110-409: Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English writer, particularly of science fiction and fantasy , who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has worked as an editor and is also a successful musician. He is best known for his novels about the character Elric of Melniboné , which were a seminal influence on
220-559: A Doctor Who novel for BBC Books in 2010, one of the few occasions when he has written stories set in other people's "shared universes". The novel The Coming of the Terraphiles was released in October 2010. The story merges Doctor Who with many of Moorcock's characters from the multiverse, notably Captain Cornelius and his pirates. In 2016 Moorcock published the first novel in what he terms
330-761: A computer -like screen , computer viruses , video chat , tanning beds , home treadmills , and more. In 1963, the time travel-themed Doctor Who premiered on BBC Television. The original series ran until 1989 and was revived in 2005. It has been extremely popular worldwide and has greatly influenced later TV science fiction. Other programs in the 1960s included The Outer Limits (1963–1965), Lost in Space (1965–1968), and The Prisoner (1967). Star Trek (the original series), created by Gene Roddenberry , premiered in 1966 on NBC Television and ran for three seasons. It combined elements of space opera and Space Western . Only mildly successful at first,
440-428: A space opera , went on to become a worldwide popular culture phenomenon , and the second-highest-grossing film series of all time. Since the 1980s, science fiction films , along with fantasy , horror , and superhero films, have dominated Hollywood's big-budget productions. Science fiction films often " cross-over " with other genres, including film noir ( Blade Runner - 1982), family film ( E.T.
550-439: A " sense of wonder ". According to Isaac Asimov , "Science fiction can be defined as that branch of literature which deals with the reaction of human beings to changes in science and technology ." Robert A. Heinlein wrote that "A handy short definition of almost all science fiction might read: realistic speculation about possible future events, based solidly on adequate knowledge of the real world, past and present, and on
660-643: A 1978 essay, "Starship Stormtroopers" ( Anarchist Review ). There he criticised the production of "authoritarian" fiction by certain canonical writers and Lovecraft for having antisemitic , misogynistic , and racist viewpoints woven into his short stories. Moorcock has allowed other writers to create stories in his fictional Jerry Cornelius universe. Brian Aldiss , Hilary Bailey , M. John Harrison , Norman Spinrad , James Sallis , and Steve Aylett have written such stories. In an interview published in The Internet Review of Science Fiction , Moorcock explains
770-621: A book in 1969 by Allison and Busby ). A new, final revision of almost Moorcock's entire oeuvre, with the exception of his literary novels Mother London , King of the City and the Pyat quartet, is issued by Gollancz and many of his titles are reprinted in the United States by Simon and Schuster and Titan and in France by Gallimard. Many novels and comics based on his work are being reprinted by Titan Books under
880-549: A critical point of his story (this song may also refer to the "Warriors at the Edge of Time", which figure heavily in Moorcock's novels about John Daker; at one point his novel The Dragon in the Sword they call themselves the "veterans of a thousand psychic wars", although the term is also applied to Elric in 2022's "The Citadel of Forgotten Myths"), and " The Great Sun Jester ", about his friend,
990-520: A day and gave myself three days a volume. That's how, for instance, the Hawkmoon books were written." Over the period of the New Worlds editorship and his publishing of the original fantasy novels Moorcock has maintained an interest in the craft of writing and a continuing interest in the semi-journalistic craft of "pulp" authorship. This is reflected in his development of interlocking cycles which hark back to
1100-535: A great and influential film. In 1954, Godzilla , directed by Ishirō Honda , began the kaiju subgenre of science fiction film, which feature large creatures of any form, usually attacking a major city or engaging other monsters in battle . 1968's 2001: A Space Odyssey , directed by Stanley Kubrick and based on the work of Arthur C. Clarke , rose above the mostly B-movie offerings up to that time both in scope and quality, and influenced later science fiction films. That same year, Planet of
1210-669: A journey to the Moon and how the Earth 's motion is seen from there. Kepler has been called the "father of science fiction". Following the 17th-century development of the novel as a literary form , Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein (1818) and The Last Man (1826) helped define the form of the science fiction novel. Brian Aldiss has argued that Frankenstein was the first work of science fiction. Edgar Allan Poe wrote several stories considered to be science fiction, including " The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall " (1835), which featured
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#17328555466011320-709: A literary experiment blending memoir and fantasy, The Whispering Swarm . In 2018, he announced his completion of the second volume The Woods of Arcady . In 2020, he said he was completing the final Elric novel The Citadel of Forgotten Myths ready for Elric's 60th anniversary in 2021. Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius novella Pegging the President was launched in 2018 at Shakespeare and Co , Paris, where he discussed his work with Hari Kunzru and reaffirmed his commitment to literary experiment. The first of an audiobook series of unabridged Elric novels, with new work read by Moorcock, began appearing from AudioRealms; however, Audio Realms
1430-502: A long illness. Moorcock abandoned a memoir about his friends Mervyn Peake and Maeve Gilmore because he felt it was too personal. He wrote prose and verse for The Sunday Books first publication in French to accompany a set of unpublished Peake drawings. His book The Metatemporal Detective was published in 2007. His most recent book published first in French is Kaboul , in 2018. In November 2009, Moorcock announced that he would be writing
