Douglas Adams's main experience

Douglas Adams was born in Cambridge, England. He is a British radio drama writer and musician, especially famous for his series "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". This work started as a radio drama, and later developed into a "trilogy" including five books, which was made into a TV series. Adams died and made a movie. Adams called himself an "extreme atheist". Before his death, he was a very popular speaker, especially in science and technology and environmental protection. His early death at the age of 49 caused great mourning in science fiction and fantasy circles.

Chinese name: Douglas Adams.

Mbth: Douglasno Radams

Nationality: UK

Place of birth: Cambridge, England

Date of birth: 1952 March 1 1.

Date of death: 200 1 May 1 1.

Occupation: radio drama writer, musician, writer

Graduate school: St. John's College, Cambridge.

Representative works: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Doctor Who, etc.

Fields: science fiction, comedy

brief introduction

Douglas ADAMS (1952-2001) is a famous British science fiction writer, a representative of humorous and satirical literature, and the first writer who successfully combined comedy with science fiction. However, he does not position himself as a science fiction writer, but as a comedy writer, and only regards science fiction as a way of expression of comedy. He is also a radio drama writer and musician.

He is famous for the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. This work started as a BBC radio drama, and later developed into five novels, which were made into TV series and made into movies after Adams' death. There are also derivative works such as word adventure games and comics. This series of works, including A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Life, Universe and Everything, Goodbye and Thanks to All the Fish, are basically harmless. Adams satirizes or discusses human society, universe, philosophy and politics in his works in a unique way. In an interview, he said that the ability of readers should not be underestimated.

In addition to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, Adams also wrote the scripts for the fifteenth and sixteenth seasons of the old edition of Doctor Who. His other works include Dirk Gentlely's Sholistic Agency series, Stardust co-authored by them, Last Look, which is also based on a radio drama, and The All-around Detective, a novel adapted into a film and television work, and so on. In addition, Adams has many identities, such as environmentalists, among which Adams' love and understanding of science and technology is especially talked about. He even stumbled into the frontier astronomy field in order to provide a complete scientific logic system for science fiction. However, NickWebb described in Adams' official biography Wishyouwerehere that although he understood all rational principles, throwing was easily defeated by emotion. He likes driving fast, taking photos, Macintosh computers and other advanced technologies. He used these new technologies before many people heard of e-mail and newsgroups, and he often involved the advanced technologies at that time in his works.

personal data

religion

Adams called himself an "extreme atheist", which he used to emphasize that he was not an agnostic. In the interview, he said that he was convinced that there was no God in the world and he could not see any signs of God. This topic has been mentioned many times in five science fiction works.

Environmental protection theory

Adams is an environmentalist who is committed to protecting endangered species. To this end, he produced a radio program "One Last Look", in which he visited rare species such as owls. This program was later rewritten and published as a book.

technology

Adams loves technology very much. Although he didn't buy a writing software until 1982, he considered it in 1979. It is said that before 1982, he found the terminology of the software incomprehensible and too difficult to operate.

The book "Confused Simon" published after Adams' death contains many articles about technology.

From 1984 to the death of 200 1, Adams was an avid user of Macintosh computers. He also advertised for Macintosh computers.

Adams began to use e-mail to communicate with others very early. He also started using newsgroups very early. However, people often ask him if he is Adams of the newsgroup, so he left the newsgroup and set up his own discussion website.

Personal life

Adams had a short romantic history with a married woman in the early 1980s. He dedicated his life, universe and everything to her. After they 198 1 broke up, Adams met Jane Balzen through friends. They got married on 199 1 year165438+1October 25th. Their daughter was born on1June 22nd, 994. They lived in London until 1999. Then move to Santa Barbara, California. After Adams died, his wife and daughter moved back to London.

Personal experience

Adams was born in Cambridge, England on 1952. His parents also have a daughter, born in 1955. 1957 His parents divorced, and he moved to his grandmother's house in brentwood with his mother and sister. His grandmother is a member of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and keeps abused animals at home. Adams suffers from pollen allergy and asthma. 1960 In July, my father remarried, so Adams had a half-sister. His mother remarried on 1964, and Adams has two half brothers and sisters.

