Once again, it's time to unreel a few words on the state of the universe, the world, and just what Catwoman is getting up to in this latest episode of 'Batman'. What is this scheme that involves university and burning up Batman and Robin in a giant percolator? What? Oh, never mind, it's a purely tangential concern, and nowhere near as important as the ongoing narrative in Connie Willis's novel 'To Say Nothing Of The Dog'. Oh, is that tangential again? Really? What isn't tangential, then?
It's curious to think that we're living in a universe which may not have anything outside it. After all, if the universe is defined as 'everything' then how can there be anything to be outside? Is the defintion wrong? Is it possible that it's really one universe amongst many, a bubble of reality living in a extra-cosmic foam of similar and dissimilar bubbles? Wouldn't that be amazing, and utterly confusing? What about alternative timelines, if they even exist? Would time travel change history inside a bubble, or shift us into another one? Or would it completely rewrite the whole foam?
It's nice to think about the larger things from time to time, the grander unanswerable questions. Are we just assemblages of randomly firing neurons, or are there souls flying around in the cosmos, flitting here and there from person to person, from death to life to death to life? What could possibly be facilitating such things? A reincarnational travel agent? Wouldn't that be ridiculous and fascinating?
Ah well, back to sleep, that grand healer of all ills, and releaser of the imagination. Or is it time to go and unwittingly tour the cosmos again?
O.
Wednesday, 6 September 2017
Monday, 4 September 2017
The Literary Reflection VI
Once again, it's time to have a chatter about the books read since the last 'On The Book Piles', which didn't quite get to have posts of their own for various reasons. Lots of books were read on coaches this time round!
'Till Death Do Us Part' by John Dickson Carr (1944)
There is an idea that this could be the best John Dickson Carr mystery instead of 'The Hollow Man'. As a response, I will merely point out that 'The Hollow Man' got an entire post, and this just part of one. For a long time, you wonder if there's going to be any mystery at all, so gloomy is the prevailing mood against Lesley Grant, the accused bride-to-be of the book's protagonist, Richard Markham. It does, however all turn around satisfactorily when the deceased (supposedly due to suicide) accuser is debunked by much delayed arrival of the series's sleuth, Dr Gideon Fell, with an Important Fact. The shenanigans then commence properly. It's a well-paced, well-built, and nicely judged impossible crime, but what it gains in prose style over 'The Hollow Man', it loses in intricacy and impossibility. So, a good mystery, but not a puzzle box to be savoured. However, it does mean more John Dickson Carr will have to be sampled...
'Somebody Owes Me Money' by Donald E Westlake (1969)
A solid but middle of the pack crime story from super-writer Donald E Westlake. The prose is excellent, as it always is, showing just what has been lost over the history of written storytelling, but the plot is a bit scanty. Westlake pulls it off, though, in this story about a New York cab driver who goes to collect some winnings from his bookmaker friend, but discovers a body and ends up in a tug of war between two rival gangs of mobsters out to find out who did the crime. Not quite unremarkable, but also not quite recommendable. It's somewhere in the corridor of uncertainty. Nice writing, though. Westlake was one of the best.
'God Save The Mark' by Donald E Westlake (1967)
This is a brilliant novel, and much better than 'Somebody Owes Me Money'. Apparently this is one of the novels that launched the Westlake trajectory toward humour in his work, and also helped to set up his paradigm of using loser protagonists. It's just a bit too slight to get a post of its own, but is well worth reading, as we see the story of perpetual 'sucker' (magnet for confidence tricksters) Fred Fitch unfold after he inherits a large fortune from a long socially exiled uncle and becomes embroiled in a rather unusual thriller. There are corrupt cops, brassy broads, lovely ladies, more confidence tricks than you can count, and suspicions cast upon everyone in the narrative. It's a big, broad wonderful mess. Westlake is a brilliant writer of things which are almost substantial classics, but end up being merely fun reads. Very good con story. Will you spot the turn?
