John Wyndham vs Douglas Adams

[watervole]

I've been listening to Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, but been rather underwhelmed.

As a member of ZZ9, I feel slightly guilty, but on the night when Dirk Gently clashes with Trouble With Lichen, I've just set TIVO for the latter.  It's far more interesting..

Hitchikers was a work of genius, Dirk Gently is not.

For those who missed the first part of 'Trouble with Lichen' here's the Listen Again link  I'd forgotten just how subversively femmininist (to steal a phrase from kerravonsen) the story is.  Diana's mother's gentle confusion as she fails totally to understand her daughter's career as a biochemist is delightful and so is her teacher pleased by her scholarship, but worrying about her independence.  It was written in the 60s and does encapsulate the period rather nicely.

Comments

[alex-holden.livejournal.com]

I didn't enjoy Dirk Gently as much as the Hitchhiker's books, but I was never sure whether that was simply because I'm not a fan of detective stories. I was in rather an unusual place when I read most of the first Dirk Gently book - this userpic was taken on the same day...

[watervole.livejournal.com]

The Hitchhikers radio version beats the books by miles.

Where was the userpic taken?

[alex-holden.livejournal.com]

I like both the books and the radio series in different ways.

That's Gaping Gill (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaping_Gill) main chamber. I read the book in the nearby sand caverns where we stayed overnight. It was on a sponsored "24 hours underground" caving trip that we did to raise funds for Burnley Caving Club. An interesting experience but very poorly organised (by somebody who didn't even come on the trip with us) and raised hardly any money, so we didn't bother doing it again. Another failed fundraising bid was a sponsored "vertical mile" abseil off the roof of what was at the time the tallest building in Burnley (IIRC we wore out the rope and earned less than it cost to replace). Another time the chairman tried to organise a casino night which could potentially have lost the club a lot of money, but he got replaced at the AGM and the event didn't go ahead. Not that long afterwards several members broke away and formed a new club "for serious cavers," with the ousted chairman in charge (not such a great loss in hindsight). The only fund raising event we did that was remotely successful was a small fair with bouncy castle, aerial runway, coconut shy, etc.

[epistrophia.livejournal.com]

I've been listening to Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, but been rather underwhelmed.

I agree. I quite liked the books (though they weren't a patch on H2G2) but it simply isn't translating to radio. I suppose it could be the script, but actually I don't think anyone would be able to do Dirk Gently on radio. Even Douglas Adams.

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed Dirk Gently (the book - I haven't heard any audio versions) but it's certainly a much quieter work than The Hitchhiker's Guide. More consistent but less surprising as a result, perhaps.

[aeglefinus.livejournal.com]

You can record episode 5 of Dirk Gently at 18:30 and then the repeat of episode 3 of Trouble with Lichen at 00:30.

[j-lj.livejournal.com]

I agree with you The Dirk Gently radio series is very disappointing. The Douglas Adams read abridged and unabridged audio books are much better, than this adaptation.