I just wanted to know how many people have heard of/ or are fans of the late great Douglas Adams?

personally hes my favorite author and an inspiration of how to live my life (in british humor )

he was a genius.

"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" - Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams Quotes (80 quotations)

42

amen

lol, 2 non-positive votes, lol ;P

He was not .. that much scientific in his books as Arthur Clark for example, but he had radical ideas that noone ever had before.. Someone already said it - he was a genius.

I love Douglas Adams. I live my life by the rule of always having a towel.

My favorite quote: "I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."

Douglas Adams wrote comedy books, he wasn't fucking Robert Heinlein (who is pretty much the most awesome scifi author of all-time). Hell, Adams co-wrote some Monty Python sketches toward the very end of the series.

Adams was a comedy writer, full stop. If it's not "hard scifi" it's because he wasn't a hard scifi writer. What idiot voted they didn't like him?

He did do some Monty Python and he did some Doctor Who, i loved all of these series before i knew he had anything to do with them, and now i cant get enough of Doctor Who and Monty and The Hitchhikers Guide and all the trilogy (of five books) my first program i ever made was a stupid little console input where it asked what is the answer and if it was anything other than 42 it would say "Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz will now read you his poetry" and would go on to display his poetry i was so happy when it worked he is possibly one of the greatest comedy-scifi writers (note the comedy) and if you ever get a chance read the salmon of doubt...very good book...alot of unpublished stuff along with sum interviews and whatnot..


Th3_D0ct0R

Yeah, Douglas Adams rocked. I have most of his books including all five books in the Hitch-hikers trilogy.

Also, have Dirk Gently Series, the Hitch-hikers BBC series on DVD, and the new film on DVD.

I wrote my thesis at uni on the science fiction novel. Interesting area. Science fiction has little to do with technology or science at all. It mainly deals with notions of identity in a post-industrialised society - with the errosion of God and religion, underminded by scientific reasoning, where does this leave humankind? So, science fiction, true science fiction, addresses the key themes of transcendence (if there is no heaven, where do I transcend to?) and Identity (what is it to be human?).

There is very little technology in Phillip K Dick books, for example - his books are all about identity. Clarks 2001 deals with transcendence and identity - its not concerned with technology. In many ways, true science fiction carries many religious philosophical debates, carried over into post-industrial society.

Alot of that is classed as sci fi isnt really- just because a novel is set in space and features aliens, doesnt make if sci-fi. Thats a fantasy. A space opera.

Douglas Adams works looks at identity and transcendence, but from a slightly skewed angle - he satirised modern corporate life and beaucrasy in his hitch hikers books. The pointlessness of the life and the universe and the pointless of thinking about whether it has a point. Great writer though.

I'd like to point out a regrettable innacuracy in the poll question...

He was awesome.

If you don't like Douglas Adams, you must have a life.

I have listened to the radio seires of The Hitchhikers Guide to the galaxy, and loved it, I thought the movie was a disgrace, and reading through the thread I did not know that he participated in Dr. Who, and Monty Python,both of which I love.

I discovered Adams when I was 12, that would be the early 80's. For those who have not read it, I strongly suggest the Salmon of a Doubt. His editor and his wife raided his Macs to give us one intimate glimpse into his life. Very impressive.

Mr. Adams made me giggle myself silly at a time I wanted to cry. He rocks! Err.... rocked I guess.

I own The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide: Complete and Unabridged leather-bound (bad vegetarian, but it was Adams!), a few of the paperback versions of the Dirk Gently series, his biography "Wish You Were Here," and I still have the acient DOS game. It's abandonware now and perfectly legal to distribute copies of. You can find a DOS emulator version on one of the abandonware sites or I can get you the original DOS one. It still works under Windows XP's command prompt, no need for DOS-Box.
I used to own the tv series, but it went bye-bye in one of the many moves I made.

The book near my laptop this moment

The only book I've read by him is Hitchhiker, and just read that earlier this year. I've been meaning to read more of his stuff, I'm just not a book type really.

Speaking of science-fiction, isn't it weird how when you look back at what was sci-fi back in the 50's and 60's and 70's has partly come true? I honestly think sci-fi is more of a way that we create our future than I think should be happening. Who knows, maybe back then they were psychics and didn't know it, but I highly doubt that!

Science fiction isn't about predicting anything. Its set in 'a' future not 'the' future.

I'm the "other". Don't get me wrong I have read and liked most of Adams' work and have even given Hitch-hiker to a few of my (more intelligent) nephews and nieces, but really, Awesome? He milked some good ideas to the point it became repetitious (perhaps Terry Pratchett studied Adams?) and jumped on a few bandwagons too. On the other hand, I really do love "The Meaning of Liff" and am forever drawing inspiration from it. I buy delaware for my (less intelligent) relatives and label it according as a silent private homage to the man.

Now, Patrick O'Brian was genuinely AWESOME. There can be no argument about that.