'Three Hearts And Three Lions' by Poul Anderson (1961)
This is a surprisingly short novel, which somehow manages to fit far more into its duration than many stories twice its size. It has some things in common with Twain's 'Connecticut Yankee', as a Danish resistance fighter vanished from a Second World War battle, only to appear in a different medieval fantasy world, which has a lot in common with his own. However, why does he keep remembering things from this new world, and why are forces gathering to stop him at all costs? It's a potent mix of fairy tales, Carolingian mythology, high romance and classy writing, which manages to condense down a number of very precise episodes into an overall narrative. Anderson also, to his credit, writes the whole thing as a prologue to a larger story that we never get to read, and forms parallels between the second world war and the novel's otherworldly conflict between Order and Chaos. It's a simple and wonderful little novel, and highly recommended. It's nice to have so many nicely formed characters in less than two hundred pages, and such veering fantasy and darker elements. It's a much better experience than that had with Anderson's 'The Broken Sword'.
'Kentucky Thriller' by Lauren St John (2012)
This, the third in the Laura Marlin mysteries, is well up to the standard of the first books in the series, as we jaunt through another thriller for younger readers. As an adult reader, there are sometimes events so signposted as to be frustrating, but it's a good read. Another one to go in the recommended pile for my students, I think. If you haven't guessed, this one is about horses and features a trip to Kentucky, just in time for their Derby. There is crookedness galore!
O.
'Till Death Do Us Part' by John Dickson Carr (1944)
There is an idea that this could be the best John Dickson Carr mystery instead of 'The Hollow Man'. As a response, I will merely point out that 'The Hollow Man' got an entire post, and this just part of one. For a long time, you wonder if there's going to be any mystery at all, so gloomy is the prevailing mood against Lesley Grant, the accused bride-to-be of the book's protagonist, Richard Markham. It does, however all turn around satisfactorily when the deceased (supposedly due to suicide) accuser is debunked by much delayed arrival of the series's sleuth, Dr Gideon Fell, with an Important Fact. The shenanigans then commence properly. It's a well-paced, well-built, and nicely judged impossible crime, but what it gains in prose style over 'The Hollow Man', it loses in intricacy and impossibility. So, a good mystery, but not a puzzle box to be savoured. However, it does mean more John Dickson Carr will have to be sampled...
'Somebody Owes Me Money' by Donald E Westlake (1969)
A solid but middle of the pack crime story from super-writer Donald E Westlake. The prose is excellent, as it always is, showing just what has been lost over the history of written storytelling, but the plot is a bit scanty. Westlake pulls it off, though, in this story about a New York cab driver who goes to collect some winnings from his bookmaker friend, but discovers a body and ends up in a tug of war between two rival gangs of mobsters out to find out who did the crime. Not quite unremarkable, but also not quite recommendable. It's somewhere in the corridor of uncertainty. Nice writing, though. Westlake was one of the best.
'God Save The Mark' by Donald E Westlake (1967)
This is a brilliant novel, and much better than 'Somebody Owes Me Money'. Apparently this is one of the novels that launched the Westlake trajectory toward humour in his work, and also helped to set up his paradigm of using loser protagonists. It's just a bit too slight to get a post of its own, but is well worth reading, as we see the story of perpetual 'sucker' (magnet for confidence tricksters) Fred Fitch unfold after he inherits a large fortune from a long socially exiled uncle and becomes embroiled in a rather unusual thriller. There are corrupt cops, brassy broads, lovely ladies, more confidence tricks than you can count, and suspicions cast upon everyone in the narrative. It's a big, broad wonderful mess. Westlake is a brilliant writer of things which are almost substantial classics, but end up being merely fun reads. Very good con story. Will you spot the turn?
'Three Hearts And Three Lions' by Poul Anderson (1961)
This is a surprisingly short novel, which somehow manages to fit far more into its duration than many stories twice its size. It has some things in common with Twain's 'Connecticut Yankee', as a Danish resistance fighter vanished from a Second World War battle, only to appear in a different medieval fantasy world, which has a lot in common with his own. However, why does he keep remembering things from this new world, and why are forces gathering to stop him at all costs? It's a potent mix of fairy tales, Carolingian mythology, high romance and classy writing, which manages to condense down a number of very precise episodes into an overall narrative. Anderson also, to his credit, writes the whole thing as a prologue to a larger story that we never get to read, and forms parallels between the second world war and the novel's otherworldly conflict between Order and Chaos. It's a simple and wonderful little novel, and highly recommended. It's nice to have so many nicely formed characters in less than two hundred pages, and such veering fantasy and darker elements. It's a much better experience than that had with Anderson's 'The Broken Sword'.
