“I grew up understanding the Bible to be myth.”
-Michael Moorcock
Michael Moorcock is among the greatest of all writers alive today – irrespective of genre. Alan Moore wrote, in his introduction to Moorcock’s Into the Media Web, “Look up the word ‘author’ in a dictionary and you’ll find a photograph of Michael Moorcock.”
At an age when most are barely learning to drive, Moorcock wrote and edited for magazines. He first attained fame (and notoriety) during his legendary tenure as the editor of the science-fiction magazine New Worlds from 1964 to 1971, and was the center of what many called the “New Wave” of science-fiction writers.
The material New Worlds published was often politically radical and wildly experimental, more William S. Burroughs than Robert Heinlein (who, in fact, called it a “‘sick literature’ of ‘neurotics’ and ‘sex maniacs”).
New Worlds published Moorcock’s acclaimed novella Behold the Man, the story of a time traveler who steps into the roll of Jesus Christ, along with works by Harlan Ellison, J.G. Ballard, Thomas Disch, and dozens of other influential writers. The best and most interesting science fiction writers today, like China Miéville and the aforementioned Alan Moore, credit Moorcock as a major influence; Indeed Neil Gaiman once wrote him a letter entitled ”I’m Mostly Your Fault.”
Never content with any one genre or form of media, Michael Moorcock has ventured into music (both on his own and with the influential space-rock bands Hawkwind and Blue Öyster Cult), journalism, computer games, comic books, and film. His most popular character is almost certainly Elric of Melniboné, a dark satire of sword-and-sorcery fantasy characters like Conan the Barbarian, and part of the larger idea of the Eternal Champion that links many of Moorcock’s works.
Not all of his work is science fiction or fantasy however. Mother London, which follows three mental hospital outpatients through the history of London from the mid-twentieth century to the eighties, and Letter’s From Hollywood, a collection of his correspondence to his friend J.G. Ballard, are just two of his many well-regarded non-science-fiction books. He even wrote the supposed novelization of the Sex Pistols’ film The Great Rock’n’roll Swindle, but, disliking The Pistols’ manager Malcolm McClaren, pulled a truly punk move and told their story through the eyes of Jerry Cornelius, the time-traveling pansexual hipster who is in many ways Moorcock’s signature character.
I have been a fan of his ever since my teenage eyes were first drawn to the striking Michael Whelan cover art on The Bane of the Black Sword, and so I felt tremendously lucky when Mike agreed to do an email interview with me for SuicideGirls about Doctor Who (and his new book Coming of the Terraphiles), the misuses of power and authority, and how The Beatles are a good analogy for the state of modern science fiction.
Read our exclusive interview with Michael Moorcock on SuicideGirls.com.
