Favourite Interviews

[Marca]

Leaving aside the book length Death Is No Obstacle, are there any interviews in print that you can remember being particularly pleased with when they appeared Mike? I have a number of interviews with you conducted over the years and the best ones for me are the ones that don't cover familiar ground, that reveal information that you don't often see mentioned elsewhere. A few of my favourites include:

Science Fiction Review (1979) - a long and quite detailed interview with Ian Covell that covers a lot of ground

The Imagination On Trial (1981) - a book of interviews with writers including yourself and J G Ballard that concentrates on some technical aspects of your writing

Book and Magzine Collector (1986) - dealing mainly with the books you have collected over the years

G.M. magazine (1990) - an unlikely one this. GM was(is?) a games magazine but the interview is good. Slightly fannish, but sympathetic and quite long, it includes quite a lot of detail and is a nice portrait of you as a writer and a person

There are probably more, but those spring to mind. Have you ever felt grossly misrepresented by an interview that has appeared in print? Were you ever approached by the likes of Playboy or Rolling Stone for an interview? They seem to have done just about everybody.

[Michael Moorcock]

There are a few on the web which came out pretty well, I thought. One with Bryan Appleyard in The Times, another in The Telegraph and another in GQ with Brian Morton. Most of the web ones can be found by googling. There's another from The Guardian of about five years ago.
To be honest, I tend to forget interviews and reviews, though I take an interest in them at the time they appear.

[Bob]

At the time I was extremely happy with the interview I got with Mr. M, but now looking back, my questions come across as typical fan-boy fare, and hardly provoke deep thought from Mr. M.

It was my first ever interview (and one I'm deeply grateful for), but my inexperience shows.

I'm still thinking of new questions to bring it up to date!

[Marca]

Which interview was that Bob?

[Bob]

This one: http://www.ph-uk.co.uk/post/EpApuFElyFDNDSkPFi.shtml

:)

[Marca]

I'd read that one. It has a similar tone to those short interviews that appear in lads mags. There are different types of interviews, some are short and chatty like that one, others are more involved, but it depends how they were done (time constraints etc.) How did you conduct that one?

As a reader who has done some writing for his own amusement over the years, I tend to be interested in technical aspects of writing, so I do like those interviews that delve into that side of Mike's work and biographical aspects.

The type of interview I hate most is the 'stitch-up' type that used to appear in music papers years ago, where the interviewer spent most of his time convincing the reader how clever he was and the rest of the time disparaging the subject. Or if they weren't doing that they were praising them to the skies. The actual interview material was usually very modest, sandwiched between great swathes of description.

[Michael Moorcock]

I've done a few of those music interviews. Lynn Barber, however, is the mistress of the mean, stitch-up interview. I don't know if Phil Meadley's long article about people who have stitched up Colin Wilson is still on the Savoy site and, as it happens, speaks ill of the dead (since Humphrey Carpenter took the big sleep a month or two ago). You used to become familiar to that sort of interview, especially from tabloids, in the years when I was of interest to the tabloids (who never read New Worlds but were convinced it was filthy). Some comics interviews can be like that, too. It's strange. I find the average comics reader pretty smart, but most comics magasines are fairly dumb. Not sure why that is.

[Kalessin]

I have two other novels planned, The Rules, and The Sedentary Jew, so I still have quite a lot on my plate. The Rules is a novel of character, somewhat autobiographical. I suspect further novels will also be autobiographical.

Hmmm.. The Sedentary Jew? Sounds interesting....:?:

[GuyLawley]

I have two other novels planned, The Rules, and The Sedentary Jew, so I still have quite a lot on my plate. The Rules is a novel of character, somewhat autobiographical. I suspect further novels will also be autobiographical.

Hmmm.. The Sedentary Jew? Sounds interesting....:?:

As opposed to the Wandering one, I presume.

[Bob]

Aral: That interview was conducted via e-mail. I suspect I'd have had more to say and ask in person, judging by Mr. M's responses. Since then I think I've gotten a little better at the task. I was particularly fond of the one I gouged from K.J. Bishop. :)

[Michael Moorcock]

The Sedentary Jew was about a trader in tin and woad who comes up the Thames and is cursed by having to stay within the confines of Ludd's Town (London) for all eternity. Of course, from his point of view, the confines increase a fair bit as the centuries roll by. It was going to be a comic novel, of course, dealing with the history of London at the same time. However, it's still very much at the unplanned stage, whereas the other book Pete's Rules, is fairly developed by now.

[Doc]

It was going to be a comic novel, of course, dealing with the history of London at the same time. However, it's still very much at the unplanned stage, whereas the other book Pete's Rules, is fairly developed by now.

You realize that leaving that tidbit hangning there without elaborating is cruel to your loyal readers :P

[Michael Moorcock]

Well, I didn't get very far with the notes for The Sedentary Jew. I've written a few pages at most. I wasn't that happy with what I'd done up to then. Pete's Rules is still very much in note-making stages and I honestly can't offer very much more about it -- except to say it's deeply autobiographical and most of it revolves around a funeral party for Pete, who might not actually be dead.

[Doc]

Thanks for that, MM. It already seems intriguing.

[Michael Moorcock]

You're welcome!