Behold the Man and Others (1966)

Avon 1970, Robert Foster

1966 saw Moorcock in his second full year as editor of New Worlds SF, as he continued to promote a form of science fiction hewing closer to modern (sociopolitical) literature than previous editors. He also encouraged his like-minded contributors (Ballard, Aldiss, Disch) to try bold experiments in style and structure. Along with the tasks associated with overseeing the New Worlds operation, he himself also wrote several stories in a wide range of styles, from the conventional to the exploratory. A few of these filled out a couple issues of the monthly magazine, and a few were written to beef up The Deep Fix, an anthology published by Compact who had by then become a supporter of the "new" style. Some of these stories were published under the pen-name of James Colvin (The Deep Fix), while other novels that year appeared under the names of Edward P. Bradbury (the Michael Kane books) and Bill Barclay (the Nick Allard books). All in all it was a very busy year for the editor/writer/ghost-writer.

Behold the Man

New Worlds 166, Compact SF,
September 1966, Keith Roberts

"Behold the Man says, 'Demagogues are created by the societies in which they live, by the psychic demands of the people around them.'"
- Death Is No Obstacle, 1992

The most successful of the 1966 short pieces was "Behold the Man", which in 1967 won the Nebula, an award chosen by professional science fiction and fantasy writers (from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America). Initially published in New Worlds #166 (Sept. 1966), it was also one of Moorcock's most controversial, as it re-framed Christianity as a belief system sprouting from the misinterpreted actions of a reluctant 20th Century neurotic (who has time-travelled to 29 AD). It also  characterized a historical "Jesus" in a decidedly unflattering light. However, Moorcock's true intentions with the story were mainly to demonstrate how a humanitarian message (and some relatively arbitrary events surrounding it) could be manipulated and re-construed by provincial forces to serve their own political ends (a theme also explored in the previous year's The Fireclown). It's also worth noting that, although by this time Moorcock had already written the ironic/satirical The Final Programme, this story is unusually humorless.

Synopsis

1: At age 9, Karl Glogauer performs a skit in his playground imitating the crucifixion of Christ. As an adult, Karl emerges from his globe-shaped time machine near Jerusalem in the year 28 AD, seeking Jesus of Nazareth for unknown reasons. He is found by John the Baptist and his band of Essene zealots.

"The science-fiction device is chiefly useful, aside from its mechanical use, for its symbolism. That’s why I made the time machine very obviously a womb. Glogauer is reborn in A.D. 28”
- Death Is No Obstacle, 1992

2: In the future (ca. 1976), the amateur psychiatrist Karl and his lover Monica argue about the theories of Carl Jung, as well as the role of myth in reality. Monica believes that the teachings of Christ had existed before Christ's arrival and that Christianity is only a variation of these older beliefs. In A.D. 28, John the Baptist believes Karl to be a "magus" from Egypt, and asks for his help to restore faith in his believers (in the Gospel of John, John describes a period during which Christ lives with his followers). 

3: At age 15 Karl is picked on by bullies for his Jewish name. In A.D. 28, Karl is about to baptize John the Baptist at a river, but Karl has a migraine attack and falls into the water himself. John catches his fall. After a brief seizure Karl recovers and runs away into the desert (the Gospel records that John baptizes Jesus). Later Karl wakes up in a daze and begins raving at memories of Monica while wandering in the desert (the Gospels describe Jesus tempted by the devil during 40 days in the desert).

4: In 1976, Karl hosts a Jungian discussion group in his Occult bookshop. One of the members of the group, a former government scientist, shows Karl his just completed time machine. Circa 28 AD, dazed and starved from his time in the desert, Karl stumbles into Nazareth barely remembering his own name and asking for a carpenter named Joseph, married to a woman named Mary. He finds them and in disbelief sees that their son Jesus is a "congenital imbecile". Dazed and confused, he stays at a synagogue trying to find answers. He sometimes speaks in modern English which confuses the other worshippers. Eventually at a sabbath he is asked to read aloud from a scroll (in the Gospel of Luke, Christ reads to his followers in the synagogue).

5: Karl travels the land and cures people of psychosomatic diseases with his 20th Century self-determination. He also seems to foretell future events in great detail (such as John the Baptist’s arrest by Herod). Karl decides to accept his role as Jesus, as he cannot bear the thought of Monica being right, that Christianity had been created out of a past myth. He begins to act and speak as he recalls Jesus was supposed to have, and gathers 12 apostles. When a follower of John asks for Karl to help save John’s life, he refuses, since according to history had to John die. His followers begin to call him Jesus, but Karl sometimes insists that that is not his name (the Gospel of Matthew reports that Jesus asked his followers not to identify him by name and that he knew he would be executed in Jerusalem). In 1976, Monica mocks the Christian musicals of the day and tells Karl that no one could be a messiah in modern times, as no one would listen.

6: Pilate considers using Karl’s preaching as a political tool to further oppress the Jews and gain favor with his Roman superiors. Before Passover, Karl tells Judas that he has instructions for him to pass on to the Romans (as reported in the Book of John). As he enters Jerusalem the people ask him to lead a revolution (previously inspired by John the Baptist)  but he maintains that he is only the messiah, and refuses to lead a revolt and change history. Judas, under Karl’s instructions, reports to Pilate and arranges for Karl’s arrest. Karl thinks on the fact that, although he is an agnostic, he feels he must enact this Christian tableaux, if only to protest against Monica's views.

