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Salutations to all fellow forum-members! I am new to the Miscellany, and thought it best to introduce myself.
My name, as is obvious from my handle, is Lisa; I am at present 23 years old, a graduate of the University of Texas, and an aspiring writer, rogue scholar, and seeker after adventure. Academically my interests lie in East Asia, specifically in Japan before 700 AD and China during the Qin and Han dynasties. I also take a decided interest in the philosophy of religion and the role religion as an institution has played in the shaping of human history.
Yet I doubt you are here to engage in the aggrandizement of my ego, so I will set the self-admiration aside for the time being. :lol:
I first became interested in Mr. Moorcock's work as a junior high school student in the early 1990s. Having slogged dutifully through The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and put both aside in utter boredom, I voiced my complaints to a similarly bibliophilic acquaintence, who promptly pointed me in the direction of the county library's Elric Saga omnibus volumes. As I recall, I devoured the entire series in a matter of several weeks and ended up rereading it several times before I finished public school in 1999. I own the Elric books and a great deal more of Moorcock's Eternal Champion cycle these days and continue to read and reread them with relish.
While, having dispensed with the immaturity of my earlier years, I consider Tolkien generally less irksome these days, between the two my vote is still with Mr. Moorcock. His was the first world into which I delved where Chaos was not of necessity evil and grotesque, where Law posed as much threat as the forces disorder, and where hues of Balance and shades of gray determined the ways of things. Additionally, the notion of multiple planes of concurrent existence blew several fuses on my childish brain at the time, and I wiled away long hours in silly contemplation at ways to access other planes. (The madness, mind you, has never quite worn off. Perhaps Arioch and his ilk have worked their claws into my soul and perpetrated a bit of good-natured corruption.
)
In high school I discovered Hawkmoon, and while he did not hold my attention as intensely as Elric, I found his world fascinating. Many were the days I spent in puzzlement at the animalian languages of the various societies of Granbretan and their animal masks. I caught hints that the Eternal Champion was more than just Elric and a few scantly-mentioned others. These days I am familiar with so many more of his incarnations, and the wondrous, warping effect all this had on my mind has brought me, through time and coincidence, here.
Certainly it can be said that Mr. Moorcock's work altered my perception of what fantasy literature can be. It is good to know that there are so many like-minded others and, not least of all, a forum in which we may all interact with the author himself, picking at his brain endlessly till the world falls away.
All that said, I look forward to interacting with you all.
My name, as is obvious from my handle, is Lisa; I am at present 23 years old, a graduate of the University of Texas, and an aspiring writer, rogue scholar, and seeker after adventure. Academically my interests lie in East Asia, specifically in Japan before 700 AD and China during the Qin and Han dynasties. I also take a decided interest in the philosophy of religion and the role religion as an institution has played in the shaping of human history.
Yet I doubt you are here to engage in the aggrandizement of my ego, so I will set the self-admiration aside for the time being. :lol:
I first became interested in Mr. Moorcock's work as a junior high school student in the early 1990s. Having slogged dutifully through The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and put both aside in utter boredom, I voiced my complaints to a similarly bibliophilic acquaintence, who promptly pointed me in the direction of the county library's Elric Saga omnibus volumes. As I recall, I devoured the entire series in a matter of several weeks and ended up rereading it several times before I finished public school in 1999. I own the Elric books and a great deal more of Moorcock's Eternal Champion cycle these days and continue to read and reread them with relish.
While, having dispensed with the immaturity of my earlier years, I consider Tolkien generally less irksome these days, between the two my vote is still with Mr. Moorcock. His was the first world into which I delved where Chaos was not of necessity evil and grotesque, where Law posed as much threat as the forces disorder, and where hues of Balance and shades of gray determined the ways of things. Additionally, the notion of multiple planes of concurrent existence blew several fuses on my childish brain at the time, and I wiled away long hours in silly contemplation at ways to access other planes. (The madness, mind you, has never quite worn off. Perhaps Arioch and his ilk have worked their claws into my soul and perpetrated a bit of good-natured corruption.
)In high school I discovered Hawkmoon, and while he did not hold my attention as intensely as Elric, I found his world fascinating. Many were the days I spent in puzzlement at the animalian languages of the various societies of Granbretan and their animal masks. I caught hints that the Eternal Champion was more than just Elric and a few scantly-mentioned others. These days I am familiar with so many more of his incarnations, and the wondrous, warping effect all this had on my mind has brought me, through time and coincidence, here.
Certainly it can be said that Mr. Moorcock's work altered my perception of what fantasy literature can be. It is good to know that there are so many like-minded others and, not least of all, a forum in which we may all interact with the author himself, picking at his brain endlessly till the world falls away.
All that said, I look forward to interacting with you all.
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