How did The Lord of the pitfalls ?
Before discussing the novel, a brief summary of the context in which it was born:
the Harvard Lampoon is a college fraternity founded in 1876 in the homonymous university, and is involved from its very origins of humor. In the 60 starts to be interested in the genre of parody, following the theory that you can use a commercial phenomenon without getting entangled in the maze of copyright, making it a comic or satirical version (so much so that in the introduction states that the two writers, when began the work, first you get a copy of the legislation on international crimes press). Bored of the Rings not born as a tribute to the work of Professor T. disinterested, but as a way to make some 'easy money to put back in the sixth then critical financial situation of the Harvard Lampoon. Written by Henry N. Beard and Douglas C. Kenney during the winter of 1968 and published in the U.S. in the spring of 1969, The Lord of the cross he (henceforth ISDT ) almost immediately became a cult selling over two million copies, but failed to go beyond national borders. This happened a few decades later, when the first chapter of Peter Jackson's movie trilogy made upsurge around the world Tolkien mania with everything that entails, including parodies. And here also ISDT back in the limelight and began to circle the world in 2001 is published for the first time in Britain, where he climbed all the charts and has eight reprints in a few months. The following year it was the turn of France, where he recorded an equally remarkable success, and then Italy: arrive in bookstores in November 2002 to work Fanucci Editore, and after a month is already being reprinted. Currently in our country ISDT is now in its fourth edition.
Plot
Dildo Babbins, the owner of the ring, is organizing a party for all the inhabitants of Cloaca, the country of sghorbit, and during the preparations Gondolfo the magician arrives to inform him that the ring had stolen years prior to invaluable Pollum is the ring of Salmon, the dark lord who now wants back ... After the party, where you sghorbit strafogano in an animal in
, Dildo entrusted the ring to his nephew broth, driven (or forced?) It is in Great Vagina done to destroy the mountain in the flames. Is accompanied by his undertaking (in) Spam and faithful servant twins Mexy Belzebuck and Pepsi, but the road will also help other people, including balengo lobster, talcum powder warrior, a dwarf and deformed Girmi ' Lerciolas ambiguous elf. Comment
As Peter Jackson said in an interview on the funny side of Tolkien, it is not hard to do satire on a subject such as The Lord of the Rings where prevalent types in tights, trees that talk, elves from sexuality ambiguous, midgets fighting a giant eyeball and a number of situations, however, easily ridiculed, as the fact that powerful sorcerers and wise people sent a poor inexperienced to throw the ring into a volcano close to the absolute master of evil. By reading the summary above - or if you have read the book, of course - you'll notice what kind of comedy is: quite simple and often vulgar, as easy enough to tear a smile to the reader. The comic elements on which the writers have insisted particularly are fairly intuitive: the distortion of the positive nature of the characters, who lose all their good qualities to be crooks, cowards, far from being selfless and loyal to their mates, as well as bad , physically deformed and dressed in bad taste (they are not spared even the antagonists, reduced to the poor idiots), the contamination of a vaguely medieval world with more or less modern elements, such as heaters, hamburgers, sneakers, modern explosives and drugs of various kinds (of course all the technology at stake is pulled firm to the sixties, the period in which was written
or the book), the ridicule of chivalry and courtly which is full of the original (just think the way he greets Girmi Soup: "may the and your hemorrhoids shrink without surgery "), a linguistic reworking of the names of characters and locations, among other things beautifully made and adapted in Italian translation by the Collective Self Rumente and finally mention some elements of classical language and history of Anglo-Saxon literary tradition, such as epic poem Beowulf. All followed a pattern that does not differ particularly from the original, at least initially, because subsequent events the Fellowship of the Ring have been selected much more, and occupy half of the book. But we must not forget that Douglas Kenney and have made this parody, first of all to line their own pockets, and thus was not in their interest to create a work of satire that made intelligent, the very nature of the Harvard Lampoon goliardic this entailed. So much so that Tolkien himself read this book, and claimed he did not understand the irony of the text. But probably there was no irony to understand, it was decided to parody ISDA not to highlight his weak arguments (those mentioned at the beginning of this comment, that the various exaggerations), but for its success commercial. It is therefore a poor work destined for the recycling of paper making up? This is the opinion of the Tolkien purists (take a trip to the net and read the comments in ISDT : "Woe to those who TOUCHES TOLKIEN", "those who dared to desecrate the Lord of the Rings!?", "AL ROGO "," SCANDAL! "), but personally I think that it is not so bad, this book, despite all the criticism was the first attempt to satirize the work of Tolkien, and has had great success in the era U.S., as here in Europe when he arrived in 2001, and also there will be a reason. There are even those who have repented for having bought it, and I must say that I was one of those at the first reading of the book, because frankly I expected better.
This probably happened because at first glance looked like a mere vulgar distortion in the original, but going on to read the story increasingly acquired its own autonomy, and I began to read it for himself, and not constantly comparing it with Tolkien books and films. For a second reading then I have had no discards, and I liked the most. But leaving aside my personal opinions, it must be said however that some of the authors found, though rare in the text, are really fun. In conclusion, what can we say? Well, certainly if you're a purist or are not Tolkien sympathetic in dealing with some of the parodies' bold as this can do even less to read ISDT , but if you're willing to make some easy laughter, seeing as it was a parody in the sixties or simply can not read the Lord of the Rings be too long or however you want to read a bit 'alternative then you should get it and read it. 
