Newton and Darwin: a sense of wonder. My Physics professor used to say that to be a physicist, one must first be a philosopher, completely in awe of the universe and everything in it, just as Douglas was until the very end. But members of both professions also refuse to settle for a limited world-view, discontented to be living in ignorance. That same sense of wonder puts them on the quest to seek answers and so, they steer the human race forward. Douglas Adams understood and appreciated this and, in his humour and philosophy, he retained a deep respect for science. His strength lay in the fact that he could convey this reverence without ever sounding arrogant:



The Salmon of Doubt provides extensive insight into Adams’ thoughts and beliefs. As is evident, I particularly enjoyed his commentary on religion and atheism, which he wrote with an uncanny understanding of not only science and religion but also the human psyche. If you think atheists are a tiresome lot, you’ll be blown away by DNA, who had to have been the most affable and amusing atheist in history. Where his good friend  Richard Dawkins incites anger in those who cling to religious beliefs, on reading Adams you can’t help but laugh at your own (il)logical fallacies. (Incidentally, this edition includes an utter tear-jerker of an epilogue by Dawkins.) Such is the power of a good joke, as DNA unfailingly demonstrated:

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“This is rather as if you imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, ‘This is an interesting world I find myself in — an interesting hole I find myself in — fits me rather neatly, doesn’t it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!’ This is such a powerful idea that as the sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, frantically hanging on to the notion that everything’s going to be alright, because this world was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise. I think this may be something we need to be on the watch out for.”

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I hope that someday I can acquire his unique skill and ability to discuss heavy subject matter in a light-hearted manner, such that his audience is left with much to ponder over but never overwhelmed. Another joy was to read about his profound love for music. To read his essays on The Beatles and Bach is to see that Adams admired those who dared to do something different, who were imaginative and creative and avant-garde. Rare is such a person who could talk about almost anything under the sun: from subatomic particles to manta rays, technology to Jane Austen, architecture to evolutionary biology. The world suffered an incalculable loss when he passed. The Salmon of Doubt may not have gone where it intended to go, but I think it has ended up where it needed to be. It belongs in the compendium of every DNA fan who adores this writer and wants to know his thoughts on everything from Earl Grey tea to the letter ‘Y’. If you’re not a fan yet, I can’t imagine what you’re waiting for!

So long, DNA, and thanks for all the laughter.

Posthumously written book on Douglas Adams, excerpts from his interviews/speeches including his incomplete last book before his untimely death. Douglas Adams I thank you for Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy and miss you for the Dirk Gently series.

If you miss the friendly, exacting voice of Douglas Adams, I recommend this posthumously published last visit to the familiar retreat of his silly metaphors, triple negatives, and delightful humor. This is a compilation of essays, interviews, letters, lectures, and fiction, which covers everything from swimming with manta rays to running with dogs; atheism, religion, and quantum mechanics ("There is one particular model of the universe that has turtles all the way down, but here we have gods all the way up"); the lyrics to "Do-Re-Mi"; the Beatles; to what kind of martinis he enjoyed, and how to properly brew a cup of tea. There is an interview with American Atheists magazine in which he seems baffled as to why Americans care who is atheist. (Q: "What message would you like to send to your Atheist fans?" A: "Hello! How are you?") There is an introduction he wrote to a tenth anniversary edition of The Original Hitchhiker Scripts that begins, "I do enjoy having these little chats at the front of books. This is a complete lie, in fact." ("It is very unfair to be asked to write an introduction to a book which contains an absolutely brilliant introduction written on the very subject of introductions to books," writes Stephen Fry in the foreword.)

It was inside the eerie, orange light of a sandstorm that I read him lecture about the "four ages of sand" to describe how we explore and discover our universe: From sand, we make glass, to make telescopes, and then microscopes, and then the silicon chip, and finally fiber optics in the information age. He wrote a great deal in the nineties about what would happen next in the technology world, including an opinion piece in the UK debut issue of Wired Magazine in 1995 (included within). From a hotel bathtub, ca. 1996, he wrote a relatively lengthy article using a Psion palmtop. "I have never written anything in the bath before," he wrote. "Paper gets damp and steamy, pens won't write upside down, typewriters hurt your tummy, and if you are prepared to use a PowerBook in the bath, then I assume that it isn't your own PowerBook."

