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Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is a novel by Douglas Adams. It is described on its cover as a "thumping good detective-ghost-horror-who dunnit-time travel-romantic-musical-comedy-epic". Like many of Adams' stories, its plot defies easy encapsulation. Image File history File links Broom_icon. ...
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Douglas Noël Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author, comic radio dramatist, and musician. ...
For other uses, see Country (disambiguation). ...
The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...
Dirk Gently is a fictional character created by Douglas Adams and featured in the books Dirk Gentlys Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul. ...
Look up Fantasy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary For other definitions of fantasy, see fantasy (psychology). ...
Some notable science fiction novels, in alphabetical order by title: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke 334 by Thomas M. Disch An Age by Brian Aldiss The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton The Atrocity Exhibition by J.G. Ballard...
A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ...
William Heinemann was the founder of a publishing house in London, England that bears his name. ...
Pocket Books is the name of a subdivision of Simon & Schuster publishers. ...
Year 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar). ...
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This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...
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The front cover of the US first hardcover edition of The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul. ...
Douglas Noël Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author, comic radio dramatist, and musician. ...
The book was followed by a sequel (and a half), The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, although the only recurring major characters are Gently himself, Janice Pearce and Sergeant Gilks. Intended as a third in the series, Adams began to write The Salmon of Doubt. Though, after writing only a few chapters, he admitted that it was not working. He felt that the ideas in the new book were more a Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy thing, and decided that he may well write yet another HGTTG book with them in. Unfortunately, Adams passed away before he could write it. The unfinished Salmon of Doubt has been published, along with numerous other short stories and writings found on Adam's Mac. The front cover of the US first hardcover edition of The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul. ...
Dirk Gently is a fictional character created by Douglas Adams and featured in the books Dirk Gentlys Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul. ...
The front cover of the UK first hardcover edition of The Salmon of Doubt. ...
A BBC Radio adaptation staring Harry Enfield is to air October 2007. Dirk Gentlys Holistic Detective Agency is a novel by Douglas Adams. ...
This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...
Plot
Introduction: major characters and plot threads The convoluted plot of Dirk Gently begins with the introduction of a number of seemingly unrelated situations. The connections between them are gradually revealed, although seldom explicitly. With time travel integral to the plot, the narrative's chronology is far from linear. Time travel is a concept that has long fascinated humanity—whether it is Merlin experiencing time backwards, or religious traditions like Mohammeds trip to Jerusalem and ascent to heaven, returning before a glass knocked over had spilt its contents. ...
For the novel by Michael Crichton, see Timeline (novel). ...
Richard MacDuff, Way Forward Technologies II's lead software engineer has programmed his Apple computer to find out how to remove a stuck sofa from his flat's staircase. It is wedged firmly and the computer can only suggest cutting it up. The Hammersley sofa. ...
Richard attends the annual Coleridge banquet at his alma mater of St Cedd's invited by his old college tutor, Professor "Reg" Chronotis. Reg is apparently anxious to discuss something but acts oddly instead. Strange noises turn out to be a horse in the professor's bathroom, which relieves Reg immensely and Richard remembers that he had promised his girlfriend Susan: they would do something special together that night. Alma mater is Latin for nourishing mother. It was used in ancient Rome as a title for the mother goddess, and in Medieval Christianity for the Virgin Mary. ...
St. ...
Professor Urban Chronotis is a fictional character created by Douglas Adams. ...
On a distant planet, an electric monk - a device that believe things to save the owner the trouble - suffers severe malfunctions and cycles through a series of brief but ever more ridiculous beliefs. Now useless, ejected from civilisation with only a (cheap to produce) horse it now believes that an ordinary white door in a cliff leads into another world. For other uses, see Civilization (disambiguation). ...
Technological entrepreneur Gordon Way (Richard's employer and Susan's brother) whilst talking to his sister's answering machine in a wandering stream of consciousness is driving home. He pulls over to check in the car's trunk and is shot dead. His ghost now wonders why it still exists and in particular what he should do next. For the sequel to the computer game Entrepreneur, which has no article of its own, see The Corporate Machine. ...
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In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a literary technique which seeks to portray an individuals point of view by giving the written equivalent of the characters thought processes. ...
