So Long, Hitchhiker: Douglas Adams Dead At 49

Motor was among the first of the hundreds of readers with this sad news: "Douglas Adams, author of the Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy has died of a heart attack, aged 49." I still remember the first time someone pointed out the Hitchiker's Guide to me, and what a changing point even the first few pages were. It's easy to see he'll be missed.

You wasted post #42 for THAT?

Looks like the question was "What is SEVEN times seven?" or something.

Thank you so much.

Douglas thanks so much for the books, I am very sad to know that I won't get to see you in person. You came by my town on a book tour and I never knew until it was too late. How can I explain what your writing have meant to me and the joy it brings me to tell others about it. My mother had a very hard year at 42 and oddly enough your books eased the pain because she loved them too. You should not have had to die and everyone who has read your books will almost selfishly wished that you would live forever just so we could get more of your viewpoint on life the universe and everything. I was completely shocked to hear that you had died and I hope your life has been as full as you have made all of ours. The world is a much poorer place without you in it. I truly hope your loved ones left behind know how much your wit and humor are loved. I also feel so sad for your creations. You will be greatly missed. Goodbye.

So long

And me with this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side.

Oh God, I'm so depressed...

Just like to point out...

Given that this sad news follows not so long after the discussion about how many hour a week do you geeks all work, I'd just like to say:

That could be you at age 49, too.

So perhaps all you sixty-hour work-lifers should think about it. Before you get a chance to enjoy life, it could be over.

He leaves behind a wife and a seven year-old daughter. The people that were most important to him, and who he was most important to. Poof! Their Douglas is irrevocably gone from their lives.

I'm not saying everyone should become completely hedonistic and live only for the moment... but you gotta make sure that you do get to live.

Out of respect for the people who care for you, take a few minutes to assess your life. Make sure that you've got a good balance between work, family, and play. Make it a life worth living.

--

Words alone...

Long after his death his poems were found and wondered over. News of them spread like morning sunlight. For centuries they illuminated and watered the lives of many people whose lives might otherwise have been darker and drier.

--Douglas Adams, Life The Universe And Everything

My condolences to Jane, Polly and all of DNA's family, friends and fans.

Re:49, not 42?

Nah...he missed yet another deadline... :)

"The thing I love most about deadlines is the wonderful WHOOSHing sound they make as they go past." - Douglas Adams.

Re:Secret writings ?

I'm sure this has been seen here before, but anyway:

#define NINE 8 + 1
#define SIX 1 + 5

int main() {
printf("%i times %i is %i\n", SIX, NINE, SIX * NINE);
return 0;
}

--

Re:The Late Douglas Adams

Not if he was supposed to die at 42.

Late, as in the late Adams Douglas Adams.

I feel a little weird about making jokes about his death, except that I'm confident he'd approve.

Re:So long, and thanks...

Actually The Hobbit computer game came out in 1982, two years before the HHGTTG computer game.

Re:So long, and thanks...

The Hobbit sold over 500,000 copies [blazelimited.com].

Farewell, Mr. Adams.

He was a man, take him for all in all,

I shall not look upon his like again.
--William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), "Hamlet", Act 1 scene 2

I think, friends, this is a sad day for humanity. One of us hairless apes who could really see the absurdity of our entire condition has passed on, and left us without someone to gently point it out.

"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

-- Douglas Adams

----

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

They rounded the foot of Quentulus Quazgar Mountains, and there was the message written in blazing letters along the crest of the Mountain. There was a little observation vantage point with a rail built along the top of a large rock facing it, from which you could get a good view. It had a little pay-telescope for looking at the letters in detail, but no one would ever use it because the letters burned with the divine brilliance of the heavens and would, if seen through a telescope, have severely damaged the retina and the optic nerve.

They gazed at God's Final Message in wonderment, and were slowly and ineffably filled with a great sense of peace, and of final and complete understanding.

Fenchruch sighed. 'Yes,' she said, 'that was it.'

They had been staring at ut for fully ten minutes before they became aware that Marvin, hanging between their shoulders, was in difficulties. The robot could no longer lift his head, had not read the message. They lifted his head, but he complained that his vision circuits had almost gone.

