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10-26-2019, 10:27 AM | #46 | |
Wizard
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A major early study of Coleridge including "Kubla Khan" is The Road to Xanadu: A Study in the Ways of the Imagination[/I] (Houghton Mifflin, 1927) by John Livingston Lowes. It is available free for download on Internet Archive and is well worth reading. I love all three of those great poems by Coleridge and "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is utterly entrancing. |
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10-31-2019, 02:56 AM | #47 |
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I wonder what Douglas Adams would think of today's technology if he were still alive. One of the things that was fun about the book was the nostalgia reading about old technology when it was written. Do you think that someone younger reading this book would find it funny? Does he stand the test of time with this series? I find this an interesting question because I read the book in the time period when it was first published, and I don't know that I would like it if I were to read it now in today's modern era at the same age I was back then.
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10-31-2019, 07:14 AM | #48 |
o saeclum infacetum
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I know comedy dates quickly; not only are the references stale or meaningless, it can offend. I cringe today when Ricky spanks Lucy, for example. That said, I'd hope they'd be charmed by the wit and even by the look at early personal computer technology. I suspect some of the images in their heads are quite inaccurate, however; do they have any idea how very big Gordon's car phone would have been? Those things were shoe-size.
Last edited by issybird; 10-31-2019 at 07:50 AM. |
10-31-2019, 07:39 AM | #49 |
cacoethes scribendi
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Sort of funny how we can be nostalgic for something that was really only around for a few years. I mean car phones and answering machines of the type used in the story were both quite brief stars on the technological landscape. Indeed, the timing of Dirk Gently (1987) is probably hitting on the peak for both. Dependency and peculiarities of land-line telephones is something that I don't need to be nostalgic about, as I still depend on a land-line (as mobile reception here is dodgy). In 1987 there was still considerable optimism for what computers might become capable of achieving, and this story reflects that.
I doubt if Adams would be all that surprised to discover how far technology has progressed, nor by how little progress has been made with it - if you can accept my distinction. To see the Internet coming, and then to see what it has become. I think his involvement with conservation may have given him a more realistic outlook than many, but also means, I think, that the political landscape would have shaken him rather more than the technological one - but then he'd hardly be alone in that. I think the technology of the book is both familiar enough, and recent enough, to still work even for younger audiences, although I notice that some comedy like this is considered amusing by younger generations on generational grounds (what those old farts used to get up to) rather than understanding the humour inherent at the time. But what else can we expect? (I see issybird made a similar observation.) Last edited by gmw; 10-31-2019 at 08:38 AM. Reason: outlook not output |
10-31-2019, 06:24 PM | #50 | |
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I think his wit would come through despite the older technology in use. For instance, the comments about the horse and what it thinks are lovely. |
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11-01-2019, 03:16 AM | #51 | ||
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11-01-2019, 07:09 AM | #52 |
o saeclum infacetum
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My particular favorite was the long riff on the horse's thoughts on his possibilities as he surveyed the pasture. It was his Eden. Alas, even to the snake in Monk's garb. What were the odds he'd go stand under the tree?
It hadn't occurred to me, but it brings up the issue of predestination. Did he have to go there? Certainly for the purpose of the story he did, but did he do it under divine compulsion or just dumb bad luck? Alternatively, is it a case of infinite universes and in all the rest of them the horse went anywhere but the tree? |
11-01-2019, 08:22 AM | #53 | |
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11-01-2019, 09:57 AM | #54 |
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Since there was only one tree in the field it was fate. Had there been multiple trees it would have been luck ... although, since we know that this world has a god, in the form of the author, we might say that the existence of just a single tree was divine intervention.
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11-02-2019, 03:38 AM | #55 |
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Indeed - Adams certainly put that one tree in that particular field.
In looking for something else about Douglas Adams, I stumbled over a BBC recording of a Desert Island Discs interview he did in 1994. It covers a number of the areas we have been discussing, such as his interest in new technology, and he also reveals the particular work by Bach that he was playing while he wrote Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and had in mind when he refers in the book to a particular work by Bach. It is 40 minutes well spent if you are interested. Here's the link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0093qxj |
11-02-2019, 12:07 PM | #56 |
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Thank you for the link to the interview!
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11-09-2019, 01:44 AM | #57 |
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I finally finished this. No idea why it took me so long to read other than my general "not in the mood for reading" this year. I really hope I get over this soon.
I enjoyed it but nowhere near as much as I enjoy the HHGTTG. |
11-09-2019, 02:08 AM | #58 |
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I haven't read HHGTTG in years and years and years. So can't directly compare. But I did enjoy this. And I'm doing a re-read now because I think the first time through I missed too much. It's harder to re-read, however. My interest lags plus I've been restricted to audio books mostly right now (my old, first-gen Oasis died and had to be replaced with a shiny new Oasis. Which arrived yesterday. ) The only audiobook version is an abridged narration. Not helpful.
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11-09-2019, 09:27 AM | #59 | ||
o saeclum infacetum
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A reading slump is a topic that used to come here at intervals. They do end. There are strategies, but it's hard to say what will work for you and your particular circumstances. A buddy read with your daughter? Reading with kids is great. Quote:
However, I agree that the interest isn't quite there in an immediate reread. I'd like to reread it at some point, though, knowing where it's going. I felt the same way about The Natural; the depth could only be entirely appreciated on a reread. Someday for both, but so many books.... |
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11-09-2019, 08:16 PM | #60 |
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I actually didn't mind doing a reread straight away, as there was so much to catch the second time around that it was entertaining seeing just how much Adams gave us. It really made me appreciate just how clever and intricate it all was.
I reread The Natural while I was on my little holiday, but apart from picking up on just how many references to birds there were in it, I didn't feel I got so much out of it as I thought I might. |
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