1540-659: A monograph and an interview, by Colin Greenland . In 1983, Greenland published The Entropy Exhibition: Michael Moorcock and the British 'New Wave' in Science Fiction . He followed this with Michael Moorcock: Death is No Obstacle , a book-length interview about technique, in 1992. Michael Moorcock: Law of Chaos by Jeff Gardiner and Michael Moorcock: Fiction, Fantasy and the World's Pain by Mark Scroggins were published more recently. In
1650-459: A movement strongly associated with the red flag . As anarchism became more and more distinct from socialism in the 1880s, it adopted the black flag in an attempt to differentiate itself. It was flown in the 1831 Canut revolt , in which the black represented the mourning of liberty lost. The French anarchist paper, Le Drapeau Noir ( The Black Flag ), which printed its first issue in August 1883,
1760-520: A music venue in Austin (which was closed following a July 6, 2002 fire) and a now-defunct "collective kitchen" in the University District of Seattle. "Do as you wish! Do what you want!" is a slogan of Errico Malatesta 's Anarchist Program. It is explained in his pamphlet Anarchy . The freedom we want, for ourselves and for others, is not an absolute metaphysical, abstract freedom which in practice
1870-618: A new Deep Fix album in Paris, titled Live at the Terminal Cafe . Following Stone's death in 2016, Moorcock completed the album with producer Don Falcone . In 2019, Moorcock announced the completion of the album, and it was released 11 October 2019, on Cleopatra Records . Moorcock collaborated with the British rock band Hawkwind on many occasions: the Hawkwind track " The Black Corridor ", for example, included verbatim quotes from Moorcock's novel of
1980-407: A note which often states quite directly that one should serve neither gods nor masters but become one's own master." Besides using fiction to explore his politics, Moorcock also engages in non-violent political activism . In order to "marginalize stuff that works to objectify women and suggests women enjoy being beaten", he has encouraged W H Smiths to move John Norman 's Gor series novels to
2090-573: A pseudonym, particularly in his "Second Ether" fiction. Moorcock talks about much of his writing in Death Is No Obstacle with Colin Greenland, which is a book-length transcription of interviews with Moorcock about the techniques in his writing. Moorcock has also published pastiches of writers for whom he felt affection as a boy, including Edgar Rice Burroughs , Leigh Brackett , and Robert E. Howard . All his fantasy adventures have elements of satire and parody, while respecting what he considers
2200-651: A script for a computer game/film/novel by Origin Systems . When Electronic Arts bought Origins, the game was cancelled, but Moorcock's 40,000-word treatment was fleshed out by Storm Constantine , resulting in the novel Silverheart . The story is set in Karadur-Shriltasi, a city at the heart of the Multiverse . A second novel, Dragonskin , was in preparation, with Constantine as the main writer, but she died in January 2021, after
2310-571: A serial novel was notorious; in Parliament, some British MPs condemned the Arts Council of Great Britain for funding the magazine. In 2008, The Times named Moorcock in its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". Moorcock is also a recording musician; he has contributed to the music acts Hawkwind , Blue Öyster Cult , Robert Calvert and Spirits Burning , and to his own project, Michael Moorcock & The Deep Fix. Michael Moorcock
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#17328555466012420-464: A thorough understanding of the nature and significance of the scientific method ." American science fiction author and editor Lester del Rey wrote, "Even the devoted aficionado or fan—has a hard time trying to explain what science fiction is," and the lack of a "full satisfactory definition" is because "there are no easily delineated limits to science fiction." Another definition comes from The Literature Book by DK and is, "scenarios that are at
2530-495: A total estimated readership of at least 1 million), making it the world's most popular science fiction periodical . In 1984, William Gibson 's first novel, Neuromancer , helped popularize cyberpunk and the word " cyberspace ", a term he originally coined in his 1982 short story Burning Chrome . In 1986, Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold began her Vorkosigan Saga . 1992's Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson predicted immense social upheaval due to
2640-630: A trio with Peter Pavli and Drachen Theaker, some Deep Fix recordings were issued on Hawkwind, Friends and Relations and a limited-edition 7" single of "Brothel in Rosenstrasse" backed with "Time Centre", which featured Langdon Jones on piano. In 2008, The Entropy Tango & Gloriana Demo Sessions by Michael Moorcock & The Deep Fix was released. These were sessions for planned albums based on two of Moorcock's novels, Gloriana, or The Unfulfill'd Queen and The Entropy Tango , which were never completed. Pavli, Moorcock and Falcone are currently in
2750-516: A trip to the Moon . Jules Verne was noted for his attention to detail and scientific accuracy, especially in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870). In 1887, the novel El anacronópete by Spanish author Enrique Gaspar y Rimbau introduced the first time machine . An early French/Belgian science fiction writer was J.-H. Rosny aîné (1856–1940). Rosny's masterpiece
2860-575: A very palatable form... New adventures pictured for us in the scientifiction of today are not at all impossible of realization tomorrow... Many great science stories destined to be of historical interest are still to be written... Posterity will point to them as having blazed a new trail, not only in literature and fiction, but progress as well. In 1928, E. E. "Doc" Smith 's first published work, The Skylark of Space , written in collaboration with Lee Hawkins Garby , appeared in Amazing Stories . It
2970-624: A way of commenting on it. Jerry, as Harrison said, was as much a technique as a character and I'm glad that others have taken to using that method. Two short stories by Keith Roberts , "Coranda" and "The Wreck of the Kissing Bitch", are set in the frozen Matto Grosso plateau of Moorcock's 1969 novel, The Ice Schooner . Elric of Melnibone and Moonglum appear in Karl Edward Wagner 's story "The Gothic Touch", where they meet with Kane , who borrows Elric for his ability to deal with demons. He