They found a coin and helped him to the telescope. He complained and insulted them, but they helped him look at each individual letter in turn. The first letter was a 'w', the second an 'e'. Then there was a gap. An 'a' follow, then a 'p', an 'o' and an 'l'.

Marvin paused for a rest. After a few moments they resumed and let him see the 'o', the 'g', the 'i', the 's', and the 'e'.

The next two words were 'for' and 'the'. The last one was a long on, and Marvin needed another rest before he could tackle it.

It started with 'i', then 'n' then a 'c'. Next came an 'o' and an 'n', followed by a 'v', an 'e', another 'n', and an 'i'.

After a final pause, Marvin gathered his strength for the last stretch.

He read the 'e', the 'n', the 'c' and at last the final 'e', and staggered back into their arms.

'I think', he muttered at last, from deep within his corroding rattling thorax, 'I feel good about it.'

The lights went out in his eyes for absolutely the very last time ever.

Luckily, there was a stall nearby where you could rent scooters from guys with green wings.

"There was a long, terrible silence"

That pretty much describes the events of today.

Douglas Adams had an uncanny sense of wit... one that most authors would give a lung and a kidney just to have for one novel. Although the "Dirk Gently" books never quite caught on with me, I do own all 5 Hitchhiker's Trilogy books (yes, an increasingly inappropriately named trilogy... and yes, the leather bound version) and they rank among the top 10 books/authors I have ever read. There is something quite upsetting about someone dying this young, someone with so much creative force left in him, but his contributions to our souls and to all of pop culture will exist forever and ever. We will never lose them.

The feeling is not entirely unlike Arthur Dent's feeling after losing Fenchurch in a hyperspace jump, though. This is beyond unexpected, and there's a feeling of helplessness as well. Plus, we all want to see that movie made the RIGHT way, and eventually I want to be carrying around my "Don't Panic" PDA. Palm might generate great business by selling one of its' wireless access models with those words on the cover, as a tribute.

I might add that I have two favorite authors, and I expected one of them to be dead any time soon now... except the other died extremely unexpectedly, and the other isn't getting any younger. So, someone, please, call and find out how Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is feeling today...

Response to God's Final Message:

> [God's Final Message to All Creation snipped]

I suppose I ought to accept God's apology for the inconvenience of losing Mr. Adams at 49. Very well, God. Apology accepted, though I'm sure it was more than an inconvenience for Mr. Adams himself.

Speaking of whom, suffice it to say that he has nothing to fear from the Total Perspective Vortex.

I've retrieved my autographed recipe (signed at a book-signing of his some ~13 years ago) for the Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster, put it up on the wall, and am about to smash my brains out with a slice of lemon wrapped 'round a large gold brick.

Multiple times, if I last long enough after the first one.

So long, Mr. Adams, and thanks for all the radio plays, books, works of interactive fiction, more books, more interactive fiction, and yes, fish.

Re:42

A coworker of mine managed to cite Douglas Adams.
It goes like (translated from german):
"... converges at 10x10x6 k-points, which can be reduced to 42 Points [Ada89] by applying symmetries."

where [Ada89] is the first entry in the Bibliography (alphabetical sorting):

[Ada98] D.Adams. The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy. Harmony Books, ISBN 0517542099, 1989.

You can still get some mileage out of that joke, when you use it in unexpected places. Well, i laughed.

Nothing like ...

... death to put life in perspective. Life is kind of funny that way I guess.

You know, I'm actually glad /. has these non-technical columns. Reminds us that life isn't all about neat gadgets. As much as I miss the old days of staying up late and hacking game assembly code on the old Apple ][, I'm glad we can be reminded that people are what makes life special.

I just finished reading "The Prydian Chronicles" by Lylod Alexander again (hadn't read them since elementary school.) I got to the last book, and had a tear in my eye. Why? Because a good thing had ended.

And I feel the same way about Douglas Adams. He sure brought a lot of joy in my life with his writings. I can't think of a nicer gift for a person to give.

Have you lately told your parents, friends, loved ones that you value their love and friendship?

