Does it ever seem unnatural to you when a character or series is continued, expanded, or developed by another author than the original creator? I know there are entire societies where membership requires writing yet another Sherlock Holmes or Tarzan story. I know that some of the old Marvel Comics editions of John Carter of Mars were right there in the ERB tradition. I know that Felix Francis is trying to carry on his father's tradition and I am somewhat comforted by the fact that he collaborated with his father on a couple of novels before the more famous Francis died. I realize that terrific writers like Philip Jose Farmer have messed with the Tarzan canon to great approbation.

Yet, it was with a strange feeling that I picked up a copy of And Another Thing from the bargain shelf at Barnes & Noble the other day. Having met Douglas Adams and had a wonderful dinner debating the existence of God with him one evening in Cannes, I felt just a little dirty picking up the book. Yet, scanning a paragraph or two, I knew that this book was an homage of which the late Douglas Adams would have approved. Although I'm not zipping through this little volume like I thought I would, I find myself wondering if the zaniness isn't a little overwrought. At times, the prose seems so out there that it feels like one of those faux-Hemingway contests where the authors go over the top to emulate the master's literary conceits and stylistic approach. I have to admit, sometimes the over-the-top approach reads closer to Hemingway than some of the bare bones, unpolished prose of his posthumously published works like Garden of Eden. Still, I find myself both enjoying And Another Thing and feeling something hollow inside.

Reading this book brings back some of those old geek science-fiction debates we used to have (very analogous to Norman Spinrad's "pope" in Deus X). If we could accurately record someone's memories and make those accessible to the most sophisticated AI imaginable, would the conversation seem soulless or would our ability to see the "man" behind the screen keep us from experiencing an "authentic" conversation. In short, is there a Futurama-like future where we could have conversations with long-dead "heroes" in much the same way that those cartoon characters interact with talking heads in little globes?

I'm not entirely crazy, here. The prolific critic (and erstwhile screenwriter) Roger Ebert has enough of a body of work in audio and video that a group has created a means for him to "talk" by typing. Oh, that Stephen Hawking had such a tool! Imagine, if you will, that the Ebert technology is perfected. Then, add in this amazing AI (based on observing Ebert's reasoning and creativity over all these years)and this huge memory cache of audio, voice, and the actual memories I posited. Would you get anything like the critic and writer most of us read and admire?

Sadly, I think these works where talented authors take up the mantle of someone who has gone before teach us that such an experiment--an artificial Buckley, Ebert, or even Nixon (composed from speeches and the Watergate tapes, of course)--would still be hollow. It might be a delightful experience to interact with this artifact of a person and might be an entertaining one, but it would never be totally successful. Some people might even like Faux-Buckley or Faux-Ebert better than the original, but that isn't the point. The point is that it would still be more interesting to interact with the individual than the elaborate artifact expansion that could be built.

Before I make the point you've all anticipated, let me mention one more "bizarro" thing. At some point, I met a person who was working on a neural network project where he was studying the patterns with which people play games--ordinary card games--online. His idea was that if you could get a good enough neural net based-AI with enough of a sample of an elderly person's game playing, you might never have to tell an elderly person who plays online that their online opponent had died. I remember wishing this individual luck, but remember questioning whether this is truly a good thing. Would we really be doing an elderly person a service by hiding the fact that Joe Overbid, their regular bridge partner on MSN had died? After all, we tend to look at those obituaries in the newspaper more closely as we get older, and I know from my own experience that every obituary that hits home (God bless you, Ernie Harwell! God bless you, Frank Frazetta!) inspires me to accomplish more with my life. I expect that to be true until I can think no more.

And, of course, my long overdue and very telegraphed "point" is that I'm enjoying the latest take on Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but somehow I wish it were possible to read another volume of this or another Dirk Gently novel straight from the source. And, of course, I wish I could have had another go at this man with regard to theology and philosophy in Cannes, or London, or Boston, or Santa Barbara. Anywhere our paths could have crossed again, that would have been terrific.

PS -- I'd like to apologize for leaving this blog blank for so long. I was under the foolish impression that the book reviews I was writing were going directly to the blog. I'll try to be more proactive in the future.