Sailing To Utopia ca. 1969 (The Black Corridor, The Distant Suns)

White Wolf 1997, Rick Berry

Sailing To...Utopia?
The Moorcock omnibus Sailing to Utopia was published by Orion/Millennium books in 1993 (U.K.) and White Wolf in 1997 (U.S.). This entry in each of two multi-volume Eternal Champion collections includes the following stories/novels:

• The Ice Schooner (1966)
• The Black Corridor (1969, partly based on scenarios from Hilary Bailey)
• The Distant Suns (1969, with James Cawthorn (as "Philip James"))
• "Flux"(1963, based on an idea from Barrington Bayley)

All four of these stories take place in science-fiction dystopias of the near and far future, generally ending in very bleak circumstances (making the title of this collection more than a bit ironic). Spanning a writing period roughly from 1963 to 1969, in the 1990s omnibus introduction Moorcock writes that what these tales have in common is a cautionary environmental theme, as well as having been written during a period of collaborations with other writers. His introduction also notes that the environmental, social and psychological issues addressed in these stories (and those written by fellow like-minded writers like J.G. Ballard, Brian Aldiss, Philip K. Dick and Robert Sheckley) seem to have more relevance in the modern world than the technology-based "hard sf" concepts of writers such as Heinlein & Co. Considering that these stories portray pretty pathetic futures, it's sad and disturbing that he seems to have a point, even 30 years later.

Ace SF Special, Series 1, 1969, Leo & Diane Dillon

Since The Ice Schooner and "Flux" were each examined in earlier blog chapters, The Black Corridor and The Distant Suns are covered in this post. This is a pretty apt pairing, as these two stories are probably more closely-related in various ways to each other than they are to the other two stories. In fact, due to the way this pair of stories developed, they both start out from the same premise - a desperate spaceship launch from a socially-imploding Earth. Ultimately however, The Black Corridor ends up as a 1960s "new wave" story whose protagonist is to some extent an "unreliable narrator", while The Distant Suns is a poker-faced homage to the "sword and planet" stories of two decades prior.

From The Distant Suns, Unicorn 1975, James Cawthorn

A Bifurcated Genesis
In the late 1960s Moorcock had started working on a bleak, psychologically-harrowing novel titled The Distant Suns, later eventually re-titled The Black Corridor. Moorcock was then commissioned to write a serial for "The Illustrated Weekly of India" intended to make modern technological trends more palatable to older, conservative (tradition-bound) readers through a fictional science-romance. Initially considering using the novel he had already started working on, Moorcock ended up starting "from scratch", and a more optimistic version of The Distant Suns materialized (this was probably a wise decision considering The Black Corridor's disturbingly-realistic portrayal of racial phobias). The new "family-friendly" Distant Suns was serialized over 18 issues of "The Illustrated Weekly of India" (June to November 1969). However, when Moorcock became ill from overwork, the second half of the run was completed by James Cawthorn (as "Philip James"), according to Moorcock's outline. In 1975, the serial was collected and published as a short novel, with illustrations by Cawthorn.

The original, "bleak" version of The Distant Suns was later re-titled The Black Corridor and then published as an Ace SF Special, a series edited by Terry Carr designed to appeal to more seasoned (mature) readers. Despite this "bipolar" genesis, parts of the beginning chapter of The Black Corridor ended up being reprised in Chapter 3 of The Distant Suns. However, in the version presented in most editions of Sailing to Utopia, this recycled section is omitted from The Distant Suns.

Mayflower 1974, Bob Haberfield

The Black Corridor

In order to escape a future Earth where society is descending into another "Dark Ages", a businessman named Ryan and a dozen of his family and friends have launched on a 5-year spaceship journey to Barnard's Star in order to start a new society there. The main narrative of The Black Corridor describes Ryan's mental anguish and sheer loneliness as the only conscious passenger on the ship. While the other 12 passengers lie in hibernation chambers, Ryan must remain awake to make reports on the ship's maintenance. During the narrative, Ryan has frequent flashbacks to the circumstances on Earth leading to his family and friends' abandonment of Earth in such a drastic step.

