Stephen Colbert talks D&D and LOTR on Conan O'Brien

[ColonelHardisson]

Didn't Conan ask Vin Deisle about D&D, too?

Yeah, Diesel expounded upon his D&D love on Conan's show, among others. Matter of fact, he's done so twice that I know of. I think it was one of those appearances where Conan said he never played, but said, essentially, he did stuff just as geeky.

 

[Desdichado]

For those of us who don't have our PC speakers handy (whoops!) is there a transcript of this online anywhere?

 

[Crust]

I was stunned by his ability to retell parts of The Silmarillion. I read it once, and lemme tell ya, I need to read it again. The Encyclopedia of Arda is a great source if you need to put pieces together and have questions answered, but the book itself is so dense with lore it's hard to hold it all.

I teach The Lord of the Rings in my English 12 class. I thought about including The Silmarillion in the reading, but rejected the idea almost immediately. I'd lose students (not all, but most, I think) rather quickly. It's more of a history-type text than a novel. I did, however, include as much of The Silmarillion as I could, including the story of Beren and Luthien, Feanor's oath and his sons, the slaying of the Two Trees by Melkor and Ungoliant, the theft of the Silmarils (and the wars that followed), and the creation of Middle-earth itself (including the song, the gods, Valinor, the nature of Ainur and Maiar, etc. etc. etc.). Some students gobbled it up. Most rode the wave and mostly stuck to the text.

I wonder if Colbert brushed up for that little Tolkien bit or if he really does have The Silmarillion almost memorized.

 

[Ranger REG]

Yeah, Diesel expounded upon his D&D love on Conan's show, among others. Matter of fact, he's done so twice that I know of. I think it was one of those appearances where Conan said he never played, but said, essentially, he did stuff just as geeky.

And then suddenly he's not on the A-list, which explains why he took a role in The Pacifier.

Note to self: never elaborate your geeky hobby in Hollywood.

 

[Desdichado]

I teach The Lord of the Rings in my English 12 class. I thought about including The Silmarillion in the reading, but rejected the idea almost immediately. I'd lose students (not all, but most, I think) rather quickly. It's more of a history-type text than a novel.

They'd get lost? It's not any harder to read than Chaucer or Beowulf (translated, of course!) or even Shakespeare. Don't English 12 students still have to read those?

I wonder if Colbert brushed up for that little Tolkien bit or if he really does have The Silmarillion almost memorized.

How memorized did he have it? I can talk at length about the details of the Silmarillion, and I don't consider myself that much of an expert.

 

[Knight Otu]

You really want curry favour with your future Absolute Ruler. The more parties you invite him to, the less torture chambers he invites you in. And with "invite", I mean, "drag into, kicking and screaming."

Normally, the guy who is dragged does the kicking and screaming, not the guy who does the dragging. Doing that severly reduces the respect you get.



Uhm, theoretically speaking, of course.

 

[The_Gneech]

Sing hey nonny for power nerds!

-The Gneech

 

[buzz]

How memorized did he have it? I can talk at length about the details of the Silmarillion, and I don't consider myself that much of an expert.

He was throwing around proper names pretty competently. I don't think it was totally off-the-cuff, though, as he was elaborating on a piece he did for his show, The Colbert Report. LOTR geek or not, I'd bet he double-checked some things in the process of writing it. (Yet, still got some details wrong, which is what what he and Conan were talking about.)

 

[Crust]

They'd get lost? It's not any harder to read than Chaucer or Beowulf (translated, of course!) or even Shakespeare. Don't English 12 students still have to read those?

Sure, they'd grasp the material, but it's a tediuos read. We actually study Beowulf in that class as well, and I have many students who don't take to it. Last year, I could tell that roughly 1/4 of my students simply stopped reading it (based on ever-worsening quiz grades and ambiguous paper responses... or none at all).

The book has an incredible amount of footnotes and an extensive glossary, making the reading of The Silmarillion more of an act of research, which I think is great. It can make things tedious for students, though. Not all students, but more than I would want.

 

[buzz]

I'm an English baccalaureate and a great lover of Tolkein, and even I think The Silmarillion is a slog.

You get kids and teens into Tolkein by handing them a copy of The Hobbit, not the Middle Earth equivalent of the Dead Sea Scrolls.