Bored of the Woke Rings

“Woke” is a term much overused by those on both sides of the culture war but — a little like pornography — while it may be difficult to define, you absolutely know it when you see it.

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The capture of the entertainment industry by an ideology — perhaps more accurately described as a group of roughly consanguineous ideas that seem, superficially, to be the Right, Kind and Thoughtful beliefs to hold — seems now to be absolute. Fiction of all kinds has been affected, but heroic narratives have proved especially vulnerable, perhaps because of the size and dedication of their audiences.

You will doubtless know the kind of thing I mean.

Ed Morrissey

I'm not sure if Barnes is aware of a satire that got published of LOTR that was also called Bored of the Rings by the (then) Harvard Lampoon's Henry Beard and Douglas Kenney in 1969. Kenney would go on to National Lampoon and write Animal House (and appear briefly as Stork). It made the rounds when I was in high school. But that itself was pretty anti-woke, in the context of those times, as was pretty much every incarnation of the Lampoon in the era. 

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