An artists interpretation of a ghostly woman on a flight of stairs, based on common descriptions A ghost is usually defined as the apparition of a deceased person, frequently similar in appearance to that person, and encountered in places she or he frequented, or in association with the person...
Michael Wenton-Weakes's late wealthy father over indulged him but now his mother proves to be a conscientious and successful corporate officer. The pampered man is sacked from his sinecure magazine editor's post. For Michael, his perceived "loss" festers into obsessive rage.
Svlad Cjelli's checkered past includes a number of minor alleged hustles. A scam at college eventually lead to Cjelli's arrest. Now calling himself Dirk Gently, he is currently a sole investigator of a detective agency that exploits the fundamental interconnectedness of everything to solve any case. Although he can produce any number of absurd arguments and justifications for his padded expenses bills, he is staggeringly successful at accidentally finding the truth: no matter how insane.
Plot Summary - The Primeval past: The Salaxan back-story
Four billion years ago, nine dozen malcontent multi-tentacled creatures called Salaxans leave their home world and set out to colonise another. When they land on Earth, intending to explore and pick up minerals, the Salaxan engineer - lazy, negligent, and over-dependent on automation – believes the Electric Monk when it reassures him the lander is functional, when in fact it was badly damaged by an asteroid strike. When the lander attempts to take off, it explodes. 253 Mathilde, a C-type asteroid. ...
This explosion is the trigger that sparks amino acids to create life from the chemical ooze on primeval Earth. The Mother Ship remains in orbit round Earth, while the spirit of the Salaxan engineer stalks the Earth for billions of years. In chemistry, an amino acid is any molecule that contains both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. ...
Four billion years later, the Salaxan Ghost attempts to tell Samuel Taylor Coleridge its story after the poet had taken laudanum. The garbled message ended up in the (apocryphal) "second and altogether stranger" part of the completed Kubla Khan poem. Elements of the Ghost’s account also appear in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (October 21, 1772 – July 25, 1834) (pronounced ) was an English poet, critic, and philosopher who was, along with his friend William Wordsworth, one of the founders of the Romantic Movement in England and one of the Lake Poets. ...
Laudanum is an opium tincture, sometimes sweetened with sugar and also called wine of opium. ...
In Judeo-Christian theologies, apocrypha refers to religious Sacred text that have questionable authenticity or are otherwise disputed. ...
This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
One of a set of engraved metal plate illustrations by Gustave Doré. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a poem written by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1797–1799 and published in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads (1798). ...
The possessed Coleridge visits Professor Reg Chronotis, where the Salaxan Ghost intends to use the time machine to travel back to prevent the Salaxan lander exploding. Unfortunately, the poet was too ‘relaxed’ (i.e. stoned) to do anything constructive. This thwarts the Ghost for hundreds of years, during which time it is too weak to act.
In the late 1980s, the Salaxan ghost tries to possess Reg (perhaps at Borley Rectory, as Richard finds a book on the famous haunted house on Reg’s reading pile). Reg becomes aware that something is trying to make him act against his character, and takes precautions against influence and temptation. Borley Rectory, in the village of Borley, Essex, United Kingdom, had the reputation of being the most haunted house in England and, possibly, the world. ...
Despite this, during the Coleridge Dinner at St Cedd’s the Salaxan ghost manages to prompt Reg into using his time machine to perform a trivial conjuring trick to amuse a little girl. This involves making a salt cellar appear, baked inside an ancient Greek pot. Reg uses sleight of hand to hide one of the salt cellars on the table, then pops out to get his hat as part of the trick ("You haven't got a hat," said the girl sulkily. "Oh," said Reg, "a moment please," and he went and fetched his woolly red one. This is a massive piece of understatement and misdirection by Adams.) Reg writes down a note to himself to remind himself of the last words he spoke before leaving the room. St. ...
Reg travels to ancient Greece, places a salt cellar in an ancient pot, then - owing to the Salaxan ghost’s influence - detours to a distant planet to find dust to hide his tan. On this planet, the Salaxan ghost brings a (faulty) Electric Monk into the time machine, hoping it will be an ideal carrier, but abandons it after discovering the Monk will not believe in the same idea for any length of time. Reg, meanwhile, returns to the dinner, meeting himself briefly in the ante-chamber.
