The Tolkien Joke and Meme thread

[Olorgando]

No, "Meme" was not coined by JRRT, it was coined by a scientist after JRRT's death.

 

[ArwenStar]

Ok

 

[Olorgando]

A short little quiz: who coined the term "Meme", in what year and in what book? 😛

Just bumping this little quiz up the ladder.

 

[Gothmog]

It was coined by Richard Dawkins in his book "The Selfish Gene"

 

[Olorgando]

It was coined by Richard Dawkins in his book "The Selfish Gene"

*nitpicking time!*
Two out of three, Gothmog. It was published in 1976.
I have a German translation (in case my wife wants to read it) of the 2006 30th anniversary edition, in paperback.

 

[Gothmog]

*nitpicking time!*
Two out of three, Gothmog. It was published in 1976.

As Meatloaf sings. "Two out of three ain't bad"

 

[Olorgando]

As Meatloaf sings. "Two out of three ain't bad"

If you say so. 😎
The only performance by Meat Loaf that I know of is what he did in the 1975 film (which I have on DVD, as well as a music CD performed by the original London cast) "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", "Hot Patootie (Bless My Soul)". But I rate "Sweet Transvestite" with Tim Curry on lead vocals as well "Time Warp", an ensemble song, at least as highly. 🎸

 

[Erestor Arcamen]

https://www.reddit.com/r/lotrmemes/comments/dehldk

 

[Alcuin]

 

[Olorgando]

View attachment 6131

I'm not sure where I read it, possibly in one of my Douglas Adams biographies, but didn't John Cleese of Monty Python (and "Fish named Wanda") fame have one iron-clad rule?
No puns! Oh dear, if he gets wind of this … 😆

 

[Miguel]

Reservoir Lords.

 

[Alcuin]

Ooh. Partners’ Committee at Quantum Fund.

 

[Olorgando]

Reservoir Lords.

I have an eight-film box (plus a ninth bonus DVD) of Quentin Tarantino's work, a 20th anniversary compilation counting from 1992's "Reservoir Dogs" (and including trailer clips for "Django Unchained". No question, his films are violent (and slapped with the maximum rating in Germany, FSK-18, basically X-rated, for this reason), but I find "True Romance" to be a really remarkable film - and the two "Kill Bill" films (counted as two) for other reasons. Real life as reported daily on the news is often far bloodier and more violent.

 

[Olorgando]

Reservoir Lords.

Ooh. Partners’ Committee at Quantum Fund.

Erm … do you know these guys personally, perhaps? 😆😆

 

[Aldarion]

Since I like both Lord of the Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire:

(Although to be fair, Tolkien also heavily based his lore on history and mythology).

 

[Erestor Arcamen]

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

For anyone who didn't catch the reference:

 

[Olorgando]

I'm certainly repeating myself here, though perhaps not (yet) on TTF.
JRRT was a language professional's professional. I think part of the snobbish rage directed at him by the ("modernist") "Literati" was that mostly at a subconscious level (I really don't like to get into this territory much, but exactly this bunch has misused it flagrantly, so it only serves them right!) they realized that if you piled all of them on one side of a balance scale, and then dropped JRRT all by himself on the other side - yeah, an interesting way to achieve escape velocity (and we would be rid of these pathetic whiners!)

(Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 😑)

Just look at his biography. In the 19 teens, he studied a course of philology which was dying out when his son Christopher followed in his footsteps, and Tom Shippey, too, a few years later. It is practically extinct now (maybe existing on a par with those studying to read Egyptian hieroglyphics). And he was very good at it (and as befits a genius, which I consider him to be, in some parts heretical, disturbing comfortably dusty orthodoxy). His 1936 lecture "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" sent Beowulf criticism through the mixer (some would claim that the field has since progressed - if so, most likely only because he "lobbed his bomb" into what was becoming fossilized).

He must have been something of a language genius. I have this vague memory of his being able to read in 14 languages (starting with classical Latin and Greek, then including some very "current" ones like Gothic, Old Norse (aka Old Icelandic, the Eddas), Anglo-Saxon (Old English, Beowulf), Middle English, Old German, Middle German (Nibelungenlied), some fragments at least of Finnish and Gaelic languages - and a few modern ones, too. Invented Quenya and Sindarin … 😲

So using a term common today, JRRT was a serious "nerd" in his field. But he was also the father of four children, born over a period of twelve years (1917 to 1929). Interested in old texts not just for what they may tell us about language changes, but also simply for the stories they told.
So after about 20 years of his working and re-working what was to become the "Silmarillion", what happens?

The Hobbit.

Here we arrive at a point that an awful lot of people have an awful lot of problems accepting: chance, luck. And perhaps one of those "right place, right time" situations.
The Hobbit alone? An exceptional children's book, yes. The Silmarillion? Lagging very far behind LoTR and TH in sales - but I'm guessing thousand of authors would be salivating like Pavlov's dogs at the prospect of selling (this is up to the year 2000) two million copies of their books.

LoTR. Combine the two. "Lightning from a blue (or clear?) sky", C.S. Lewis called it, and rightly so. None of the Hollywoodish cookie-cutterism in sight (so very much kudos to Stanley Unwin to risk taking a loss, as his son Rayner thought might be the pessimistic worst-case scenario - but kudos to him too, because he thought the risk to be worth it).
The chances of another author combining all of these factors has reached, if not surpassed, the winning chances of a single lottery ticket ...

 

[Olorgando]

For anyone who didn't catch the reference:

I do own the DVD, but it's been a while … 🤣

 

[Erestor Arcamen]

https://www.facebook.com/117857112944787/posts/137126467684518

https://www.reddit.com/r/Hobbit_Memes/comments/dikms8