3080-623: A world of harmony and conformity within a united totalitarian state . It influenced the emergence of dystopia as a literary genre . In 1926, Hugo Gernsback published the first American science fiction magazine , Amazing Stories . In its first issue he wrote: By 'scientifiction' I mean the Jules Verne, H. G. Wells and Edgar Allan Poe type of story—a charming romance intermingled with scientific fact and prophetic vision... Not only do these amazing tales make tremendously interesting reading—they are always instructive. They supply knowledge... in
3190-470: Is Les Navigateurs de l'Infini ( The Navigators of Infinity ) (1925) in which the word astronaut, "astronautique", was used for the first time. Many critics consider H. G. Wells one of science fiction's most important authors, or even "the Shakespeare of science fiction". His works include The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of
3300-704: Is a genre of speculative fiction , which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology , space exploration , time travel , parallel universes , and extraterrestrial life . It often explores human responses to changes in science and technology. Science fiction is related to fantasy , horror , and superhero fiction and contains many subgenres . Its exact definition has long been disputed among authors, critics, scholars, and readers. Subgenres include hard science fiction , which emphasizes scientific accuracy, and soft science fiction , focusing on social sciences. Other notable subgenres are cyberpunk , which explores
3410-423: Is a colour of determination, of resolve, of strength, a colour by which all others are clarified and defined ... So black is negation, is anger, is outrage, is mourning, is beauty, is hope, is the fostering and sheltering of new forms of human life and relationship on and with this earth. The origins of the black flag are uncertain. Modern anarchism has a shared ancestry with—amongst other ideologies— socialism ,
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3520-844: Is a friend and fan of comic book writer Alan Moore and allowed Moore the use of his own character, Michael Kane of Old Mars, mentioned in Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II . The two appeared on stage at the Vanbrugh Theatre in London in January 2006 where they discussed Moorcock's work. The Green City from Warriors of Mars was also referenced in Larry Niven 's Rainbow Mars . Jerry Cornelius appeared in Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: Century . Cornelius also appeared in French artist Mœbius ' comic series Le Garage Hermétique . In 1995–96, Moorcock wrote
3630-504: Is a phrase associated with anarchist philosophy and the leftist labor movement . Likely dating back to a 15th-century German proverb , it appeared in an 1870 pamphlet by a disciple of Auguste Blanqui and became the title of Blanqui's 1880 newspaper Ni Dieu ni maître before it spread throughout the anarchist movement, appearing in Kropotkin 's 1885 Words of Rebel and an 1896 Bordeaux anarchist manifesto. Sébastien Faure resuscitated
3740-457: Is inevitably translated into the oppression of the wealthy; but it is real freedom, possible freedom, which is the conscious community of interests, voluntary solidarity. We proclaim the maxim DO AS YOU WISH, and with it we almost summarize our program, for we maintain—and it doesn't take much to understand why—that in a harmonious society, in a society without government and without property, each one will WANT WHAT HE MUST DO. "No gods, no masters"
3850-649: Is no longer in business. The second audiobook in the series – The Sailor on the Seas of Fate – was published in 2007. There have been audio-books of Corum and others, several of which were unofficial and A Winter Admiral and Furniture are audio versions of short stories. Since then The Whispering Swarm and the Corum books became available via Audible and all the Elric books were scheduled to appear in audio form to coincide with Simon and Schuster's new illustrated set in 2022. Moorcock has his own music project, which records under
3960-569: Is often called the first great space opera . The same year, Philip Francis Nowlan 's original Buck Rogers story, Armageddon 2419 , also appeared in Amazing Stories . This was followed by a Buck Rogers comic strip , the first serious science fiction comic . Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future is a " future history " science fiction novel written in 1930 by the British author Olaf Stapledon . A work of unprecedented scale in
4070-519: Is one of the first published references to use black as an anarchist color. Black International was the name of a London anarchist group founded in July 1881. One of the first known anarchist uses of the black flag was by Louise Michel , participant in the Paris Commune in 1871. Michel flew the black flag during a demonstration of the unemployed which took place in Paris on March 9, 1883 . With Michel at
4180-503: Is one of the most influential examples of social science fiction , feminist science fiction , and anthropological science fiction . In 1979, Science Fiction World began publication in the People's Republic of China . It dominates the Chinese science fiction magazine market , at one time claiming a circulation of 300,000 copies per issue and an estimated 3–5 readers per copy (giving it
4290-578: Is the concept of an " Eternal Champion ", who has multiple identities across alternate universes. This cosmology is called the " Multiverse " within his novels. The Multiverse deals with fundamental polarities, such as Law versus Chaos , and order versus entropy. Elric's success has overshadowed Moorcock's other works, though he has worked the Elric stories' themes into his other works (the "Hawkmoon" and "Corum" novels, for example). His Eternal Champion sequence has been collected in two different editions of omnibus volumes totaling 16 books (the U.S. edition
4400-649: The 1874 Bologna insurrection and in 1877 when anarchists entered the Italian town Letino carrying red and black flags to promote the First International . Diagonally divided red and black flags were used by anarcho-syndicalists in Spain such as the labor union CNT during the Spanish Civil War . George Woodcock writes that the bisected black-and-red flag symbolized a uniting of "the spirit of later anarchism with
4510-477: The Russian writer and paleontologist Ivan Yefremov presented a view of a future interstellar communist civilization and is considered one of the most important Soviet science fiction novels. In 1959, Robert A. Heinlein 's Starship Troopers marked a departure from his earlier juvenile stories and novels. It is one of the first and most influential examples of military science fiction , and introduced
