Talk:Douglas Adams

Section on Dawkins' book

I changed a couple of things, and lost the page reference because it changes from publication to publication (duh). The previous wikipedian wrote that it was on page 117, but the quote is on page 142 on my paperback edition. The quote is from the chapter "Why there almost certainly is no God", about two pages into "National selection as a consiousness-raiser" just after the first block-quote from the Salmon of Doubt. Matt Tait.

Influences/Influenced

I came in here via the category Pages with broken reference names and in tracking down the problem found that the first named citation was in the 'Influences' section of the Writer InfoBox. I've fixed that but I noticed Influences/Influenced in the Infobox weren't displaying and found that it was removed from the template on 4 Aug 2013[1] after a discussion on the Template Talk page.[2] Given that it was redundant I removed those as well but there was some info it it that may be useful elsewhere in the article. Influences:

• P. G. Wodehouse
• Lewis Carroll
• Kurt Vonnegut
• Monty Python
• Tony Hancock
• Robert Sheckley
• Kenneth Grahame
• A. A. Milne

Influenced:

• Eoin Colfer
• Richard Dawkins
• Greg Rucka

References

Veganism project? Is this a miscategorisation?

I noticed in this edit by MaynardClark that this page was added to the WikiProject Veganism and Vegetarianism. I'm quite surprised, since the article makes no mention of Douglas Adams having a plant-based diet.

Was this miscategorised? Should the tag be removed from this talk page? — JKVeganAbroad (talk) 14:20, 2 July 2021 (UTC)

Julian F.V. Vincent in Chapter 2 of Food_Materials_Science, The Composite Structure of Biological Tissue Used for Food, pp. 18-19, cites Adams as helping facilitate a conversation that may have taken a generation away from meat eating.

If we read about JFV Vincent, we read that:

"Julian Vincent, a biologist with a long-standing interest in engineering, is Honorary Professor of Biomimetics in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Bath University and Special Professor in the Faculty of the Built Environment at Nottingham University."

This area of biomimetics may lead us to a scientific revolution in materials that are used for food, clothing, 'fiber', and even objects of research (e.g. organ on a chip) as research by the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston.

Douglas Adams referred more than a few times to meatless foods and he has been cited more than a few times in writings about the topic. cf. https://vegetalmatters.com/tag/douglas-adams/

"It is impossible to meet an animal and not care about how it is living. Distancing ourselves from the process and claiming ignorant bliss just perpetuates the persistence of unsustainable production practices and overconsumption."

Several Videos have discussed the topic of how Adams thought out the species' relationship with matter in the habits of eating.

In terms of animals, a self-described 'radical atheist' may only (mostly) have been interested in the higher apes, although his mother lived in an animal shelter run by her parents (see article). Surely Peter Singer didn't rush to embrace veganism (though now he has a consequentialist turn') on the topic and may not align with its standards at all times, (when he is offered something else at a meeting that claims to be honoring him)

However, IMO the categorization depends upon the scope of the project. Perhaps the article could be adjusted to reflect that conversation, or perhaps the tag could/should be removed.

"...making a meal of the issues (not the tissues) is exactly what we should be doing..." MaynardClark (talk) 14:35, 2 July 2021 (UTC)

Douglas Adams was not a vegetarian or vegan in his personal life, nor was he an activist for plant-based diets or wrote about them in depth. The criteria for the WikiProject is that there needs to be reliable sources for biographies indicating that the person is associated with veganism or vegetarianism or has written about these topics, in this case with Douglas Adams the sourcing fails (Reddit and vegetalmatters are not reliable for Wikipedia). The references you cited are not reliable unfortunately. It seems he made some passing comments on the subject (a single conversation is not good evidence either way) so it isn't enough to justify the WikiProject inclusion. Psychologist Guy (talk) 10:38, 7 July 2021 (UTC)

Thank you for those clarifications. I think a few passing comments on the ethics of animals aren't really sufficient enough, since almost everybody seems to have an opinion on the subject. I'm going to remove the tag for now, since there's no strong association of vegetarianism or veganism with Adams — the link is weak at best. — JKVeganAbroad (talk) 14:02, 13 July 2021 (UTC)

References

Contradicting statements regarding death

Within the article, it is stated the Douglas died at both 49 and 59. This needs urgent revision and fact checking 49.199.242.215 (talk) 02:33, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

I see where Belson is described as dying at 59, but I don't see where Adams is. Can you clarify? Larry Hockett (Talk) 02:41, 13 December 2021 (UTC)