The Retreat From Liberty

[Marca]

Mike, while digging out some stuff to scan for the gallery, I came across your non-fiction item from the early 80s The Retreat From Liberty. Looking at it again I wondered if you'd ever thought of doing a follow up, revisiting the theme and seeing what has changed in the last twenty years or so.

So much has happened since that time. Obviously the events of the last few years have had a major impact on the concept of personal liberty in a political sense. On the other hand, the original book ends with an account of a prosecution for selling 'obscene' material, yet the last few years has seen a remarkable loosening of such attitudes in the UK, with porn being legalised and many horror films being issued on video that would have been prosecuted for obscenity only a decade or so ago.

I'm not sure if there's a market for such a book these days but I, for one, would love to read it if there was. I like the way you've combined fiction and non-fiction works in some books (like Casablanca). I guess that allows you to put out certain stuff that wouldn't necessarily be commercially viable on it's own?

[Michael Moorcock]

Savoy are planning to reprint that and a lot of other non-fiction, edited by John Davey, in the relatively near future. I felt I sort of covered the 'sequel' in King of the City, in the form of fiction. These days I tend to confine myself to the odd article and some of those articles will be reprinted in the same book. Oh, I write letters to Today and PM on Radio 4, too. Occasionally, they read them out! :)
The publisher got me to do Retreat From Liberty by telling me that another contributor to the pamphlet series (I think there were only about four in the end) was writing an anti-feminist tract. I think he told me that in order to get me writing, which is how I came to do that. I will probably write a few more political pieces in the next year or two, but most will be articles rather than essays.

[Doc]

Since you brought up the connection between King of the City and Ther Retreat from Liberty, MM...

Which do you find more satisfying, using fiction to handle these issues, or using a more journalistic/ critical approach? I think the messages in King of the City were crystal-clear, and the book helped me talk to people about the issues, which I understood at a more analytical level (which, quite honestly, doesn't always lend itself to good conversation).

Just curious, because you use both approaches so well. :)

[Michael Moorcock]

I suppose fiction. It's very rarely that I feel the need to write a political essay, though I've probably written more than is evident. I got a lot off my chest in King of the City. I see myself as a much better novelist than pamphleteer!