John D. Rateliff's Blog, page 20

Pratchett and Hollywood: A Cautionary Tale

So, I've now finished up Rob Wilkins' TERRY PRATCHETT: A LIFE IN FOOTNOTES. It's very well done, but unsparing: it takes us up to Pratchett's final days as bit by bit he slipped away via Alzheimer's, right up to that last day when he died, his wife holding one hand and his daughter the other, with his cat Pongo at this feet. Be warned that if you've been a caregiver for a fatally ill friend or relative this part may hit hard. I'm glad I read the book, not least because I learned a lot about how Pratchett worked. And it confirmed my feeling, as a long-time reader, that his later books (roughly the final quarter of his career) really were different from the Pratchett whose works I had enjoyed and admired, as dementia made it harder for him to write and more dependent upon assistants.

On a less grim note, the book contains revealing accounts of Pratchett's two disastrous encounters with Hollywood. The first was with SKG (DreamWorks), who wanted to make a major-studio film, directed by Sam Raimi, of one of the Tiffany Aching books. Everything went swimmingly until Pratchett read the script, causing him to explode over their having transformed Pratchett's apprentice witch into a 'disney princess' and cancel the project.*

The second time was when Disney wanted to make a film of MORT.** Again everything went swimmingly, until Pratchett learned just how much he wd be signing away: 

DISNEY

It emerged that if Disney deemed the film a success --the definition of which could apparently even encompass the film making a billion-dollar loss***-- they would be able to exercise a right to all the other Discworld books involving Mort's characters, which is to say anything with the character of Death in it, or, if you will, every DIscworld book apart  from The Wee Free Men and Snuff. They  could also exercise the right to any future use of those characters. And they would also own the right to the use of all of Mort's settings, including Unseen University and the entire city of Ankh-Morpork-- again, both in the past and in the future. In other worlds, by making this one film, Disney would come, in effect, to own DIscworld, both as it stood and as it was still to come.  

Someone involved in the negotiations mentions 

that Terry would be getting a mere two per cent on all merchandising rights, including any spin-off books --of which there would be many-- with no creative control residing with him

 

Another says I knew it was a deal that could have made Terry a lot of money, but I was also convinced that he would have hated what Disney would have done to his stories and to his characters. I felt in my bones that it was a Faustian bargain, one that Terry would live to regret massively.

Wilkins himself describes the project imploding at a meeting at which you actually saw the deal fall apart in front of your eyes  . . . melted like butter in a pan

 

 Pratchett ultimately found it easier and much more satisfying to work with British tv,**** who filmed several of his works. But the whole experience is eye-opening in that it gives an idea of just how much could be at stake in the negotiations over Tolkien film rights. 

--John R.

*"The feisty, self-determining, intellectually quick Tiffany Aching, had become, in Terry's words, 'a kind of Disney princess, wishing on a star for her dream to come true.

'Get Sam Raimi on the phone' said Terry"

 **One of my personal favorites among the series; I was pleased to learn that it's Gaiman's favorite.

***this wd, I assume, have been an allusion to 'Hollywood Accounting'

****and also BBC radio

Tolkien is a Gateway Author

So, one more point Pratchett made, as recounted by his biographer, is the experience so many readers of Tolkien find in THE LORD OF THE RINGS  not as an end in itself but as leading them on to other books and kind of books. 

 

"Terry was, of course, by no means alone in spending some of his young years regarding The Lord of the Rings as right up there among the greatest achievements of humanity. But for Terry it seems to have been not just about what the book itself was, but also about what that book opened up beyond itself, the way it sent him to whole other thus far untravelled regions of the library: the mythology section, the ancient history shelves, the history shelves, the archaeology shelves . . . It was an earthquake that sent cracks running off across the surface in multiple directions." 

Different folk's experiences differ,* but to move from discovering Tolkien into searching for 'more like this' is another hallmark of JRRT's impact of his audience.  It was certainly my experience. I read Alexander and Le Guin and Eddison as I shifted from science fiction to fantasy because I was looking for 'more books like Tolkien'.  Tolkien also lead me to BEOWULF and SIR GAWAIN and THE FAERIE QUEENE, Grahame  and Carroll, and so much more (my reading list is well over four thousand books in the last forty-seven years, and counting).

I also read his fellow inklings: Christopher (the first book I read by Christopher being THE SAGA OF KING HEIDREK THE WISE) and CSL and Barfield and Ch Wms.  Not to mention books about these authors and their works, starting with Ready and Carter and Kocher.

Perhaps we shd look more into Tolkien's extraordinary grip on those of his readers he captures.

 --John R.