Stop and smell the roses along the path of life.

Monday morning will come soon enough.

he also wrote non-fiction ....

He did a series of essays on disapearing animals ....

Just after that I had the pleasure of listening to him speak at an Apple WWDC (developer's conference) - he gleefully skewered the Apple people who had brought him :-) .... He also spoke about some of the animals he'd been studying ... one has stuck in my memory - it goes something like this:

There are only about 1000 Komodo Dragons left .... but as far as anyone can tell there have always been only about 1000 .... they have an interesting way of feeding .... basicly they don't brush their teeth ... they eat rotting meat and it sticks in their teeth where all sorts of nasty bacteria breed .... when anything comes near a KD they bite it .... and let it wander away .... where the wound festers and eventually the aanumal dies .... days later the KD (or another) comes along and finds some dead meat to eat. This is all very wonderfull but it has come to my attention that european visitors are upsetting the balance of nature .... basicly they are getting bitten .... and then going off the island to die.

Thanks Douglas - I still snicker whenever I recall that passage

Re:A great obituary

I guess this means no resolution to the loose ends from "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe" and no movie.

Unfortunately, it probably means that the movie will finally be made, badly.

I think that the reason we haven't seen it yet is that he never got the movie deal that he wanted in terms of control. (I can just see studio execs now "This Marvin is all wrong, too depressing for a comedy, we think he should be more of a 'surfer dude.'" or "Slartibartfast is not going to work for marketing tie-ins. We are thinking more of a furry E.T. named 'Giget.'") Ugh.

-Peter

Re:Why 42?

So the characters become stranded on earth in prehistoric times, by having a caveman pull scrabble letters from a bag they determine that the question is "What is Five by Nine?"

Pardon a quibble here, but according to my copy of the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, the Ultimate Question is actually "What do you get if you multiply six by nine".

When I was in high school, a friend of mine who was very smart (and had much too much time on his hands) figured out that six times nine does equal 42 -- provided you do it in base 13.
--

49, not 42?

So is the answer 49 then?

Douglas Adams handwriting font (in tribute..)

I just made a font of DNA's handwriting,

http://fonts.tom7.com/fonts98.html

I will miss this man.

Re:Secret writings ?

I think there is no HHG6. Adams wrote Mostly Harmless with a pretty solid ending. Everyone dies back on Earth. I remember (although my memory is prone to odd lapses) that he said that he finished MH that way because he was quite sick of people wanting him to continue the storyline.

At any rate, this is a rotten way to start the day. I suppose I'll have to dig out that leather bound edition of the first four novels and thumb through it for awhile....

One minute of silence...

(I've just finished reading "So long, and thanks for all the fish" yesterday. I feel really sad.)

--

So long, and thanks...

Although generally known for creating humorous books about satire, science fiction, and the ludicrous nature of the human condition, there was a lot more to Adams that is worth mentioning... He was a skilled social satirist and a very forward-thinking writer, advancing the concepts of what writers could do.

He helped create the first "hit" computer game based on a novel [douglasadams.com], helped ignite the whole "books on tape" trend, brought his stories to radio and television, helped create the rich, computerized environment of "Starship Titanic" and the concept of a "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"--a massive collection of obscure hyperlinked information (before the www existed) displayed on a small handheld computer (before PDAs existed). He also created the idea of the babel fish [altavista.com]--a universal translator, essentially. Just by writing a good yarn, he helped spur change in the world around him that has benefited all of us. We all owe a lot to the guy and to the kind of changes that one "good read" can bring. Thanks, Doug.

Re:Why 42?

Pardon a quibble here, but according to my copy of the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, the Ultimate Question is actually "What do you get if you multiply six by nine".

It is made pretty clear in context (and from later books) that this is the WRONG question. Arthur is descended from the Golgofrinchams, not from the original caveman inhabitants of Earth (who were the ones actually determining the Question), so he doesn't have the correct Question. The Earth program was irrevocably screwed up when the Golg. colonized Earth, more or less wiping out the cavemen.

When I was in high school, a friend of mine who was very smart (and had much too much time on his hands) figured out that six times nine does equal 42 -- provided you do it in base 13.

