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squire
Half-elven
Jul 12 2015, 4:39pm
Post #1 of 6
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Harvard Lampoon: "We're thinking of parodying your books." And Tolkien sent back this sweet, very quirky letter that said...
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I stumbled across a 2012 interview with Henry Beard, who co-wrote Bored of the Rings. Evidently he rarely gives interviews, so I guess maybe this had never come out before, but certainly I have never read anything from the authors about how or why they wrote our best-beloved turkey (discounting - imagine why - the explanation they give in the Preface to the book). One interesting point among many: the authors wrote Tolkien to "ask permission".
Here's the relevant excerpt:
Mike Sacks. Can you tell me how Bored of the Rings came about?
Henry Beard: That was Doug and me. After we had done the Playboy parody, we got too ambitious and we did a Life parody. Which is very beautiful and amazing, but it had a few problems. The first was, Life magazine was huge. Physically huge. The volume of paper we needed was staggering. The cost of printing it was huge. We lost a little money. Not a lot, but it was an embarrassment. So I convinced Doug, who had not read Lord of the Rings, and who had correctly thought it was kind of a stupid thing, that we should write a parody of it. He wrote about 85% of it. I remember sitting across from Doug at a desk in the fraternity we were both in. He wrote as fast as you could type. He wrote 35 or 40 words per minute. And it was hysterical. I mean, it was just unbelievable. That was Doug, that was pure Doug.
We were able to sell it to Ballantine, the publisher that originally put out the paperback edition of the Lord of the Rings. And again being careful, we sent a letter to J. R. R. Tolkien saying, We’re thinking of parodying your books. What do you think?” And he sent back this sweet, very quirky letter that said, “Well, I don’t really know why you’d want to bother, but if you’re silly enough to want to do it then that’s just okay with me. Go ahead.”
The head of Ballantine, Ian Ballantine, basically picked up the manuscript with a pair of fireplace tongs. It was noxious to him. He wasn’t thrilled about it. Meanwhile, over the years, that book has helped support the Harvard Lampoon. Simon & Schuster will be publishing yet another edition this fall. - from an interview published on comedy site splitsider.com
The whole interview (link above) is really good, especially if you're a fan of Beard and the National Lampoon, as I am.
squire online:
RR Discussions: The Valaquenta, A Shortcut to Mushrooms, and Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit
Lights! Action! Discuss on the Movie board!: 'A Journey in the Dark'. and 'Designing The Two Towers'.
Footeramas: The 3rd & 4th TORn Reading Room LotR Discussion and NOW the 1st BotR Discussion too! and "Tolkien would have LOVED it!"
squiretalk introduces the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: A Reader's Diary
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Pandallo
Rivendell
Jul 14 2015, 2:50am
Post #2 of 6
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When I read this part of the passage...
"So I convinced Doug, who had not read Lord of the Rings, and who had correctly thought it was kind of a stupid thing, that we should write a parody of it. "
I am fine with parody, but parody is often made by those who have an understanding of what they are parodying. This shows a lack of respect and care for the original product in the first place. I kind of wish Tolkien would have flat out said "No." and he may have had he known these two were just trying to make some quick money without any respect to the source material.
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squire
Half-elven
Jul 15 2015, 2:30pm
Post #3 of 6
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I read Beard's comment to mean that he and Kenney thought the 1960s 'Tolkien craze' was the 'stupid thing' - that the book was being taken way too seriously by faddish would-be hippies and New Left enthusiasts. In my opinion, Bored of the Rings is a first class parody because the authors do understand and latch on so cleanly to Tolkien's most obvious weakness: his combination of high mythical conventions with the tropes of the modern-day generic adventure story. To spoof the richness of his imagined world that forms the inimitable background of the story, moreover, they mobilize an amazingly in-depth array of the chintziest aspects of American society from the previous half-century.
As for 'respect and care' for the original property, that would be fatal to any parodist, surely. Yet BotR, compared to other spoofs of Tolkien that I've read, is generally light-hearted, intelligent, very funny, and always on the brink, rather than in the pit, of mere vulgarity. That 'this turkey', as they put it, was written on the basis of a single read-through on Kenney's part, as we learn here, makes it all the more remarkable.
From Tolkien's response, it seems he recognized that a good parody could only highlight the popularity of his work, and a bad parody would quickly sink into oblivion. I think it's wonderful that he said, "Go ahead!"
It reminds me of the story of Aaron Copland being approached by Keith Emerson about Emerson, Lake and Palmer doing a rock-sound cover of 'Fanfare for the Common Man'. If I remember, Copland said yes but only if they did it their way, rather than trying to copy or respect his classical style.
squire online:
RR Discussions: The Valaquenta, A Shortcut to Mushrooms, and Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit
Lights! Action! Discuss on the Movie board!: 'A Journey in the Dark'. and 'Designing The Two Towers'.
Footeramas: The 3rd & 4th TORn Reading Room LotR Discussion and NOW the 1st BotR Discussion too! and "Tolkien would have LOVED it!"
squiretalk introduces the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: A Reader's Diary
= Forum has no new posts. Forum needs no new posts.
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Ettelewen
Rohan
Jul 15 2015, 10:48pm
Post #4 of 6
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I read it with a different emphasis:
"So I convinced Doug, who had not read Lord of the Rings, and who had correctly thought it was kind of a stupid thing, that we should write a parody of it."
Meaning that he thought that writing a parody of it would be a stupid (or silly) thing. Funny how we can all read passages and take away such different impressions of the writers' intent.
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dernwyn
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Jul 18 2015, 1:15pm
Post #5 of 6
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That writing the parody was the "stupid thing", which is why Doug Kenney had to be "convinced" to do it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I desired dragons with a profound desire"
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dernwyn
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Jul 18 2015, 1:23pm
Post #6 of 6
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Thank you for finding this! So Doug Kenney does a quick read-through, I'm assuming, and then with it fresh in his mind scribbles off an amazing insightful parody. That is sheer genius.
Of course, towards the end of BotR you can see the writers running out of steam, and that may be where most of Beard's work is located.
I would love to see that letter from Tolkien, but probably no one has saved it. I wonder if Tolkien made a copy of it, and it's one that has been hidden away by the Estate, to never see the light of day?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I desired dragons with a profound desire"
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