Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
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| Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency | |
 Front cover from the first UK hardcover edition |
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| Author | Douglas Adams |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Dirk Gently |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | UK: William Heinemann Ltd., US: Pocket Books |
| Publication date | 1987 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback and Hardcover), Audiobook (cassette and compact disc) |
| Pages | 306 pp (paperback edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-671-69267-4 |
| Followed by | The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul |
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is a novel by Douglas Adams. It is described on its cover as a "thumping good detective-ghost-horror-whodunnit-time-travel-romantic-musical-comedy-epic". Like many of Adams' stories, its plot defies easy encapsulation.
The book was followed by a sequel, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, although the only recurring major characters are Gently himself, Janice Pearce and Sergeant Gilks. Adams began writing The Salmon of Doubt with the intention of it being the third book in the series.
A BBC Radio adaptation starring Harry Enfield was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesdays from 18.30 to 19.00, starting 3 October 2007 and finishing 7 November 2007. A second series is scheduled to start broadcasting on 26 June 2008.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
Dirk Gently's plot is highly non-linear due to the use of time travel and other story elements, and is related here for continuity.
Four billion years ago, nine multi-tentacled creatures called Salaxalans, discontent with their own world, leave and attempt to populate Earth. They leave their mothership in orbit, but, due to the laziness of the engineer and faulty advice from their automaton Electric Monk, the lander crashes and explodes on Earth, triggering a spark that creates amino acids and the start of life on earth. The Salaxalan engineer, having failed to complete a task in his life, is forced to wander the Earth as a ghost, watching the human race develop. In the early 1800s, the ghost learns of a time machine owned by Professor Reg Chronotis at St Cedd's, though is unable to use it. The ghost finds he is able to influence humans, and is able to possess Samuel Taylor Coleridge, having him write a second verse to his "Kubla Khan" poem that includes instructions of how to fix the damaged lander, as well as additional references in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner". The ghost then continues to find ways to influence Reg as to use the time machine to correct the past, unsuccessfully.
In the present, the Salaxalan ghost manages to weakly influence Reg to use the time machine, disguised as his chambers at the St. Cedd's, to travel to a distant planet, taking possession of a faulty Electric Monk wandering it. However, the ghost finds the Monk unreliable, leaving it to wander on Earth, and through a series of additional influences, finds itself able to possess that of Michael Wenton-Weakes, a writer recently fired from his magazine job. The ghost urges Michael to kill his ex-boss, Albert Ross, and then has him read Coleridge's works, preparing him to confront Reg to use the time machine in order to prevent the lander explosion in the past.
Meanwhile, the Electric Monk, acting blindly on orders, shoots and kills Gordon Way, president of Way Forward Technologies II, during a call to his sister Susan's answering machine. Gordon's ghost, having not yet finished his phone call, manages to witness Ross' murder, and manages to relay this information to Susan over the phone before fading away. Richard MacDuff, an employee of Gordon's working on a program to convert data into music, currently dating Susan, and a friend of Reg's, finds himself as a possible suspect in Gordon's death, and attempts to remove evidence from Susan's machine that would implicate him. Dirk Gently, Richard's friend and sole detective in his "Holistic Detective Agency", catches Richard in the act, and persuades him to tell him what happened. After hearing the events from Richard and consulting with a child, Dirk works out that Richard's, among others, actions have been under the influence of a ghost, and that the only way events could occur would be through the use of a time machine. Reg admits to the time machine to the two, but they are confronted by Michael, still possessed by the Salaxalan ghost. Michael convinces Reg to use the time machine to go back to just before the lander exploded in order to fix it. As the three see the possessed Michael off, Richard learns from Susan about Michael's murder of Ross, and the three realize that if the possessed Michael were to succeed, life on earth would not exist. Using Reg's time machine, they travel to Coleridge and alter the writings of "Kubla Khan" and "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" as to prevent Michael from having the proper instructions to stop the lander's explosion, and further destroy the mothership.
