Thoughts go for some reason, to the earlier books of S.M. Stirling’s “Emberverse” speculative-fiction series (which IMO started fairly OK, but quite soon went down paths totally not to my taste): in 1998, mysterious highly-powerful agencies change the laws of physics in ways which suddenly take Earth back some 800 years in technology, with no advancing therefrom – resulting in the death over the ensuing months, of some 95% of mankind worldwide.
The books focus on various groups in the Pacific North-West of the US, which survive the catastrophe and manage to continue surviving. A member of one of said groups, is a young woman who even before the catastrophe, is reckoned an oddball – something between “off on another planet”, and “batshit crazy”: the catastrophe, and traumas which she undergoes in the course thereof, intensify her oddities. One of same, is that she is the pretty-well-ultimate Tolkien enthusiast – she has not only read every word written by the Master, but she seems genuinely to believe that his writings are literal historical truth; and she accords to Tolkien’s works, reverence comparable to that which an ardent fundamentalist Christian would hold toward the Scriptures. In many respects, the world after things dramatically change suits her better, than things had done previously : she is accomplished in pre-gunpowder fighting skills, and sets up under her leadership, a band of self-styled “Rangers”, dedicated to combating crime and trying to keep the roads safe and open for law-abiding travellers. (Their operational language is Elvish, which any would-be recruit to the band must learn.)
With many pre-1998 modes of entertainment out of the picture, seemingly for ever; “dead-tree” reading material becomes highly valued, and many who had hitherto read little or not at all, become keen readers in what leisure time they have. The author has some fun here, with the situation in which in this milieu, both LOTR and BOTR are around: he depicts various characters enjoying one or the other or both. Including – re the above-described eccentric lady – along the lines of a character warning a couple of others, who are “Bored” fans: “for heaven’s sake, don’t let Astrid know that you own Bored of the Rings – she’d whack your heads off and take pleasure in doing it, for your daring to enjoy reading blasphemous filth like that”.
I finally got around to watching the last Hobbit movie last night. Could the dwarf leaders riding into battle on pigs and sheep possibly have been a nod to Bored of the Rings, and the mounts of the Narcs and the Riders of Roi-Tan respectively?
I first read both in High School, and remember having trouble keeping track of what was going on in LOTR due to the huge amounts of names and places casually tossed around but not actually making an appearance. Especially in the Two Towers, where it seemed like 90% of the people who lived in Middle Earth for the past 1000 years are mentioned by name.
Bored of the Rings kind of served as almost a “Cliff’s Notes” and helped me get a better understanding of the overall plot without getting too bogged down in details. I also found it hilarious, and still do to this day. The more familiar I became with LOTR, the funnier BOTR was.
I read all them books when I was a kid and all my children read them as well before the movies came out. So we watched the movies with some neighbors and friends, inevitably during a very dramatic scene me and the four boys would bust out laughing, things like “Italian wedding cake” or Dildo faking an epileptic seizure … serious laughing like falling on the floor and tears pouring out our eyes laughing …
I guess in hindsight I should have been embarrassed …
I thought BOTR was the funniest book ever written, although a nod to Catch-22 is in order.
I never hear of Villanova without thinking of the phrase “cruel runes”.
I’m on Team: Loved Both.
To the poster above who likened BOTR to a bad Saturday Night Live sketch…an interesting connection, there – Harvard/National Lampoon is kind of a spiritual godfather of SNL. Michael O’Donoghue went from NatLamp to SNL’s first writing team; many performers on National Lampoon’s Radio Dinner album were in the first set of Not Ready for Prime Time players (Belushi, for one).
I read The Hobbit and LOTR as a teen and Silmarillion in my early twenties. Enjoyed them, but can’t recite them from heart. I started on BOTR sometime in my mid twenties. Didn’t consider it worth finishing. I find bits funny, but it doesn’t hold up as a book.
