Monday, January 27, 2014

HHHH Induction Douglas Adams

So what is HHHH you ask? It is the Headley Hauser Hall of Honor (honor is pronounced HAWNor to make it sound cool.) At the risk of stepping on the toes of my sensei, Robin Chalkley and his master blog - , I decided that – even from my perspective – there are great things in America (and those other countries out there.) There are certain people I admire – who have helped change me from a quiet disgusting low-life to a loud obnoxious disgusting low-life. These few – these happy few have set a pattern of excellence in their creative endeavors that I daily try to emulate, and hence soil their reputations.
And so, for the first inductee in the HHHH – I give you (though he’s not really mine to give anyone – especially considering his current circumstances,)
Douglas Adams
Douglas Adams could rightly be listed among our greatest living writers if not for two glaring omissions – one he’s not living, and two he wasn't really that hot when you think about it.
But he was damned funny (and I don’t mean that in an eternal judgement type of way.)

When Adams was in High School he had ambitions to be John Cleese. After all, he was tall enough and thought he was clever. Indeed, many of his schoolmates commented on how tall he was. During his early radio career he managed to meet John Cleese who informed him that the position was taken. Adams was crestfallen, but these radio shows led to his five volume Hitchhiker’s Guide trilogy for which he is best known – so it wasn’t a total loss.

He also wrote other piddling stuff like the two Dirk Gently novels and (together with John Lloyd – whoever that is,) the two Meaning of Liff books which are hardly worth your time to consider.


If he were alive today, Adams might claim that these non-Hitchhiker works are under-rated.
Just as well he’s not around.
Adams died in 2001 at an age seven years younger than I am today, which puts him in the ever-increasing class of people that make me feel inferior. Such feeling aside, I have repeatedly felt free to steal the forms of shtick and humor he pioneered, which will become increasing evident if Go Figure Reads gets around to producing the Genre manuscripts I've given them.
And so, for being a comic genius incapable (due to the death thing,) of complaining when I rip him off, Douglas Adams is the inaugural member of the dead guys wing of the Headley Hauser Hall of Honor.
Selected Quotations

In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.”

He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped there wasn't an afterlife.”

He attacked everything in life with a mix of extraordinary genius and naïve incompetence, and it was often difficult to tell which was which.”


Humans are not proud of their ancestors and rarely invite them round to dinner.”

Here's a vid someone posted this week Douglas would have liked (at least he hasn't said he didn't.)

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