Michael Moorcock - Misplaced Pages Continue
4620-447: The information revolution . In 2007, Liu Cixin 's novel, The Three-Body Problem , was published in China. It was translated into English by Ken Liu and published by Tor Books in 2014, and won the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel , making Liu the first Asian writer to win the award. Emerging themes in late 20th and early 21st century science fiction include environmental issues ,
4730-479: The top shelf . Moorcock began writing while he was still at school, contributing to a magazine he entitled Outlaw's Own from 1950 on. In 1957, at the age of 17, Moorcock became editor of Tarzan Adventures (a national juvenile weekly featuring text and Tarzan comic strip), which had published at least a dozen of his own "Sojan the Swordsman" stories during that year and the next. At the age of 18, in 1958, he wrote
4840-478: The 1880s, when several anarchist organizations and journals adopted the name Black Flag . Howard J. Ehrlich writes in Reinventing Anarchy, Again : The black flag is the negation of all flags. It is a negation of nationhood ... Black is a mood of anger and outrage at all the hideous crimes against humanity perpetrated in the name of allegiance to one state or another ... But black is also beautiful. It
4950-599: The 1990s, Moorcock moved to Texas in the United States. His wife Linda is American. He spends half of the year in Texas, the other half in Paris , France. Moorcock's works feature political content. In one interview, he states, "I am an anarchist and a pragmatist . My moral/philosophical position is that of an anarchist." In describing how his writing relates to his political philosophy, Moorcock says, "My books frequently deal with aristocratic heroes, gods and so forth. All of them end on
5060-445: The 19th century, including most prominently the circle-A and the black flag . Anarchist cultural symbols have become more prevalent in popular culture since around the turn of the 21st century, concurrent with the anti-globalization movement and with the punk subculture . The red flag was one of first anarchist symbols and it was widely used in late 19th century by anarchists worldwide. Peter Kropotkin wrote that he preferred
5170-542: The 2021 Spirits Burning album Evolution Ritual . Moorcock also appeared on five tracks on the Spirits Burning CD Alien Injection , released in 2008. He is credited with singing lead vocals and playing glockenspiel, guitar and mandolin. The performances used on the CD were from The Entropy Tango & Gloriana Demo Sessions . Science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to SF or sci-fi )
5280-626: The 60th anniversary of his hero's appearance. He and Simonson produced the graphic novel, Elric: the Making of a Sorcerer , published by DC Comics in 2007. In 2006, he completed his highly praised Colonel Pyat sequence, dealing with the Nazi Holocaust. This began in 1981 with Byzantium Endures , continued through The Laughter of Carthage (1984) and Jerusalem Commands (1992), and culminated with The Vengeance of Rome (2006). His most recent sequence, KABOUL , with illustrations by Miles Hyman,
5390-550: The Apes (the original), directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and based on the 1963 French novel La Planète des Singes by Pierre Boulle , was released to popular and critical acclaim, its vivid depiction of a post-apocalyptic world in which intelligent apes dominate humans . In 1977, George Lucas began the Star Wars film series with the film now identified as " Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope . " The series, often called
5500-450: The British " pop art " movement exemplified by Eduardo Paolozzi , Richard Hamilton and others. Paolozzi became "Aviation Editor". During that time, he occasionally wrote as " James Colvin ", a "house pseudonym " originally created for him by John Carnell also used by other New Worlds critics. A spoof obituary of Colvin appeared in New Worlds #197 (January 1970), written by Charles Platt as "William Barclay". Moorcock makes much use of
5610-1053: The City , the Pyat Quartet and the short story collection London Bone have established him in the eyes of critics such as Iain Sinclair , Peter Ackroyd and Allan Massie in publications including The Times Literary Supplement and the London Review of Books as a major contemporary literary novelist. In 2008 Moorcock was named by a critics' panel in The Times as one of the fifty best British novelists since 1945. Virtually all of his stories are part of his overarching " Eternal Champion " theme or oeuvre , with characters (including Elric) moving from one storyline and fictional universe to another, all of them interconnected (though often only in dreams or visions ). Most of Moorcock's earlier work consisted of short stories and relatively brief novels: he has mentioned that "I could write 15,000 words
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#17328555466015720-575: The Extra-Terrestrial - 1983), war ( Enemy Mine - 1985), comedy ( Spaceballs - 1987, Galaxy Quest - 1999), animation ( WALL-E – 2008, Big Hero 6 – 2014), Western ( Serenity – 2005), action ( Edge of Tomorrow – 2014, The Matrix – 1999), adventure ( Jupiter Ascending – 2015, Interstellar – 2014), mystery ( Minority Report – 2002), thriller ( Ex Machina – 2014), drama ( Melancholia – 2011, Predestination – 2014), and romance ( Eternal Sunshine of
5830-544: The Rings for their " Merry England " point of view, equating Tolkien's novel to Winnie-the-Pooh in his essay " Epic Pooh ". Even so, James Cawthorn and Moorcock included The Lord of the Rings in Fantasy: The 100 Best Books (Carroll & Graf, 1988), and their review is not dismissive. Moorcock has also criticized writers for their political agendas. He included Robert A. Heinlein and H. P. Lovecraft among this group in
5940-627: The Rockets , and Firing the Cathedral , which was concerned with 9/11. All four novellas were included in the 2003 edition of The Lives and Times of Jerry Cornelius . Moorcock's most recent Cornelius stories, "Modem Times", appeared in The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction: Volume 2 , published in 2008, this was expanded in 2011 as "Modem Times 2.0". Additionally, a version of Cornelius also appeared in Moorcock's 2010 Doctor Who novel The Coming of
