[off] Moorcock and drugs (was Re: HW: The Quest for Levitation/Needlegun)

[Christian Mumford]

Allan T Grohe Jr wrote:
>
> On Tue, 18 Jun 1996, Christian Mumford wrote:
>
> > OK. First of all, both Jerry Cornelius and Elric are (soul) junkies.
> > Cornelius used to shoot speed and heroin and snort cocaine. Both Elric
> > an Yrkoon had a black sword, Stormbringer and Mournblade, and both Frank
> > and Jerry Cornelius each had a black Needlegun (but they also used
> > vibraguns and heat guns). Like most of the Eternal Champion's weapons,
> > they were splinters of some evil, sentient hell-thing which plagued all
> > of the Eternal Champions to some extent, most noticably Cornelius and
> > Elric.
>
> I wouldn't say that Jerry was ever concerned about his use of drugs or
> the assorted armaments that MM gave him.  It was the fantasy characters
> who suffered the doom of the Eternal Champion--while JC was an aspect of
> such, he never felt to me like he was too worried about using the Black
> Sword (and in fact probably never really knew about the larger issues
> lurking in the EC background and resolved in _The Quest for Tanelorn_).
>
> > I believe these weapons are Moorcocks
> > metaphors for certain drugs being weapons against one's own inner
> > demons, but all to often with a bad catch in the end (if drugs are taken
> > for that reason alone- escape from oneself, they'll catch up with you in
> > the end).
>
> If you limit the interpretation to drugs, I think you're missing the
> point of the symbols:  power, in any form, corrupts, and has its price;
> reliance on external sources of power/definition of self/morality/
> whatever, ultimately results in the destruction of freewill (which is
> why the EC kills off the gods of the worlds in which he
> manifests--religion being just another drug/tool/weapon in MM's
> symbology).
>


Well... you're right! Just read "Death is No Obstacle", BTW, and its
quite an enlightening read as well......

Christian