Douglas Adams meets Tom Sharpe -- good idea?

May 29, 2009 4:09 AM

I'm writing a novel that's a mix of Douglas Adams-like humorous sci-fi and Tom Sharpe-like bawdiness. Am I mad? Would you be interested in such a book? Read on for more info.

The book is mostly comedy, and not a genuine sci-fi novel (i.e. more for laughs than ponderance). It's just supposed to be funny. I'm aiming for the same kind of cult appeal Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett have.

Outside of a few examples, I can't think of any bawdy sci-fi novels, or any particularly bawdy sci-fi writers. If you know of any, let me know!

Polite notice: Thanks but no thanks to anybody who wants to reply with advice about "writing a first novel". Note that I'm a published writer. I'm just looking for opinions about this particular idea. Thanks!

posted by deeper red to writing & language (23 comments total)

Well, Nick Harkaway's The Gone Away World comes to mind.
posted by methylsalicylate at 4:28 AM on May 29

Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers? Satire of old pulp-style scifi. But, seems like the core audience for scifi books tends to like it serious. Like fantasy readers like swords. Sure, you could do it without swords, but people like the swords.
posted by rikschell at 4:29 AM on May 29

Would you be interested in such a book?

I think the only answer to this is yes, of course: as long as your book is genuinely witty. It's not so much the subject matter or theme as the humour that will carry the book in the type of mix you are aiming at.
posted by jzed at 4:30 AM on May 29

Google brought up these two lists. The preponderance of comedy/sci-fi movies and TV shows, from Dr. Who to MST3k to Galaxy Quest, is also an indication that there's an audience for this stuff. Seconding what jzed if it's really, truly funny, then, sure, I would read it. I don't know if you can (or should) really aim for a "cult" appeal, because it makes it sound--sorry if I'm wrong--as though you're trying to reduce saleability to a formula, and there's no better way to alienate a cult audience.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 4:39 AM on May 29

I guess an interesting question is why Douglas Adams was so successful. Was it just down to the fact he's funny, or was it because his writing was so clever? It was less about parodying the grand ideas of sci-fi than it was about parodying the grand ideas of philosophy.

Although I really enjoyed the Dirk Gently novels too, and they were more character-based comedy.

And, yes, Terry Pratchett novels do tend to include swords :) It's interesting to contemplate that because Pratchett is simultaneously within the fantasy genre, and without.

Thanks guys, lots of food for thought so far.
posted by deeper red at 4:52 AM on May 29

To your first question: Possibly. Thomas Nashe is one of my favourite writers, and I've long thought it a pity he died without encountering space travel. Not a dead cert, however, since not only is comedy tough, bawdy is the toughest of all to pull off with any success, partly because it is so easy to slide into self-indulgence. (It's been a long time since I dropped a Piers Anthony book in a mud puddle and jumped on it, but I seem to remember he did that with bawdy-lite fantasy.) Doesn't matter whether it's set in space or the Field of Cloth of Gold.

Anyhow, good luck. I'll promise to leaf through it in the shops at least.
posted by tavegyl at 4:59 AM on May 29

Why not throw in some Proust-like metaphor and some Austen-like irony?
posted by RichardS at 5:01 AM on May 29

Robert Rankin ticks those 2 boxes
posted by handybitesize at 5:18 AM on May 29

I guess an interesting question is why Douglas Adams was so successful. Was it just down to the fact he's funny, or was it because his writing was so clever?
I vote for the clever writing. The plots and characters are funny enough, but the thing that makes me read and reread all his books is the prose. Every page seems to have a line that is so well written and funny that I want to read it out loud for whoever will listen.
posted by martinX's bellbottoms at 5:33 AM on May 29

Yeah, it depends on the quality of the comedy and the level of the writing. Look at what separates Anthony's Xanth books from, say, Moore's Lamb. A. Lee Martinez is a rising star in this genre.

Pratchett and Adams are successful because, at least when it comes to the humor, there's very rarely any time when the reader feels the characters turn, break the fourth wall, and shout 'wakka wakka wakka!' while their bowtie spins and they do jazz hands.

For bawdy, humorous sci-fi, look at Sandy Mitchell's Commissar Cain series for the Warhammer 40k setting. It can be boiled down to "Flashman In Sppppaaaaaace" but that's an admirable trait in my book.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 6:01 AM on May 29

the thing that makes me read and reread all his books is the prose. Every page seems to have a line that is so well written and funny that I want to read it out loud for whoever will listen

That's interesting, Personally, I believe that Adams was pretty far from the best writer in the world. Ultimately he's a comedy sketch writer, and he's very good at a certain type of joke and comedy situation. I've even followed his career through the Not the Nine O'Clock News books (Not 1982, Not 1983) and can easily identify jokes written by him.

But viewing him as a novel writer, I think he's lacking quite a bit. The Dirk Gently books have almost unfathomable plots, for example, and he only ever draws one type of female character (assertive, positive, career woman). I'm reading the last of the Hitchhiker books now (Mostly Harmless) and I've got to say it's a little ponderous in parts. I can barely remember the plots of all but the first Hitchhiker's book, in fact.

