HW. Entropy tango./E. Bloom

[J Strobridge]

>        An earlier appearance of "E.Bloom" as the infamous Fireclown (HW
>        link) was in the book 'Winds of Limbo', which preceded the quoted
>        short story '..Mavis Ming'.  In fact, I think WoL was the first
>        appearance of Emmanual "Manny" Bloom, a double-crossed spacehero
>        who became the crazed Fireclown.
>

I think (knowing Moorcock's concept of his own writing as a "serious"
literary writer) you also need to bear in mind the character of Leopold
Bloom - the modern Odysseus hero of James Joyce's "Ulysses".   This
is one of the great classics of 20thC Literature and I can't believe
Moorcock would have passed up the opportunity of using such a character.
I quote from a bit of lit.crit I just found:

"Joyce regarded Homer's Ulysses as the most 'complete' man in
literature, a man who is shown in all his aspects - both coward and
hero, cautious and reckless, weak and strong, husband and lover, father
and son, sublime and ridiculous; so he makes his hero Leopold Bloom, an
Irish Jew, into a modern Ulysses, and by so doing helps to make him
Everyman"

Whether or not Moorcock would try to fit Eric Bloom into this context is
beyond my capacity to judge!

jill

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J.D.Strobridge at ed.ac.uk                         eset08 at castle.ed.ac.uk
                                                ELIJSA at srv0.arts.ed.ac.uk
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