ROUTLEDGE REVIVALS The Entropy Exhibition Michael Moorcock and the British ’New Wave’ in Science Fiction Colin Greenland Routledge Revivals The Entropy Exhibition When first published in 1983 The Entropy Exhibition was the first cri­ tical assessment of the literary movement known as ‘New Wave’ sci­ ence fiction. It examines the history of the New Worlds magazine and its background in the popular imagination of the 1960s, traces the strange history of sex in science fiction and analyses developments in stylistic theory and practice. Michael Moorcock edited and produced the magazine New Worlds from 1964 to 1973. Within its pages he encouraged the development of new kinds of popular writing out of the genre of science fiction, ener­ getically reworking traditional themes, images and styles as a radical response to the crisis of modern fiction. The essential paradox of the writing lay in its fascination with the concept of ‘entropy’ - the uni­ versal and irreversible decline of energy into disorder. Entropy provides the key to both the anarchic vitality of the magazine and to its neglect by critics and academics, as well as its connection with other cultural experiments of the 1960s. Detailed attention is given to each of the three main contributors to the New Worlds magazine - Michael Moorcock, Brian Aldiss and J.G. Ballard. Moorcock himself is more commonly judged by his commer­ cial fantasy novels than by the magazine he supported with them, but here at last the balance is redressed: New Worlds emerges as nothing less than a focus and a metaphor for many of the transformations of English and American literature in the past two decades. ‘I cannot believe that there is any better criticism of SF in print at the moment.’ -John Sutherland The Entropy Exhibition Michael Moorcock and the British ‘New Wave’ in Science Fiction Colin Greenland Routledge Taylor &. Francis Group First published in 1983 by Routledge & Kegan Paul Plc This edition first published in 2012 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 1983 Colin Greenland All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Publisher’s Note The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent. Disclaimer The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and welcomes correspondence from those they have been unable to contact. A Library of Congress record exists under ISBN: 0710093101 ISBN 13: 978-0-415-50062-3 (hbk) Colin Greenland The Entropy xhibition Michael Moorcock and the British 'New Wave' in science fiction Routledge & I<egan Paul London, Boston, Melbourne and Henley First published in 1983 by Routledge & Kegan Paul Plc 39 Store Street, London WC1E 7DD, 9 Park Street, Boston, Mass. 02108, USA, 296 Beacons field Parade, Middle Park, Melbourne, 3206, Australia, and Broadway House, Newtown Road, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon RG9 1EN Typeset in 10 on 12 pt Times Roman by Inforum Ltd, Portsmouth and printed in Great Britain by Hartnoll Print Bodmin, Cornwall © Colin Greenland 1983 No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except for the quotation of brief passages in criticism. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Greenland, Colin, 1954- The entropy exhibition. Based on the author's thesis (doctoral)—Oxford, 1980. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Science fiction, English—History and criticism. 2. English fiction—20th century—History and criticism. 3. Moorcock, Michael, 1939– —Criticism and interpretation. 4. New worlds (London, England) 5. Aldiss, Brian Wilson, 1925– —Critisicm and interpretation. 6. Ballard, J. G., 1930– —Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. PR830.S35G73 1982 823'.0876'09 82-15153 ISBN 0-7100-9310-1 To David and Malcolm The one hazard facing science fiction, the Trojan Horse being trundled toward its expanding ghetto . is that faceless creature, literary criticism. J. G. Ballard Preface ix Acknowledgments xi 1 The cybernetic cuckoos science fiction and the popular imagination in the 1960s 1 2 The 'field' and the 'wave' the history of New Worlds 13 3 Love among the mannequins sex and science fiction 23 4 Pulling out of the space race anti-space fiction 44 5 Footholds In the head inner space fiction 51 6 The works of Brian W. Aldiss 69 7 The works of J. G. Ballard 92 8 The works of Michael Moorcock 121 9 Angst and angstroms stylistic practice 160 10 A higher albedo stylistic theory 180 viii/Contents 11 No more, with feeling entropy and contemporary fiction 191 Notes 207 Bibliography 229 Index 241 Preface New Worlds was always the foremost British science fiction magazine, from its first issue in 1946. When Michael Moorcock