The Monk leaves its horse in Reg’s bathroom, learns English in couple of minutes, and is told by a Cambridge security guard to “Shoot off!” Taking this literally, it goes to a petrol station, hides in the car boot of Richard's boss Gordon Way, and finds a shotgun. Way drives off, talking to his sister Susan's answering machine - something he routinely does as he is "the kind of person who can only think while talking", and also routinely sends his secretary to collect the tapes so he can play them back. When Way goes to check out the noise he hears from the boot, the Monk shoots him dead with the shotgun. Gordon's ghost tries to say into the phone "Susan, I'm dead" but ends up accidentally disconnecting the call. The Monk hides the body "in the holy broom cupboard" in Gordon's house.
Meanwhile, the Coleridge Dinner concludes with the reading of Coleridge’s Kubla Khan, which unlike the real poem, has the longer, "altogether stranger" second part inspired by the Salaxan ghost. Reg and Richard retire to Reg's chambers for tea. Hearing a noise in the bathroom, they discover the Monk's horse. As Gently hypothesises later, it is this point that the Salaxan ghost transfers its attentions to Richard. This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
While driving home, Richard is on the phone to Susan's answering machine, promising they will go away for the weekend before realising Gordon has given him too much work to do. He says "Gordon can take a running jump..." just as Gordon's ghost takes a running jump at his car. He swerves, and is pulled over by a policeman whom he tells about seeing Gordon. Later, Gordon's ghost tinkers with objects at his house, trying to gain control of the material world. In doing so, he turns on the gas on his cooker. Then he finds his own corpse in a cupboard. Way’s ghost is so shocked that he faints, until woken a couple of hours later by the cooker exploding.
Having transferred its influence to Richard, the Salaxan ghost prompts him to break into Susan’s apartment to steal her answering machine tape, to stop her from hearing the promise he cannot keep. While climbing the drainpipe he is spotted by Dirk Gently, who phones him during the ‘robbery’ and tells him to meet him at a pizza parlour. At the last moment, Richard decides not to steal the tape after all.
Susan returns while Richard is in her flat, accompanied by Michael Wenton-Weakes. The Salaxan ghost takes Weakes as its new carrier. Susan does not bother to listen to her messages, instead asking Richard to give the tape to Gordon's secretary. Once Richard leaves the apartment he finds the pizza parlour closed. At home, the possessed Weakes mulls over how he lost his cushy job as editor of failing arts magazine Fathom to Al Ross, who made the relaunched magazine a success by publishing clever, interesting articles.
The next morning, Richard wants to call Dirk but finds him unlisted in the phone book. On a whim, he looks up private investigators and finds a listing for Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. He walks over to Dirk's work, a complete shambles with a secretary who Dirk never pays and so repeatedly resigns her position. Dirk reveals to Richard that Gordon is dead and leads him to believe that he is a suspect for murder.
Richard eventually allows Dirk to hypnotise him so that he can be questioned about the previous night. From Richard's answers, Dirk picks up on events that - being completely impossible - are actually clues to the existence of the time machine. Dirk and Richard go for a walk on a bridge above a canal; when asked why he broke into Susan's flat, Richard says it was a “perfectly sensible” attempt to retrieve the answering machine tape. Dirk says conversationally, "...my old maiden aunt in Winnipeg" and Richard strips off his clothes and dives into the canal. Once he gets out of the water, Richard rationalises that he was merely taking the swim he missed taking that morning. Dirk reveals the phrase "my old maiden aunt in Winnipeg" triggered a posthypnotic suggestion to dive into the canal, and says Richard was attempting to rationalise his irrational action. Richard realises Dirk is right, and tells Dirk that the answering machine tape is in his flat.
Sergeant Gilks of the Cambridge constabulary arrives while Dirk is searching Richard's flat. When Dirk finds Susan's answering machine tape, Dirk and Gilks listen to Gordon's last message - it has clear audio of Gordon being killed, and also exonerates Richard as he was at the Coleridge Dinner at the time. Once Gilks has left the room Dirk continues listening to the tape and hears Gordon's ghost say "Susan, help me, oh God, Susan, I'm dead." For Richard's welfare, Dirk blanks the tape from that point.
