Monday, July 22, 2013

England stings

"You are very cynical, Herr Cornelius. I am tempted to believe that Ragnarok is almost with us.

"That's an odd thing for a Christian minister to say."

"I am more than that — I am a Scandinavian Lutheran. I have no doubt of the truths inheren in our old pagan mythology."

"I am a British atheist and I share your opinion."

Right now I'm reading The Final Programme, the first of Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius books. A few years back I read The Condition of Muzak, which ended the quartet of novels. (Moorcock has since returned to the character and his environs in several shorter works.) It's an interesting vision: a swinging Byronic hero in a Marvel Comics version of then-contemporary (1960s) London. What I admire most is that Moore moves onto or sticks with whatever stimulates his mind at the moment. He breaks all the rules "How to Write Fiction" authors set out.

2 comments:

susan said...

As soon as I read the quoted exchange I wondered if Moorcock's Scandinavian Lutheran was based on Emanuel Swedenborg, a famous scientist and theologian of the 18th century and an even more famous mystic after a powerful spiritual awakening in his 50's.

I read some Michael Moorcock a very long time ago and never went back for more when I began reading sci-fi again in the 90s. Now you've made me curious.

Ben said...

I'm interested in finding out more about Emanuel Swedenborg now that you've brought him up. He was apparently a kind of influence on Ralph Waldo Emerson, which is definitely a distinction.

I haven't read a lot of Moorcock. A couple of the Cornelius books and some odd short stories. He is interesting, though. He is well known for using the multiverse idea, and he seems to use a multiverse of techniques too, rather than just the few accepted ones.