--current reading: Pratchett biography (nearing the end)

*see for example Paul W's comment on my preceding post

Pratchett Discovers THE LORD OF THE RINGS (1961-62)

So, Pratchett had been a great admirer of Tolkien's work long before he had written him the fan letter quoted in my previous post. It's been my experience that everyone who falls for Tolkien remembers v. clearly just how he or she first came to read Tolkien-- an origin story, if you will* Here is his.

*Marquette's Special Collection in fact has an ongoing program in which they ask visitors who are interested to briefly describe how they came to discover Tolkien and what most draws them to his work.

Pratchett Discovers Tolkien

. . . late in 1961, when Terry was thirteen, one of the Beaconsfield librarians pushed across the table . . . three volumes, and said something to the effect of 'I think this might be of interest to you.'

 

'That damn book was a half-brick in the path of the bicycle of my life,' Terry said later of The Lord of the Rings.  Tolkien's great work wasn't exactly hot off the press at this point: those three volumes had been published across a year, from 1954 to 1955, and completed even earlier, in 1949. Other kids at school had already been there and the book had already been a topic of conversation. So, no particular urgency, then.  Terry set it aside for a couple of weeks -- until New Year's Eve, in fact, when he had the task of babysitting for some friends of his parents. And then, alone in the sitting room of someone else's house, he opened up volume one.

 

The presence of a map in the endpapers instantly struck the young Terry as a good sign. A map at the front of a book was often an indication of quality in the product, wasn't it? It promised you were going places. He wasn't to be disappointed. Years later he could still recall the sixties sofa he was sitting on, the bareness of a slightly chilly front room (the heating eventually went off -- a notorious babysitting hazard), and the sense, as he read, that 'at the edges of the carpet, the forest began. I remember the light as green, coming through the trees. I have never since then so truly had the experience of being inside a story.'

 

He read through the evening. Midnight arrived, followed by 1962, but Terry was still reading. Then, when the parents returned from their party, he went home and continued to read in bed until 3.00 a.m. He woke up on New Year's Day with the book on his chest, refound his place and carried on reading. And later that night, somewhere between, by Terry's calculations, 23 and 25 hours after starting, he had finished all three volumes. And when he reached the end of volume three, he turned back to the beginning of volume one and started again.

 

--That feeling of being caught up in a fictional world shows secondary belief to have come into play. And the looping ouroboros of starting all over again is a hallmark we find over and over among first-time LotR, myself among them.

 In short, at that moment back in 1961-62, without even knowing it Pratchett became One of Us.

--John R.

Pratchett's Letter to Tolkien

 So, we've long know that in his youth Terry Pratchett, who wd become the first person knighted for writing fantasy, wrote a fan letter to J. R. R. Tolkien, the man who more than any other invented the genre. It was a pleasure, therefore, to find the whole letter (Pratchett to Tolkien, November 22nd 1967) printed in full in the new Pratchett biography  

Dear Professor Tolkien;

 

This is simply a letter of appreciation. I have just read 'Smith of Wootton Major'. To tell the truth, when I ordered it I expected a light tale akin to 'Farmer Giles of Ham' --instead I read and re-read it with awe.

 

I don't know what there was in it that moved me to write this letter. It was something that 'The Lord of the Rings' never possessed except in very short measure, that feeling of recognition. You said something in 'Smith' which I hope I grasped, and there was a feeling almost of recognition. An odd feeling of grief overcame me when I read it. I cannot explain my feelings any clearer. It was like hearing a piece of misic from way back, except that it was nearer poetry by Graves's definition. Thank you very much for writing it.

 

Now I await the Silmarilion,  [Nt1]

Your faithfully,

Terence Pratchett.

 

Wilkins does not print Tolkien's reply, no doubt for reasons of copyright, but he does tell us that Tolkien's reply was brief, just four sentences, in which JRRT noted that this was the first fan mail he had received re. SWM. 

'You evidently feel about the story very much as I do myself. I can hardly say more.' [Nt2]

We already knew the main sentence in Tolkien's reply ('You evidently feel . . .') from its being quoted in SCULL & HAMMOND, JRRT COMPANION & GUIDE: CHRONOLOGY page 746. The short following sentence ('I can hardly . . .') was previously unpublished, so far as I can tell.

--John R.

current reading: TERRY PRATCHETT: A LIFE IN FOOTNOTES, by Rob Wilkins, December 2022

 

Notes— the slight misspelling of Silmarilon (sic) is Pratchett's]

It's Tolkien's Birthday

So, today is January 3rd, also known as Tolkien's birthday -- his 131st, if I'm doing the math right.  How very Old Tookish of him.

