On Flann O'Brien, Douglas Adams and Zaphod Beeblebrox

[nwhyte]

RTÉ did a documentary on Flann O'Brien back in April; slovobooks kindly taped it for me, and I watched it this afternoon (see Sunday Times article here). On top of that I've been listening once more to the Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series (the original - and still the best), particularly the second half (the original 7th to 12th Fits). The two

Comments

[matgb]

I think he is more fascinated by Zaphod

Marvin baby, every time. It's probably about time I listend to thatagain, it's been at least, oh, two months...

[andrewducker]

I've got a lot more experience with the books, but book 2 is definitely all about Zaphod, and I believe it largely matches up with the second radio series.

In fact, the plot of books 1 and two fit neatly into each other as a complete story, with Arthur (and to a lesser extent Ford) as fairly pure observers to Zaphod's trip to find The Ruler of The Galaxy. It's just that there's so much other stuff clustered in there, and your attention is fixed so much more on Arthur as the central character that it's easy to not even notice there is a plot, as such.

[nwhyte]

I reread the second book pretty recently too. I still prefer the radio series' tretment of the Man in the Shack.

[slovobooks]

I recently bought a second copy of the second edition of At Swim-Two-Birds, the third impression from 1966, much like the one you read from at P-CON in March, for the remarkably reasonably price of €10. At that price, it was cheaper than the paperback!

Yes, Flann's life is definitely one of missed opportunity. I think this may be why the Irish love him so much.

Did we also put Eamonn Morrissey's one-man show The Brother on the tape? If not, I'll get a copy to you.

[nwhyte]

Whoo! Lucky you!

I don't think you did put The Brother on the tape (but will check and get back to you if I'm wrong). Of course, I've read the script. Would love to see it!

[lostcarpark]

I think the main characters all represent different aspects of Adam's personality.

Arthur only wants to sit at home and have a nice cup of tea, but is forced by events into travelling the galaxy, and discovering a lot of things about it that he'd really rather not know about. This strikes me as a somewhat accurate description of Adam's career, even though a lot of it hadn't yet unfolded when he created the character. While I think he enjoyed being in the spotlight, I think there was always apart of him wondering what all the fuss was about, and he always felt that his private life was nobody's business but his own.

Zaphod is the flamboyant side that relishes attention. He does, however, carved up his brain and put all the dark secrets that would make him uancceptable to his audience in his second head.

Ford is the part that enjoys deadlines whooshing past. "Yes, I know the manuscript was due last friday, but I've been syuck on this godforsaken place called Earth for the last fiteen years..."

[mireille21]

I always found Ford more interesting, or perhaps that should be entertaining. As for Arthur I kinda wondered why Lintilla went out with him. All that complaining, and letting the world do its worst to him without really ever taking any positive action. But then you see, that's probably a reflection of me, in that I'm much more of a proactive person than Arthur. Even if sometimes all I want to do *is* stay at home with a nice cup of tea.