Elric in the New York Times
In the Sunday, July 20 New York Times, Dave Itzkoff latest Across the Universe column features Michael Moorcock's seminal creation Elric and the recent repackaging Elric: The Stealer of Souls (Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melniboné, Volume I).
What is stranger still is that the world Elric was born into did not necessarily need him. Moorcock was 21 years old when he introduced the character in the June 1961 issue of a British periodical called Science Fantasy. Ray guns and rocket ships were rapidly overtaking swords and sorcery as the preferred pulp subjects of the day, and many of Moorcock’s lasting science fiction accomplishments — including his novella “Behold the Man”; his radical, satirical Jerry Cornelius novels; and his immensely influential editorship of the sci-fi magazine New Worlds — were several years away.Three things leaped out at me from the piece.
1) Itzkoff clearly has done some reading about Moorcock and of his work. Knowing that, it's very shocking that he writes "also C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien — titans of fantasy who seemed to be obvious influences on him." Moorcock was influenced by the works that originally influenced the two authors as well as the writings of Mervyn Peake and Robert E. Howard.
2) What the hell is that hideous image in the article?
Why would any one choose that objectively inferior piece over John Picacio's beautiful cover or incredible interior art? (Picacio is NOT mentioned in the article.)
3) The overall poor quality of Dave Itzkoff's writing in this piece.
I probably should stop there as both Michael Moorcock and Elric both deserve the attention and respect.
(Elric: The Stealer of Souls is the Dark Forces Book for September.)
Labels: Dave Itzkoff, John Picacio, Michael Moorcock
posted by Rick Klaw at
9:55 PM
1 Comments:
Although some contributors to my website (Moorcocks Miscellany) have made similar comments, Rick, I think you have to allow for
editorial tweaking and art editors who always know better... Did you see,for instance, the illustrations they did for Chabon's Gentlemen of the Road ? Given that I was braced for the usual self-conscious sarcasm which passes for irony in New York, I was grateful that the piece was at least roughly aimed at a general audience. I read the key word in that reference to Tolkien and Lewis as 'seemed'. Incidentally, although I'm not suggesting this is so, you can get all that information from the contents of the book, which not only gives context and examples of non-fiction I wrote about Elric in fanzines when the stories were first appearing in magazine but also reproduces artwork from the period. It would have been nice if the full details of the book had been printed. The custom, when reviewing books in the UK, is to give details of the illustrations and/or introductions (Alan Moore, in this case), but apparently they don't do this in NY.
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