Firing the Cathedral

Jerry Cornelius #10

by Michael Moorcock

In the 1960s Jerry Cornelius was the coolest assassin on the Ladbroke Grove block.

By the 1970s The Condition of Muzak had won the Guardian Fiction Prize and The Final Programme was a feature film starring Jon Finch, Jenny Runacre, Hugh Griffiths and Sterling Hayden.

In the 1980s the world's first cyberpunk continued to inspire a generation of writers including William Gibson, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman and bands like The Human League.

By the 1990s he was up and running towards the guns again in stories like 'The Spencer Inheritance', 'The Camus Connection' and 'Cheering For The Rockets', which dealt with the icons and key events of the day.

Now, in Firing The Cathedral, he responds to the attacks on America of September 2001 and their consequences, to the realities of global warming and global terrorism and, once again, the apocalypse has never seemed more terrifying, never been more fun.

Cooler, sharper, his fingers firmly on the pulse of the 21st century, Jerry Cornelius is back, counting names and taking heads. And modern life will never feel the same to you again.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

108 pages, Hardcover

First published August 31, 2002

About the author

Michael John Moorcock is an English writer primarily of science fiction and fantasy who has also published a number of literary novels.

Moorcock has mentioned The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Apple Cart by George Bernard Shaw and The Constable of St. Nicholas by Edward Lester Arnold as the first three books which captured his imagination. He became editor of Tarzan Adventures in 1956, at the age of sixteen, and later moved on to edit Sexton Blake Library. As editor of the controversial British science fiction magazine New Worlds, from May 1964 until March 1971 and then again from 1976 to 1996, Moorcock fostered the development of the science fiction "New Wave" in the UK and indirectly in the United States. His serialization of Norman Spinrad's Bug Jack Barron was notorious for causing British MPs to condemn in Parliament the Arts Council's funding of the magazine.

During this time, he occasionally wrote under the pseudonym of "James Colvin," a "house pseudonym" used by other critics on New Worlds. A spoof obituary of Colvin appeared in New Worlds #197 (January 1970), written by "William Barclay" (another Moorcock pseudonym). Moorcock, indeed, makes much use of the initials "JC", and not entirely coincidentally these are also the initials of Jesus Christ, the subject of his 1967 Nebula award-winning novella Behold the Man, which tells the story of Karl Glogauer, a time-traveller who takes on the role of Christ. They are also the initials of various "Eternal Champion" Moorcock characters such as Jerry Cornelius, Jerry Cornell and Jherek Carnelian. In more recent years, Moorcock has taken to using "Warwick Colvin, Jr." as yet another pseudonym, particularly in his Second Ether fiction.

Reviews

[Glenn Russell]

Firing the Cathedral - novella by Michael Moorcock that's also included as tale #11 in The Lives and Times of Jerry Cornelius.

Firing the Cathedral consists of twenty-two short chapters. To share a preview, I'll focus on Chapters 1-6.

ONE - BUFFALO SOLDIERS
“Aha, young patriot? And what do you desire the Gandalf to bring you for July 4th?”

We're at the World Trade Center Memorial Mall, not the recently constructed new one since Firing the Cathedral published in 2002. None other than Bishop Beesley plays the part of Gandalf from the middle of May until 9/11 when he switches over to Uncle Santa or Sam Claus til December 25th.

Love that conflating Uncle Sam and Santa Claus cause sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. Also love how Beesley as J.R.R. Tolkien's Gandalf does the patriotic thing by linking his wizardry with America's celebration of Independence Day. Meanwhile, twitching up the bishop's cassock with his MK51 and sniffing at Gandalf's sweet smoke (adhering to mall fire regulations, I'm sure), Shaky Mo Collier asks, “Is that your own beard?”

Gandalf fires back at Shaky Mo and ends by proclaiming he's old and wise and acts “just like our president and all his sages, actually behaving according to a carefully pre-arranged plan.”

Ouch! So many zingers hurled at US politics and culture right on the first pages. And there's good reason since we're talking American mall here, haven and palace of brand names and shop til you drop. We're also talking George W. Bush as president with his “Axis of Evil” post-9/11 State of the Union Address and CNN pronouncing, “Jerusalem: This is were it all began. This is where it will end.”

Actually, Michael Moorcock includes the above clips among news quotes generously sprinkled in both the novella's short preface and at the beginning of each chapter.

An entire lineup of kids wait to have their turn with Gandalf. Meanwhile, Mo needs to buy some dope from Tolkien's gray bearded wizard. Shazam! Such black humor.

Gandalf reaches in his robe, lowers his voice and tells Mo, "Cash only. Mil a lid." No prob for Mo. He pulls a big wad from his stylish flak jacket and the deal is consummated under the zonked noses of the security guards.

Mo asks Gandalf Beesley the critical question: Wasn't it time Jerry turned up as it didn't seem fair otherwise cause he'd been on ice for too long. Such words will bring JC fans to attention: Is this a repeat of The English Assassin?

Some more Gandalf Mo stuff and Bishop Gandalf Beesley sits back down on his stool for the lineup of tranquilized kiddos....And then the kicker to end the chapter, foreshadowing with vengeance: "The whole mall was silent for ten minutes, awaiting the inevitable gunshot."

TWO - TELL ME THERE'S A HEAVEN
"He has no soul." One of the quotes kicking off this chapter, a George W. Bush quote as reported by Fox TV two months after the attack on the World Trade Center, NYC. So, so ironic since Muslims like Osama bin Laden look at the US as the Great Satan, destroyer of their Holy Lands for the sole purpose of drilling for oil. Sidebar: one Texan told me people in Texas love GWB since he prays in the White House. The clash of fundamentalists of different religions can border on the humorous (when it is not murderous).

