h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I read HHGG many moons ago when it was fairly new. "The Restaurant" had just come out. I was an awkward little 11-year-old.

These books gave me comfort and strength during a time that was very difficult for me. They opened up worlds in my mind I didn't know existed. The humor was dry, witty, and intelligent. I eagerly anticipated each successive one that DNA published.

Sure, it wasn't some monumental event in my life, but it was a slice of another human--one which touched may heart and told me it was OK to be odd, different, weird. I couldn't help what I was, but I found an adult that spoke to me through his stories. I found that being odd opens up worlds that normal people never get to see.

Thankfully, I stayed weird well into adulthood. Douglas Adams can enter eternity knowing a portion of the joy I experience today came from his life works.

Mr. Adams, I salute you. May you rest in peace. Today I am saddened, and your name will always evoke very fond memories.

Scott G.
Virginia, USA

I couldnt believe it at first when my mum said she thought she heard the news on radio 4 this morning, but she was half asleep at the time and wasnt sure if she was just hearing things, so the first thing I do is come to h2g2 to find that sadly, it is true

Douglas Adams quickly became my favourite author after my brother got him to sign a copy of the book as a birthday presant to my mum, I read it and was constantly laughing, and I made sure to read the other books in the series. Conidering I hate reading, his books must have been brilliant to make me want more.

Esti Young, Southend on Sea (a place that is mentioned in The Hitch Hikers Guide)

"save a chair for me please" douglas m hickman toronto, ontario, canada...

Condolences to family, friends and fellow researchers.

Do not be sad my friends for he has not gone far. He is still in your hearts and is a part of the universe. Smile as you remember his words. Laugh as you remember the joy he brought you. Let the sadness go as you move forward to ensure that he is never forgotten.

Words cannot express...

DNA,

Thanks for letting us dream with you and enriching the lives of millions of us. Time well spent

I can't believe it when I saw it on someone's livejournal....

Adams was one important part of sci fi....I hope this site won't ever go down because he's dead.

Thanks for all the funny stuff...even though there's no more sunny ftuff....

My deep condolences to his surviving family.....

My deepest and most sincere sympathies to you, his other friends and his family. I still find myself in shock, I can't imagine how difficult it must be for those of you who knew and loved him.

It's so sad. I find myself wordless, yet wanting to communicate his importance to me and so many others. His death is such a loss. May all the forces of good assure that his daughter grows up knowing what a wonderful, talented man her father was...and how loved he was by the universe he so cleverly defined.

"A picture is worth a thousand words", someone once said, not knowing that it would become a saying that would be repeated on countless tongues, probably into eternity. And to me, some of the most important pictures of my life centered around the works of Douglas Adams, who gave new meaning to "42" and "Don't Panic".

Growing up in a third-world country, far from the country where I was born, I related all too well to Arthur Dent suddenly being yanked from where he was to somewhere he could never have imagined. There was beauty and wonder in this new place, but also a longing for something that really didn't exist anymore.

Going off to boarding school for my freshman year of high school, I again felt I had left the known and the usually loved for someplace new and not-quite-friendly. I didn't fit in, and had no idea if other people like me even existed.

And that is where the pictures begin...

Carrying THGTTG in my backpack, sitting alone at lunch, devouring every word, realizing that someone else has recognized the book and loves it as much as I do, and what's more, that they THINK somewhat the way I do...

Realizing that there is a whole group of people in this strangest of settings who proudly carry towels, not as a sign of athletic ability, but to be ready for whatever comes...

Reading Thumbs Up, our fan club "magazine", released whenever enough new material had been generated, the first article of the first issue being a treatise on research done to determine how much money the average person could save if they cut open a tube of toothpaste to get to the very last scrapings, conducted by the members of the club, or the ever-popular listing of things said by teachers that they didn't really mean that way...

Of choosing my own Hitchhiker name, because I had read all of the books, being officially dubbed "The Unknown Soldier", my first towel day, when I proudly carried my towel about my shoulders, and proved to the unbelievers how useful it could be when it rained that day, and I didn't get wet...

