Bitten Back...

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DOUGLAS ADAMS is a successful author. His radio series, HitchHiker's Guide To The Galaxy, formed 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 for Best Text Adventure.

His latest projects involve a new book, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, and a new computerised adventure, Bureaucracy -- produced in collaboration with Infocom. Graeme Kidd spent a while talking about Life, The Universe and Everything with Douglas Adams... everything to do with computers in particular.

"For a long time I was making my living by making fun of computers -- then suddenly they turned round and bit me back..."

One room in Douglas Adams' 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 of killing his boss. Richard becomes involved in a web of intrigue that is finally unravelled by Dirk Gently, a private detective whose unorthodox methodology involves finding the whole solution to problems. Oh, and Dirk saves the entire human race from extinction in the process of clearing Richard's name...

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency was written and typeset on an Apple Macintosh 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... it's bound to creep in."

Douglas Adams uses computers as tools of his trade, in association with Infocom as a medium for his work, and as recreational devices for producing music. So how did he get involved with computer technology?

"I bought a DEC Rainbow in Los Angeles for word processing... the only programs available for it, other than Wordstar-type software, were produced by Infocom. At that point I didn't know anything about computer games -- I had seen games where you chase little creatures around mazes, or shoot down little aliens, but they don't really appeal to me. Then I cam across the Infocom games and I thought 'great... this 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 running Macpaint: I've been hooked ever since."

Douglas was working as script editor on Dr Who when the first series of HitchHiker's was recorded for radio -- and he worked with the BBC's radiophonic workshop on both series. Nowadays the equipment in his workroom is more powerful and sophisticated than the hardware used for 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. Suddenly it's half-way through the afternoon and I've written nothing...

"I've always been a musician of a kind, playing 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 to 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 synthesiser -- 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 absolute revelation.

"Music is just a hobby at the moment, and I'm learning it all. There's an awful lot to be learned, 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 certainly, 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 just 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' favourite topics for poking fun:

"Bureaucracy involves you in all kinds of increasingly disastrous and 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, 'you 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... we 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 particular go at me because I get so enraged by it..."

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 surviving happily without his Mac. Indeed, he exhibits the classic signs of the computer junkie: "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!"

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