6050-457: The Spotless Mind – 2004, Her – 2013). Science fiction and television have consistently been in a close relationship. Television or television-like technologies frequently appeared in science fiction long before television itself became widely available in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The first known science fiction television program was a thirty-five-minute adapted excerpt of
6160-548: The States and Empires of the Moon (1657) and The States and Empires of the Sun (1662), Margaret Cavendish 's " The Blazing World " (1666), Jonathan Swift 's Gulliver's Travels (1726), Ludvig Holberg 's Nicolai Klimii Iter Subterraneum (1741) and Voltaire 's Micromégas (1752). Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan considered Somnium the first science fiction story; it depicts
6270-466: The Terraphiles . Pegging the President (PS. 2018), The Fracking Factory (on FB, 2018) are two recent novellas and further stories are forthcoming. Moorcock is a fervent supporter of Mervyn Peake 's works. Moorcock is critical of J. R. R. Tolkien 's works. He met both Tolkien and C. S. Lewis in his teens and claims to have liked them personally even though he does not admire them on artistic grounds. Moorcock criticised works such as The Lord of
6380-614: The United States. The black flag was displayed in Chicago at an anarchist demonstration in November 1884. According to the English language newspaper of the Chicago anarchists, it was "the fearful symbol of hunger, misery and death". Thousands of anarchists attended Kropotkin's 1921 funeral behind the black flag. The colors black and red have been used by anarchists since at least the late 1800s when they were used on cockades by Italian anarchists in
6490-486: The Vietnam War, and continued to feature another variation of the multiverse theme. The first Jerry Cornelius book, The Final Programme (1968), was made into a feature film in 1973. Its story line is identical to two of the Elric stories: The Dreaming City and The Dead Gods' Book . Since 1998, Moorcock has returned to Cornelius in a series of new stories: The Spencer Inheritance , The Camus Connection , Cheering for
6600-510: The Worlds (1898). His science fiction imagined alien invasion , biological engineering , invisibility , and time travel . In his non-fiction futurologist works he predicted the advent of airplanes , military tanks , nuclear weapons , satellite television , space travel , and something resembling the World Wide Web . Edgar Rice Burroughs 's A Princess of Mars , published in 1912,
6710-1133: The allegorical fantasy novel The Golden Barge . This remained unpublished until 1980, when it was issued by Savoy Books with an introduction by M. John Harrison . At 19, Moorcock worked on The Sexton Blake Library , a serial pulp fiction featuring Sexton Blake , which The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction referred to as the poor man's Sherlock Holmes . Under Moorcock's leadership, New Worlds became central to "New Wave" science fiction. This movement, not of its own naming, promoted individual vision, literary style and an existential view of technological change, in contrast to generic " hard science fiction ", which extrapolated on technological change itself. Some "New Wave" stories were not recognisable as traditional science fiction, and New Worlds remained controversial for as long as Moorcock edited it. Moorcock claimed that he wanted to publish experimental/literary fiction using techniques and subject matter from generic SF but, initially at least, to marry "popular" and "literary" fiction at what he considered their natural overlap. After 1967, this policy became evident and allied to
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#17328555466016820-502: The background of his multiverse. Moorcock is prone to revising his existing work, with the result that different editions of a given book may contain significant variations. The changes range from simple retitlings (the Elric story The Flame Bringers became The Caravan of Forgotten Dreams in the 1990s Victor Gollancz /White Wolf omnibus editions) to character name changes (such as detective "Minos Aquilinas" becoming first "Minos von Bek" and later "Sam Begg" in three different versions of
6930-597: The band on many occasions, including the Black Sword tour. His contributions were removed from the original release of the Live Chronicles album, recorded on this tour, for legal reasons, but have subsequently appeared on some double-CD versions. He can also be seen performing on the DVD version of Chronicle of the Black Sword . Moorcock also collaborated with former Hawkwind frontman and resident poet, Robert Calvert (who gave
7040-401: The band probably first saw the symbol while traveling through France. The origin of the black cat symbol is unclear, but according to one story it came from an Industrial Workers of the World strike that was going badly. Several members had been beaten up and were put in a hospital. At that time a skinny, black cat walked into the striker's camp. The cat was fed by the striking workers and as
7150-422: The cat regained its health the strike took a turn for the better. Eventually the striking workers got some of their demands and they adopted the cat as their mascot. The Swiss anarchist Théophile Steinlen made use of the black cat ( Le Chat Noir ) in a number of his paintings. In an 1890 oil-painting, he depicted a black cat raising a red banner emblazoned with the word "Gaudeamus" (English: Rejoice ). And in
7260-573: The chilling declamation of "Sonic Attack"), on Calvert's albums Lucky Leif and the Longships and Hype , playing guitar and banjo and singing background vocals with his wife Linda. Moorcock wrote the lyrics to three album tracks by the American band Blue Öyster Cult : " Black Blade ", referring to the sword Stormbringer in the Elric books, " Veteran of the Psychic Wars ", showing us Elric's emotions at
7370-413: The concept of powered armor exoskeletons . The German space opera series Perry Rhodan , written by various authors, started in 1961 with an account of the first Moon landing and has since expanded in space to multiple universes , and in time by billions of years. It has become the most popular science fiction book series of all time. In the 1960s and 1970s, New Wave science fiction
7480-506: The creation of microrobots and micromachinery , nanotechnology , smartdust , virtual reality , and artificial intelligence (including swarm intelligence ), as well as developing the ideas of "necroevolution" and the creation of artificial worlds. In 1965, Dune by Frank Herbert featured a much more complex and detailed imagined future society than had previously in most science fiction. In 1967 Anne McCaffrey began her Dragonriders of Pern science fantasy series. Two of
