jerry cornelius

[legion505]

alright, i just recently bought the quartet and had just finished the final programme.
after getting into the second book, a cure for cancer, i became somewhat confused.
in the final programme, jerry has the needle gun, but i see no symbiotic relationship between the two. it has that ring of a drug gun, or something of the sort, but i dont recall reading him feeding from needles he shot people with.
miss brunner seems more akin to stormbringer to me, because she is most obviously a vampire, and the end of the book rings with the elric series.
i had read in the back of the book the two lines in the final programme and the wierd of the white wolf where the main characters say something along the lines of "such confidence is warming to the heart" (the line from the wierd of the white wolf.) i felt that both books seemed to run the same gauntlet of events, for the first bit anyway, but the two vampiric elements in the final programme confused me.

the next thing was the vibragun that jerry possesses in a cure for cancer, im not quite sure how this weapon is jerry's symbiote, but im hopin you can clear my questions up ;)

[Michael Moorcock]

You're making too literal an association. Jerry doesn't need instruments for his psychic vampirism, but Miss Brunner is doing more 'absorption' of other characters. The weapons are not equivalents of Stormbringer.
You'd be best just enjoying the stories for themselves rather than trying to make too close links with the Elric stories. The Final Programme uses elements from those early short stories, but diverge considerably thereafter. :)

[nalpak retrac]

Perhaps it is a reflection of my own perversity, but A Cure for Cancer is probably my favorite Moorcock novel--the beauty of Dancers at the end of Time and the psychological insights of The Second Ether notwithstanding. It's the Moorcock novel I'd take with me to read on that proverbial island that lacks a lending library.

There are of course interesting parallels to be drawn between Jerry and Elric--their characters, the plot of their adventures, their equipment.

Though knowlege of the parallels is interesting, it isn't necessary for appreciating the stories. Still, the parallels are fun. That strange black box that Jerry carries with him might be equated with the black sword--they both have a tendency to transform people, to exert a metaphysical effect. In the case of the sword it's fatal, in the case of the black box (in my case anyway) the effect is to make me laugh. The notion of "transmog" is intreaguing--if I recall correctly the box helps Jerry to transform people . . . into hippies, perhaps, or into Moorcock fans, or into New Worlds authors, or maybe there is an larger allegory here that suggests the box converts people into modern consumers? Maybe the souls Elric sucks down his sword end up reincarnated as citizens of the contemporary commonwealth of Madison Ave. commercialism.

For me the needle gun never suggested drugs or hypodermic syringes. It was simply a nasty tool Jerry needed to get along in the south of England, where sticking needles into people's hearts is sometimes the best defense.... As for the vibra gun! Ah, well. That little number can either shake you apart or give you an orgasm, depending on how high Jerry sets the dial.

And by all means, don't let your vibra gun fall into the hands of Mitzy Beesley! No telling where that naughty baggage might point it!

I gotta go. The SR-71 is warmed up and I'm Jonesing for loop-d-loops at Mach III.

[Anonymous]

NEEDLE GUNS

Needle gun, read flechette rounds.

[Michael Moorcock]

You got it, Carter. Black box is really the nearest to black blade.
But Cornelius is more about transformations, I suppose (as in Harlequinade), than actually being translated into a less substantial
form...

[Pietro_Mercurios]

I have a fantasy. A Cornelius Chronicles, re-imagined as a BBC TV classic serial.

In the absence of the late, great, Irene Handl, I have already mentioned, elsewhere, my personal preference for Mrs C. to be portrayed by Meera Syal, but since watching my, 'The Mighty Boosh: Special Edition DVD boxed set.

Definitely, Noel Fielding, to play Jerry. Quite possibly, Julian Barrett, to play Shaky Mo Collier and Rich Fulcher, to play Bishop Beesley.

That would be good. V.good. Noel is even a Jagger fan and knows all the moves.

[Dave Hardy]

I recently read the Cornelius Chronicles. The idea of stitching together an identity from pop-culture, fashion and historical characters in order to negotiate the world really resonated with me.

At the end of a recent stay in the hospital I became a bit obsessed with putting on my own clothes. Somehow the desire became linked in my mind with the final episode of The Prisoner where they take No 6 into the tunnel and give him back his old clothes while "All You Need is Love" plays on the jukebox. Of course he ended up machine-gunning the place, which I will take a pass on.

So was myself pretending to be Patrick McGoohan the Harlequinade? Or was the guy in the hospital gown the Harlequin? Maybe both were. Who knows...

[The English Assassin]

Definitely, Noel Fielding, to play Jerry.

Oh god, no! No! I don't get this fascination people have with the Fielding. Is it the novelty of having a token famous goth? While I'm here I also don't get the BBC's fascination with casting comedians in their dramas. It's like every casting director gets a bonus for ever stand-up comic they can convert. Christ, as much as I can't stand him, I'd sooner the awful Russell Brand as JC - at least he's got a cheap decadence to him, albeit in a 'once up against the bike sheds, me deary?' kind of way. And I guess he's an Eastender too.

But no, seriously I've been burned to many times by shoddy adaptations of books I love. Can't we all have a whip around and buy the film options of every book Mike has written (and Philip K Dick while we're at it) as a safe guard?

[Pietro_Mercurios]

...

Oh god, no! No! I don't get this fascination people have with the Fielding. Is it the novelty of having a token famous goth? While I'm here I also don't get the BBC's fascination with casting comedians in their dramas. It's like every casting director gets a bonus for ever stand-up comic they can convert. Christ, as much as I can't stand him, I'd sooner the awful Russell Brand as JC - at least he's got a cheap decadence to him, albeit in a 'once up against the bike sheds, me deary?' kind of way. And I guess he's an Eastender too.

...

No! Russell Brand? Really? He occurred to me, alongside Jonathan Ross, like something Ms Brunner might have dreamed up on a wet Thursday.

Come on, can't you just see Vince Noir in the title roll?

[The English Assassin]

No! Russell Brand? Really? He occurred to me, alongside Jonathan Ross, like something Ms Brunner might have dreamed up on a wet Thursday.

I was only joking re: Brand... honestly! I'd sooner David Beckham!

[johneffay]

That clip totally swayed it for me, Pietro. I think he'd be great!