Alternate Plum, or it may be Alternate Tolkein
Alan Follett
I just came across, and of course felt obligated to share, the
following, originally posted on soc.history.what-if and quoted on
alt.humor.best-of-usenet:
Group: alt.humor.best-of-usenet Date: Sat, Mar 20, 1999, 12:51am (PST+8)
From: jaw...@tiac.net (James A. Wolf) [soc.history.what-if] WI -
Alternate Authors
Subject: WI - Alternate Authors
From: Alison Brooks <Ali...@flin.demon.co.uk>
Newsgroups: soc.history.what-if
One of the cult novels of the 1970s turned out to be Lord of the Rings.
Written by one of the unlikeliest of best-selling authors, it affected a
large number of people, not least of them being those people now in
their teens saddled with names like Galadriel.
How would this book have turned out had it been written by someone else?
(Which is about as much excuse as I need to post to SHWI...)
<snip Ian Fleming pastiche>
Lord of the Rings, by PG Wodehouse.
"Sam, I've decided to go and overthrow the Dark Lord by tossing his
jewellery into a volcano."
"Very good, sir. Should I lay out your crazy adventure garb? I presume
that this will pose a delay to tea-time. I would remind your Hobbitship
that your Great Aunt Lobellia Sackville-Baggins is expected for tea."
"Blast! I say, bother! How can a chap overthrow the Dark Lord? I suppose
I'll have to delay my campaign."
"Very good, sir. I believe you will be free in about a decade."
"I'll do it then. Make a note, Sam."
<snip several others, including Kipling and Dylan Thomas>
Ta!
Le Vicomte de Blissac