Dirk Gently's holistische Detektei

An unusual and, at times, confusing book that was still fun. I especially liked Dirk Gently's quirky character. ( )

Read for August 2021 BOTM for Reading 1001 (GR). This is my last Douglas Adams novel from the 1001 Books. It was published in 1987. The best description of the novel is by the author; Douglas Adams of his novel Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency: it is, in his words,"a
kind of ghost-horror-detective-time-travel-romantic-comedy-epic, mainly concerned with mud, music and quantum mechanics."

I think the book appeals to those that like a British humor, science fiction book. The plot has many strings and though everything in the universe is reportedly interconnected it is hard to see how all these tangents are going to come together. The characters are interesting; Dirk Gently is a charlatan who is trying to live off others without doing any real work. Richard seems to be intelligent but mostly not really aware of what he is doing. The most fun characters are the 300 plus y/o Reg who lives in rooms at Cambridge (also doing nothing for his job), Susan Way, the cello playing girlfriend who seems quite accepting and calm considering that her brother dies, her boyfriend forgets about her, and she is the only one really working. Well Richard is kind of working when he is not distracted by his couch stuck in the stairwell. The Electric Monk, the AI,is the culprit of horror and not to forget to mention, the horse who is placid and enduring (not my picture of a horse by the way). ( )

Not half as fun as "Hitchhiker's Guide." ( )

DG saves life as we know it from ghost of creature from the past

Took this re-read as an opportunity to see if Adams had done more with genre tropes than I detected the first time through. I've read appreciably more hardboiled and detective fiction than I had when this was published.

Adams follows a noir plot the way MST3000 dissects a B-movie: commenting on plot and random details alike, at a leisurely and relaxed pace, and seems content to draw amusement from that. Rather than the shamus's patter distracting the reader, Adams uses an avalanche of seemingly unconnected ideas to do the same. Apart from that, I didn't find evidence I'd missed any clever bits.

Some of that avalanche of ideas:
- Central conceit that Gently's private investigations rely upon the fundamental interconnectedness of all things; Gently demonstrates both a sincere adherence to this principle, and an awareness of how it might be exploited for purposes of billing
- Sofa stuck on stair in a mathematically impossible configuration
- Wayforward Technologies & converting data into music (classic dual themes of military adaptation & Japanese corporate interest)
- Electric Monk, alien AI designed to believe (or at least: exhibit behavior of someone who believes); apparently counterpoint to humanity, which rather needs algorithms to bolster thinking
- Gently's clue to his experience possibly being shaped / adjusted by someone using time travel, because he knew something but was unaware of how he came to know it
- An explanation for Coleridge's inability to recall the entirety of the dream inspiring his "Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

I hadn't retained any detail to speak of, neither plot nor set pieces. Enjoyable this time, uncertain whether to keep the books for another read, or purge. Definitely motivated me to re-read the sequel, which I did directly. ( )