The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

The second book in the series by Douglas Adams dealing with Dirk Gently. It focuses mainly on Norse mythology, a woman who was just trying to visit her boyfriend, and an Act of God. Dirk wonders, which God? And what was he/she doing at Terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport?

It also suggests that the 9/10ths of the human mind supposedly unused has penguins in it. Between them, Douglas and Linus have a lot to answer for.

The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul is that state which one's soul enters at about 3 o'clock on a Sunday afternoon, when one has had all the baths that one can usefully have that day and no matter how long one stares at an article in the paper one will never actually read it, nor use the revolutionary new pruning technique it describes.

       --Douglas Adams (paraphrased)

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Update 2001/08/01: Ah, I see the esteemed flamingweasel has placed the correct quotation here. So I suppose I'd better actually justify the existence of my writeup here.

In all likelihood, the Long Dark Teatime of the Soul is actually a reference to an old medaeval belief known as the long dark night of the soul. It was, basically, a period of bad luck or other suffering which a person would be subjected to prior to some sort of divine experience in their life -- being spoken to by God, or what have you. Which fits with the plot of the book fairly well.

In the end, it was the Sunday afternoons he couldn't cope with, and that terrible listlessness that starts to set in about 2:55, when you know you've taken all the baths that you can usefully take that day, that however hard you stare at any given paragraph in the newspaper you will never actually read it, or use the revolutionary new pruning technique it describes, and that as you stare at the clock the hands will move relentlessly on to four o'clock, and you will enter the long dark teatime of the soul.

--Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything

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one: Mogwai → "end," from Ten Rapid
two: Aerial M → "Vivea," from the October EP
three: Tortoise → "Onions Wrapped in Rubber," from their self titled album
four: Kinski → "Spacelaunch for Frenchie," from Be Gentle With the Warm Turtle
five: R.L. Burnside → "Come On In (Part 2)," from Come On In
six: DJ Krush and Toshinori Kondo → "MU-GETSU," from KI-OKU
seven: Portishead → "Humming," from their self titled album
eight: Yo La Tengo remixed by Nobukazu Takemura → "Danelectro 2," from the Danelectro EP
nine: Beck deconstructed by Steev Hise → "Stuck Together, Falling Apart," from Deconstructing Beck
ten: Mogwai → "helicon 2," from Ten Rapid

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part of weekend sound track, yo. back...or forth?