My Weekly Book

I read The Salmon of Doubt a few months ago, and was bowled over, which was one of the reasons I was unable to resist this biography when it leapt off the shelf of the Charing Cross Road Waterstones and into my already overcrowded arms. However, now having read both, it's a bit disappointing to once again find myself in strong disagreement with the majority of reviewers on both volumes. I think a vast disservice was done to The Salmon of Doubt by subtitling it 'Hitch-hiking the Galaxy One Last Time'. It contains a fragment of a Dirk Gently novel that Adams seemed to feel contained ideas that would have worked better in the Hitch-hiker's 'trilogy' - how he would have worked them in is an intriguing puzzle, given how thoroughly the loose ends were tied up in Mostly Harmless and how sick he was of the whole Hitch-hiker's gig.

The novel fragment is, in many ways, the least satisfying element in a wonderfully eclectic selection of Adamsian writing about music, computers, science and a dozen other subjects. They are remarkable for two things rare as pearl-bearing oysters in a cultural milieu that considers Big Brother worthwhile entertainment, the quality of the writing and the quality of the thinking. Which is why they should probably have a far wider currency than they would get stuck in a book with 'the last Adams novel' and labelled 'suitable for die-hard fans only'. This isn't true. The only reason I can see for not immediately putting them on both the GCSE and A-level syllabuses is working out what subject they would come under. Still, what am I complaining about? At least they are in print.

It is the perfect complement to the biography, about which snotty reviewers in The Guardian and The Independent proclaim: “Yes, but what did Douglas Adams actually do, except have one good idea in about 1973?” and criticise Nick Webb for the crime of having known his subject well and therefore not tearing him to shreds vigorously enough. Oh yes, and for not including enough salacious details about his sex life.

What a steaming heap of shit this is. Let's just scrape the surface of Douglas Adams' achievements: collaborations with The Pythons; a cross-genre series of novels that changed the way we view the world we live in and was marvellously accessible to anyone that picked it up off the shelf; an ability to foresee the stupendous impact that information technology and the Internet was going to have not only on human communication but very possibly the evolution of the human brain; tireless work to publicise the impact of human depredation of the biological diversity of this planet; the very rare ability to cross the divide between the arts and sciences in his thinking; presiding over the development of a computer game with a language engine so sophisticated that you could talk to it for 14 hours without it repeating itself; bequeathing the H2G2 website to the world plus selling the BBC the software that keeps its online communities going - hence the letters 'DNA', his initials, in the URLs, in case you are wondering. Oh, and keeping dozens of restaurants in business. Presumably the reviewers who say this somehow isn't enough to justify all the adulation he gets would like to explain how they have brokered world peace, found the cure for AIDS and divined the true function of black holes into the bargain.

I do, however, think that the point about Nick Webb writing a very affectionate and not necessarily very critical portrait is a good one. A publisher-turned-writer, he knew Adams in his professional life and appeared to have become a good friend, to the point where the two would have long boozy lunches to discuss the meaning of life and gossip about mutual acquaintances. He has also won the trust of the vast, extended Adams-and-related family sufficiently to ensure a contribution from them to this book. There is undoubtedly another, less sympathetic book to be written. But it will lack the insight of personal knowledge and very possibly the co-operation of the family.

This is a bit of a must-read, really, for anyone who wants to come away understanding a bit more about the British comedy scene in the 60s and 70s, the thought processes of a great thinker, the process by which writers write, the inside story of the dotcom boom, the biodiversity crisis facing the planet or to have their general intellectual horizons expanded. So do you have to be a fan to read it? Probably not, although those with less of an interest in Adams' work might prefer to dip in rather than read from end to end.

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 23rd, 2004 at 5:16 pm and is filed under 2004 - Books read. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.