I'm interesting to see how others view Adams, because all I tend to read is universal praise (in the fanboy way the Internet tends to view things). None of this is to say that I don't think he was a genius, by the way. I do.
posted by deeper red at 6:16 AM on May 29

robocop is bleeding nails it: "... there's very rarely any time when the reader feels the characters turn, break the fourth wall, and shout 'wakka wakka wakka!'"

You want this to work? Don't let your characters wink-at-the-camera too much.
posted by grabbingsand at 6:58 AM on May 29

I'd buy a copy.
posted by Ponderance at 7:22 AM on May 29

Don't let your characters wink-at-the-camera too much.

I'm a bit mystified about why this is getting mentioned so much :) My own effort is proving to be straight narrative, despite the fact I like PoMo stuff as much as the next man. But can you give me examples of what you're talking about in a sci-fi context?
posted by deeper red at 7:30 AM on May 29

But viewing him as a novel writer, I think he's lacking quite a bit.

Agreed. He was not good at plots. He was, however, the best in the business at crafting absolutely perfect little sentences and plopping them down on every single damn page.

When I hear someone say something is "like Douglas Adams" I tend to stay away. Usually, what that means is it's a comedy in space. What I want it to mean is that it contains astonishingly well-written humor, and it almost never means that. There are obviously many exceptions to this, but a lot of sci-fi writers aren't terribly witty, and their attempts at humor (especially dry British humor) can fall pretty flat. I think this is the "wakka-wakka" that others are referring to...the use of cheap gags and meta-jokes to bolster the argument that a book is funny, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
posted by crinklebat at 8:14 AM on May 29

I can't think of specifics, but any pop-culture reference kills it for me. If it won't be funny in fifty years, then it is a bust
posted by Think_Long at 8:15 AM on May 29

deeper red: Unfathomable? Hardly!

[SPOILERS!]

In the first one, an eons-old alien ghost takes over several people in an attempt to wipe humanity off the face of the earth. His plot is foiled by an insane PI, some dude who likes computers and music, and a time traveler borrowed from an unshot Doctor Who script, and it turns out the entire book has taken place in an alternate timestream where there's no Bach.

In the second one (which is basically American Gods but shorter and funny and set in England), Odin makes a deal with an advertising guy and gets screwed. Thor is continually outwitted in his efforts to reveal the shenanigans and also there's a woman named Kate who is funny. Eventually the title character's old fridge spawns a new god which has nothing to do with anything but has got to be one of the longest-delayed joke payoffs in any book ever.
posted by sixswitch at 8:16 AM on May 29

Very much seconding Robert Rankin, he is the third name you think of after Adams and Pratchett. I've not read them but the Space Captain Smith novels might fit as well.

I don't think The Gone Away World is very good example. It is humourous but I wouldn't say it was a comedy, certainly not in the same way as the works of Adams and Sharpe.

As for whether I'd buy it, well, that depends how good it was. There is definitely a market for humourous SF but it is a difficult beast to get right and there is nothing worse than an unfunny comedy.
posted by ninebelow at 8:20 AM on May 29

I enjoyed Keith Laumer's Retief stories as a kid. Mostly everyone but our hero is an idiot, the diplomats he works for and the aliens he works against. You can tell the aliens because of their linguistic quirks. Popular guy with the ladies [sic]. I have no idea how they hold up.
posted by pointilist at 9:27 AM on May 29

Good parody works as a functioning example of the thing it's parodying. Underneath the jokes in Hitchhiker's, you can see the outline of a straight sf novel. Not a terribly interesting one, of itself, but it made for enough of a skeleton to hang the jokes from. Most of the truly bad parodies I've seen have failed to get this point.

Your characterization of your work as being like Adams but with only the jokes, not really the science fiction, doesn't inspire confidence in me.
posted by Zed at 9:40 AM on May 29

Sounds viable, if hard to pull off. If you fail to pull it off then what you will have will be a stinker. You could take Stephen Fries advice and (to paraphrase) make sure it works as a straight story, that way even if the comedy isn't working it's still enjoyable.
posted by Artw at 10:02 AM on May 29

OK, thanks everybody. There's not a single dud answer here, which is good going for AskMeFi :) I can't mark any answers as best because I was seeking opinions, but I'll definitely be looking into the authors mentioned.
posted by deeper red at 11:52 AM on May 29

At the risk of becoming the first dud answer-

Is it making you laugh? If so, it will probably make others laugh. Don't worry about anything else. And please update when/if you publish this. I am always looking for a book that will make me laugh.

Since everyone else is ignoring him, I shall state here and put in a plug for Sharpe. His stories are more outrageous than Adams', and would, I think be harder to translate into Stephen Frye's Straight Story than would anything by Adams.

But then, I think Frye, funny in person, is an utter snooze on the page. To each his own.

(For funny Sci Fi - and I hate Sci Fi - I like Red Dwarf.)
posted by IndigoJones at 1:43 PM on May 29