{"id":565,"date":"2015-11-15T01:35:07","date_gmt":"2015-11-15T01:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/repeatright.com\/engine\/?p=565"},"modified":"2018-10-07T19:06:48","modified_gmt":"2018-10-07T19:06:48","slug":"adams-douglas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.repeatright.com\/engine\/adams-douglas\/","title":{"rendered":"ADAMS, Douglas"},"content":{"rendered":"
[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1453315804311{margin-top: -40px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1449531588223-e020d87d-f7dd094f-cf6379a9-0bde”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cA common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Douglas Adams<\/strong>, English author<\/p>\n

Mostly Harmless<\/em> (1992) New York: Harmony Books, 1992 first edition, p. 135<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-ban” add_icon=”true” title=”Misquotes” tab_id=”1449531589281-1a7ccd5f-aa59094f-cf6379a9-0bde”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Source note<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: The quote is sometimes cited to Adams\u2019 best-known work, The Hitchhiker\u2019s Guide to the Galaxy<\/em>. While the cited lines do not appear in this work, Mostly Harmless<\/em> was published in a 1996 Adams \u201cOmnibus edition\u201d along with Hitchhiker\u2019s Guide<\/em> and other works.<\/p>\n[Source<\/em>: Random House ISBN 0-517-14925-7 \u2013 New York, NY: Wing Books \u2013 quote appears on pages 718-719 of this edition.][\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1449531588755-96303790-852e094f-cf6379a9-0bde”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Extended excerpt<\/em><\/strong>: \u201cThe thing they wouldn\u2019t be expecting him to do was to be there in the first place. Only an absolute idiot would be sitting where he was, so he was winning already. A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof was to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.\u201d (pp. 718-719)[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source ISBN” tab_id=”1449531589797-29580b31-8c50094f-cf6379a9-0bde”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Source<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: Library \u2013 Mostly Harmless<\/em> (1992) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-517-57740-2[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1453315829087-ce67c619-0fbc79a9-0bde”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cH<\/strong>uman 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.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Douglas Adams<\/strong>, English author<\/p>\n

Last Chance to See\u2026<\/em> (1990) with co-author & zoologist Mark <\/strong>Carwardine<\/strong>, Toronto, Ontario: Stoddart, p. 109 [Note<\/em>: Ellipsis is part of the original title]\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1453315829475-7c82a017-1e6279a9-0bde”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]Extended excerpt<\/em><\/strong>: [Non-fiction. In this excerpt, Adams is describing the kakapo: a large, flightless, and nocturnal New Zealand bird that tends to freeze in the face of danger. Adams & Carwardine were traveling the world for a BBC radio series on endangered species.]\n

\u201cThe millennia crawl by pretty bloody slowly while natural selection sifts its way through generation after generation, favouring the odd aberrant kakapo that\u2019s a little twitchier than its contemporaries till the species as a whole finally gets the idea. It would all be cut short in a moment if one of them could say, \u201cWhen you see one of those things with whiskers and little bitey teeth, run like hell.\u201d On the other hand, 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.\u201d (p. 109)[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source ISBN” tab_id=”1453315829682-63e8fade-cf4c79a9-0bde”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Source<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: Library – Last Chance to See\u2026<\/em> (1990) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-773-724540[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1453316221301{margin-top: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1453315828001-b5e2e52e-ea1e79a9-0bde”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cI love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Douglas Adams<\/strong>, English author<\/p>\n

Cited by friend Richard Dawkins in \u201cLament for Douglas Adams\u201d (13 May 2001) Richard Dawkins, The Guardian <\/em>newspaper, London: Guardian News & Media Ltd., online via www.theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1453315828385-86abfac4-79bf79a9-0bde”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Extended excerpt<\/em><\/strong>: [From a tribute by friend & fellow author Richard Dawkins, published shortly after Adams’ death in 2001.]\n

\u201cHe laughed at himself with equal good humour. At, for example, his epic bouts of writer\u2019s block (\u201cI love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by\u201d) when, according to legend, his publisher and book agent would lock him in a hotel room, with no telephone and nothing to do but write, releasing him only for supervised walks.\u201d[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source Link” tab_id=”1453315828572-dac97b48-68e079a9-0bde”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Source link<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: \u201cA Lament for Douglas Adams\u201d (13 May 2001) The Guardian<\/em>, online via The Guardian<\/em>: https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk\/2001\/may\/14\/books.booksnews<\/a><\/p>\n

Source note<\/em><\/strong>: Dawkins\u2019 essay was also reprinted as a posthumous epilogue in the 26 April 2005 edition of Adam\u2019s The Salmon of Doubt<\/em>.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1449531591105-7edf5f39-feaa094f-cf6379a9-0bde”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cThe impossible often has a kind of integrity to it which the merely improbable lacks.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Douglas Adams<\/strong>, English author<\/p>\n

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul<\/em> (1988) Toronto, ON: Stoddart, 1988, p. 132<\/p>\n

\u00a0[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1449531591631-43861bc7-da28094f-cf6379a9-0bde”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Extended excerpt<\/em><\/strong>: [Fictional dialogue between characters \u2018Kate\u2019 and \u2018Dirk\u2019]\n

\u201cWhat was the Sherlock Holmes principle? \u2018Once you have discounted the impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI reject that entirely,\u201d said Dirk sharply. \u201cThe impossible often has a kind of integrity to it which the merely improbable lacks. How often have you been presented with an apparently rational explanation of something that works in all respects other than one, which is just that it is hopelessly improbable? You instinct is to say, \u2018Yes, but he or she simply wouldn\u2019t do that.\u2019\u201d (p.132)[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source ISBN” tab_id=”1449531592891-f39e055b-a66e094f-cf6379a9-0bde”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Source<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: Library \u2013 The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul<\/em> (1988) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-773-722297[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1453316221301{margin-top: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1453315828001-b5e2e52e-ea1e79a9-0bde”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cTime is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Douglas Adams<\/strong>, English author<\/p>\n

The Hitchhiker\u2019s Guide to the Galaxy <\/em>(1979) New York: Harmony Books,\u00a01980 edition, p. 24<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1453315828385-86abfac4-79bf79a9-0bde”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Extended excerpt<\/em><\/strong>: [Fictional dialogue: characters \u2018Arthur Dent\u2019 & \u2018Ford Prefect\u2019]:<\/p>\n

\u201cThree pints?\u201d said Arthur. \u201cAt lunchtime?\u201d<\/p>\n

The man next to Ford grinned and nodded happily. Ford ignored him. He said, \u201cTime is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cVery deep,\u201d said Arthur, \u201cyou should send that in to the Reader\u2019s Digest<\/em>. They\u2019ve got a page for people like you.\u201d (p. 24)[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source ISBN” tab_id=”1449531592891-f39e055b-a66e094f-cf6379a9-0bde”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Source<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: Library – The Hitchhiker\u2019s Guide to the Galaxy<\/em> (1979) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-517-542099<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\n

Resources<\/h4>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css_animation=”none” el_class=”Wrapper-Author-Resources”]Learn more about Douglas Adams<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>| Here are a few good places to find out more –<\/p>\n