7590-399: The drug community' but made venues and stations wary of booking and playing them. The first album New Worlds Fair was released in 1975. The album included Snowy White , Peter Pavli of The Third Ear Band, regulars Steve Gilmore and Graham Charnock, Moorcock himself on guitars, mandolin and banjo, and a number of Hawkwind regulars in the credits. A second version of the New Worlds album
7700-509: The dustjacket for the first edition of Gloriana ( Allison and Busby , 1978). In 1983, Linda Steele became Moorcock's third wife. He was an early member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA), a loose-knit group of eight heroic fantasy authors founded in the 1960s and led by Lin Carter , selected by fantasy credentials alone. Moorcock is the subject of four book-length works,
7810-439: The episodes, ran from 1959 to 1964. It featured fantasy , suspense , and horror as well as science fiction, with each episode being a complete story. Critics have ranked it as one of the best TV programs of any genre . The animated series The Jetsons , while intended as comedy and only running for one season (1962–1963), predicted many inventions now in common use: flat-screen televisions , newspapers on
7920-637: The essentials of the form. Although his heroic fantasies have been his most consistently reprinted books in the United States, he achieved prominence in the UK as a literary author, with the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1977 for The Condition of Muzak , and with Mother London later shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize . Novels and series such as the Cornelius Quartet , Mother London , King of
8030-527: The field came to associate the term with low-budget, low-tech " B-movies " and with low-quality pulp science fiction . By the 1970s, critics within the field, such as Damon Knight and Terry Carr , were using "sci fi" to distinguish hack-work from serious science fiction. Peter Nicholls writes that "SF" (or "sf") is "the preferred abbreviation within the community of sf writers and readers." Robert Heinlein found even "science fiction" insufficient for certain types of works in this genre, and suggested
8140-401: The field of fantasy in the 1960s and 1970s. As editor of the British science fiction magazine New Worlds , from May 1964 until March 1971 and then again from 1976 to 1996, Moorcock fostered the development of the science fiction "New Wave" in the UK and indirectly in the United States, leading to the advent of cyberpunk . His publication of Bug Jack Barron (1969) by Norman Spinrad as
8250-743: The first science fiction novel . Some of the stories from The Arabian Nights , along with the 10th-century The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter and Ibn al-Nafis 's 13th-century Theologus Autodidactus , are also argued to contain elements of science fiction. Written during the Scientific Revolution and later the Age of Enlightenment are considered true science-fantasy books. Francis Bacon 's New Atlantis (1627), Johannes Kepler 's Somnium (1634), Athanasius Kircher 's Itinerarium extaticum (1656), Cyrano de Bergerac 's Comical History of
8360-472: The first three non-juvenile books that he read before beginning primary school. The first book he bought was a secondhand copy of The Pilgrim's Progress . Moorcock is the former husband of the writer Hilary Bailey , with whom he had three children: Sophie (b. 1963), Katherine (b. 1964), and Max (b. 1972). Moorcock is also the former husband of Jill Riches, who later married Robert Calvert . She illustrated some of Moorcock's books, including covers, among them
8470-640: The first true science fiction novel . Jules Verne and H.G. Wells are pivotal figures in the genre's development. In the 20th century, expanded with the introduction of space operas , dystopian literature, pulp magazines , and the Golden Age of Science Fiction . Science fiction has been called the "literature of ideas ", and continues to evolve, incorporating diverse voices and themes, influencing not just literature but film, TV, and culture at large. Besides providing entertainment it can also criticize present-day society and explore alternatives, and inspiration
8580-471: The front carrying a black flag and shouting "Bread, work, or lead!", the crowd of 500 protesters soon marched off towards the boulevard Saint-Germain and pillaged three baker's shops before the police arrested them. Michel was arrested and sentenced to six years solitary confinement. Public pressure soon forced the granting of an amnesty. She wrote, "the black flag is the flag of strikes and the flag of those who are hungry". The black flag soon made its way to
8690-460: The general title The Michael Moorcock Library, while in France a new adaptation of the Elric and Hawkmoon series has been translated into many languages, including English. Moorcock's best-selling works have been the " Elric of Melniboné " stories. In these, Elric is a deliberate reversal of clichés found in fantasy adventure novels inspired by the works of J. R. R. Tolkien . Central to many of his seminal fantasy novels, including his Elric books,
8800-480: The genre, it describes the history of humanity from the present onwards across two billion years. In 1937, John W. Campbell became editor of Astounding Science Fiction , an event that is sometimes considered the beginning of the Golden Age of Science Fiction , which was characterized by stories celebrating scientific achievement and progress . The "Golden Age" is often said to have ended in 1946, but sometimes
8910-472: The implications of the Internet and the expanding information universe, questions about biotechnology , nanotechnology , and post-scarcity societies . Recent trends and subgenres include steampunk , biopunk , and mundane science fiction . The first, or at least one of the first, recorded science fiction film is 1902's A Trip to the Moon , directed by French filmmaker Georges Méliès . It
9020-497: The initials "JC"; these are also the initials of Jesus Christ , the subject of his 1967 Nebula Award -winning novella Behold the Man , which tells the story of Karl Glogauer, a time-traveller who takes on the role of Christ. They are also the initials of various "Eternal Champion" Moorcock characters such as Jerry Cornelius, Jerry Cornell and Jherek Carnelian. In more recent years, Moorcock has taken to using " Warwick Colvin, Jr. " as
