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Dirk Gently Discussion-5/2017
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Beth
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Apr 30, 2017 06:39PM
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Not a topic - just a little whining! :) I am/was so excited to read this book, as I love satire + Douglas Adams. However, our little library doesn't have a copy + the ebook lending system has 9!!!!! people ahead of me to borrow it. What's up with the run on this book? Anyhow, if i had the book I would love to discuss but I doubt I will even get it before the end of May. Hope you all enjoy it!
Valerie wrote: "Not a topic - just a little whining! :) I am/was so excited to read this book, as I love satire + Douglas Adams. However, our little library doesn't have a copy + the ebook lending system has 9!!!!..."Sorry Valerie! I have an audio-ebook copy read by the author that I was able to download with my account I opened in a library in a neighboring state using a relative's address. My reading addiction is corrupting my morals, I guess. I'm about 2/3 through, it's fairly short. I'll be posting on it later, have to go to work now.
Is it's popularity because it's a TV show?
George wrote: "Valerie wrote: "Not a topic - just a little whining! :) I am/was so excited to read this book, as I love satire + Douglas Adams. However, our little library doesn't have a copy + the ebook lending ..."Ha, ha... I may have to resort to something like that.
Beth wrote: "Is it's popularity because it's a TV show?"I bet you are right, Beth. I don't watch TV, so I am completely out of the loop on these matters!
I've been enjoying the story. It's something of a scifi parody of a crime thriller it seems and also a bit of a mystery. Why does the "electric monk" or whatever shoot Gordon Way with a shotgun? And what's with the tunnel that takes him to our time/place? I guess it's just a convenient mechanism. Perhaps more explanation will be given in the last part. There are certainly some funny bits in it. I wouldn't say that Douglas Adams was a great reader, but he wasn't bad either, and I feel that he would have expressed it the way he wrote it. Too bad he died rather young- we were born in the same year.
In the description in the "1001 Books..." text says that Dirk's belief in the underlying interconnectedness of all things brings results and that "the central mystery that Dirk is trying to solve is none other than the origins of life on earth and the forces behind the course of history". "This is one of the few novels to investigate chaos or complexity theory".So far I haven't seen a lot of evidence of connectedness, mostly a lot of odd chaos- apparently much is saved for the final section? Perhaps Richard seeing Gordon just after his murder and Dirk seeing Richard breaking into his girlfriend's apartment are more than coincidences.
Have other readers seen evidence of connections in the 1st half?
I'm not far in yet. Hope to put my training documents away and read more fun stuff this weekend!
I am finally able to read Dirk Gently. I am enjoying the characters of Dirk, Richard and the Secretary that Dirk doesn't have (love her!). But please tell me I will eventually understand the role of the electric monk, the murder and the horse in the bathroom. That part has me scratching my head.
Beth wrote: "I am finally able to read Dirk Gently. I am enjoying the characters of Dirk, Richard and the Secretary that Dirk doesn't have (love her!). But please tell me I will eventually understand the role o..."The Electric Monk (from the future apparently) stumbles onto a door to the "time machine" goes through it and into the professor's bathroom. The professor's apartment IS the time machine. The monk leaves the horse there and goes out unseen evidently. The police later get the horse out, and just turn it loose I think. I don't want to say anything further at this time-
It's the ending that really has me confused. If someone can explain that you can message me please.
Your cryptic messages really make me want to read this book! :) I don't think I'll be getting it until August maybe...
I thought the ending was kinda cool. The monk, called to Earth by the alien, accidentally committed a crime while following orders, all in an effort for the ghost to use the time machine to correct the past. (Funny, it made more sense in my head before I had to write it down). It was fun, but too out there for me.
I'm halfway. Still trying to figure it out.
I found a website with comments on the plot, so if you're finished or don't mind spoilers you can go to http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/s... and it may help. The 4th comment seemed the most helpful to me. The saving of the earth seems to hinge on Samuel Coleridge's unfinished poem Kubla Khan. "Originally" it was finished, but Dirk had to go back to when Coleridge was writing it and prevent him from finishing it.
Daniel wrote: "I thought the ending was kinda cool. The monk, called to Earth by the alien, accidentally committed a crime while following orders, all in an effort for the ghost to use the time machine to correct..."I still don't understand why the monk killed the guy. How would that help the ghost use the time machine?
Done! Kind of glad to be moving on but I am really interested in what others saw in this book so I will be watching for more comments. I know I must have missed a lot and would like to fill in some of the blanks.The June read is a little more up my alley. (o:
I loved this book! Yes, I finally got the audio book 2 days ago. I could work and listen, so am done already (and it was short). I must say, audio books aren't normally my thing, but this one was the BBC production and it is done as an audio/radio play! Excellent.
George wrote: "Daniel wrote: "I thought the ending was kinda cool. The monk, called to Earth by the alien, accidentally committed a crime while following orders, all in an effort for the ghost to use the time mac..."George - the monk killed the guy because the gas station attendant told him to 'shoot off" (because the electric monk was wanting to watch his TV). The EM was programmed to take things literally. Gordon just happened to be the unfortunate one who the EM met first after being told 'what to do'.
Valerie wrote: The EM was programmed to take things literally. Gordon just happened to be the unfortunate one who the EM met first after being told 'what to do'. ..."Thanks, I didn't pick that up and wondered.
