2 Comments

  1. Katherine Sas

    I’m pretty sure the peasantry is, by definition, NOT bourgeoisie.

    Also, if he’d kept reading further past the part where Gandalf’s story soothes Pippin to sleep, he’d have got to the part where Gandalf tells Pippin that “if you have walked all these days with closed ears and mind asleep, wake up now!” But, again, why bother quoting bits that don’t support his reading?

    Finally, for the All Good vs All Evil issue, from Letter 203: “And since I have not made the struggle wholly unequivocal: sloth and stupidity among hobbits, pride and [illegible] among Elves, grudge and greed in Dwarf-hearts, and folly and wickedness among the ‘Kings of Men’, and treachery and power-lust even among the ‘Wizards’, there is I suppose applicability in my story to present times.”

    Great analysis of an essay that, in my view, is historically important but ultimately outdated.

  2. Beowulf Skitarg

    That was an interesting read. It does seem to me that Moorcock is bitter about a great many things.

    For instance: Franchises such as Dungeons & Dragons and Warhammer has more or less completely ripped off a lot of his ideas for their settings. The companies holding the rights to the franchises has probably made more money and recognition off Moorcock’s ideas than he ever will see in his life. So I think the lack of praise for his work for the last 3 decades, and also his increasingly growing obscurity in the genre has left him bitter.

    I get the feeling that he is an insecure man that desperately wants to prove to the world that his view is the correct and relevant one.

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