Adams, Substitute Gods, and the Liberation of Half My Brain

Douglass Adams changed my life in 1985. One of my college roommates, Darrell recommended The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to me. I had never heard of the book before, which amazed Darrell. That was amazing, really, because I have always loved satire, particularly British. I have always been a fan of Monty Python. I had a short Bombeckian-style satire column in a local paper. (Short lived because I was too damned lazy to keep it going, and to stupid to realize the potential in an opportunity like that).


Amazing, too, because I have always been a fan of SciFi as well. I look at the world through science fiction colored glasses. (same say nerd, I say viewpoint).

By 1985, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy had just become what was at that time being referred to as a “4-book trilogy.” The unabashed incorrectness of that alone was enough for me to read it.

Adams changed my life because I never knew that humor and SciFi could go together. I thought SciFi was the sacred stage on which we challenged dogmas and spat at narrow minds. I didn’t know we could do that while also asserting the truth to outlandish oxymorons and poking fun at poor Arthur Dent for being such a primitive species. I hadn’t owned a babelfish yet. But I still didn’t realize that humor and SciFi could go together outside of the world of Adams. It was the 80’s. I thought humor belonged to Steve Martin and Robin Williams, and SciFi belonged to Star Trek.

So I continued to read voraciously; funny writers like Donald E. Westlake, Lawrence Block, and SciFi thrillers by Crichton and Robin Cook. All the while thinking that Douglass Adams was a rare and special gift to mankind.

Then in the early 90’s I discovered Red Dwarf, and nearly bust my spleen laughing. And it occurred to me that SciFi could be the bastion of better ideas and dogma-rattling proposals, and be funny too. I realized that if other people besides Douglas Adams could do it, then I could too.

But by the time of this realization, I was in medical school. My dad prevented be from being a writer, because I had to go do something I could make a living at. That doesn’t have a lot to do with the current train of thought, other than the fact I like to blame my dad fo my failures now and then.

So at the time of this realization, I was in medical school. It wasn’t like I had time to write a book. Medical school and residency is 100 plus hours a week of using the left side of your brain. After 7 years of this, I walked with a lisp to the right in compensation. In spite of the system’s efforts to stifle my creativity, I did have an idea for a satire about the origin of everything. Substitute Gods has been in my head for over a decade now.

It has been on paper (electronically) for about a year, now. I’m about to look for an agent.

So in 1985, Douglass Adams changed my life, and in 2009, I am finally acting on that epiphany.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series changed my life. I know it bounces around a bit, but not as bad as some Pratchett novels, and satire gets a little bit of grace when it comes to judgment. Satire has different goals than serious literature. I know Adams has a few weaknesses in literary style, but he saved the right half of my brain. The HHG series gets a 100 from me.

When I review the books individually, I will try to be objective as possible.