took over the editorship in 1964, it became something more: the locus of a vigorous literary movement, organised almost single- handedly by Moorcock himself. His purpose was firstly to publish a more ambitious and flexible kind of science fiction which would no longer subscribe to the narrative conventions established in Ameri­ can 'pulp' magazines. When this policy met with hostility from science fiction fans and professionals who preferred to stick with what they knew, Moorcock opened the magazine to new kinds of imaginative writing beyond the categories of genre fiction. Most prominent in New Worlds were the works of Brian W. Aldiss, J.G. Ballard, and Moorcock himself; other major contributors included M. John Harrison, D.M. Thomas, and Langdon Jones, and the Americans, Thomas M. Disch, John Sladek, Norman Spinrad, and James Sallis. The inspirational effect of the magazine can be seen in the large proportion of new young writers whose work it stimulated and published. Despite the commercial crises which continually threatened New Worlds, including censorship by its own printers and distributors, Moorcock and his colleagues never lost sight of their principles and ideals. New Worlds was very much a magazine of the 1960s in its commitment to the popular arts, to freedom of imagination, to the original and unconventional, but it remained sceptical about other 'revolutionary' novelties of the period - prophetically, as it turned out. The anarchic movement it generated, called "New Wave sci­ ence fiction' by friends and enemies alike, spreads much further x/Preface than that label indicates. It has helped to make the elements of science fiction more important to contemporary fiction in general and to the popular imagination at large. The Entropy Exhibition is a critical examination of New Worlds as a singular literary phenome­ non, and an insight into how science fiction can articulate some of the elusive, often ambiguous ideas and problems of modernity. Acknowledgments This book is the product of several years of research, aided in part by finance from the Arts Council of Great Britain for a Writing Fellowship at NE London Polytechnic. NELP houses the library of the Science Fiction Foundation, the largest and best specialist col­ lection on this side of the Atlantic, invaluable to any scholar of sf. The basis for The Entropy Exhibition, however, was a thesis of the same title accepted in 1980 for a doctorate in English Literature at the University of Oxford. Those who are surprised to see work of such brash modernity proceeding from that citadel of tradition and antiquity should know that the papers of both Brian Aldiss and Michael Moorcock are held on deposit by the Bodleian Library. All unpublished sources cited here may be found in those collections, which are unfortunately not yet catalogued: I am extremely grateful to Margaret Aldiss and Brian Hinton for their labours in arranging the collections. The greatest advantage of studying living writers is that they are often available for consultation. When the idea of this research was little more than a pipe-dream, Brian Aldiss encouraged me, and introduced me to Tom Shippey, then Fellow of St John's College, Oxford, who agreed to supervise my work and was particularly influential on its organisation, and in modulating the rhetoric of enthusiasm to the more sober tones of critical analysis. Michael Moorcock gave me considerable help in the form of discussion, and access to his own bookshelves. Aldiss, Ballard and Moorcock all read some of my earliest drafts and offered useful comments, and many other improvements were suggested by my eagle-eyed examiners, Professor IF. Clarke, formerly of the University of xii/ Acknowledgments Strathclyde, and Dr Peter Hoy of Merton College, Oxford. For support and assistance of a less official kind 1 am indebted to Keith Bowden, Nick Pratt, and other friends too numerous to mention, and especially to Joyce Day, good spirit of the SFF. Text of all material quoted from New Worlds, © New Worlds, reproduced by kind permission. Text of David Bowie, 'Oh You Pretty Things' (1971) and 'Starman' (1972), © Chrysalis Music/Mainman/Bewlay Bros, reproduced by kind permission. Text of David Bowie, 'Space Oddity' (1969) used by kind permis­ sion of Westminster Music Limited. Unpublished material by Brian W. Aldiss and Michael Moorcock used by kind permission of the authors. Chapter One The cybernetic cuckoos science fiction and the popular imagination in the 1960s In John Wyndham's The Midwich Cuckoos extra-terrestrial aliens visit a dull little English village and leave behind an embassy of their own seed implanted in human host-mothers.