The Irony of Last Chance to See

So I have finished reading two books since last we spoke, but tonight do not feel like giving long, drawn out reviews of my readings, so instead will leave you with the short versions.

Leviathan, the last book in the Illuminatus! Trilogy ended well, albeit rather confusingly. I tried very hard during my reading of this tome to relate to the 60's and early 70's in which the majority of the novel took place. Try as I might, the hippie mysticism, drug induced insights, and the gathering sense of urgency to do something became almost anti-climactic for me and left me feeling like I was the only one standing in a room of people that was not in on the inside joke that had just been told. I look back on those decades with a reverence of some type of dramatic change having occurred, but then look at the present and my childhood in the 80's - the product of parents who lived through those times and struggles - and wonder if this was the future that our parents were struggling so hard for back then. How much has complacency, greed, or sheer laziness shaped the ideals of those who grew up or struggled for some elusive freedom during that time effected the world that we are now living in? Maybe I am naive or ungrateful, but I don't know what I don't know.

The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul was the last compete Dirk Gently novel (not counting the partial amalgamation I am currently reading in The Salmon of Doubt) written by Douglas Adams. For those of you not British or fans of science fiction, you may have heard of Douglas Adams through is most popular book that was also made into a movie, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Having read almost everything that Douglas Adams has written in novel form, I have grown sad while reading The Salmon of Doubt because it is the last we will ever hear from him.

I had the opportunity to see Douglas Adams speak at the University of California Santa Barbara on April 5, 2001. He was speaking about a book he had written, which I had just finished reading before I went to see him, called Last Chance to See. The book detailed his journeys around the world in an effort to "see" and document encounters with endangered species before the became extinct. Adams was a rabid conservationist and environmentalist which, when mixed with his particular brand of intelligent British humor, made Last Chance to See a hilarious and extremely enjoyable book to read. Now here comes the irony: this speech on Last Chance to See became literally the last chance to see Douglas Adams; he became extinct by means of a heart attack on May 11, 2001.

I look at the autograph that I got from him in my Hitchhiker's Omnibus and remember being hungry even then for more to read from him. When I met him to get the autograph I asked him when The Salmon of Doubt was going to be released. At the time, Salmon was only a rumor, a vicious perpetual "Coming Soon" title which over the better part of a decade had repeatedly failed to manifest itself. Like the Loch Ness monster of the book world, there would occasionally be rumors leaked of a sighting, but in the end there was nothing that you could shoot at or put up on an operating table and really dig into. He looked up at me somberly (I have the feeling that I now know why from reading the beginning of Salmon) and said simply, "It isn't. It's been scrapped. Repeatedly. Put on hold indefinitely." I thanked him for writing so brilliantly and giving me a new way to think about comedy in a more intelligent way than dick and fart jokes could offer. He shook my hand solidly and I stepped aside to let the two hundred or so people behind me have their own private minute of access to a genius.

I found out through reading the beginning of Salmon that the question of when that book was coming out often pained him when he was asked it. Almost ten years later I cringe at the thought that my question might have depressed him in even a little way. After all, this was a man who had brought laughter and pleasure to my life through his writing for so many years. Douglas Adams knew his fans wanted another book. Douglas Adams also knew that he would not let said book be released unless it was perfect. Douglas Adams was also a monumental procrastinator of the type that I would have loved to have learned from when I was in school. The third fact aside, post-mortem, we finally got the book that we had all been waiting for but we got it at a price that none of us would ever have wanted to pay for it.

I will probably never be rich, or famous, or even moderately well known in certain circles. I may not even be a good writer. But I always think of the impact that the authors of the books that I read have on me - some amazing, some good, and some negligible - and always come to the conclusion that for the best of them, to reach people, to affect lives, to give reason for thought, and in some cases be the only reason for someone to smile or laugh during the day, these are powerful things. And so I write. Amazing, good, negligible, possibly even bad, I write.

Sometimes its the only way to get out of my head for a while.