| The Magic Christian | |
|---|---|
 First edition cover |
|
| Author | Terry Southern |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Comedy novel |
| Publisher | Andre Deutsch Ltd
(orig.) Grove Press (1996) |
| Publication date | 1959 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 148 pp |
| ISBN | NA & reissue ISBN 0-8021-3465-3 |
| Preceded by | Flash and Filigree |
| Followed by | Writers in Revolt |
The Magic Christian is a 1959 comic novel by American author Terry Southern. In 1969 the novel was made into a film starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr, by director Joseph McGrath, also titled The Magic Christian. The novel is also known for bringing Southern to the attention of Stanley Kubrick, who had received a copy as a gift from Peter Sellers, and subsequently hired him as co-writer for Dr. Strangelove when Kubrick decided to make it a comedy film.[1]
Guy Grand is an eccentric billionaire who spends most of his time playing elaborate practical jokes on people. A big spender, he does not mind losing large sums of money to complete strangers if he can have a good laugh. All his escapades are designed to prove his theory that everyone has got their price — it just depends on the amount one is prepared to pay them.
One of Grand's favorite pranks is to buy hot dogs from railway station vendors just before the train pulls out, handing them one overly-large bill after another and then demanding his change, as the train begins to move and the vendor has to run to keep up.
Grand pays the actor playing a surgeon in a live television soap opera to deviate from the script, comment in drastic terms on the bad quality of the show, and walk off the set. Other actors follow in later weeks, in the same way, until critics begin to praise the show's "bold, innovative comedy" and the viewing audience comes to watch for "the moment" when an actor will break the fourth wall and leave the set. He also has unusual edits inserted into popular movies, and shown irregularly in theaters, disturbing the viewers who notice them.
Grand secretly buys a respectable New York advertising agency, installs a pygmy as its president and has him "scurry about the offices like a squirrel and chatter raucously in his native tongue" in front of all the top executive staff and their prominent clients. He then buys a cosmetics company and launches a big promotional campaign for a new shampoo which, as it turns out in the end, has a very detrimental effect on those who use it. A supposedly pheromone-based scent produced by the same company turns out to be a time-release stink bomb, causing wearers to smell horribly hours after spraying it on.
A newspaper under Grand's control first begins to add foreign language passages and perverse commentary to articles, then changes to reporting simply dry facts, then to printing only hate mail received by subscribers. Grand takes a vacation, showing up to an African safari with three natives carrying an unmounted howitzer, and firing it at game animals.
Grand's final adventure takes place on board the S.S. Magic Christian; a remodeled luxury liner catering only to the super-rich. He first arbitrarily rejects several Social Register favorites for passage, sending them into a furor, then the ship's crew treat the selected passengers harshly. Graffiti gradually appears on the walls, and the ship begins to resemble a ghetto, while the captain (actually an actor) insists everyone remain calm — even when it turns out the only food available is potatoes, and the ship turns around and heads back into port at top speed.
Grand cuts back on his activities afterwards, limiting himself to stunts like buying local grocery stores, marking the prices down to pennies on the dollar (with even bigger discounts for bulk purchases), then watching the store stock empty out within hours as customers burden themselves with more groceries than they will ever use.
  | "Notes from The War Room" - The Kubrick Site: Terry Southern on 'Dr. Strangelove' |
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