'Kentucky Thriller' by Lauren St John (2012)
This, the third in the Laura Marlin mysteries, is well up to the standard of the first books in the series, as we jaunt through another thriller for younger readers. As an adult reader, there are sometimes events so signposted as to be frustrating, but it's a good read. Another one to go in the recommended pile for my students, I think. If you haven't guessed, this one is about horses and features a trip to Kentucky, just in time for their Derby. There is crookedness galore!
O.
Saturday, 2 September 2017
That Poor Manfish
All is well with the world. A daft episode of 'Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea' is running, it's not long until bedtime, and everything intended for the day has been done. There have even been a couple of games of 'Magic Maze', and 'To Say Nothing Of The Dog' awaits for some relaxing pre-sleep reading. What a grand thing to anticipate. How nice it will be to get back to Cyril, Ned, Verity and Terence, as incongruities threaten the space-time continuum during a leisure trip down the Thames. Is it still possible to boat down the Thames? That would be a nice trip to make.
September is here, and the Grand Wheel of the Seasons is turning once again. Autumn is upon us, and blackberries are spotting hedges everywhere we look. If it weren't for the boxes of berries from last year sitting in the freezer, it would be time to go out and risk all the brambles in fetching a new bounty of free fruit. Oh, such memories of rips, abrasions and stings are etched in the memory, ready to dispel any sudden ambitions at foraging and questing! The obsession will not return; that irrational urge to gather, gather, and gather even more. It will... be... resisted...
Life continues, even as the Seaview is manhandled by a giant Manfish, and these words spill out semi-randomly. It's nice to be relaxed. It makes the homework writing more creative, and eases the stresses of every day existence. Oh, the poor Manfish, does it deserve such punishment? I know those submarines look pretty tasty, but surely it could control itself somehow? Right? Blast, it took a missile. Curse you, puny humans!
Yes, Autumn is upon us, the bookcase project is running out of time, the next academic year is about to pounce, and all kinds of things are lurking in the calendars of the crazy people of the world. Will it be good? Will it be silly? Will certain people get toppled from their positions of power? Will yoghurt be found on Venus? None of these questions will be answered here on the Quirky Muffin!
O.
September is here, and the Grand Wheel of the Seasons is turning once again. Autumn is upon us, and blackberries are spotting hedges everywhere we look. If it weren't for the boxes of berries from last year sitting in the freezer, it would be time to go out and risk all the brambles in fetching a new bounty of free fruit. Oh, such memories of rips, abrasions and stings are etched in the memory, ready to dispel any sudden ambitions at foraging and questing! The obsession will not return; that irrational urge to gather, gather, and gather even more. It will... be... resisted...
Life continues, even as the Seaview is manhandled by a giant Manfish, and these words spill out semi-randomly. It's nice to be relaxed. It makes the homework writing more creative, and eases the stresses of every day existence. Oh, the poor Manfish, does it deserve such punishment? I know those submarines look pretty tasty, but surely it could control itself somehow? Right? Blast, it took a missile. Curse you, puny humans!
Yes, Autumn is upon us, the bookcase project is running out of time, the next academic year is about to pounce, and all kinds of things are lurking in the calendars of the crazy people of the world. Will it be good? Will it be silly? Will certain people get toppled from their positions of power? Will yoghurt be found on Venus? None of these questions will be answered here on the Quirky Muffin!
O.
Thursday, 31 August 2017
Film: 'Ruggles Of Red Gap' (1935)
It's a beautiful little movie, effortlessly funny and wonderfully made. Directed by Leo McCarey, and starring the great Charles Laughton as well as the unfairly forgotten Charlie Ruggles and Mary Boland, this is one of the great comedies. Sadly, though, it is also almost completely forgotten. Had you ever heard of 'Ruggles Of Red Gap' before looking at the title of this post?
This may require some thought before we continue. Perhaps we should talk about the story, then Laughton, then Ruggles the actor, and finally toss in a few words for McCarey and the mumbling Roland Young?
The story is exceedingly simple. A bumbling Earl (Roland Young) loses his extremely repressed butler Ruggles (Charles Laughton) to a Washington state couple (Ruggles and Boland) in a poker game, and the nervous servant slowly becomes liberated as he is assimilated into the American society around the turn into the nineteenth century. Everything else in the movie is a natural consequence of the character interactions between butler Ruggles and actor Ruggles, as the latter slowly releases the former from his traditional bonds, while Boland tries her best to keep those bonds in place!