9130-405: The interface between technology and society, and climate fiction , addressing environmental issues. Precedents for science fiction are argued to exist as far back as antiquity, but the modern genre primarily arose in the 19th and early 20th centuries when popular writers began looking to technological progress and speculation. Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein , written in 1818, is often credited as
9240-477: The intersection of other more concrete subgenres. Damon Knight summed up the difficulty, saying "Science fiction is what we point to when we say it." Forrest J Ackerman has been credited with first using the term "sci-fi" (analogous to the then-trendy " hi-fi ") in about 1954. The first known use in print was a description of Donovan's Brain by movie critic Jesse Zunser in January 1954. As science fiction entered popular culture , writers and fans active in
9350-455: The large landscape painting Apotheosis of the Cats of Montmartre , he showed a clowder of cats on the rooftops of a working-class Parisian neighbourhood, beneath the moon. Francophone anarchists like Steilein and Zo d'Axa were inspired by the independent and undomesticated nature of the cat. The name Black Cat has been used for numerous anarchist-affiliated collectives and cooperatives, including
9460-415: The late 1940s and the 1950s are included. In 1942, Isaac Asimov started his Foundation series , which chronicles the rise and fall of galactic empires and introduced psychohistory . The series was later awarded a one-time Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series". Theodore Sturgeon 's More Than Human (1953) explored possible future human evolution . In 1957, Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale by
9570-501: The letter O , standing for order or organization , a reference to Pierre-Joseph Proudhon 's definition of anarchism from his 1840 book What Is Property? : "As man seeks justice in equality, so society seeks order in anarchy" ( French : la société cherche l'ordre dans l'anarchie ). In the 1970s, anarcho-punk and punk rock bands such as Crass began using the circle-A symbol in red, thereby introducing it to non-anarchists. Crass founder Penny Rimbaud would later say that
9680-464: The mass appeal of the [First] International". The symbol composed of the capital letter A surrounded by a circle is universally recognized as a symbol of anarchism and has been established in global youth culture since the 1970s. An interpretation held by anarchists such as Cindy Milstein is that the A represents the Greek anarkhia ('without ruler/authority'), and the circle can be read as
9790-527: The name Michael Moorcock & The Deep Fix . The Deep Fix was the title story of an obscure collection of short stories by James Colvin (a pen name of Moorcock) and was the name of the Jerry Cornelius band. Moorcock's story had dealt with releasing the unconscious, and although it referenced William Burroughs, it was not specifically about illicit drugs. This allegedly lost the band considerable airplay and gave Moorcock what he called 'a great reputation in
9900-472: The novellas included in the first novel, Dragonflight , made McCaffrey the first woman to win a Hugo or Nebula Award . In 1968, Philip K. Dick 's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was published. It is the literary source of the Blade Runner movie franchise . In 1969, The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin was set on a planet in which the inhabitants have no fixed gender . It
10010-488: The options, usually when they seemed to drift too far off course. In February 2019, BBC Studios announced they had secured the rights to the Runestaff series of fantasy novels, which feature Hawkmoon as their hero. Another of Moorcock's creations is Jerry Cornelius , a hip urban adventurer of ambiguous gender ; the same characters featured in each of several Cornelius books. These books were satirical of modern times, including
10120-607: The origins of fantasy in myth and medieval cycles (see "Wizardry and Wild Romance – Moorcock" and "Death Is No Obstacle – Colin Greenland" for more commentary). This also provides an implicit link with the episodic origins of literature in newspaper/magazine serials from Trollope and Dickens onwards. None of this should be surprising given Moorcock's background in magazine publishing. Since the 1980s, Moorcock has written longer, more literary "mainstream" novels, such as Mother London and Byzantium Endures , but he continued to revisit characters from his earlier works, such as Elric. With
10230-603: The play RUR , written by the Czech playwright Karel Čapek , broadcast live from the BBC's Alexandra Palace studios on 11 February 1938. The first popular science fiction program on American television was the children's adventure serial Captain Video and His Video Rangers , which ran from June 1949 to April 1955. The Twilight Zone (the original series), produced and narrated by Rod Serling , who also wrote or co-wrote most of
10340-761: The poet Bill Butler, who died of a drug overdose. Moorcock has performed live with BÖC (in 1987 at the Atlanta, GA Dragon Con Convention). Moorcock contributed vocals and harmonica to the Spirits Burning albums An Alien Heat , The Hollow Lands , and The End Of All Songs - Part 1 . Most of the lyrics were taken from or based on text in novels from Moorcock's The Dancers At The End Of Time trilogy. The albums were produced by Spirits Burning leader Don Falcone , and included contributions from Albert Bouchard and other members of Blue Öyster Cult , as well as former members of Hawkwind. Moorcock plays harmonica on three songs on
10450-452: The process of making the intended versions of those songs based on the group's TEAC recordings of the 80s. They are influenced heavily by modern classical music which they look to for inspiration. Moorcock's considerable range is demanded. Moorcock and Pavli have long been advocates for Mahler, Schoenberg, Ives and other 20th century composers. Working with Martin Stone , Moorcock began recording
10560-411: The publication of the third and last book in his Elric Moonbeam Roads sequence, he announced that he was "retiring" from writing heroic fantasy fiction, though he continued to write Elric's adventures as graphic novels with his long-time collaborators Walter Simonson and the late James Cawthorn (1929–2008) and in 2021 announced that he had written a 'straight' Elric novel, within the first canon, for
