Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.
by Michael Moorcock
Promo copy:
Piece of Paper Press is delighted to present the first publication – in a limited, numbered edition of 150 copies – of ‘A Twist in the Lines’, a new Jerry Cornelius story by Michael Moorcock that is in part also a tribute to Moorcock’s late friend and former New Worlds collaborator Eduardo Paolozzi. When commuters board the tube at Tottenham Court Road but alight at Chatelet – Les Halles or Pelham Bay Park it is obvious that something in the multiverse is going very wrong. In Paris, Jerry’s old friend Professor Hira points out that ‘Art is science. Science is art’, and furthermore reveals that since 1984 ‘the whole of radiant time, version upon version of constructed reality, has depended for its survival on a certain artistic pattern, an essential mechanism for order.’ There is nothing else for it, Jerry must get to the Time Centre on Eel Pie Island pronto, and – armed only with a tube map and Paolozzi’s original designs – find a way back to Soho in 1982, for the central artistic pattern upon which the multiverse depends is of course Paolozzi’s iconic mosaic at Tottenham Court Road London Underground station.
In an unexpected, real-world twist, since the story was written some substantial portions of Eduardo Paolozzi’s stunning artwork for Tottenham Court Road have been destroyed or removed as part of the Cross Rail building programme.
“I’m sort of cautious about using ‘alternate history’ as a description of the Cornelius stories since they were not conceived as that. Jerry is meant to inhabit the world we know. I describe him as an urban adventurer, using the description Edmond Hamilton created for ‘noir’ thrillers — urban adventure stories. The stories are parables but nothing else, I think.
“I’ve recently come up with the fun notion of ‘Radiant Time’ as an image to suggest a universe of limitless possibilities — the human brain, in fact — situationalist strategies for the 21st century — a means of understanding the modern psyche and society. It’s balanced by the notion of Linear Time and its proponents. Pretty evident where my sympathies lie, of course! Space is a dimension of Time!”
–Michael Moorcock interviewed by Jerome Winter in the L.A. Review of Books, 20 January 2013
The edition is limited to 150 copies, which are usually distributed free by post.
Course most of the free copies don’t include a signature and inscription from both Mike and Linda.
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