While investigating Gordon's death, Sergeant Gilks questions the owner of the petrol station where Gordon last stopped before being killed. When the station owner calls the previous night a normal night, Gilks dances in front of him with his fingers in his ears and asks if he considers that normal, to prove the point that the night was anything but normal. The Electric Monk watches Gilks do this from outside, and immediately believes that Gilks is a god. When Gilks leaves the petrol station the Monk reverently dances in front of him with its fingers in its ears. Gilks arrests it.
Listening to an old recording of Vivaldi wind concertos, Wenton-Weakes' aesthetic and intellectual appreciation of music is massively enhanced by the Salaxan ghost. This inspires him to read Richard MacDuff’s “Music and Fractal Landscapes” article in Fathom, which - aided by the Salaxan concepts of mathematics and music - he finds deeply moving, pondering how a mathematical representation of nature would sound as music. Next, Wenton-Weakes reads Coleridge’s poems, finding loss, desolation and hatred that resonate with his own feelings, especially hatred of a rival who supplanted him. This coherence of feeling and motives makes him an ‘ideal carrier’ for the Salaxan ghost. Antonio Vivaldi Antonio Vivaldi (March 4, 1678, Venice – July 28, 1741, Vienna), nicknamed Il Prete Rosso, meaning The Red Priest, was an Italian priest and baroque music composer. ...
Dirk is puzzling over the previous night's impossible clues, using what his secretary Janice calls "childish methods." When Dirk states that it is imperative he be childlike in order to see what is, rather than what he expects to see, Janice suggests he ask a child. He does so, and the street urchin immediately says "It's bleedin' obvious, innit, he must've 'ad a bleedin' time machine." Dirk realises he's right, and so he and Richard confront Reg, who admits the existence of the time machine. Dirk explains the Salaxan ghost had coerced Reg into performing the magic trick for the girl during the Coleridge Dinner: he had thought he was justified in taking such drastic action to cheer the girl up, but just as Richard attempted to justify diving in the canal and breaking into Susan's flat, Reg was trying to rationalise his own irrational action.
The Salaxan ghost inspires Wenton-Weakes to murder the magazine editor Al Ross at his flat in Noel Road, cementing its control over its carrier. En route from the murder, the possessed Weakes tells a group of wedding guests on a train the Salaxan story of colonisation and the crash, then raves that if he can get rid of the bird, everything will be all right. (This a clever pun. The editor of Fathom, whom Weakes kills, is Albert Ross - Albatross). Gordon Way’s ghost, upon discovering the murder, leaves a message on Susan's answering machine informing her that Weakes has murdered Ross - then fades away.
The possessed Wenton-Weakes persuades Reg, Richard, and Dirk to travel back in time to prevent the disastrous launch. Before returning to primordial Bermuda, they visit the Salaxan mother-ship. While orbiting the Earth for 4 billion years, it had been recording data and processing it into music in the same way Richard has been trying to do with his Anthem software. The exquisite music causes Richard to faint.
Richard is woken by a phone call from Susan, who asks ”Where are you?” Richard wanders off to check, only to discover he and the others are in the primordial past, near the Salaxan tower. Weakes leaves the Time Machine, in SCUBA gear, and goes through the poisonous atmosphere to the Tower with the aim of repairing the ship.
Richard discovers from Susan that Weakes murdered Ross. They realise that Weakes’ willingness to kill the man who supplanted him as editor parallels the Ghost’s desire to wipe out the human race who has supplanted the Salaxans. Since the ship's destruction was the trigger for the evolution of life on Earth, its successful repair will undo evolution and destroy all life. ("Come. Let us sit down. Let us think. We have two minutes ... After that, I very much suspect that the three of us, and everything we have ever known ... will cease ever to have existed."[1]) Noting that Weakes left behind a book of Coleridge's poems, Reg realises that the second part of Kubla Khan contains instructions for fixing the Salaxalan ship.