Douglas Adams himself once actually said in relation to this matter: "Nobody writes jokes in base 13."

ASA

------------------------------------------------ -- -----------------

Died young

I don't care what everyone else says, he died young at the age of 49. I remember first reading the HGTTG as a school assignment over the summer. After that, I quickly went out and bought all the rest of the books in the series, enjoying them intensely. After I finished those up, I went out and bought his two other books, Dirk Gently's Holistic Dectective Agency, from which I get my Slashdot UID, and The Long, Dark Teatime of the Soul. I suppose this is Mr. Adams' long, dark teatime of the soul.

He will be sorely missed.

--

The Radio Show

Please, if you've only read the books, or haven't read them at all, find the radio shows. Maybe it's because I started with the radio shows, but the books just aren't the same. Yes, the jokes are still funny, but the voices really brought them to life.

I tried searching Amazon, but unforunately they don't seem to be available on CD. I actually have MP3s of all the radio shows, which I would really like to make available, but don't have the bandwidth to handle the onslaught.

Seems a little tasteless to offer up bootlet recordings of the man's material considering the circumstances, and especially when he was very anti-Napster, but I think these deserve a wide a dissemination as possible. Don't let them die! If someone else has the recordings and the bandwidth, offer them up!

--

The Late Douglas Adams

Knowing Adam's inability to meet deadlines (if you'll pardon the word), it seems such an irony that he finally did something early. For those attending his funeral, be prepared for a long wait, as he is expected to be late.

So long, and Thanks.
StuP
"The thing I love most about deadlines is the wonderful WHOOSHing sound they make as they go past" - DNA

So long...

...and thanks for all the books.

Dave

I keep hoping

...that we'll find out he's just spending a year dead for tax reasons.

My favourite joke

To this day I still use this one -

Me: It's at times like this I wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was young.

Unsuspecting victim: Why what did she say?

Me: I don't know I wasn't listening!

Maybe I'm just an old geek but it still make me laugh every time.

Thanks Douglas for my favourite joke.

Damn...

...usually, I'm not much bothered by "celebrity" deaths.

This one, though. is different. Waking up this morning the Adams' passing was a shocker. No tears -- just sincere regret, and a selfish sense of "I'll miss him."

My wife and I listened to the Hitchhiker radio play back we were first married; it's been a part of our lives (as a central bit of humor) for so long. It's one of those comedic routines that provides stock lines for conversation; the number 42 shows up an awful lot. His style has been a strong influence on my own writing career...

Damn!

The only bright spot: Perhaps Douglas Adams can now hitchhike the galaxy on his own, giving the gods and angels a chuckle or two...

--
Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos

Farewell Mr Douglas

As a tribute, we should all fly our towels at half mast today...

On a more serious note, I will never forget the day I walked into the school library to see the new paperbacks that arrived and the strange book that was sitting near the front of the stack.

At first, I was not sure what to make of it, the title seemed to imply Science Fiction, but the cover, with a strange impish green face sticking its tongue out and cartoonish artwork seemed to imply humor. Still, something about it appealed to me, so I went to a secluded corner to check it out.

What I had not counted on was the addictive nature of this book. It seemed silly and pointless, but I could not put it down. After I read that last line "Okay, baby, hold tight," said Zaphod. "We'll take in a quick bite at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe", I could only think of two things. First, where (or when) would the next book be available, and how could I explain having missed the last three periods of school!

That book, was of course the Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy, and that paperback was later bought by me at a school library sale. It has been with me for over a decade, traveled to 24 countries on 4 continents, and although dog-eared and tattered, remains a treasured part of my collection.

Thank you Mr Douglas, for making fun of our flaws and obsessions, and helping us to laugh at ourselves. From Arthur to Zaphod, and everyone in-between, you have made, at least for me, life a richer experience. You will be missed.

I think I shall honor Mr Douglas in the fashion he would have liked best, by sitting back, curling up with the Guide, and letting his magic touch me again.

Favorite Line

"Hovered in the air the way bricks don't".

Hope?

Maybe he's just spending a year dead for tax reasons.

