The Inklings Laughed

[Bêthberry]

Years ago--not quite so far back as the Third Age but possibly before some Downers were born--I had the great pleasure of chatting with an eminent Old English scholar at a pub in his honour after he presented a paper. Truth be told, I cannot recall his name nor the subject of his paper. If I did, I suspect, given how small the Old English coterie is world wide, I would realise I had been six degrees of separation from The Professor himself. (No, I'm not saying it was Him, but a colleague.)

What I do remember from chatting with him was his light hearted approach to research, footnotes, bibliographies and academic rigour. He lauded the habit of making two lists of books influential to one's work: those for a respectable list of the highest forms of scholarship, and those which really make a mark on thought, imagination, enjoyment. Suffice to say, it was the second list we discussed at the pub.

Which brings me to the Inklings. We have a long habit here on the Downs of discussing the serious stuff as regards Tolkien, Lewis, and the other members of the Inklings--Scandinavian sagas, Finnish lays, Old German folks tales, philology, theology, Welsh tales. (Some of these of course would make both of those lists I mentioned above.) But what made them laugh? They couldn't have spent every meeting at the Bird and Baby or in Lewis' rooms being eminently serious about their own writing or research. There is, in short, a gap in our knowledge, a gap in our understanding of what they sought out in literature to read to each other.

Enter Amanda McKittrick Ros, a late Victorian schoolteacher who apparently was An Author So Bad She's Good. According to this blog, Books So Bad They're Good: The Inklings Laughed (scroll down past the discussion of Eye of Argon, the Inklings would read her aloud until they peeled over in fits of laughter. I haven't verified this with either the Letters or Carpenter's biography, but I can certainly see them reacting to gems such as this:

Originally Posted by "The Little Belgian Orphan", Ros

Go! Meet the foe undaunted, they're rotten cowards all,
Present to them the bayonet, they totter and they fall,
We know you'll do your duty and come to little harm
And if you meet the Kaiser, cut off his other arm.

One immediately of course recalls Tolkien's beloved school friends who formed the T.C.B.S. and their possible understanding of the good fight that was WWI.

Or this remarkable appreciation of Westminster Abbey:

Holy Moses! Have a look!
Flesh decayed in every nook!
Some rare bits of brain lie here,
Mortal loads of beef and beer,
Some of whom are turned to dust,
Every one bids lost to lust;
Royal flesh so tinged with 'blue'
Undergoes the same as you.

So, after this long a preamble, and hoping any of you reading this far have not yet fallen asleep, what other works do we know that the Inklings favoured with oral recitations?

In short, does anyone have any other examples of writers who tickled the Inklings' funny bones? What kinds of senses of humour did they have?

(And if our Modess wishes to move this thread to Mirth, so be it.)

[Galadriel55]

Wow, Bethberry, these books are priceless! (the ones on the website, I mean). No wonder the Inklings laughed over them!

I'm afraid I can't contribute much to answering your question, as I am less than little learned in the historical side of Tolkien, especially in such details as what books made the Inklings laugh. It seems that they enjoyed a dose of self-humour, though, by the words of another Downer:

Originally Posted by Orofarne

Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles something-I-can't-remember met every Tuesday to read their writing at the Eagle and Child pub in Oxford. they called themselves the Inklings. Everyone on the same page? Great.
Alright. While in Oxford, I went there, and heard this story told by the landlord, who heard it from the landlady who owned the Eagle and Child in the days of the Inklings, and who is still alive.
The Story:
C.S. Lewis is sitting down. Tolkien comes in with some papers under his arm. C.S. Lewis looks up innocently and says to him, "Oh no, not another story about elves!"
More of a Lewis story than a Tolkien story, I'll admit, but too good to waste.

[Bêthberry]

I'm beginning to wonder if that story isn't just a bit apocryphal.

I've heard it, but not attributed to Lewis, and with an *expletive deleted* before elf, which would make the speaker possibly one of those Oxford types hostile to The Professor.

I don't have the Letters or Carpenter at hand, but perhaps can canvass those more knowledgeable than me.

Any one?

[Bêthberry]

Ah, I was right. The quote is not from Lewis, but from Hugo Dyson. And according to my sources in the Tolkien Society there's some disagreement over whether the expletive was used or not.

Scull and Hammond in the Reader's Guide offer the following, from A.N. Wilson's biography of Lewis:

Originally Posted by Reader's Guide, p. 232

He [Dyson] was famously impatient with readings from The Lord of the Rings, then a work in progress, and was allowed to veto them when he was present [ie, at Inklings meetings]. According to A.N. Wilson, Tolkien 'could not be sure that his readings would not be interrupted by Dyson . . . snorting, grunting and exhaling --"Oh **** not another elf!' . . . . (The phrase is often mistakenly attributed to Lewis.)

I think I shall be perusing S & H for evidence of any more Inkling humour.

[Galadriel55]

That sucks. I thought it was a nice good-humoured story... Doesn't sound so nice or good-humoured anymore...

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

That sucks. I thought it was a nice good-humoured story... Doesn't sound so nice or good-humoured anymore...

I don't think it's such a bad story. It gives a good view of how the Inklings "operated" and how they interacted with each other. So Dyson didn't like LotR. Maybe that dislike was helpful to Tolkien; perhaps it gave him a more clear sense of who he was writing for and why.

Dyson wanted centre stage and sometimes he was given it. Maybe he preferred readings from Amanda McKittrick Ros?

[Pervinca Took]

I think that story has been disputed, though. IIRC there was also an Inkling who was very good friends with Tolkien, and vice versa, even though they disliked each others' work ... was that Charles Williams?

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Pervinca Took

I think that story has been disputed, though.

I think you are right, Pervinca Took--and welcome to the Downs! It has been. However, what has been most disputed is whether the comment included the expletive or not.

It is true that Wilson, Lewis' biographer, was not present at Inkling meetings and so he is not reporting something he witnessed but would appear to be quoting Tolkien's opinion of the proceedings.

Apparently Warren Lewis in his diary mentions that Dyson had a veto over LotR, but I haven't read the diary.

Originally Posted by Pervinca Took

. . . was that Charles Williams

Funny you should mention Williams. As someone said to me on another site, about this question, it would be funnier if Williams said this comment.