To sabotage the Salaxan’s plan, the time travelers arrive in the 18th century when Coleridge is writing Kubla Khan after a drug vision – a time when in this novel he was susceptible to the Salaxan Ghost. ("I was able to enter his mind at... certain times. When he was in an impressionable state.") Dirk prevents Coleridge from finishing his poem, and gives Coleridge the idea to feature an albatross in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. This is the key to the ending, as the disrupted poems prevent the Ghost-possessed Weakes from repairing the Salaxalan lander. This in turn prevents him from destroying life on Earth.
As compensation for destroying Coleridge’s poem, Reg salvages a piece of the mathematically perfect music the Salaxan star-ship was composing, then ensures it is attributed to the hitherto unknown J.S. Bach, whose compositions become a new part of the revised time-line. Reg blows up the Salaxan mother-ship, which flares briefly in the sky, destroying the source of the heavenly music.
As a favour to Richard, Reg sends the time machine to a point three weeks before Richard's trip to Cambridge. This allows him to make a reservation at an exclusive restaurant, which has a waiting list three weeks long, so he can mollify Susan when they return. In the process, the door to Reg's apartment appears on the staircase to Richard's flat. Dirk answers a knock at the door, finding a furniture delivery man who wants the door opened to help bring a sofa around a corner on the staircase. The sofa thus gets to its intended destination.
Returning to the present, Richard goes to collect Susan for their date at the restaurant. He discovers her practicing the music rescued from the satellite, instead of the Mozart she was rehearsing before the trip back in time. When Richard asks who wrote the music, she looks at him strangely and asks him how could he not know that it is Bach? Richard discovers from Reg that the time machine no longer functions. However, he has his date with Susan, so some good has come from his strange adventure.
Changing literary and musical history The novel begins in an alternative time-line. At the beginning of the novel the music of Johann Sebastian Bach does not exist and Coleridge finished Kubla Khan uninterrupted. The first clue to this discrepancy in the book is the reference to "the second, and altogether stranger" part of Kubla Khan. Bach in a 1748 portrait by Haussmann Johann Sebastian Bach (pronounced ) (21 March 1685 O.S. – 28 July 1750 N.S.) was a prolific German composer and organist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it...
This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
By the end of the novel, Bach's music exists, Kubla Khan contains only an introductory fragment, and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner features an albatross instead of an asteroid strike. Thus, the inconsistencies with our own universe are corrected throughout the course of the story.
- Bach's music was introduced to Earth by Reg Chronotis, who salvages the "tiniest tiniest scrap" of the mathematically perfect music the Salaxan star-ship was composing from its sensor perceptions of the universe, then used "a bit of a cheat" to ensure it is attributed to the hitherto unknown J.S. Bach.
- Dirk Gently is the person from Porlock who interrupted Coleridge while he was writing Kubla Khan after a drug vision, preventing him from completing the poem. The opening lines survive because the time travellers arrive slightly late.
- Dirk further disrupts Coleridge by asking about albatrosses. Although irritated, Coleridge realises that an albatross would be a "much better" idea for another poem was working on (i.e. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner). It is implied that the original draft of this poem referred to an asteroid strike.
Porlock village, Somerset, England The Person from Porlock was an unwelcome visitor to Samuel Taylor Coleridge who called by during his composition of the oriental poem Kubla Khan. ...
One of a set of engraved metal plate illustrations by Gustave Doré. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a poem written by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1797–1799 and published in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads (1798). ...
Characters - Dirk Gently (also known by a number of other names, including Svlad Cjelli), the perpetually broke operator of the eponymous detective agency that operates based on the "fundamental interconnectedness of all things." He specializes in missing cats and messy divorces. At university, Dirk, seemingly deliberately, created rumours about having clairvoyant abilities by vigorously denying that he had any. He concocted a "get-rich scheme" offering a university exam preparation service and was eventually sent to prison when, by sheer coincidence, he accurately duplicated the exam papers for that year without having seen them before.
- Richard MacDuff, a young software engineer working for WayForward Technologies II, owned by Gordon Way. His Anthem software, which is designed as a spreadsheet, but also has a unique feature to convert corporate accounts into music, was extremely popular, but he is falling behind in his deadlines to create an updated version.