Sad news

If you measure a person's value by the happiness they bring to others then we are an immensely poorer world today.

I remember reading the Hitchiker's Guide as a teenager, after watching the BBC series. I was absolutely blown away. What's more amazing is that no matter how many times I re-read those books or how old I get, I am still as amazed with them.

To me, HHGTTG represents the best of satire; it pokes fun at human foibles and failings without ever losing an underlying feeling of good humour. A difficult balancing act.

Oh, yeah. So Long, and thanks for the nick and the .sig, Mr. Adams...

sad

I feel so ... old and fragile. Jesus, I mean, I'm kind of speechless. I remember finding his books again, in a used book store, an anthology of the first 4, just a few years ago. During rough times, you know, the usual, hopeless, alone, stuck to the bed like a sheet of plexiglass is pressed on top of me, I've reached over and found that big green book. I can't say he saved my life, but he certainly made my life better. I put him in with Pynchon and Faulkner, Duras and Nietzsche - people who have deeply influenced me, again and again. *sigh*

My phone says Don't Panic when I open it. I guess I feel like Ford...

"When you're cruising down the road in the fast lane and you lazily sail past a few hard-driving cars and are feeling pretty pleased with yourself and then accidentally change down from fourth to first instead of third thus making your engine leap out of your hood in a rather ugly mess, it tends to throw you off your stride in much the same way this remark threw Ford Prefect off his."

Re:So long...

...and thanks for all the books.

The BBC already used that one... [bbc.co.uk] prepare for the writ ;)

Seriously... I'm finding it hard to express how upset I am about this. I got into Hithc-hiker's Guide more than twenty years ago (my father made me listen to it on the radio because they went to the same school)... devoured the books, taped as much as I could manage when the radio series were repeated in 1985-6, then listened to those obsessively ever since.

Douglas Adams, his unfortunate obsesion with Macs aside, was always interested in computers, ever since the original InfoGames adaption of HHG as a text adventure. I saw a piece on that on the BBC's 'Microcoputers' show & taped the audio for that, too - I remember him saying that he offered to do the actual programming, to which the developers "politely told me that they'd like it to come out this century, and if I could stick to writing the jokes,..."

If you haven't heard the original radio shows, do yourself a big favour and get them now *NOT* the audio book - IMHO they're better than the books, as well as following a different (and more coherent) plot as well. And there's lots of stuff that didn't make it to the books: Zaphod and Ford falling from a mysterious cold white cave, fifteen miles up in the air...

Ford: I can't stand heights!
ZB: Don't worry, we're on our way down... listen, we may be alright, we might land in the water you know? Can you swim?
Ford: I don't know.
ZB: You don't *know*?
Ford: Well, I never liked to go into water in any great detail...
ZB: What kind of traveller are you, man? Don't like heights, don't like water...
Ford: Simply natural. I just get a kick out of being on the ground.
ZB: Well any minute now you'll have the biggest kick of your life...

I feel as if I've lost a member of my family. It's only 90 minutes since I heard this, and it still hasn't sunk in.

I really hope the HHG site doesn't get any more messed up by the BBC (see this week's NTK [ntk.net]... and I hope the film still happens, as he was sounding really upbeat about it last I heard (his Ask Slashdot interview I think.)

:(
--

Re:Unfairness

"Douglas Adams is dead. But Jack Valenti goes on and on and on..."

I know... Oolon Coluphid could write a new book on that subject "How God is an Unfair Bastard"

Re:A great obituary

the NYTimes has a nice piece on him here (free reg blah blah)

No problem, just replace "www" by "channel", the actual story is at http://channel.nytimes.com/aponline/obituaries/AP- Obit-Adams.html [nytimes.com]

BTW, anybody compared it to the same obituary by CNN [cnn.com]?

Re:Respects

Why mod this down as OT, moderator, show some respect yourself! This is a sad loss, not because of further books that remain unwritten now (and I think he buried the trilogy with part five already, can anyone confirm?), but because he was a great entertainer, plus he well deserved to enjoy the global appreciation of his work a little longer...

But somehow dying of a heart attack seems an appropriate finale to me, just don't ask me why.