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Forum:Inclusion debate: The works of Douglas Adams (edit)
Revision as of 16:30, 15 April 2024
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{{quote|"Ever since I retired."<br>"Retired from what?"<br>"Search me. Must have been something pretty good, though, what do you think?"<br>"You mean you've been in this same set of rooms here for… two hundred years?" murmured Richard. "You'd think someone would notice, or think it was odd."<br>"Oh, that's one of the delights of the older Cambridge colleges," said Reg, "everyone is so discreet. If we all went around mentioning what was odd about each other we'd be here till Christmas.|Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency}} | {{quote|"Ever since I retired."<br>"Retired from what?"<br>"Search me. Must have been something pretty good, though, what do you think?"<br>"You mean you've been in this same set of rooms here for… two hundred years?" murmured Richard. "You'd think someone would notice, or think it was odd."<br>"Oh, that's one of the delights of the older Cambridge colleges," said Reg, "everyone is so discreet. If we all went around mentioning what was odd about each other we'd be here till Christmas.|Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency}} | ||
:: Consider also the matter of the sofa. As Adams scripted it, over the course of the events of ''Shada'', a sofa is dematerialised, sent hurtling out of time and space. As attested by the additional notes made by the shooting script, the filmed version (and consequently the adaptation) this was tragically turned into a sofa, but Adams wouldn't have known this; what ''he'' scripted was pointedly a sofa. | :: Consider also the matter of the sofa. As Adams scripted it, over the course of the events of ''Shada'', a sofa is dematerialised, sent hurtling out of time and space. As attested by the additional notes made by the shooting script, in the filmed version (and consequently the adaptation) this was tragically turned into a sofa, but Adams wouldn't have known this; what ''he'' scripted was pointedly a sofa. | ||
<gallery> | <gallery> | ||
Sofa Shada shooting script.png|The relevant part of the shooting script of ''Shada''. | Sofa Shada shooting script.png|The relevant part of the shooting script of ''Shada'', still retaining a mention of the "sofa" alongside addenda discussing the "tea tray". | ||
</gallery> | </gallery> | ||
:: What seems to very much be that very sofa turns up in [[1982 (releases)|1982]] in ''Life, the Universe, and Everything'': | :: What seems to very much be that very sofa turns up in [[1982 (releases)|1982]] in ''Life, the Universe, and Everything'': | ||
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:: After spending some time in Arthur and Ford's company, this sofa eventually vanishes again… | :: After spending some time in Arthur and Ford's company, this sofa eventually vanishes again… | ||
:: …and what should turn up in ''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'' ([[1987 (releases)|1987]]), the original novel, having materialised at a very inconvenient angle in a place where no deliveryman could possibly have physically put | :: …and what should turn up in ''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'' ([[1987 (releases)|1987]]), the original novel, having materialised at a very inconvenient angle in a place where no deliveryman could possibly have physically put it… but a sofa. (This is not mentioned in the quote below, but there is another scene in the novel which specifically describes it as a ''Chesterfield'' sofa: a dead ringer for the one in ''Life, the Universe…'' whose origins were pointedly elided.) | ||
{{quote|"Has it been stuck there for long?"<br />"Oh, only about three weeks," said Richard, sitting down. "I could just saw it up and throw it away, but I can't believe that there isn't a logical answer. And it also made me think - it would be really useful to know before you buy a piece of furniture whether it's actually going to ht up the stairs or around the corner. So I've modelled the problem in three dimensions on my computer - and so far it just says no way."<br />"It says what?" called Reg, over the noise of filling the kettle.<br />"That it can't be done. I told it to compute the moves necessary to get the sofa out, and it said there aren't any. I said `What?' and it said there aren't any. I then asked it, and this is the really mysterious thing, to compute the moves necessary to get the sofa into its present position in the first place, and it said that it couldn't have got there. Not without fundamental restructuring of the walls. So, either there's something wrong with the fundamental structure of the matter in my walls or," he added with a sigh, "there's something wrong with the program. Which would you guess?"|''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency''}} | {{quote|"Has it been stuck there for long?"<br />"Oh, only about three weeks," said Richard, sitting down. "I could just saw it up and throw it away, but I can't believe that there isn't a logical answer. And it also made me think - it would be really useful to know before you buy a piece of furniture whether it's actually going to ht up the stairs or around the corner. So I've modelled the problem in three dimensions on my computer - and so far it just says no way."<br />"It says what?" called Reg, over the noise of filling the kettle.<br />"That it can't be done. I told it to compute the moves necessary to get the sofa out, and it said there aren't any. I said `What?' and it said there aren't any. I then asked it, and this is the really mysterious thing, to compute the moves necessary to get the sofa into its present position in the first place, and it said that it couldn't have got there. Not without fundamental restructuring of the walls. So, either there's something wrong with the fundamental structure of the matter in my walls or," he added with a sigh, "there's something wrong with the program. Which would you guess?"|''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency''}} | ||