misfit27 wrote:
A few questions: 1. How influential was Douglas Adams' Babel Fish? Many years ago while first reading 'The Guide', I had wondered if a Babel Fish would ever go bad and what might happen in that event. The Ludovician is a pretty good map of a Babel Fish with rabies. Great description of trying to store memories in a Ludovician would be like trying to store a mouse in a tomcat.
2. The un-space landscape reminded me a good deal of the maze of courts in Kafka's Trial. Was that intentional? I know that a big goal of the book was to create an individual experience for each reader. I'm curious as to whether my own obsession helped to paint that picture.
Lastly, where can I find the un-chapters? I'm not the most web-savy person and finding them (haven't been trying for too long) has not proved fruitful. Despite the creation of a 'real' ending, I definitely want more of the story.
Thank you again, I will be recommending The Raw Shark Texts to many people; if I ever get a cat, I'll have to decide between Gavin and Ian.
Best regards,
Brian
Hi Brian,
Thanks very much, I’m glad you enjoyed Raw Shark. It’s always 8interesting to hear people’s thoughts on ending too – glad it worked for you.
To your questions:
1) I seem to remember that I didn’t make the bable fish connection until after I’d finished writing the book, which is odd as I’m a big Adams fan. A bookseller in America was the first person to tell me he thought of the Ludovician as a sort of ‘crazy bable fish’, that made me smile. They are very different of course, but a story about a bable fish with rabies would certainly be a lot of fun...
2) I’m afraid I can’t tell you! I’m always aware that the more I pin down the influences of the book, the more I’m shutting down other people’s readings, so I try just to give an enigmatic ‘maybe’ when questions like these come up at live events, but that doesn’t work so well in text so I’ll just have to pass. Sorry!
3) The very best place to start looking for the un-chapters is on this forum. Take a look at the
Red Caninet section, where forum members log their finds. There’s a pretty definitive log of everything people have found there (although I think it might need a little updating now). There’s also the
Negatives thread in the
Crypro-Forensics forum - if you wanted to post any questions there, I’m sure other users would be happy to give you their thoughts/opinions/suggestions/advice. There's always more to be found though, the un-chapters are far from all accounted for.
Hope this helps and welcome to the forums!
S