Adams goes to school in brentwood. At the age of six, I took the primary school entrance examination and was admitted. He spent 12 years at Brentwood School from elementary school to middle school. In primary school, he was listed as one of the top ten students in English classes he taught by English teachers. This incident stuck in Adams' mind. During this period, Adams was most interested in natural science, and some of his early works were published in the school magazine. One of his letters and short stories was published in a boy magazine in England. Adams reached the height of 1.8 meters when he was 0/2 years old, and finally he grew to 1.96 meters. At school, he also planned to travel across Europe to Istanbul, Turkey. In order to save money, he did a lot of odd jobs.

197 1 year, Adams wrote an article about religious poetry, in which he linked the Beatles with william blake. This excellent article won Adams a scholarship to St. John's College of Cambridge University. He was allowed to go to the hospital to study English literature. He tried to join the Footlights Student Troupe very early, but it was not accepted. So he and other students formed their own troupe. Later, he tried to join Footlights and got the support of simon jones. 1974 obtained a bachelor's degree in English literature (later a master's degree).

1974, one of Adams' early works was staged on BBC 2, and another of his works was staged in a theater in London. Graham chapman of MontyPython started a short-term cooperation with Adams after watching the play. Adams wrote some sketches in Montiverson's Flying Circus and another sketch in Montiverson and the Holy Grail. Adams also appeared in some programs of MontyPython. 1977, published some ADAMS radio sketches.

Because Adams couldn't sell his jokes and stories at first, he had to make a living from other jobs. He writes, performs and sometimes directs small plays. He also worked as a hospital porter, a construction worker, cleaned a chicken farm, worked as a bodyguard and wrote a TV script.

1979 Adams met John Lloyd and they co-wrote several TV plays. Lloyd also collaborated on two original radio dramas, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

After the success of the radio drama A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Adams became a radio drama producer of the BBC. But he only worked in this position for half a year, and then concentrated on writing the script of Doctor Who.

His main works are The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Life, Everything in the Universe, Goodbye, Thanks for the Fish and Basically Harmless. This series is regarded as one of the science fiction bibles by western science fiction readers. Because of the outstanding achievements in the series of novels "Wandering Galaxy", the International Asteroid Management Committee even named an asteroid Arthur Dent, the hero of the series. 1984, Adams became the youngest bestseller winner. This book has been adapted into radio dramas, TV dramas, stage plays and computer games, and even bath towels with related patterns have been all the rage.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is the first in this series, and Adams has completed four more. Excellent works have been published one after another, and the sales volume in Britain, the United States and Australia has exceeded 6.5438+0.5 million. In addition, he was the founder of H2G2 Digital Media and Network Company, and participated in the production of Starfleet and computer games.

20011/On May 65438, Adams went to the gym as usual, but died of a heart attack and was buried in the north of London. On the day before his death, the Asteroid Center of the International Astronomical Association just named an asteroid with the number 186 10 as "Arthur Duncan", which may be God's last gift to Adams. Adams was working with Hollywood producers to bring The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to the screen.

Many of Adams' short stories, essays, letters and unfinished works are included in the Confused Simon published in May 2002 after his death.

In 2003, BBC rated The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as 45th among "100 British favorite literary works".

On April 29th, 2005, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which was shot by Disney Company, was officially released. In the first week of release, it won more than 265,438+07,000 US dollars at the box office, becoming the North American box office champion of that month.

Main work

Novel works

A guide to the wandering galaxy.

1977 Adams and Simon Brett, the producer of BBC Radio 4, created it together. Adams planned first-class content and some stories that can be connected in series.

Adams himself recalled that The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was produced when he was drunk in a field in Innsbruck, Austria, and looked up at the stars. He said he took a hitchhiking guide to Europe, but he couldn't communicate with Austrian locals, so he felt it. But later, he said that he had told this story too many times, and he had no memory of his experience in Austria, only his account of it. M.J. Simpson pointed out in his biography of Adams that the story may indeed be fabricated. Adams got this inspiration after he returned to England from the European continent.

John Lloyd contributed some stories to the last two episodes of radio dramas, but most of these stories were later rewritten in novels and TV dramas.

The first batch of radio dramas were broadcast in Britain in March and April. 1978, BBC Radio 4 broadcasts an episode every week. Because this series was very successful, they made five sequels, from 1980 to 1 to 1, and broadcast another episode every day.

In the process of writing a radio play, it showed that Adams had difficulty in meeting the deadline. He was forced to finish his writing. For example, when writing "Goodbye, thank you for the fish", his editor kept him in the hotel closet for three weeks before Adams was able to finish the novel.

The version of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is the prototype of many other versions later, including TV series, computer games, comics, illustrated versions and so on. From 1980, Adams went to Los Angeles several times to try to finish a film version. He works with several Hollywood film companies and potential producers. When he died in California at 200 1, he was still trying to finish a movie version with Disney. In September 2003, this film version was completed after Adams' death, and its script was rewritten by Kare kirkpatrick. This film was officially staged in 2005.

After Adams' death, the remaining books in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series were also adapted into radio dramas, which were broadcast in May and June 2005 respectively.

Who, doctor

1978 Adams sent the first draft of his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to the production team of Doctor Who, and got permission to write a series. He had planned to write a screenplay before, and later this story was absorbed into life, the universe and everything. 1979 Adams wrote three plays of Doctor Who.

There is a hint between the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the play Who's the Doctor written by Adams. There are also some hints between his drama agency of Dirk Terry and his play Doctor Who.

Richard Dawkins, a zoologist, was a loyal reader of Adams, and his later wife was an actress in Doctor Who. They were introduced by Adams.

musical creation

Adams can play the guitar with his left hand. He collected 24 guitars when he died at 200 1. He also studied piano in the1960s. Music, especially The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Prokolham, had a great influence on Adams' career.

Floyd

Adams directly used Pink Floyd's music in the radio drama of A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Adams' official biography uses the title of a Pink Floyd song. Adams and Pink Floyd guitarist david gill Moore are good friends. As a gift for Adams' 42nd birthday, he played the rhythm guitar at a concert in London, Pink Floyd. Gilmour also performed at Adams' funeral.

Pink Floyd is also the prototype of the rock band in Adams' works (the loudest rock band in the universe).

Prokolham

Adams and Gary Brooker, the singer, pianist and songwriter of the progressive rock band ProcolHarum, are good friends. Adams often invites Brock to his celebrations. They also performed together. No, Luke also performed at Adams' funeral.

According to Adams himself, the title of restaurant at the end of the universe came into being when he was listening to a song by ProCorha Lem.

Other music

Adams mentioned a lot of other music in his works. For example, a mouse said that the ultimate question about life, the universe and everything is "how many roads does a person have to walk in his life?" This is a sentence from a song by Bob Dylan.

Restaurant at the End of the Universe is a record dedicated to paul simon 1980.

In Goodbye and Thank You for the Fish, the hero Arthur Dent listened to the songs of this troubled band and praised its guitarist Mark Knopfler.

Elvis Presley also appeared in Adams' book.

In addition to modern rock music, Adams admired johann sebastian bach very much, and Bach's music provided some details in Dirk Gentle's Sholistic Agency.

Adams also likes The Beatles very much. In Life, the Universe and Everything, he mentioned paul mccartney, and in many of his works, he mentioned the Beatles' songs and lyrics.

computer

1984, Adams and Infocom wrote a word adventure game called The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. 1986, he worked with Lucasan artists for a week to design a maze. Later, he cooperated with Infocom to study bureaucracy. 1999 Simon &; Schuster published Adams' Starfleet. In April of the same year, Adams founded the H2G2 collaborative writing project.

Adams introduced hypertext system to the public in a TV report in 1990. Although he was not the inventor of hypertext system, he was one of the first people to use this method, and his influence on the popularization of hypertext system should not be underestimated. In the same year, Tim Berners-Lee used hypertext system in his HTML.