7: During his trial Karl is pronounced guilty by the political and religious conspirators and according to Roman law humiliated before his crucifixion (as reported in the Book of Mark). As Karl dies on his cross he whispers that “It’s a lie” (misheard as “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani", or “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”). Later his body is stolen by servants of some doctors who want to examine it for special properties. The corpse decomposes in the doctors’ dissecting rooms before it is destroyed (leading Karl’s followers to believe his body has vanished of its own accord).

The Agnostic Christ

Mayflower 1970, Bob Haberfield

In this highly accessible tale, Moorcock skillfully takes fragments from the New Testament Bible and convincingly portrays how Karl Glogauer's inadvertent misfortunes (and frustrations) could be subjectively reinterpreted by contemporary witnesses in order to support the authenticity of a new religion (or political movement). The philosophical debates on the nature of myth, religion, cultural responsibility and causality featured in the dialogues between Karl and his secular, matter-of-fact girlfriend Monica are also extremely well executed, and in the end readers are left to make their own decisions (of course, Moorcock does tend to be more generous to the secular view).

(Monica:)“…Who needs the ritual of religion when we have the far superior ritual of science to replace it? Religion is a reasonable substitute for knowledge. But there is no longer any need for substitutes, Karl. Science offers a sounder basis on which to formulate systems of thought and ethics. We don’t need the carrot of heaven and the big stick of hell any more when science can show the consequences of actions and men can judge easily for themselves whether those actions are right or wrong.”

It's ironic here that an agnostic protagonist purposely wills an entire religious belief into being - partly to make a point against his atheist girlfriend, but mostly because a secular world has failed to satisfy him. Karl's belief in some kind of supreme being is actually a protest against science itself. Not only that, as a hypocrite he strives to enact (re-enact?) a religious text that he does not even believe in, and only knows through academic learning. This is obviously not a typical science-fiction story. However, it does give the reader as much food for thought as any classic of the genre.

"He could show Monica now. His regret was that she was unlikely ever to know. He had meant to write everything down and put it into the time machine and hope that it would be recovered. It was strange. He was not a religious man in the usual sense. He was an agnostic. It was not conviction that had led him to defend religion against Monica’s cynical contempt for it; it was rather lack of conviction in the ideal in which she had set her own faith, the ideal of science as a solver of all problems. He could not share her faith and there was nothing else but religion, though he could not believe in the kind of God of Christianity. The God seen as a mystical force of the mysteries of Christianity and other great religions had not been personal enough for him. His rational mind had told him that God did not exist in any personal form. His unconscious had told him that faith in science was not enough."

In 1969, "Behold the Man" was expanded into a short novel (Behold the Man) which included additional vignettes from Karl Glogauer's 20th Century life, giving background to his "neuroses". It also makes some of the Gospel connections (ie - "native misinterpretations") more explicit to the reader.

Wikiverse Entry
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Other Shorts from 1966
Five other science-fiction short stories were written for New Worlds (NW #161, Apr 1966) or to fill out a book collection of stories centered around "The Deep Fix" (written by "James Colvin"). These are much less controversial and adversarial in theme, but perhaps more adventurous in narrative style and structure. Brief synopses for these stories follow, but since these stories are not really plot-driven, they hardly convey much of the flavor of the stories. The stories are probably stronger and more interesting from a "technique" viewpoint (in particular the first three), and don't really approach the ambition of the the bold and incisive "Behold the Man".

"Consuming Passion"
A crazed arsonist suddenly discovers that he has the ability to start fires with his mind. When  suspicious policemen bring him down to the station for questioning, he escapes them using his newfound pyrokinetic power. Officers in asbestos suits eventually corner him in a room filled with books. He accidentally causes his own body to begin burning, but in his demise he also takes satisfaction knowing that the books which surround him (written by Voltaire, Dickens, Dostoevsky, Shakespeare, Conrad, Hemingway) will also be destroyed and their immortality temporarily stymied.
(NW #161, Apr 1966)

Wikiverse Entry 

"The Ruins"
A man named Maldoon experiences several sequences of normal-seeming events but always starting from the middle of a field of ruined buildings. After a short episode he always ends up back where he started, with sometimes more and sometimes less memory of the preceding events. Eventually some are said to call him "Mad Maldoon" and the ruins disappear.
(NW #161, Apr 1966)

Wikiverse Entry 

"Wolf"
Told entirely in the 1st person present tense, an intoxicated man enters a town looking for an ex-lover. He is invited in by a local girl and stays the night. He thinks that the girl may have made him into a wolf. In the morning he kills her, comparing himself to a wolf and the girl to a sheep.
(The Deep Fix (1966))

"The Lovebeast"

AJ Callow 1979

The Earth is dying from the radioactive fallout of a nuclear war. An unknown entity makes mental contact with a dying artist named Curtis, telling him that it wants to provide the world with love. Curtis makes an announcement on the global airwaves describing this alien entity, believing that it may save the Earth if all mankind opens up its heart to the being. When the appointed time arrives and mankind opens its heart to the Lovebeast, the Lovebeast is confused when tasked with “saving” the Earth, as it only knows how to give love.
(The Deep Fix (1966))

"The Real Life Mr. Newman (Adventures of the Dead Astronaut)"
Ever since returning from a Mars space mission (in which his partner had died), Alexander Newman has begun to see the world in strange phantasmagorical proportions. One morning he wakes and feels at ease with this transformed condition. He eventually meets others who have undergone a similar change of perspective and realizes that they are all living in a parallel "inner world", as opposed to an "outer world" (in which the living still exist). Newman meets a woman named Fanny and they visit the inner world incarnations of London, Paris, Berlin and Athens. Each city and their inhabitants are broadly characterized by their native culture. In Athens, a Berliner commits a terrorist act which horrifies Newman and the girl. They decide to seek out another Athens.
(The Deep Fix (1966))

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