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."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."
Monday, July 22, 2013
England stings
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2 comments:
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.
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.
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