Dirk, Richard, and Reg return to the present to find that, although subtle changes have occurred, life is as they expect, though Reg's time machine no longer works. Dirk, satisfied that one of his previous cases no longer needs to be solved due to these alterations in the time line, writes off the case of saving humankind at "no charge".
[edit] Characters in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
- Dirk Gently (also known by a number of other names, including Svlad Cjelli), the perpetually broke operator of the eponymous detective agency that operates based on the "fundamental interconnectedness of all things." He specializes in missing cats and messy divorces. At university, Dirk, seemingly deliberately, created rumours about having clairvoyant abilities by vigorously denying that he had any. He concocted a "get-rich scheme" offering a university exam preparation service and was eventually sent to prison when, by sheer coincidence, he accurately duplicated the exam papers for that year without having seen them before.
- Richard MacDuff, a young software engineer working for WayForward Technologies II, owned by Gordon Way. His Anthem software, which is designed as a spreadsheet, but also has a unique feature to convert corporate accounts into music, was extremely popular, but he is falling behind in his deadlines to create an updated version.
- Reg (Professor Urban Chronotis, the Regius Professor of Chronology), Richard's old college tutor, a fellow of St. Cedd's College, Cambridge with no apparent duties, who is "on the older side of completely indeterminate". He has a predisposition for childish conjuring tricks and an extremely bad memory.
- Gordon Way, the owner of WayForward, who is pressuring Richard to complete his behind-schedule software project, and ends up getting shot for no immediately obvious reason a few chapters into the book.
- Susan Way, sister of Gordon Way and professional cellist, and the "specific girl that Richard is not married to".
- A malfunctioning Electric Monk from a planet very far from the Earth. "The Electric Monk was a labour-saving device, like a dishwasher or a video recorder. [...] Electric Monks believed things for you, thus saving you from what was becoming an increasingly onerous task." The Monk in the book was discarded by its owners due to a series of malfunctions that cause it to believe "all kinds of things, more or less at random", including things like the world being pink and God wanting a lot of money sent to a certain address.
- Michael Wenton-Weakes, the spoiled son of wealthy parents, known pejoratively as "Michael Wednesday-Week," which is when he promises to have the next issue of his poorly managed magazine Fathom ready. His mother sold Fathom to Gordon Way after his father's accidental death when the latter was changing an electric plug. While Michael seems largely apathetic and yielding to others, the loss of Fathom bothers him much more deeply than anyone realises.
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, writer and laudanum user. For the sake of the novel, he is made to have attended St. Cedd's College. His poems Kubla Khan and Rime of the Ancient Mariner figure prominently in the plot, but their significance is not explained entirely until the book's end.
[edit] Major themes
The central motif of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is the fundamental interconnectedness of everything. Many details may appear superfluous, but turn out to be integral to the plot. Chaos theory, in its accessible form popularized by writers such as James Gleick, is therefore an appropriate context for this novel. The novel's title mentions the idea of holism. There are quantum mechanics references as well; phenomena of non-locality, as in the EPR paradox, make appearances.
[edit] Literary significance and reception
In 1990 the Magill Book Reviews said "The author's whimsical sense of humor and his sense that the universe has many unexplored possibilities will arouse the interest of a wide readership."[1]
[edit] Allusions and references
[edit] Allusions to other works
The life and works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge play a central role in the story, particularly The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan. The novel cannot be fully understood without familiarity with these poems.
The piece of music by Bach that is heard aboard the satellite is "Ach Bleib Bei Uns, Herr Jesu Christ" from the cantata "Bleib Bei Uns, denn es will Abend Werden", BWV 6 (also an organ chorale BWV 649). Adams has stated that this is his personal "absolutely perfect" piece of music, and that he listened to it "over and over; drove my wife completely insane" while writing Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency[2]
[edit] Allusions to Adams's life
In the novel, a sofa is irreversibly stuck on the staircase to Richard's apartment; according to his simulations, not only is it impossible to remove it, but there is no way for it to have got into that position in the first place. This is probably based on an incident that occurred while Douglas Adams attended St John's College of Cambridge University. Furniture was placed in the rooms overlooking the river in Third Court while the staircases were being refurbished. When the staircases were completed, it was discovered that the sofas could no longer be removed from the rooms, and the sofas remained in those rooms for several decades.