10670-438: The reason for sharing his character: I came out of popular fiction and Jerry was always meant to be a sort of crystal ball for others to see their own visions in – the stories were designed to work like that – a diving board, to use another analogy, from which to jump into the river and be carried along by it. [...] All of these have tended to use Jerry the way I intended to use him – as a way of seeing modern life and sometimes as
10780-402: The same name , and he worked with the band on their album Warrior on the Edge of Time , for which he earned a gold disc. Moorcock also wrote the lyrics to " Sonic Attack ", a Sci-Fi satire of the public information broadcast, that was part of Hawkwind's Space Ritual set. Hawkwind's album The Chronicle of the Black Sword was largely based on the Elric novels. Moorcock appeared on stage with
10890-647: The series gained popularity through syndication and extraordinary fan interest . It became a very popular and influential franchise with many films , television shows , novels , and other works and products. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) led to six additional live action Star Trek shows: Deep Space Nine (1993–1999), Voyager (1995–2001) , Enterprise (2001–2005), Discovery (2017–2024), Picard (2020–2023), and Strange New Worlds (2022–present), with more in some form of development. No gods, no masters Anarchists have employed certain symbols for their cause since
11000-419: The short story "The Pleasure Garden of Felipe Sagittarius"), major textual alterations (for example, the addition of several new chapters to The Steel Tsar in the omnibus editions), and even complete restructurings (as with the 1966 novella Behold the Man being expanded to novel-length and into a novel rather than an SF story recreated from the original version that appeared in New Worlds for republication as
11110-515: The term speculative fiction to be used instead for those that are more "serious" or "thoughtful". Some scholars assert that science fiction had its beginnings in ancient times , when the line between myth and fact was blurred. Written in the 2nd century CE by the satirist Lucian , A True Story contains many themes and tropes characteristic of modern science fiction, including travel to other worlds, extraterrestrial lifeforms , interplanetary warfare, and artificial life . Some consider it
11220-470: The time of writing technologically impossible, extrapolating from present-day science...[,]...or that deal with some form of speculative science-based conceit, such as a society (on Earth or another planet) that has developed in wholly different ways from our own." There is a tendency among science fiction enthusiasts as their own arbiter in deciding what exactly constitutes science fiction. David Seed says it may be more useful to talk about science fiction as
11330-655: The use of the red flag. Anarchist Louise Michel wrote that the flag "frightens the executioners because it is so red with our blood. [...] Those red and black banners wave over us mourning our dead and wave over our hopes for the dawn that is breaking." Use of the red flag by anarchists largely disappeared after the October Revolution , when red flags started to be associated only with Bolshevism and communist parties and authoritarian , bureaucratic and reformist social democracy , or authoritarian socialism . The black flag has been associated with anarchism since
11440-504: Was 15 volumes, while the British edition was 14 volumes, but due to various rights issues, the U.S. edition contained two volumes that were not included in the British edition, and the British edition likewise contained one volume that was not included in the U.S. edition) containing several books per volume, by Victor Gollancz in the UK and by White Wolf Publishing in the US. Several attempts to make an Elric film were made. Moorcock refused to resign
11550-561: Was born in London in December 1939, and the landscape of London, particularly the area of Notting Hill Gate and Ladbroke Grove , is an important influence in some of his fiction (such as the Cornelius novels). Moorcock has mentioned The Master Mind of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs , The Apple Cart by George Bernard Shaw and The Constable of St. Nicholas by Edwin Lester Arnold as
11660-404: Was influential on later filmmakers , bringing a different kind of creativity and fantasy . Méliès's innovative editing and special effects techniques were widely imitated and became important elements of the cinematic medium . 1927's Metropolis , directed by Fritz Lang , is the first feature-length science fiction film. Though not well received in its time, it is now considered
11770-717: Was issued in 2004 under the album name Roller Coaster Holiday . A non-album rock single, including Lemmy on bass and Moorcock playing his own Rickenbacker 330/12, "Starcruiser" coupled with "Dodgem Dude", was belatedly issued in 1980 on Flicknife . Although announced to appear at Dingwalls, the performance was cancelled when schedules clashed. The Deep Fix gave a rare live performance at the Roundhouse , London on 18 June 1978 at Nik Turner 's Bohemian Love-In , headlined by Turner's band Sphynx and also featuring Tanz Der Youth with Brian James (ex- The Damned ), Lightning Raiders , Steve Took's Horns , Roger Ruskin and others. In 1982, as
11880-480: Was known for its embrace of a high degree of experimentation, both in form and in content, and a highbrow and self-consciously " literary " or " artistic " sensibility . In 1961, Solaris by Stanisław Lem was published in Poland . The novel dealt with the theme of human limitations as its characters attempted to study a seemingly intelligent ocean on a newly discovered planet . Lem's work anticipated
11990-471: Was published in French by Denoel. Among other works by Moorcock are The Dancers at the End of Time , comedies set on Earth millions of years in the future, Gloriana, or The Unfulfill'd Queen , which he describes as an argument with Spenser 's The Faerie Queen , set in an alternative Earth history and the "Second Ether" sequence beginning with "BLOOD", mixing absurdism, reminiscence and family memoir against
12100-408: Was the first of his three- decade -long planetary romance series of Barsoom novels , which were set on Mars and featured John Carter as the hero . These novels were predecessors to YA novels , and drew inspiration from European science fiction and American Western novels . In 1924, We by Russian writer Yevgeny Zamyatin , one of the first dystopian novels, was published. It describes
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