--John R

It's Public Domain Day

So, today I found out there are people who celebrate 'Public Domain Day' -- the day each year upon which literary, musical, and cinematic works slip into the Public Domain. For a quick summary of the issues involved, see The Guardian's article in today's issue:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/01/something-is-not-right-with-copyright-this-public-domain-day-conan-doyle

For a detailed look, here's a site devoted to the issue (Center for the Study of the Public Domain) which has much more information:

https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2023/

This is of importance to Tolkien studies because even in his lifetime Tolkien's work was famously caught up in the distinctions in copyright law between the UK and the US. There are several good articles describing the difficulties during Tolkien's lifetime and subsequent years, which eventually ended with a ruling that LotR was indeed firmly in copyright, but I'm not aware of any piece which sums up the current status of JRRT's works in relation to the Sonny Bono Law as currently emended. 

Such a piece wd at a minimum have to take into account the interrelation between date of publication, the date of author's death, plus the posthumous protection extending to another 75 years (later expanded to 95 years).  Thus setting aside complications THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (originally published 1954) plus the ninety-five year extension wd stay under copyright until 2049, or another twenty-seven years. There are Tolkien scholars working in the field right now who shd live to see that.

Of course I'm sure there are plenty of additional factors that cd affect its status one way or another. And the law can change --indeed, the law and interpretation of the law has changed several times and cd change again. We'll see.

--John R.

--current reading: TERRY PRATCHETT: A LIFE IN FOOTNOTES (2022)

--other new arrival: Don King's biography of Warnie Lewis (December 2022)

 

'A Solemn Thought': JRRT & The Canon

So, here's a quote I was looking for, as it turned out in the wrong place, which I thought I'd share. 

Writing of the author of SIR GAWAIN & THE GREEN KNIGHT, Tolkien says

Of this author, nothing is now known.*  But he was a major poet of his day; and it is a solemn thought that his name is now forgotten, a reminder of the great gaps of ignorance over which we now weave the thick webs of our literary history. But something to the purpose may still be learned of this writer from his works.

I thought this came from the Tolkien/Gordon edition of SGGK (1925).

Turns out it appears in JRRT's SGGK translation (1975), Introduction p.13.

  *except that he probably wrote three other works: PEARL, PATIENCE, and PURITY.

Of these three, I strongly recommend PATIENCE, a hilarious retelling of the Jonah story.

--John R.

Shades of Svalbard

 

So, I was reminded of Philip Pullman's Svalbard, home of his armoured bears who have their own city, by these photos of an old abandoned outpost up in the arctic.* Who knew that polar bears wd gather into a bear colony, given the right conditions? I suppose the buildings serve all the functions of a cave: roof, walls, and so forth.

Anyway, the piece has such striking photography that I thought I'd share. 

--John R.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/31/polar-bears-move-into-abandoned-arctic-weather-station-photo-essay

*in NORTHERN LIGHTS (a.k.a. THE GOLDEN COMPASS), part one of HIS DARK MATERIALS

Catch, Neuter, Release

 So, thanks to Janice for sharing with me the link to the story about the two women arrested for removing strays from a city part:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOMtj...

This story is appalling on multiple levels

--the arrest of an eighty-four year old woman and her sixties-ish companion

--sending out three prowl cars to handle what shd have been a minor dispute, which sends the signal that the police were looking for a fight and deliberately escalated the encounter

--it's a bad sign to hear the arresting officer lying about the encounter as he reports in at the end of the tape

--that what the women were doing is actually the best way to cut down on feral cat colonies; it's at the heart of the startling decline in stray cat populations, which in turn has helped make possible the rise of no-kill shelters. 

--it's alarming to see police who are so bad at their job. The work they do is important, and they need to do it well.

--John R.

MISKATONIC UNICERSITY: THE RESTRICTED COLLECTION game withdrawn

 So, the current issue of the Chaosium newsletter ends with the sad news that their excellent little boardgame MISKATONIC LIBRARY: THE RESTRICTED COLLECTION will only be available through January 31st. Apparently their license agreement with the game's designer, renowned designer Reiner Knizia, has expired. 

If you like the Cthulhu Mythos in general and Chaosium's take on Lovecraft's work, you really shd think about picking this one up. I know I'm glad to have it on my gaming shelf, even after said shelf has been cut way back in recent months. 

--John R.

FINAL DAYS! Remember, Khan of Khans and Miskatonic University games to be withdrawn from sale on Dec 31!

Your last chance to order these ENNIE award-winning games, and for only $9.99each! (US warehouse only - now sold out everywhere else)

Khan of Khans and Miskatonic University: The Restricted Collection must be withdrawn from sale at 11.59pm PT on December 31st, 2022 due to the end of the license with Dr Reiner Knizia.