Michael Moorcock

Michael John Moorcock (born December 18, 1939) is a prolific British writer of both science fiction and science fantasy. He has also published a number of literary novels. He became editor of Tarzan Adventures in 1956, at only sixteen, later moving on to edit Sexton Blake Library. As editor of the controversial 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 New Wave in the UK and indirectly in the U.S. His serialisation of Norman Spinrad's Bug Jack Barron was notorious for causing British MPs to condemn in Parliament the Arts Council's funding of the magazine.

Views on other writers

Moorcock is a fervent supporter of the works of Mervyn Peake, and an almost equally fervent detractor of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. 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.

Related Topics:
Mervyn Peake - J. R. R. Tolkien - C. S. Lewis

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Some critics have accused Moorcock of condemning Tolkien for not writing like Peake, which if true would be like condemning apples for not being oranges. Moorcock is not known to have compared both writers in this way. Instead, he criticises works like The Lord of the Rings for their Merry England point of view, famously equating Tolkien's trilogy to Winnie-the-Pooh in his essay "Epic Pooh" http://www.revolutionsf.com/article.html?id=953. He cites as an example of an author who writes fantasy that is not escapist and contains meaningful themes, Fritz Leiber, one of the pioneers of sword and sorcery fiction. These views can be found in his study of epic fantasy Wizardry & Wild Romance, which was revised and reissued by MonkeyBrain Books in 2004.

Related Topics:
Apple - Orange - The Lord of the Rings - Merry England - Winnie-the-Pooh - Fritz Leiber - Epic fantasy - Wizardry & Wild Romance - 2004

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Likewise, Moorcock has criticized writers who he perceives as having hidden political agendas. Among his targets are Robert Heinlein and H.P. Lovecraft, both of whom he attacked in a 1978 essay. In this essay (caustically entitled "Starship Stormtroopers"), he compared Heinlein's Starship Troopers, to Mein Kampf, calling it "xenophobic." Likewise, he attacked Lovecraft for having anti-semitic, misogynistic and extremely racist viewpoints, which he included in his short stories (while this criticism is true, Lovecraft later changed his opinions and actually married a Jewish woman).

Related Topics:
Political - Robert Heinlein - H.P. Lovecraft - 1978 - Starship Troopers - Mein Kampf - Xenophobic - Anti-semitic - Misogynistic - Racist - Jewish

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