The core of the movie is Laughton's wonderfully buttoned-down performance as the valet, and in the brief glimpses of a brilliant interior life that he seeds increasingly as the movie goes on. The man was truly a master, pulling off comedy here as well as he did drama in other famous instances. There is one marvelous drunken scene with actor Ruggles that works so well that it could almost have been a movie by itself. There are a couple of problems near the beginning of the movie, when the possibility of interminable sedateness becomes a fear, but it soons works itself out, as Laughton and actor Ruggles settle into their back and forth. Ah, Charlie Ruggles. a great comedic talent. You may have also seen him in 'Trouble in Paradise' or 'Bringing Up Baby', although I didn't realise it at the time and have no idea if he was any good.
One of the most famous aspects of the movie, apart from the marvelous checked suits of actor Ruggles and the wonderful interludes between Laughton and ZaSu Pitts, is the scene where a whole saloon fails to remember the contents of the Gettysburg Address, before being stunned by Laughton's quiet recital of the famous words. It's truly the turning point of the movie, and shows off Laughton's oratorical ability. Coupled with the closing moments, and the secondary conversion of the Earl when he visits the titular town of Red Gap, it makes for a great arc to the whole piece. Leo McCarey judges the tone precisely, possibly borrowing from the original play where necessary, and Roland Young takes mild-mannered to a whole new level as the Earl, before revealing some hidden depths of his own.
A grand old classic comedy. Well done, Leo McCarey.
O.
This may require some thought before we continue. Perhaps we should talk about the story, then Laughton, then Ruggles the actor, and finally toss in a few words for McCarey and the mumbling Roland Young?
The story is exceedingly simple. A bumbling Earl (Roland Young) loses his extremely repressed butler Ruggles (Charles Laughton) to a Washington state couple (Ruggles and Boland) in a poker game, and the nervous servant slowly becomes liberated as he is assimilated into the American society around the turn into the nineteenth century. Everything else in the movie is a natural consequence of the character interactions between butler Ruggles and actor Ruggles, as the latter slowly releases the former from his traditional bonds, while Boland tries her best to keep those bonds in place!
The core of the movie is Laughton's wonderfully buttoned-down performance as the valet, and in the brief glimpses of a brilliant interior life that he seeds increasingly as the movie goes on. The man was truly a master, pulling off comedy here as well as he did drama in other famous instances. There is one marvelous drunken scene with actor Ruggles that works so well that it could almost have been a movie by itself. There are a couple of problems near the beginning of the movie, when the possibility of interminable sedateness becomes a fear, but it soons works itself out, as Laughton and actor Ruggles settle into their back and forth. Ah, Charlie Ruggles. a great comedic talent. You may have also seen him in 'Trouble in Paradise' or 'Bringing Up Baby', although I didn't realise it at the time and have no idea if he was any good.
One of the most famous aspects of the movie, apart from the marvelous checked suits of actor Ruggles and the wonderful interludes between Laughton and ZaSu Pitts, is the scene where a whole saloon fails to remember the contents of the Gettysburg Address, before being stunned by Laughton's quiet recital of the famous words. It's truly the turning point of the movie, and shows off Laughton's oratorical ability. Coupled with the closing moments, and the secondary conversion of the Earl when he visits the titular town of Red Gap, it makes for a great arc to the whole piece. Leo McCarey judges the tone precisely, possibly borrowing from the original play where necessary, and Roland Young takes mild-mannered to a whole new level as the Earl, before revealing some hidden depths of his own.
A grand old classic comedy. Well done, Leo McCarey.
O.
Wednesday, 30 August 2017
Misadventures
Well, that's another trip done and dusted, with far too much coach travel. Almost three whole novels got read, which was an amazing feat, but almost nothing else could be done over a cumulative twenty hours on the road, including delays and some chaos. At least they were good books: 'Kentucky Thriller', 'Three Hearts and Three Lions' and 'God Save The Mark'. 'Three Hearts And Three Lions' is especially fascinating, but we'll get to that eventually. It was a nice trip, which included an excursion to Liverpool. In impersonal events, there was a good game of 'Mystery Of The Abbey', which is a more fascinating game than I suspected, and one which reopens a very odd quandary. You see, this deduction game had a misprint in its last edition which I enjoy playing with rather more than I suspect would be true with the unbotched rules. What to do? It's one of the odder first world problems you can bump up against, isn't it? Oh, let's just stick with the wrong rules and see what happens...
