Not all of DNA's writing is easily grasped. This section includes explanations of some of the trickier sections.
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.
This thing has caused quite a lot of argument for a 10 page story. Anyways, you can find it in "The More Than Complete Hitch Hiker's Guide" from Wing Books (NJ), ISBN 0-517-69311-9. The big deal seems to be about the escaped robot, and his/her identity. So who/what exactly is this? Good question. The reference to the shining city on a hill is probably a reference to Matthew 5:14. Some people reckon they can see Ronald Reagan in the story. Some people also assume the "mystery person" in question is Jesus Christ. As YZPIS was originally published in the Comic Relief *Christmas* special book, it makes sense.
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.
It's a crock, actually. What happened is that the original 6 episodes were 35 minutes long in the original BBC run. When they came to the states, in the interests of American advertising they were edited and cut, giving birth to a legendary 7th episode.
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."
At the time the original radio series aired, the Islington telephone number belonged to friends of his who did not mind calls, but by 1989 they had moved. If you ring the number now, you will get some people who have nothing to do with Douglas Adams and who are sick of the whole bloody thing. 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". The Radio Scripts book has plenty of information on music used in the show.
Hot, Black, and Desiato were Estate Agents in the Islington area.
The More Than Complete Hitch Hiker's Guide printings seem to have a couple flaws in them. The first printing had a significant typo on the spine label, namely the books were named "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Universe" and "The Restraunt at the End of the Galaxy". A later edition is bound upside-down.
Milliways is quite expensive. Had Zaphod deposited $0.01 in a bank on Ursa Minor Beta before visiting the Guide offices, and had he earned one ten-millionth percent interest annually over the five-hundred and seventy-six thousand million, three thousand five hundred and seventy- nine years that Marvin waited for him, he would have had $1.42 x 10^248 with which to pay his dinner bill. It seems that ``fabulous cost'' does not quite do justice to the expense of eating at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe. In fact, were Zaphod to withdraw all his money in bills of denomination $ 10^219, he would be able to, in principle, lay his money from one end of the observable universe (at that time) to the other. Were Zaphod to attempt to withdraw his money in bills of denomination $ 10^191, the bank would be unable to comply with his request, as the observable universe at that time would not contain the mass required to supply him with so many bills.
The theme music to the radio series is a ditty called "Journey of the Sorceror", which may or may not be the Eagles edition... I'll let you know when I get a definitive answer. ;)
It seems that the whole towel bit is taken from real life. Here's the scoop from DNA in an interview from 1987:
"I was vacationing with friends in Greece some years back. Every morning they'd have to sit around and wait for me because I couldn't find my blessed towel. It seemed to epitomise my disorganised state of being. I came to feel that someone really together, one who was well organised, would always know where his towel was. I thought of it as a Universal Truth."
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.
DNA himself has said: "The answer to this is very simple. It was a joke. It had to be a number, an ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that one. Binary representations, base thirteen, Tibetan monks are all complete nonsense. I sat at my desk, stared into the garden and thought `42 will do'. I typed it out. End of story."
And if you still won't believe it, here's the answers that were in the books themselves. So consider yourself informed.
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.
Plans are being bandied around for a "Last Chance To See" type book with the wildlife photographer Jody Boyman (married to Berke Breathed). DNA says ``it won't be happening for a while, though.''
Douglas Adams has announced the next book going to be a Dirk Gently book, called The Salkon of Doubt (well, it's not ready yet).
Douglas founded an Internet Publishing Cooperation, and want's to experiment with computers and biochemistry.
So what's the story with Adams and Pink Floyds newest album, The Division Bell? Well, as read on alt.fan.douglas-adams:
DNA helped pick the name for their new album, The Division Bell. Dave Gilmour asked him for his ideas over lunch one day is the way I've heard the story, the phrase was already in the lyrics of High Hopes, and DNA basically just pointed it out to Dave as a good title.
On a related note, Dave's birthday present to DNA was an invitation to play one number with the band at Earl's Court in October 1994. That night's show will also be in aid of the EIA.
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 (ak515@cleveland.freenet.edu) and is maintained by Nathan Torkington (Nathan.Torkington@vuw.ac.nz).
The Infocom game "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" can now only be found in the "Lost Treasures of Infocom" collection marketed by Activision (the company that absorbed Infocom. *slurp*). This collection also contains Beauracracy, another DNA flavored game. More info forthcoming when I get off my lazy butt and get it, or better yet, get it mailed to me. Sorry.
Cathouse.org have released the "British Comedy Pages" on the WWW. The URL is http://cathouse.org:8000/BritishComedy/ Check it out!
DNA bought back the rights to the movie, which he had sold in the early eighties (to his regret), after the people that had bought the rights never got around to actually producing any film. DNA said they now had the backing to make the movie, which would ironically be far better now in the 90s because of the advancements in computer graphics. Latest word is that Michael Nesmith's movie company Pacific Arts is handling the project.
It's also rumored that a movie script was completed, which has several different aspects to other versions of THHGTTG. The latest I've heard from Michael Nesmith, however, is that (and I quote):
"We are on hiatus right now until DNA finishes a new Dirk Gently. The HHGG script needs a re write so we are waiting for that."
Leif Rustvold (leif@agora.rain.com) has posted a list that Douglas
apparantly gave him at a book signing when asked about the casting
of the movie. Here it is: