its a 98. or. is it in fact a very obvious 42

well its 10 years to the day that douglas adams died. He is one of my hero's and the hitch hiker books remain my favourite books. i've read them close to ten times and know them pretty much back to front. i've read everything he ever published and the 3 biographies of him and his works. i could talk for pages and pages about how important his work has been, personaly and on a somewhat larger scale. his life is absolutely fascinating and speaks to myself and countless others i'm sure. for one reason which is that he never wanted to be a writer, and infact didn't enjoy the process much of the time. he wanted to perform to begin with and to make films, he kindof...just ended up as a writer. like he was cornered and coudnt go anywhere else. that certainly isn't to detract from his achievments which were considerable and i don't mean to say that he failed himself. that isn't how he felt about it, he was extremely happy about many of his creations.

anyway, to celebrate his memory and life i read a the first few chapters from life, the univers, and everything. these are some of my absolute favourite hitch hikers moments. simply because of the way arthur and fords relationship is portrayed, i think it is a very good definition for how there relationship works all through the books, here it is fully typed by hand-

‘I may,’ he added with a grin which would have sent sane men scampering into trees, ‘have been imagining it.’ He waited for a reaction from Arthur, but Arthur knew better than that.
‘Carry on,’ he said evenly.
‘The point is, you see,’ said Ford,’ that there is no point driving yourself mad trying to stop yourself going mad. You might just as well give in and save your sanity for later.’
‘And this is you sane again, is it?’ said Arthur. ‘I ask merely for information.’
‘I went to Africa,’ said Ford.
‘Yes?’
‘Yes.’
‘What was that like?’
‘And this is your cave is it?’ said Ford.
‘Er, yes,’ said Arthur. He felf very strange. After nearly four years of isolation he was so relieved to see Ford that he could almost cry. Ford was, on the other hand, an almost immediately annoying person.
‘Very nice,’ said Ford, in reference to Arthur’s cave. ‘You must hate it.’

as much as arthur is relieved to see foord, he is an almost immediatley annoying person ha ha ha. the next bit where they shake hands is just really really touching and sweet and then they chase a chesterfield sofa across the field. arthur giving a whoop of joy. the way douglas describes this scene is excellent as in 'don't panic' by neil gaiman. douglas talks about the process of getting them from prehistoric england to modern day earth (which was obviously destroyed very early on) in such a way that you sort of don't question it. it happens gradualy, and gets weirder as igoes along so that it seems perfectly reasonable and satisfactory.
he was such a fucking awesome and fantasticaly clever man, i feel privaleged to have books like his that i can read and re-read at my leisure.





towel day is on the 25th of may, so you strags best all know where they are.


blogs, don't to me about blogs, i hate them.



many thanks douglas,

love elrossiter x