It's a wacky world, but sometimes it gets all kinds of wackier. Today, for example, in a burst of courageous idiocy, saw the first end of holidays board game extravaganza for my students, which was quite the rowdy affair and reminded quite forcibly of just why I'm ever so pleased to not be trapped in a classroom. There's no escape! Aaack! And there's no way to keep anything on the tracks. All you can do is hold your nerve, ride the bucking bronco of fate, and try to keep some plan up your sleeve to finish the time. Usually, said plan is Pictionary, but you never know when it might be something else. Sigh. I really thought 'Jamaica' would work out brilliantly. There's no justice.
Thankfully, with that trip and the party done, all the grand enjoyable disruptions are now over, and it is time to get back to simply living life for a few days. The value of that simple thing is not to be underestimated, even when you still have a grand woodworking project and the looming start of the second year of Open University studies on the horizon. Oh, what fun it will be to only be juggling two over-projects! What happy times! 'Wordspace' may even finish! Wowsers! We can only hope!
More will follow in the coming days, as the relief fully settles in. Cowabunga, dudes!
O.
It's a wacky world, but sometimes it gets all kinds of wackier. Today, for example, in a burst of courageous idiocy, saw the first end of holidays board game extravaganza for my students, which was quite the rowdy affair and reminded quite forcibly of just why I'm ever so pleased to not be trapped in a classroom. There's no escape! Aaack! And there's no way to keep anything on the tracks. All you can do is hold your nerve, ride the bucking bronco of fate, and try to keep some plan up your sleeve to finish the time. Usually, said plan is Pictionary, but you never know when it might be something else. Sigh. I really thought 'Jamaica' would work out brilliantly. There's no justice.
Thankfully, with that trip and the party done, all the grand enjoyable disruptions are now over, and it is time to get back to simply living life for a few days. The value of that simple thing is not to be underestimated, even when you still have a grand woodworking project and the looming start of the second year of Open University studies on the horizon. Oh, what fun it will be to only be juggling two over-projects! What happy times! 'Wordspace' may even finish! Wowsers! We can only hope!
More will follow in the coming days, as the relief fully settles in. Cowabunga, dudes!
O.
Monday, 28 August 2017
Television: 'Supergirl' (2015-2016)
(Pre-written cover for travelling)
After a fairly stinky season finale, it's time to talk about the season as a whole. For our purposes, this is a wrap for 'Supergirl', and we have to ask the question, 'Was it any good?'
It was both very good and bad. The writing was sometimes excellent, and sometimes very lazy and dumb. For every inventive and authentic use of Supergirl's powers, we also had a opposingly stupid brawl or angrily dumb heat vision staring duel. There was much heart and warmth, but it was sometimes ruined by spells of cynicism and tediousness when dealing with the arching thread of the escaped criminals from the crashed space prison Fort Roz. Most of the casting was great, except for the small portion which was plain bad. When every supporting character is absurdly beautiful, it's easy to switch off for a few minutes.
However, on the whole, it can be described as good. There are some nice moments wedged into the rickety composite framework of the show, and it was lovely to see the Martian Manhunter become part of the series, vastly improving David Harewood's role in the process. It was great to see Super-mythology being tapped into, and to have lovely touches like the Key to the Fortress of Solitude and Kelex, the presence of ex-Daily Planet staffers Cat Grant (the brilliant Calista Flockhart) and James 'Jimmy' Olsen, and some casting tie-ins with practically every available person who has been in a Super-show in the past. It would have been nice to not have recycled so many of the standard superhero series episode plots, but that's to be expected. Probably. Maybe. I don't know.
The stand-out episodes are 'How Does She Do It?', 'Human For A Day', 'Solitude' and then one of 'Manhunter' or 'Worlds' Finest'. When it works, it does so thanks to a great cast and a deep reliance on Melissa Benoist as the titular character Kara Danvers. When the show doesn't work, it's usually connected to the structural flaw that is having her work with the DEO, a para-military organisation that is essentially everything the Super-characters would hate, and an accompanying avoidance of the character of Kara/Supergirl. That deeply divisive flaw at the centre of the series is what stopped it being great. It's also why season two doesn't sound appealing at all, sadly, as all the character relationships are apparently trashed and Kara moved away from the centre of the show? Oh, CBS, why couldn't you just keep the series? Why?