- Reg (Professor Urban Chronotis, the Regius Professor of Chronology), Richard's old college tutor, a fellow of St. Cedd's College, Cambridge with no apparent duties, who is "on the older side of completely indeterminate". He has a predisposition for childish conjuring tricks and an extremely bad memory.
- Gordon Way, the owner of WayForward, who is pressuring Richard to complete his behind-schedule software project, and ends up getting shot for no immediately obvious reason a few chapters into the book.
- Susan Way, sister of Gordon Way and professional cellist, and the "specific girl that Richard is not married to".
- A malfunctioning Electric Monk from a planet very far from the Earth. "The Electric Monk was a labour-saving device, like a dishwasher or a video recorder. [...] Electric Monks believed things for you, thus saving you from what was becoming an increasingly onerous task." The Monk in the book was discarded by its owners due to a series of malfunctions that cause it to believe "all kinds of things, more or less at random", including things like the world being pink and God wanting a lot of money sent to a certain address.
- Michael Wenton-Weakes, the spoiled son of wealthy parents, known pejoratively as "Michael Wednesday-Week," which is when he promises to have the next issue of his poorly managed magazine Fathom ready. His mother sold Fathom to Gordon Way after his father's accidental death when the latter was changing an electric plug. While Michael seems largely apathetic and yielding to others, the loss of Fathom bothers him much more deeply than anyone realises.
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, writer and laudanum user. For the sake of the novel, he is made to have attended St. Cedd's College. His poems Kubla Khan and Rime of the Ancient Mariner figure prominently in the plot, but their significance is not explained entirely until the book's end.
An eponym is a person (real or fictitious) whose name has become identified with a particular object or activity. ...
Professor Urban Chronotis is a fictional character created by Douglas Adams. ...
It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles accessible from a disambiguation page. ...
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (October 21, 1772 – July 25, 1834) (pronounced ) was an English poet, critic, and philosopher who was, along with his friend William Wordsworth, one of the founders of the Romantic Movement in England and one of the Lake Poets. ...
Laudanum is an opium tincture, sometimes sweetened with sugar and also called wine of opium. ...
This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
Illustration by Gustav Dore. ...
Major themes The central motif of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is the fundamental interconnectedness of everything. Many details may appear superfluous, but turn out to be integral to the plot. Chaos theory, in its accessible form popularized by writers such as James Gleick, is therefore an appropriate context for this novel. The idea of holism is referenced in the novel's title. There are quantum mechanics references as well; phenomena of non-locality, as in the EPR paradox, make appearances. A plot of the Lorenz attractor for values r = 28, σ = 10, b = 8/3 In mathematics and physics, chaos theory describes the behavior of certain nonlinear dynamical systems that under specific conditions exhibit dynamics that are sensitive to initial conditions (popularly referred to as the butterfly effect). ...
James Gleick (August 1, 1954– ) is an author, journalist, and biographer, whose books explore the cultural ramifications of science and technology. ...
Whole redirects here. ...
Fig. ...
In quantum mechanics, the EPR paradox is a thought experiment which challenged long-held ideas about the relation between the observed values of physical quantities and the values that can be accounted for by a physical theory. ...
Allusions and references
Allusions to other works The life and works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge play a central role in the story, particularly The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan. The novel cannot be fully understood without familiarity with these poems. One of a set of engraved metal plate illustrations by Gustave Doré. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a poem written by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1797–1799 and published in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads (1798). ...
This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
The piece of music by Bach that is heard aboard the satellite is "Ach Bleib Bei Uns, Herr Jesu Christ" from the cantata "Bleib Bei Uns, denn es will Abend Werden", BWV 6 (also an organ chorale BWV 649). Adams has stated that this is his personal "absolutely perfect" piece of music, and that he listened to it "over and over; drove my wife completely insane" while writing Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency [2] Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden (Stay with us, for evening falls) is a cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. ...
Allusions to Adams's life In the novel, a sofa is irreversibly stuck on the staircase to Richard's apartment; according to his simulations, not only is it impossible to remove it, but there is no way for it to have got into that position in the first place. This is probably based on an incident that occurred while Douglas Adams attended St John's College of Cambridge University. Furniture was placed in the rooms overlooking the river in Third Court while the staircases were being refurbished. When the staircases were completed, it was discovered that the sofas could no longer be removed from the rooms, and the sofas remained in those rooms for several decades. (Within the novel, it is revealed that during one of the time travel trips back to Richard's apartment, the door of Reg's time machine materialized on the staircase to his apartment at the same time that the sofa was being delivered; the deliverymen used the space of the open doorway to navigate a corner in the stairway, but once the door dematerialized, there was no way to move the sofa.) College name The College of Saint John the Evangelist of the University of Cambridge Motto Souvent me Souvient (Latin: I often remember) Named after The Hospital of Saint John the Evangelist Established 1511 Location St. ...
The University of Cambridge (often Cambridge University), located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world and has a reputation as one of the worlds most prestigious universities. ...
The South Bank Show revealed that Adams based Chronotis' rooms on the rooms he occupied in his third year at university. Likewise, Richard's room - filled with Macintosh computers and synthesisers - was based on Adams' own flat (visited and photographed by Hi-Fi Choice Magazine).
The story borrows elements from two Doctor Who serials written by Adams: Doctor Who is a long-running award-winning British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The series depicts the adventures of a mysterious time-traveller known as the Doctor who travels in his TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space) time ship, which appears from the exterior...
- In City of Death an alien (Scaroth the Jagaroth) tries to change history by using time travel to avert a disastrous spaceship launch in the primeval past, at the cost of erasing humanity from existence. The Jagaroth are replaced by the Salaxans in Dirk Gently. Scaroth is splintered throughout time, whereas the Salaxan Ghost lives through all the billions of years.
- In Shada, a professor called Chronotis is hundreds of years old. He has been living and working at a Cambridge college for centuries, without anyone noticing. He possesses an eccentric time machine. In Shada, Chronotis's longevity is due to him being a Time Lord, and his time machine is an early model TARDIS. These copyright elements from Doctor Who were removed by Adams for Dirk Gently. Shada, which never aired due to a production strike terminating its filming, was later released on VHS with Tom Baker narrating the unfilmed segments. Shada was completed as a webcast with slight alterations to the script, with Paul McGann as the Doctor and John Leeson as K9, and released on CD by Big Finish productions.
This novel caused Adams to become acquainted with the well-known scientist Richard Dawkins. As Dawkins explains, "As soon as I finished it, I turned back to page one and read it straight through again – the only time I have ever done that, and I wrote to tell him so. He replied that he was a fan of my books, and he invited me to his house in London."[3] Adams would later introduce Dawkins to the woman who was to become his fourth wife, the actress Lalla Ward, best known for playing the character Romana in Doctor Who. One of her early serials on the programme was City of Death. City of Death is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from September 29 to October 20, 1979. ...
Shada is an unaired serial of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. ...
For other persons named Tom Baker, see Tom Baker (disambiguation). ...
Paul McGann (born November 14, 1959 in Liverpool) is an English actor who made his name on the BBC serial The Monocled Mutineer, in which he played the lead role. ...
John Leeson (born March 1943 in Leicester, Leicestershire, England) is a British actor who although having had a varied stage and television career spanning forty years including both work in repertory and West End productions including Plaza Suite (1969); Flint (1970) and Dont Start Without Me (1971) and character...
Clinton Richard Dawkins (born March 26, 1941) is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and popular science writer who holds the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. ...
Lalla Ward (born Sarah Ward, June 28, 1951) is an English actress and illustrator best known for playing the part of Romana in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. ...
Doctor Who is a long-running award-winning British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The series depicts the adventures of a mysterious time-traveller known as the Doctor who travels in his TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space) time ship, which appears from the exterior...
Adaptations On 5 January 1992, Dirk Gently, Richard MacDuff, Dirk's secretary, and the Electric Monk all appeared in the Douglas Adams episode of the British arts documentary series The South Bank Show.[4] Michael Bywater played Dirk, while Paul Shearer played both Richard and the Monk. Several characters from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy were also featured, played by the original television series actors. The South Bank Show is a British television arts magazine show, presented by Melvyn Bragg and seen in over 60 countries — including Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sweden and the USA. Its stated aim is to bring both high art and popular culture to a mass audience. ...
Michael Bywater a British writer and broadcaster. ...