"Ever since Jerry had known him Sir Taffy Sinclair had been up to something...So when Sinclair sent a message, the old assassin was going to come through." Go get 'em, Jer, you old English Assassin!

"The coming collapse of New York made him realize he only felt thoroughly easy in a big city." Some people, like Jer, like myself, feel uneasy in a small town where 'everyone knows everyone else' or in the country with all its biting insects, pollen and country folk. Nope - nothing but a big city will do.

Oh, yes, Jerry has made his way on the scene, as does brother Frank and Mitzi. When Jer asks about Mitzi's dad the Bishop, she tells him, "They spent a fortune on reproducing The Two Towers." Michael Moorcock has a jolly old time conflating J.R.R. Tolkien's Two Towers with NYC's Twin Towers.

"Revolutions are about people either trying to keep things the same or restore a golden age." Unfortunately, the last thing a revolutionary wants is for people to take a radical switch of identity, becoming free individuals beyond the boundaries of someone else's vision, even the leader of the revolution!

"People really hate liberty. First sniff they get of it and they dive back into their familiar captivity. They fight to the death to keep those chains." Very true! All you have to do is REALLY express your freedom by breaking away from convention, things like doing street theater with masks or dancing wildly in a public place, and the uptight, constipated conformists of the world want you to stop.

"Tom Paine, eh? And Common Sense. If you ask me the Canadians are the ones who had the common sense." As one Canadian told me: "Canada has all the material benefits of the US but none of the liabilities."

THREE - OLIVER'S ARMY
Post 9/11 and there's torture in the air for American "detainees." There's also talk about Camus' Le Myth de Sisphe.

FOUR - PIG ALLEY BLUES
"Captain Marvel Battles THE AXIS OF EVIL!" - a line from Captain Marvel Adventures, January 1945. Nothing like right wing George W Bush pronouncing the other guys, the bad guys, as pure evil, a favorite American trick since the founding of the country. Now if we go after OUR oil under your silly little raghead country, that's capitalism in action, all in the name of freedom.

"Islam means peace." So said W following 9/11. I guess he was unaware of all those Arabs who swept over Medieval Europe, moving west to Spain slicing and dicing everyone in their path.

"Trixie Brunner was getting it on at the VR arcade."

Nothing like some new video games to get the blood moving. "With her pale skin and platinum rise she looked like a Nazi poster." And Trixie Dixie has some good dope, as her dear Mom finds out: "The junk Trixie was giving her kept her comfortable."

Hey, Jer shows up here, wearing hip sixties threads. As does Shaky Mo with his swinging MK800-50. Now there's a man primed for video games!

FIVE - ON THE BEACH
Talk of the church and Jer is part of The Society, the old Co-op! Hey, Jer. Are you losing ground? At least you're not stuffing your face with all those chocolates like BB!

SIX - WHAT'S YOUR MOVIE?
One of the quotes opening this chapter, from Soldier of Fortune, March 2002, cites how George W. Bush is the model Roman General Maximus from the movie Gladiator. The author is Jack Wheeler and Jack opens by saying, "As America's victory in Afghanistan unfolds" which is a scream since in 2021, twenty years later, America had to withdraw from Afghanistan admitting victory was impossible. Well, I wonder if Hollywood will tell another story.

"The clowns have taken over the circus," or so Major Nye tells Una Persson as they drive down to the coast where Una had six weeks in Oh, What A Lovely War. Una lives on Brighton pier where it had all originally happened. We're given the sense life and the movies are bleeding into one another. And politicians are running things so that the entire country has turned itself into a three ring extravaganza under the big top.


British author Michael Moorcock, born 1939 -- The good guys always wear white hats

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Firing the Cathedral is short novel featuring Jerry Cornelius, the central figure in Moorcock's entire multiverse tapestry. In the 1960s and '70s, Jerry was the embodiment of the future: change and the mod New Wave and youth and all such concepts that went with it. Jerry and most of his family and associates are here fifty years later, with the same cautionary messages of the need for social responsibility and warnings of climate change and political and cultural awareness. The more things change, the more they stay the same... It's quite odd and a little uncomfortable to see him cast in the same Pierrot role, but this time as the long-established bastion of what has gone before... It's like leafing through a pile of old photographs and realizing the really hot girl in the skimpy swimsuit is your grandmother. It's a non-linear and topsy-turvy story, much like the previous ones, and I enjoyed it very much... but this time as a nostalgic read, rather than a preview of what's to come.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A grim John Brunner future rewritten as a Firbank farce. Off course Brunner’s futures are basically today but with domed cities and the war on drugs finally ceasing its screaming obsolescence and this book is accordingly about now and what is to come. Jerry Cornelius seems at home in the day and age of 24 news channels, encroaching ecological disaster, out of control corporatism, government gangsterism, and terrorism. The war on terror as a video game, the U.S invading the U.S., a disturbing vibration cannon, cartoonish violence, London and Washington D.C. both get destroyed, battle blimps, and a note of despair with the silliness. Who else of Moorcock's generation is writing stuff this weird and savage? Alan Moore’s intro nails it and is a worthwhile essay on the Cornelius books. This story is available in other collections and the essay is available online. “Modem Times” is another recent Cornelius novella that is more abstract and melancholy, closer to Conditions of Muzak, while “Firing the Cathedrals” is more English Assassin. .

[Tôpher Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nostalgia ride in a flying boat to India as JC explores the outer vagaries of shattered multi dimensionality. Jerry has never been my favourite Moorcock character and this is all just a bit too fractal for me.

[Joseph Loehr]

This is good! I’m well overdue for my Cornelius Chronicles reread, this well satisfies my craving.