# Arthur Dent vs Dirk Gently **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 14, 1999, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arthur-dent-vs-dirk-gently/16662 "1999-07-14T22:02:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Powers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Powers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Powers)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 1999, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arthur-dent-vs-dirk-gently/16662/21 "1999-08-10T14:13:00Z")
“On the strength of Mostly Harmless…” _ahem_ Strength? Powers ---
**Author:** ![GoSensGo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ce73a5/32.png) [@GoSensGo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoSensGo)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 1999, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arthur-dent-vs-dirk-gently/16662/22 "1999-08-10T21:59:00Z")
I thought Mostly Harmless was better than So Long and Thanks for All the Fish… I quite like the Perfectly Normal Beast. And Elvis. And I’ve been to Stavro Mueller’s Beta… hang on, I’ve slipped into my BBQ Pit voice… Alex ---
**Author:** ![Powers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Powers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Powers)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 1999, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arthur-dent-vs-dirk-gently/16662/23 "1999-08-11T14:32:00Z")
> [@](#): > > I thought Mostly Harmless was better than So Long and Thanks for All the Fish… Well of course, but that’s not saying a whole lot. =) Powers ---
**Author:** ![Mojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 1999, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arthur-dent-vs-dirk-gently/16662/24 "1999-08-12T16:56:00Z")
> [@](#): > > What I’d like to find out is who the Dopers believe to be the better hero. 1. ---
**Author:** ![GoSensGo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ce73a5/32.png) [@GoSensGo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoSensGo)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 1999, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arthur-dent-vs-dirk-gently/16662/25 "1999-08-13T02:25:00Z")
Sorry, wrong question. As your consolation prize, have a free night’s stay on a Vogon Constructor Ship, complete with poetry reading! Which book series has better overall writing, in everyone’s opinion? Alex ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 1999, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arthur-dent-vs-dirk-gently/16662/26 "1999-08-13T16:05:00Z")
GoSensGo: > [@](#): > > Which book series has better overall writing, in everyone’s opinion? I really can’t answer that. The Dirk Gently books have a subtlety to them that the Hitchhiker’s books, with their gag-a-minute pacing, don’t, but I enjoy both types of comedy. I will say, though, that as far as individual books go, I didn’t like Mostly Harmless. Unless I misread it (and please correct me if I did…those who have not read it may consider this a spoiler warning), all of existence is destroyed at the end. It felt to me like it was book that Adams didn’t want to write. As if he wanted to end with So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, with Arthur having found happiness and Marvin’s suffering finally ended and the inherent absurdity of a trilogy having four books, and leave some things, such as Earth’s survival, to the imagination. Instead, he found himself being pestered for an explanation of Earth’s survival (parallel universes) and for a sequel in general. So he wrote Mostly Harmless, and made it sequel-proof. I do not come to this with any special knowledge of Douglas Adams’s mental processes. It just felt to me, from reading the book, that this was how and why the book was conceived. Chaim Mattis Keller ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 1999, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arthur-dent-vs-dirk-gently/16662/27 "1999-08-14T05:06:00Z")
## I prefer the Guide. Not that I think it’s of a higher quality (I consider them to be about equal) - I just enjoy it more. ‘They couldn’t hit an Elephant from this dist…!’ Last words of General John Sedgwick ---
**Author:** ![GoSensGo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ce73a5/32.png) [@GoSensGo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoSensGo)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 1999, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arthur-dent-vs-dirk-gently/16662/28 "1999-08-19T21:54:00Z")
My personal theory (for what it’s worth) is that after having written the HH series, Adams has earned enough to live comforatbly for the reset of his life. Hence, the Dirk Gently books, which strike me as being books that he wanted to write, rather than contractual obligation books, as the later HH books seemed to be. HH has brighter moments, but DG has better overall focus. problems? questions? flames? Alex ---
**Author:** ![palmolive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8baadc/32.png) [@palmolive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/palmolive)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 1999, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arthur-dent-vs-dirk-gently/16662/29 "1999-08-20T07:40:00Z")
arthur dent is how i am, while dirk gently is what i would like to be in future years. i don’t know what that says about my ambitions. i think ford prefect vs. dirk gently is more fair. and you know who else i liked? trillian. and i think the dirk gently books are better written than the guide but it may just be that i read the gently books more recently. i think “the long dark tea-time of the soul” is a masterpiece. * * * palmolive\* ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 1999, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arthur-dent-vs-dirk-gently/16662/30 "1999-08-22T22:53:00Z")
- - - I read an article about the books and the videogame, got interested and found the books in a store. I didn’t have a computer at the time. An uncle had a computer and the game, but the game had an error and wouldn’t run past the “bulldozer coming up the hill towards your house”. - Anybody seen the Starship Titanic videogame? It oughta be in the computer flea market bargain bins by now. What’s it really worth? $20? $10? $5? - MC [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arthur-dent-vs-dirk-gently/16662.md?page=1)