Good character relationships, good acting, decent writing, some good to great directing. It was a solid show. It will never leave the DVD collection. Golly, if only they had tried harder and not been so lazy when it came to villains and nefarious deeds. Is it a good plan to just have your heroes turn up and wait stupidly and brainlessly to be engaged in a fight? I despair. Moving on, they actually dealt with the absence of Superman pretty well for the whole season. It was a good idea to not have him there, but be more of a legend, and an occasional chat partner with Kara.
Overall, Kara Danvers is there for the win. Melissa Benoist was wonderful. Not many people can pull off a cape and humanity at the same time. Mehcad Brooks and Jeremy Jordan get mentions for being lovely too, and it was nice to see Dean Cain again occasionally. Ah...
O.
After a fairly stinky season finale, it's time to talk about the season as a whole. For our purposes, this is a wrap for 'Supergirl', and we have to ask the question, 'Was it any good?'
It was both very good and bad. The writing was sometimes excellent, and sometimes very lazy and dumb. For every inventive and authentic use of Supergirl's powers, we also had a opposingly stupid brawl or angrily dumb heat vision staring duel. There was much heart and warmth, but it was sometimes ruined by spells of cynicism and tediousness when dealing with the arching thread of the escaped criminals from the crashed space prison Fort Roz. Most of the casting was great, except for the small portion which was plain bad. When every supporting character is absurdly beautiful, it's easy to switch off for a few minutes.
However, on the whole, it can be described as good. There are some nice moments wedged into the rickety composite framework of the show, and it was lovely to see the Martian Manhunter become part of the series, vastly improving David Harewood's role in the process. It was great to see Super-mythology being tapped into, and to have lovely touches like the Key to the Fortress of Solitude and Kelex, the presence of ex-Daily Planet staffers Cat Grant (the brilliant Calista Flockhart) and James 'Jimmy' Olsen, and some casting tie-ins with practically every available person who has been in a Super-show in the past. It would have been nice to not have recycled so many of the standard superhero series episode plots, but that's to be expected. Probably. Maybe. I don't know.
The stand-out episodes are 'How Does She Do It?', 'Human For A Day', 'Solitude' and then one of 'Manhunter' or 'Worlds' Finest'. When it works, it does so thanks to a great cast and a deep reliance on Melissa Benoist as the titular character Kara Danvers. When the show doesn't work, it's usually connected to the structural flaw that is having her work with the DEO, a para-military organisation that is essentially everything the Super-characters would hate, and an accompanying avoidance of the character of Kara/Supergirl. That deeply divisive flaw at the centre of the series is what stopped it being great. It's also why season two doesn't sound appealing at all, sadly, as all the character relationships are apparently trashed and Kara moved away from the centre of the show? Oh, CBS, why couldn't you just keep the series? Why?
Good character relationships, good acting, decent writing, some good to great directing. It was a solid show. It will never leave the DVD collection. Golly, if only they had tried harder and not been so lazy when it came to villains and nefarious deeds. Is it a good plan to just have your heroes turn up and wait stupidly and brainlessly to be engaged in a fight? I despair. Moving on, they actually dealt with the absence of Superman pretty well for the whole season. It was a good idea to not have him there, but be more of a legend, and an occasional chat partner with Kara.
Overall, Kara Danvers is there for the win. Melissa Benoist was wonderful. Not many people can pull off a cape and humanity at the same time. Mehcad Brooks and Jeremy Jordan get mentions for being lovely too, and it was nice to see Dean Cain again occasionally. Ah...
O.
Sunday, 27 August 2017
Book: 'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency' by Douglas Adams (1987)
(Pre-written to cover a trip.)
JS Bach. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The mathematics of music and movement. Ghosts. Time travel. Conjuring tricks. Ancient aliens. More. Much more. Electric Monks? Good grief. That's not even a comprehensive list of what goes on inside this novel. There hasn't even been a mention of the sofa paradox!
Reading 'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency' (DGHDA) was one of the formative experiences of my life. Even now, many years later, this novel is still adored. It is one of the two best Adams novels, the other one being 'So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish', and is very difficult to describe. It's easier to describe it via questions, in fact. Why is technology guru and compulsive babbler Gordon Way shot to death by an Electric Monk that hitched a ride in a passing time machine to Earth? Why did the erratic Professor Chronitis feel the strange urge to make that trip in the first place? Why won't Gordon pass on, or why does he remain as a ghost? What does his employee, ace programmer Richard MacDuff, have to do with it, and why has he too been doing strange things? Does it all connect via Dirk Gently, the self-styled holistic detective? What exactly is a holistic detective anyway? Why are his professional expenses so eclectic? There are more questions than distinct answers, and it's goofy and rather intelligent in alternating fashions.