Paul Shearer is a British actor who is most well known as a minor member of the Fast Show team. ...
The cover of the first novel in the Hitchhikers series, from a late 1990s printing. ...
The book has been adapted for stage performance as Dirk. Dirk is a stage play adapted from the novel Dirk Gentlys Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams. ...
In 2005, some fans of Douglas Adams decided to produce a fan radio series based on the first book. Their efforts began and were coordinated on the Douglas Adams Continuum website.[5] So far, three episodes have been completed.[6]
A publishing company has been seeking the rights to produce a graphic novel adaptation, though art has been removed for legal reasons.[7]
BBC Radio adaptation On 26 January 2007 it was announced that BBC Radio 4 has commissioned Above the Title Productions (with Dirk Maggs at the helm) to make an 18 x 30 minute adaptation of Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently books. It will run over 3 series of 6 episodes and will begin in October of 2007 and will feature Harry Enfield as Dirk, Billy Boyd as Richard, Olivia Colman as Janice, Jim Carter as Gilks, Andrew Sachs as Reg, Felicity Montagu as Susan, Robert Duncan as Gordon, Toby Longworth as the Monk, Michael Fenton Stevens as Michael, Andrew Secombe, Jon Glover, Jeffrey Holland ,Wayne Forester and Tamsin Heatley. [8][9][10]. There is a website at bbc.co.uk/radio4/dirkgently. Above the Title Productions is a UK radio production company, based in London and specializing in the making of drama, music, comedy and feature programmes, principally for BBC Radio. ...
Dirk Maggs is a freelance writer and director working across all media. ...
This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...
Billy Boyd (born 28 August 1968 in Glasgow) is a Scottish actor most widely known for playing Peregrin Took (Pippin), in the film adaptations of The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003) and Barrett Bonden in Peter Weirs film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003). ...
Colman as Harriet Schulenburg in Green Wing. ...
Jim Carter (born 1951) is a British actor noted for his roles on film and television. ...
Andrew Sachs (born Andreas Siegfried Sachs, April 7, 1930) is a British actor. ...
Felicity Montagu is a British actor, probably best known for her performances in television comedy series and films. ...
Robert Duncan may refer to: Robert Duncan (1919-1988), U.S. poet Robert Duncan, U.S. physicist Robert Duncan, British TV comedy actor Robert Duncan McNeill, U.S. actor, director and producer Robert Duncan, Episcopal bishop of Pittsburgh This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other...
Toby Longworth is a British actor who has appeared on film, radio and television. ...
Michael Fenton Stevens is a UK actor and comedian, member of the Hee Bee Gee Bees and the voice behind the Spitting Image number 1 hit in 1986, The Chicken Song. ...
Andrew Secombe (born April 26, 1953 in Mumbles Head, South Wales), better known as Andy Secombe, is a British actor, voice actor, and author. ...
Jon Glover is a British actor. ...
Jeffrey Holland (born17 July 1946 in Walsall) is a British actor well known for roles in television sitcoms. ...
The script is by Dirk Maggs, who also directs, and the show is produced by Maggs and Jo Wheeler. Dirk Maggs is a freelance writer and director working across all media. ...
References - ^ Adams, Douglas. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
- ^ Interview with M. Throsby, ABC Classic FM, 1999, 17 May 2001 (repeat)
- ^ Dawkins, Richard (2001-05-14). Lament for Douglas Adams. The Guardian. Retrieved on 2007-06-29.
- ^ Cast list for The South Bank Show episode on IMDb.
- ^ Dirk Gently radio series discussion forum on douglasadams.se
- ^ Dirk Gently radio series download site
- ^ Website of proposed graphic novel (This domain is now parked with the following note: "Notice: This domain name expired on 03/06/07 and is pending renewal or deletion")
- ^ BBC - Press Office - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency opens for business. Retrieved on 2007-08-14.
- ^ Dirk Maggs News and New Projects page
- ^ July 2007 BBC announcement of radio version
Clinton Richard Dawkins (born March 26, 1941) is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and popular science writer who holds the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. ...
Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ...
May 14 is the 134th day of the year (135th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ...
is the 180th day of the year (181st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ...
is the 226th day of the year (227th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
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