Jul

16

The Hitchhiker’s Guide To Writer’s Block.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

July 16, 2008 |

typewriter1.jpgThis is an incredible deal: buy a first edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and get Douglas Adams’s typewriter along with it. According to the seller, it is “as certain as can be that Adams wrote his most famous work ‘The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy’ on this Hermes Standard 8″. And that’s entirely possible, although Adams, known for being a technophile, almost certainly didn’t write most of his other books on it, and it’s not clear whether that means he wrote the original play on this particular typewriter or the novel which was adapted from the play, or both.

There’s a story I know I’ve heard although I can’t remember the source, that Adams’s long periods of writer’s block were actually caused by the huge advances he received from publishers. He’d get an advance of, say, £25,000, and write the word “The” then stare at it, thinking, “That word is worth £25,000.” The addition of a second word, “night”, would cut the amount down to £12,500 per word, then £6,250. That could very quickly drive just about any writer insane, and any time I hear about a writer getting a large advance, I have to stop and wonder how they manage to write with such a huge amount hanging over their heads. Not that I wouldn’t like to try it…but I also can’t help thinking that, if I owned Douglas Adams’s typewriter, I’d never be able to write anything on it. I believe artists have to carve out their own spaces and create their own artifacts because trying to produce great work where someone else did, no matter how much an artist tries to rationalize it by saying, “it’s just a typewriter” or “it’s just a pen” or even “it’s just a desk” it will still be intimidating. It’s a good thing these artifacts become collectors’ items and are usually priced way out of the range of struggling artists–unless, of course, they happen to get huge advances. The trouble is, spending that advance on a battered on typewriter might cure one case of writer’s block and give you a whole new one.

Adams was a wonderfully creative and funny guy who left the world much too soon. And it’s a little late in coming, but, so long, Mr. Adams, and thanks for all the books.


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