Adams recommends a couple of his own favorite books. Reminder to myself to read Man on Earth by John Reader and The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins.

The last third of the book is unfinished material he was writing for a third Dirk Gently novel. As you might have guessed, it's entertaining and well crafted, and it will hurt your heart a little, as you realize just how good it would have been if it were finished -- not to mention the letdown of an incomplete mystery novel where nothing is resolved and the author took its secrets with him.

In the epilogue, Richard Dawkins writes, "Science has lost a friend, literature has lost a luminary, the mountain gorilla and the black rhino have lost a gallant defender (he once climbed Kilimanjaro in a rhino suit to raise money to fight the cretinous trade in rhino horn), Apple Computers has lost its most eloquent apologist. And I have lost an irreplaceable intellectual companion and one of the kindest and funniest men I ever met."

I resisted reading this for a long time because I was under the misapprehension that it was merely a presentation of the sections of the Dirk Gently novel Adams was working on until his untimely death in 2001. Having seen multiple references to it in Neil Gaiman's excellent Hitchhiker's companion, Don't Panic, I finally broke down and got it from the library, and I was glad that I did.

The last third of the book does indeed contain the unfinished Salmon of Doubt, but that was to my mind the least interesting part of the book and could (and perhaps should) have been left out. Adams didn't yet know where he was going with it, and in fact, he was apparently thinking of changing it from a Dirk Gently novel to one set in the Hitchhiker's universe. The first two-thirds of the book comprise many different writings by Adams on topics ranging from computers (his beloved Macintoshes) to how to make tea to his atheism, as well as speeches, letters, and interviews with Adams. It's really an eye-opening look at the wide-ranging intellect and knowledge that underlies the seeming frivolity and true hilarity of his books.

Not really a book but an entertaining collection of ramblings by someone who’s ramblings are well.. quite entertaining
-Stephen Fry probably said this

I am a bigger fan of Douglas Adam's musings than his outlandish fiction style. Sorry Hitchhiker fans

When i first heard about this book, I went very quickly from exitement, through confusion and ended up in serious doubt. I was exited at the prospect of a book by my favorite author that I had not yet read, confused as to how that had happened, and finally in serious doubt if I should when i learned what it was about. This is an unfinished Dirk Gently #3, and mabye some other stuff(Or so I thought, it turns out that the DG#3 is only about 80 pages out of 280). I was scared that it would be really obviously unfinished, that it would be nothing like the other books I love so deerly, and that reading the start of it would make me horribly sad and depressed about never being able to read the whole thing. I was right about the last one, it is a bittersweet read. It startes of with all the wonderful Douglassy Adamsness that i wanted from it, but then it just ends, leaving me exactly where I feared it would when I happened upon it in the library and thought something along the lines of "fuck it, its Douglas Adams, I can't not read it".

However. That is only true for the Dirk Gently part of the book. The other parts are thoughtprovoking, easy to read, fun brilliance. Some of it will be familliar to those who has already read Last Chance to See, or watched his talk at University of California just before his death.

Even though I am now quite sad I don't regret reading it, and I'd recommend it to any and all fans of Douglas Adams.

I liked Adam’s short stories & essays better than the actual detective plots of this series. That said, I really admire his ability to weave science, the universe, fiction & literature into vivid storylines.

Ve işte böylece bitti.

This collection of essays and interviews is just a genuine pleasure. Funny, interesting, and enjoyable.

A lovely summation of Douglas Adams, his life and his way of thinking. Unique and brilliant <3

Am recitit cartea cu multă bucurie - la fel de interesanta ca la prima întâlnire!