And, most of all, realizing that I fit in with someone, finally, as myself, and not as what I was expected to be, discovering that I had made friends, and that odd was ok, the unexpected was not to be feared, but embraced, and that I could survive even the most difficult situations with a smile and the sure knowledge that just the mention of "42" could, quite possibly, bring new friends, this theory proved, once and for all, at college watching THGTTG on the student center TV, and realizing that there about 25 others in this small school that could quote it right alongside me...

And, now, as a teacher myself, "Don't Panic" takes on a new significance, especially for my students, who get that sage bit of advice on the whiteboard at the front of the room during every test...

To the man who probably never intended to be so influential, that I never knew and will now never get the chance to meet, but that will live on in my mind forever, my joyful thanks...

To the family that has lost a loved one, my sincere sympathies, and a reminder of all of the good and joyful times that you shared, along with the sure knowledge that your husband and father helped to change the world, one mind at a time...

And last, but by no means, least, my thanks to the BBC for making this site possible, for allowing all of us to share in a vision and in a moment, and may you continue the journey when the original guide is gone.

Dena Wood
Atlanta, Georgia, United States, Earth, Sol, The Milky Way

The gift to touch other people's lives through your words, and by doing so, to make them feel a little happier and less alienated in life is one given to few people.

He enabled us to see the absurdity abundant in life's situations and laugh at it, when we might have been crying instead.

Nothing I could offer would soften the pain for his wife and daughter in their loss which is so much greater than ours. All I can give is the evidence contained within these messages and pages, which testify to the myriad ways Douglas Adams touched us through his work.

No individual is every truly gone as long as they are remembered, and I feel that Douglas Adams will continue on in the memories of those of us who recognized in his writings a kindred spirit and responded to that with honest affection and admiration.

Alan Manning, Atlanta Georgia, USA

It's strange how life works. Here I am posting on a website that I would never have even discovered were it not linked from DNA's Obituary. Perhaps many more researchers who might never have had the opportunity to express themselves in this forum might come to learn of it in like fashion. This site is DNA's legacy to the world. He's done his bit, and the rest is up to us.

Condolences to his family, friends, and to all of you out there, too.

Christopher Phillips
aka Bernie Starchaser
Alabama, USA

THHGTTG has made it into a standard part of the vocabulary of me and lots of my friends - not only the 42 part but lots of other small twinkling bits of DNAs genius and humour. That book changed things.

And obviously now, H2G2 is taking that wild idea, born one night of looking up into a dark German sky, into reality. It's the best obituary I can think of giving -- and certainly a thought that will make me even more eager to create and write stuff here that will make this place continue to grow and live.

All my best wishes to the family left behind and to those of you here at H2G2 who knew DNA personally.

"For a moment, nothing happened. Then, nothing continued to happen."


Santragenius V

It would be nice to think that on 'the other side', Douglas lives in the universe he created, and that he knows where his towel is.

For those of us who only knew him through his work, we cannot begin to know the man behind the wit and wisdom, but he was still very much loved and will be painfully missed.

Much love and condolences are sent to his family and friends, and those fortunate enough to pass some time in his company.

He has left a marvellous legacy in the form of h2g2, and it is our responsibility to ensure the Guide is everything he envisaged it to be. It is a task that I will willingly undertake with renewed, if somewhat tear-stained, vigour.

DNA RIP

Pegasus ~A~

}:=8

Condolences to his family. He has been an inspiration, since I first read the Guide, how many years ago now? The ideas and humour from his stories will continue to help make the world a saner and happier place, far far into the future.

Paul

I only learned of h2g2's web presence after a friend sent me the bbc obituary. My grief is summed up by my first message to h2g2. Would that it were joyful exclamations to my favourite author. My vain attempts to sum up how I feel don't seem to be enough. http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F641?thread=111887

Now we know why DNA told us never to go anywhere without a towel...we would need them to wipe the tears from our eyes...
Farewell, old friend.

So long and thanks for all the laughs...

I see many new pages have been registered with the one aim of committing to words, feelings for and about DNA

one such posting out of many I have read sicks out and I feel should be read by all

Post 14 on thread
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/FFM19585?thread=111565&skip=0&show=20#p962123

vegiman

DNA finally undestands the question. And by the time we join him at The Restaurant, he will have made a joke of that too. Warmest wishes to his family and fans!

So long and THANKS!