The South Bank Show revealed that Adams based Chronotis' rooms on the rooms he occupied in his third year at university. Likewise, Richard's room - filled with Macintosh computers and synthesisers - was based on Adams' own flat (visited and photographed by Hi-Fi Choice Magazine).
The story borrows elements from two Doctor Who serials written by Adams:
- In City of Death an alien (Scaroth the Jagaroth) tries to change history by using time travel to avert a disastrous spaceship launch in the primeval past, at the cost of erasing humanity from existence. The Jagaroth are replaced by the Salaxalans in Dirk Gently. Scaroth is splintered throughout time, whereas the Salaxalan Ghost lives through all the billions of years.
- In Shada, a professor called Chronotis is hundreds of years old. He has been living and working at a Cambridge college for centuries, without anyone noticing. He possesses an eccentric time machine. In Shada, Chronotis's longevity is due to him being a Time Lord, and his time machine is an early model TARDIS. These copyright elements from Doctor Who were removed by Adams for Dirk Gently. Shada, which never aired due to a production strike terminating its filming, was later released on VHS with Tom Baker narrating the unfilmed segments. Shada was completed as a webcast with slight alterations to the script, with Paul McGann as the Doctor and John Leeson as K9. The webcast is available at The Official Doctor Who Website and released on CD by Big Finish productions.
This novel caused Adams to become acquainted with the well-known scientist Richard Dawkins. As Dawkins explains, "As soon as I finished it, I turned back to page one and read it straight through again – the only time I have ever done that, and I wrote to tell him so. He replied that he was a fan of my books, and he invited me to his house in London."[3] Adams would later introduce Dawkins to the woman who was to become his third wife, the actress Lalla Ward, best known for playing the character Romana in Doctor Who. One of her early serials on the programme was City of Death.
[edit] Adaptations
On 5 January 1992, Dirk Gently, Richard MacDuff, Dirk's secretary, and the Electric Monk all appeared in the Douglas Adams episode of the British arts documentary series The South Bank Show.[4] Michael Bywater played Dirk, while Paul Shearer played both Richard and the Monk. Several characters from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy were also featured, played by the original television series actors.
The book has been adapted for stage performance as Dirk.
In 2005, some fans of Douglas Adams decided to produce a fan radio series based on the first book. Their efforts began and were coordinated on the Douglas Adams Continuum website.[5] So far, three episodes have been completed.[6]
A publishing company has been seeking the rights to produce a graphic novel adaptation, though art has been removed for legal reasons.[7]
[edit] BBC Radio adaptation
Announced on 26 January 2007, BBC Radio 4 commissioned Above the Title Productions to make eighteen 30-minute adaptations of Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently books (including The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul and the unfinished The Salmon of Doubt,) running in three series of six episodes.
The first series began on 3 October 2007 and features Harry Enfield as Dirk, Billy Boyd as Richard, Olivia Colman as Janice, Jim Carter as Gilks, Andrew Sachs as Reg, Felicity Montagu as Susan, Robert Duncan as Gordon, Toby Longworth as the Monk, Michael Fenton Stevens as Michael, Andrew Secombe, Jon Glover, Jeffrey Holland, Wayne Forester and Tamsin Heatley.[8][9][10]
The script is by Dirk Maggs, who also directs, and John Langdon. The show is produced by Maggs and Jo Wheeler. As with the previous Hitchhiker's series, the cd version features greatly expanded episodes. The official websites are at bbc.co.uk/radio4/dirkgently and www.abovethetitle.com/hda_home.php.
[edit] Difference between BBC Radio version and the novel
There are a number of structural and detail differences between the radio adaptation and the book, mostly to aid the comprehension of the story when split into six half-hour episodes; this adaptation is a considered step away from the original Shada story structure.