DGHDA is quietly awesome and unheralded. Yes, some people won't understand what on Earth is going on (and what NOT on Earth, too), and the short chapters which switch around so frequently might be disorienting, but to me it was and is excellent and brilliant. No-one else could have written it. It's a shame that the sequel, 'The Long Dark Tea-Time Of The Soul', was so gloomy and laden with the doom of that last portion of Adams' life, as it could have been even better. DGHDA has jokes where you don't expect jokes, music where you don't expect music, and references to mathematics when no-one ever expects mathematics to be mentioned at all! Oh, it's wonderful. It's marvellous. How could so many disparate elements be incorporated into one novel? How?
This is about as close to fanatical raving as we get here in the Quirky Muffin. The novel is not without flaws, although I couldn't point any out in particular at the moment. Some people complain that the titular character doesn't appear for an extremely long time, but that's just how the story unravels. There could be complaints about all the references to 'Kublai Khan', Coleridge, and JS Bach, but those are easily remedied. You just have to look up the names, after all. No, I can't seriously think of anything wrong, apart from an entirely subjective and personal quibble over some unnecessary swearing. Maybe, just maybe, the final denouement is a little sudden and unexplained, but it works.
'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency' does a set of things that practically no other book does. For that, it is to be commended. It's also very funny, very original, and explains the word 'holistic'. Read it, enjoy it, but don't accept any expense claims for obscure leisure trips to Bermuda.
O.
PS No, I'm not going to clarify the sofa paradox. You will just to have to find out the hard way.
JS Bach. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The mathematics of music and movement. Ghosts. Time travel. Conjuring tricks. Ancient aliens. More. Much more. Electric Monks? Good grief. That's not even a comprehensive list of what goes on inside this novel. There hasn't even been a mention of the sofa paradox!
Reading 'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency' (DGHDA) was one of the formative experiences of my life. Even now, many years later, this novel is still adored. It is one of the two best Adams novels, the other one being 'So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish', and is very difficult to describe. It's easier to describe it via questions, in fact. Why is technology guru and compulsive babbler Gordon Way shot to death by an Electric Monk that hitched a ride in a passing time machine to Earth? Why did the erratic Professor Chronitis feel the strange urge to make that trip in the first place? Why won't Gordon pass on, or why does he remain as a ghost? What does his employee, ace programmer Richard MacDuff, have to do with it, and why has he too been doing strange things? Does it all connect via Dirk Gently, the self-styled holistic detective? What exactly is a holistic detective anyway? Why are his professional expenses so eclectic? There are more questions than distinct answers, and it's goofy and rather intelligent in alternating fashions.
DGHDA is quietly awesome and unheralded. Yes, some people won't understand what on Earth is going on (and what NOT on Earth, too), and the short chapters which switch around so frequently might be disorienting, but to me it was and is excellent and brilliant. No-one else could have written it. It's a shame that the sequel, 'The Long Dark Tea-Time Of The Soul', was so gloomy and laden with the doom of that last portion of Adams' life, as it could have been even better. DGHDA has jokes where you don't expect jokes, music where you don't expect music, and references to mathematics when no-one ever expects mathematics to be mentioned at all! Oh, it's wonderful. It's marvellous. How could so many disparate elements be incorporated into one novel? How?
This is about as close to fanatical raving as we get here in the Quirky Muffin. The novel is not without flaws, although I couldn't point any out in particular at the moment. Some people complain that the titular character doesn't appear for an extremely long time, but that's just how the story unravels. There could be complaints about all the references to 'Kublai Khan', Coleridge, and JS Bach, but those are easily remedied. You just have to look up the names, after all. No, I can't seriously think of anything wrong, apart from an entirely subjective and personal quibble over some unnecessary swearing. Maybe, just maybe, the final denouement is a little sudden and unexplained, but it works.
'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency' does a set of things that practically no other book does. For that, it is to be commended. It's also very funny, very original, and explains the word 'holistic'. Read it, enjoy it, but don't accept any expense claims for obscure leisure trips to Bermuda.
O.
PS No, I'm not going to clarify the sofa paradox. You will just to have to find out the hard way.
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