Dirk Gently: Difference between revisions

{{tropelist}} -> {{franchisetropes}}
m (Mass update links)
({{tropelist}} -> {{franchisetropes}})
 
(7 intermediate revisions by 3 users not shown)
Line 1:
{{tropework}}
''[[Dirk Gentlys Holistic Detective Agency (Literature)|Dirk GentlysGently's Holistic Detective Agency]]'' and ''[[The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul (Literature)|The Long Dark Tea -Time of the Soul]]'' are the two books written by [[Douglas Adams]] (of ''[[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy]]'' fame) starring the character Dirk Gently. A third novel under the working title ''[[The Salmon of Doubt]]'' was in the works, but its publication was prevented by [[Author Existence Failure|Adams' death]].
 
Dirk is a small-scale con artist whose latest scheme is working as a "Holistic Detective", who believes in the "fundamental interconnectedness of all things" and how that means that ''anything'' might prove useful in solving the ''whole'' cases of his clients -- which, the way he sees it, means that he can do anything he likes, even take a three-week tropical vacation, and still charge it to the client as an expense. Of course, by [[Finagle's Law]], ''somehow'' every mundane little job he starts off working on in each novel is somehow actually connected to the main plot, and ''he's'' the one who has to solve everything.
 
Both books were adapted for [[The BBC|BBC radio]] in 2007, starring Harry Enfield as Dirk. An ongoing BBC TV adaptation, ''[[Dirk Gently (TV series)|Dirk Gently]]'', stars [[Green Wing|Stephen Mangan]].
----
=== Individual entries: ===
 
'''Dirk Gently works with their own pages:'''
* ''[[Dirk Gentlys Holistic Detective Agency (Literature)|Dirk Gentlys Holistic Detective Agency]]''
 
* ''[[The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul (Literature)|The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul]]''
* ''[[Dirk Gentlys Holistic Detective Agency (Literature)|Dirk GentlysGently's Holistic Detective Agency]]''
* ''[[The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul (Literature)|The Long Dark Tea -Time of the Soul]]''
* ''[[The Salmon of Doubt]]''
 
{{franchisetropes}}
=== This series as a whole provides examples of: ===
 
<!-- %% -->
<!-- %% Please place YMMV material on the YMMV tab as indicated by -->
<!-- %% a red dot next to the entry in preview. -->
<!-- %% -->
* [[Author Existence Failure]]: Midway through the writing of the third book. After Adams's death, parts of the unfinished manuscript were published along with various other writings extracted from his Macintosh in ''[[The Salmon of Doubt]]''.
* [[Bavarian Fire Drill]]: Dirk's favorite way of getting places he shouldn't be.
* [[Chekhov's Armoury]]: Dirk isn't wrong--''everything'' that happens in these books is ultimately important. The ''Dirk Gently'' books embody this trope really because they are all about the interconnectedness of everything. Chekov's Armoury isn't just a device Adams used, it's what he based the whole book on.
* [[Laser-Guided Karma]]: Whatever Dirk claims to believe in order to extract cash from gullible people invariably turns out to really be true, but always in such a way that he looks bad, sometimes in such a way that he suffers physical or emotional trauma, and never in such a way that he gets the money.
* [[Not -So -Phony Psychic]]: As described above under [[Laser-Guided Karma]]; Dirk has twice [[Phony Psychic|posed as a psychic]], been uncannily right both times, and got arrested for it the first time. He now spends a lot of time insisting to people who were there that he's ''not'' psychic. Usually they don't believe him and his reputation from the ''first'' incident often precedes him.
* [[Occult Detective]]
* [[Perpetual Poverty]]: Dirk never seems to have much money -- a [[Running Gag]] in ''Holistic Detective Agency'' is his secretary quitting over not getting paid -- and most certainly never gets paid by ''his'' clients. He manages to stay in his office, flat, etc, through arranging the situation so that it would be more inconvenient to actually eject him or force him to pay than just let him be and hope that he'll pay some day.
Line 29 ⟶ 27:
=== Adaptations with their own trope page include: ===
 
* ''[[Dirk Gently (TV series)|Dirk Gently]]'' (BBC TV series)
 
=== Other adaptations of this series provide examples of: ===
 
* [[Shout -Out]]: The BBC radio adaptions of the novels re-use several sound effects from ''[[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy]]'', and include a reference to the Sirius Cybernetic Corporation.
 
{{Needs More Tropes}}
 
{{reflist}}
Line 39:
[[Category:Science Fiction Literature]]
[[Category:Dirk Gently]]
[[Category:Trope]][[Category:Pages with commentworking tagsWikipedia tabs]]