StarShipSofa interviews Michael Moorcock Part 1

[darthd95]

The best fantasy writer!

[pinworms70]

The two guys interviewing Mr Moorcock look like a couple of street thughs...Like they might ask a question or two and then steal his stuff. Next time wear a button down shirt you bums.

[believerornot]

@pinworms70

dick

[matthewjsharpe]

@pinworms70 You do realise these two "bums" are from the Hugo award winning Starship Sofa podcast? Who cares how they dress, they both love and respect Genre Fiction.

[BardoMr]

and the name of a cat?;)

[BardoMr]

а как котика зовут?

[lambertsheepishlion]

his work is trivial and he provides a gross misinterpretation in his essay "epic pooh." he is a hypocrite and his work will be forgotten in the next decade.

[darrenmsparrow]

@lambertsheepishlion Hmm, methinks you have a problem with the fella?

[SonofThor73]

Moorcock is just standing on the shoulders of giants. He owes his popularity almost exclusively to the roads that Tolkien had paved some 40 years previously.

[SonofThor73]

I've enjoyed reading Michael Moorcock's books, I have to agree with rutgerhauer666 that "Epic Pooh" was an epic failure. It was nothing more than a polemic against Professor Tolkien's Victorian sentimentalities and his Catholicism. While Moorcock derides Tolkien, he praises a lesser author (Philip Pullman), for echoing his own beliefs about religion.

Moorcock is entitled to his own opinion, but his criticisms of Tolkien are lazy and intellectually dishonest.

[Spaceshiptechnician]

I actually think that Mike's characterisations are spot-on. I also think he's correct that it offers happy-ever-after endings and Tolkien writes that war offers the chance for glory and even redemption for past failure etc.

I do realise that not connecting with the characters is a separate issue but I found it both twee and monumentally boring and insipid.

[rutgerhauer666]

@Spaceshiptechnician

So when the elves leave Middle-earth, never to return, and magic is drained out of the world, replaced by the vagaries of men; or when Frodo goes to the Gray Havens to die, because he has suffered a mortal wound and left part of him on a foreign field, that's happy ever after?

Or when Sam observes of a fallen enemy, "he wondered what the man's name was and where he came from; and if he was really evil of heart," that's war-mongering? Must be some other book I read.

[Spaceshiptechnician]

Sorry rutgerhauer666 but Mike's attack on Tolkien and similar 'epic fantasy' was well overdue and right on the button. It's a well thought out and deep analysis of the book. Whole generations have read LOTR and regard it as a high point of fantasy writing and it often seems it's a book that has risen to a point beyond criticism. Not so. I first had a go at it 35 years ago and got three quarters of the way through and wondered where it was going to start! I felt no connection with the characters.

[rutgerhauer666]

@Spaceshiptechnician

I never said LOTR was above criticism. But Moorcock's claims that LOTR offers artificial happy endings, does not address the problem of death, and glorifies warfare are demonstrably false. Evidence to the contrary is right there in the text.

I suggest a search for the article "Knocking some stuffing out of Epic Pooh."

Having no connection to the characters and being unable to finish the story is a separate issue from Moorcock's mischaracterizations.

[OverlordKay]

Is it bad that the first thing I noticed that he had a cute little black cat on the sofa?

[Spaceshiptechnician]

A fantastic writer. I love virtually all his stuff. The Mars series is a bit below his usual standard but everyone is allowed a dip here and there. His contributions to Hawkwind are also glossed over. For me they're indivisible. His 'Epic Pooh' is a masterpiece. The way he demolishes Tolkien and the rest of that appallingly twee writing is stunning. I just wish the essay was more widely known and read.

A great man.

[rutgerhauer666]

@Spaceshiptechnician Epic Pooh a masterpiece? It's a terribly flawed essay and the product of a very shallow, biased reading of The Lord of the Rings. Moorcock is actually an imperceptive critic.

[MontajesQ3]

Still reading his books, still listening to Hawkwind. Thanx for Elric, Michael...Eh, uh, and for Corum... and Hawkmoon, John Daker, Cornelius, Erekosë... THANX!

[marka975]

One of THE greatest fantasy writers ever. Period.

[jeffteach]

Not fair to comapre Gaiman to Moorcock. Moorcock's writing of Eternal Champion is so fun and so colorful - it is in a class by itself. A mythical inner truth.

[HellSoda]

My favourite author. My dad has a whole host of his first editions - Including stormbringer from the 60s. Very deep and well thought out - It was hard yet fun to understand his writing.

[allaboutdmagic]

Seems like a nice guy. I've ordered A Cure For Cancer.

[OOHNTAH61]

I've only read the Dorian Hawkmoon series but even after 25+ years I still pull it out & read it again every year. Moorcock's gift of setting up the scenes that as the reader I can put it in into a realistic scene with areas that I have been to are spot on. Obviously as the reader I become the Duke of Kohn & pine for Ysselda. Still my fav writer!

[amaxamon]

Thanks!

Michael Moorcock needs to start getting the credit he deserves. He's worth a million Neil Gaiman hacks.

[elvenvampire1]

Oooh... thats not fair!

[garyeberly916]

yep, sure it is

[Filmguy297]

Come now, how many times has Moorcock won The Hugo Award? Please, Gaiman is a wonderful storyteller ; Moorcock is a babbling fool who has no base on his fantasy "Epic Pooh". Please, once more, Tolkien was five times the writer/man he is.

[AllOfTheRestWillFlow]

Yup, let's discount an essential creator based on a stupid thing they once said - if this was the case I wouldn't be into half of the things I am, I'd be looking for nice and safe creative minds. I *want* my favourites to speak their minds, even if I don't agree with them.

[Filmguy297]

I doubt what he says, yes. I disagree with him, yes. I despised behold the man but I love his Elric stuff. Comparing Gaiman to Moorcok is fair. They write the same genre. Gaiman may write more magical-realism and more 'urban' fantasy but they still both write fantasy. But Tokien and Gaiman aside: Gene Wolf writes Moorcock under the table, but that's just my opinion.