In particular, the main characters have a closer relationship than in the novel. Dirk Gently is being employed by Gordon Way to monitor Richard McDuff's working hours, Michael Wenton-Weeks also went to St Cedd's College with Dirk and Richard. It was Michael (not Al Ross) who printed Richard's musical-fractals article in the magazine, and Michael's mother has just sold the magazine,[11] rather than several months previously. There is a much closer relationship between Janice Pierce and Dirk, as she accompanies Dirk rather than being wholly absent.
There are a number of new details, such as the actual music played by the Anthem II Software[11] playing the UK's Balance of Payments, the dock-leaf soup ("is it fresh?"/"Yes, sir, it says so on the tin"). Some other characters have been expanded, in particular the worker at the motorway service station.
Other structural changes include the use of a public telephone for a conversation between Richard and Susan outside the Greek restaurant (with the addition of a 42 reference), Janice being present at Richard's hypnosis,[12] a much expanded Electric Monk part, and some minor details such as the actual location of the brick Wordsworth was sick on.
The alternate time-line of the whole story is noted by some interesting minor changes, such as the BBC's political editor being Davis Evans (rather than Evan Davis) and Kubla Khan being "the longest poem in English literature"[13] as well as Reg mentioning the coronation of Edward VIII (who was never crowned), and Jeremy Clarkson being the BBC's environment correspondent rather than a motoring journalist.
Dirk is possessed by the Ghost of Gordon Way to discover what happened to Gordon after his death, when he visits the murder scenes (as a "crime tourist") in Oxfordshire with Richard and Janice, which does not happen in the book.
The Radio version makes occasional references to the song "Hot Potato", a plot element from the second Dirk Gently novel The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul, which puts Richard a performer whose work is released as Pugilism and the Third Autistic Cuckoo.
Wenton Weeks murders his mother in the radio version (making, momentarily, a third ghost), not Al Ross who is edited out.[14]. The devotional interview between the Electric Monk and Gilks is not contained in the book,[14], but the encounter on the train to Cambridge between the wedding party and Weeks (mirroring Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner) has been removed[14] (but is reinstated in the extended CD version), as has his fingertapping taxi-ride.[12]
At the end of the radio serial Dirk, Reg and Richard prevent the sofa from being stuck on the stairs, rather than create the situation whereby it gets stuck there - and Reg 'returns' the characters to the day before they left where they stay, rather than travelling to three weeks before and then returning to the actual day they left.
[edit] Audiobook adaptation
Apart from the radio broadcasts, Douglas Adams recorded both unabridged and abridged readings of the first novel for the audiobook market.
[edit] References
- ^ "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" (1990-05-01). Magill Book Reviews. ISSN 08907722.
- ^ Interview with M. Throsby, ABC Classic FM, 1999, 17 May 2001 (repeat)
- ^ Dawkins, Richard (2001-05-14). Lament for Douglas Adams. The Guardian. Retrieved on 2007-06-29.
- ^ Cast list for The South Bank Show episode on IMDb.
- ^ Dirk Gently radio series discussion forum on douglasadams.se
- ^ Dirk Gently radio series download site
- ^ Website of proposed graphic novel (This domain is now parked with the following note: "Notice: This domain name expired on 03/06/07 and is pending renewal or deletion")
- ^ BBC - Press Office - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency opens for business. Retrieved on 2007-08-14.
- ^ Dirk Maggs News and New Projects page
- ^ July 2007 BBC announcement of radio version
- ^ a b BBC Radio 4 - Comedy - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Episodes - Episode 1. Retrieved on 2007-10-19.
- ^ a b BBC Radio 4 - Comedy - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Episodes - Episode 2. Retrieved on 2007-10-19.
- ^ BBC Radio 4 - Comedy - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Production Diary. Retrieved on 2007-10-20.
- ^ a b c BBC Radio 4 - Comedy - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Episodes - Episode 5. Retrieved on 2007-11-04.
[edit] See also
| Series: | Followed by: |
|---|---|
| Dirk Gently series | The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul |
