BITTEN
BACK
UGLAS ADAMS is a successful author. His
radio series, Hitc hHiker's Guide T o The
Galaxy. tonned the basis of a quartet of books
that featured Arthur Dent, the only Earthman to
survive the destruction of our planet when it
got in the way of a planned interstellar by-pass.
Mr Adams also worked with Infocom on the
eponymous computer game, which collected
the 1985 Newsfield Award f o r Best Text
Adventure.
His latest projects Involve a new book. Dirk
Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, and a
new computerised adventure, Bureaucracy -
produced i n collaboration wit h infocom.
Graeme Kind spent a while talking about Life,
The Universe and Everything with Douglas
Adams e v e r y t h i n g to do with computers in
particular.
For a long time I was making my loving by
making fun of computers-then suddenly they
turned round and but me back . .
One room in Douglas Adam's Islington flat is
filled with hi-tech musical equipment. A couple
of Apple Macintoshes occupy the desk and
are used for writing - both music and words.
His latest book follows the adventures of
Richard McDuff - a computer programmer
with a fascination for the application of fractal
mathematics to computer music, who is also
suspected o f killin g h i s b o ss. Rich a rd
becomes involved in a web of intrigue that is
finally unravelled b y Dirk Gently. a private
detective whose unorthodox methodology
involves finding the whole SOIL/bon to prob-
lems. Oh, and Dirk saves the entire human race
from extinction in the process o f clearing
Richard's name . .
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
was written and typeset on an Apple Macin-
tosh Plus, using LaserAuthor word processing
software. The opening credits make proud
reference to this fact, and the plot features
computers heavily. "This is the first book I've
actually written entirely from start to finish on
computer - eight to ten hours a day staring at
a Mac , . i t ' s bound to creep in."
Douglas Adams uses computers as tools of
his trade, in association with Infocom as a
medium fo r h is work, and a s recreational
devices for producing music. So how did he
get involved with computer technology?
bought a DEC Rainbow in Los Angeles for
word processing t h e only programs avail-
able for it. other than Wordstar-type software,
A somewtiM 'reserved DO UG LAS ADAMS receives the coveted Newsfi eld Award for his
involvement in Infocom's binary Interpretation of THE Hr r CHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY
OK. so it's two years late - who's counting?
were produced b y Infocom. At that point I
didn't know anything about computer games-
t had seen games where you chase little crea-
tures around mazes, or shoot down little aliens.
but they don't really appeal to me. Then I came
across the infocom games and I thought
'great t h i s is literate, intelligent, witty stuff'.
Then I was introduced to the company and
ended up doing the HitchHiker's game, and
now there's another game I've collaborated
with them on. called Bureaucracy.
"Whilst I was working at Infocom one day I
went into their development room and there
was this funny looking machine they had just
got in. It was a development Mac, and I saw it
runnin9 Macpaint I ' v e been hooked ever
since.'
Douglas was working as scnpt editor on Dr
Who when the first senes of HitchHiker's was
recorded for radio - and he worked with the
BBC's radophonic workshop on both series.
Nowadays the equipment in his workroom is
more powerful and sophisticated than th e
hardware used fo r the sound and musical
effects on Dr Who and HitchHiker's. It proves
a distraction - often the musician takes over
from the author " I have to be careful I
might sit down in the morning to write and
decide to play with a tune for a few minutes
before I start. Soddenly it's half-way through
the afternoon and I've written nothing
"I've always been a musician of a kind, play-
ing guitar and things. I've never actually been
a great keyboard player - largely because I
didn't practise when I was eleven, as you're
supposed t o do. I ' m also extremely left-
handed and don't have much dexterity on the
right. The great thing about the computer is if
you can write music, then you can just write it
on the screen and the computer plays the syn-
thesiser - not only plays the synthesiser but
can play several synthesisers at a time and it's
like having an entire orchestra at your disposal.
If you can write it, you can play it. It's an abso-
lute revelation.
"Music is just a hobby at the moment. and
I'm learning it all. There's an awful lot to be
teamed, and I've mastered quite a lot of the
software - stuff like Performer which is a
superb package. At some point - I don't quite
know when it will be, a few months away car-
tainly, because I've now got to write another
book - I would love to sit down and record an
album. It sounds in many ways a preposterous
thing to do - on the other hand. It's no more
preposterous than the idea a few years ago
that I could sit down and write a book!"
Infocom have lust released Bureaucracy in
America, and it should be available on these
shores before too long. The title suggests that
the plot involves one of Douglas Adams' fav-
ourite topics for poking fun.
"Bureaucracy involves you in all kinds of
increasingly disastrous a n d catastrophic
adventures. You end up fighting for your life in
a jungle and so on, but actually your object is
just to get your bank to acknowledge your
change of address card. Everything flows from
that central impossibility.
"It came from an experience I had when I
moved into this place, about six years ago. I
got a mortgage from the bank, who I reckoned
therefore must be aware of my move, because
this represented their security on the loan. I
sent them a change of address card all the
same, and the next statement they sent to me,
they sent to my old address. So I sent them
another change of address card and the next
statement after that went to my old address.
So I wrote them a letter saying, yo u of all
people must know the address of my new flat
and that I've moved there - and I've sent you
two change of address cards'. They wrote
back a very apologetic letter saying 'yes of
course we do understand, we should have
been aware of this w e have updated our
records and you shouldn't be troubled any
further.' And guess where they sent the letter?
"I have a peculiar attraction for this kind of
event - I don't know if bureaucracy has a par-
ticular "go at me because I get so enraged by
Since the days of HitchHiker's, when he
poked fun at computer technology and the
people behind it, Douglas Adams has had a
change of heart. He uses computers at work
and play, and there's little danger of him surviv-
ing happily without h is Ma c. Indeed, h e
exhibits the classic signs of the computer jun-
kie: "I've just seen the new Mac", he explains,
"I was in San Francisco and saw Steve Caps
one of the originators. Boy, lust lust lust!"
ZZAP! 64 June1987 5 9