These Earthbound vignettes had originally been conceptualized by Moorcock's then-wife Hilary Bailey ("a straight future disaster story -- collapse of society stuff") and then rewritten for inclusion in The Black Corridor as Earth-bound memories. On the surface of the narrative, Ryan's shipboard struggle with isolation, bad dreams and hallucinations eventually ends happily enough with Ryan disciplining his mind through anti-delusion drugs. However, details laced throughout the story imply a much different, darker narrative. These clues can be found in my Detailed Synopsis (linked externally to avoid spoilers).

The Black Corridor frontispiece from Sailing To Utopia 1997, Rick Berry

Interpretations (Bring on the spoilers...)
Moorcock has stated that the ending of The Black Corridor is meant to be left open and has no definitive interpretation. Personally, I think it's pretty obvious that Ryan's psychosis has led him to murder of all of his fellow passengers and subsequently place them all in "hibernation". The hibernation chamber readouts always report "Condition Steady", although this diagnosis could also be equivalent to "Condition Deceased". Additionally, Moorcock's use of typographical art (large letters painted visually through word spacing) spell out the word "KILL" twice. There are many other clues (such as the "tombstone dates" emblazoned on each of the hibernation capsules) which support this conclusion. The very end of the book does a reprise of the opening chapter, as if this sequence of sanity, guilt-triggered hallucination and denial is a cyclic event. Either way, it's a harrowing read and the issues examined both on Earth and on Ryan's space ark have as much relevance today as ever.

Wikiverse Entry
Wikipedia Entry

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Unicorn 1975, James Cawthorn

The Distant Suns

The names of the three main characters in The Distant Suns oddly share the same names as the titular family featured in the Cornelius Quartet, specifically Jerry Cornelius, Cathy Cornelius and Frank Marek (Frank Cornelius in the Cornelius Quartet). The "Jerry Cornelius" name was later employed in the revised Nick Allard stories, but in The Distant Suns Jerry Cornelius' connection to the "urban adventurer" version of Jerry Cornelius in The Final Programme does not seem to be relevant in any real way. The only similarity is that in both sequences Jerry and Cathy/Catherine are lovers, and Frank is a disruptive element.

Like The Black Corridor, the book's opening premise describes a journey to another planet in search of a solution to Earth's societal woes. However, Jerry and his associates actually make it to a habitable world and after some "lost race"-type adventures eventually return to Earth with hope for the future. Published in 18 segments in its original serialization, in the Sailing To Utopia omnibus it is presented in 29 short chapters (collated and summarized below). 

Synopsis

• Due to rampant overpopulation on Earth, the interstellar starship The Hope of Man is sent to Alpha Centauri to look for a new planet for man to colonize. It carries explorer Jerry Cornelius, his wife Cathy and Professor Frank Marek, a cynical space veteran. Unfortunately, the trip through hyperspace drives Frank mad, and when the trio land on an habitable moon in the system, Frank takes off alone in The Hope of Man, leaving Jerry and Cathy stranded. Investigating a ruined city (later revealed to be named Beya-Sev), Jerry is taken captive by its human occupants. However, during the scuffle of Jerry's abduction Cathy is instead whisked away by "hill-savages" to the outskirts of the city. 
• In Beya-Sev, Jerry befriends a girl named Lae-Pinu and they escape from the oppressive rulers of the city. Jerry and Lae-Pinu eventually find and befriend the Alanga, the hill-savages who had earlier captured Cathy. Jerry and Cathy discover a wall-carving portraying the outlines of the continent of Asia on Earth. They realize that an Asian ship must have arrived on this moon generations ago, and that the people of Beya-Sev (Bay Seven?) and the hill-dwelling Alanga (themselves an offshoot of the people of Beya-Sev) are descendents of these original colonists. 
• In Beya-Sev, panic ensues when the city’s ancient computer pronounces the impending end of the planet, as an asteroid is approaching on a collision course. When the asteroid hits the moon, Beya-Sev is wiped out, but the Alanga village miraculously survives the impact. Later, The Hope of Man returns to the moon. Inside, Jerry and Cathy find a dying Frank, who has now regained his sanity. He explains that while in a suicidal mania he had tried to destroy the star system using the ship’s hyperspace drive. However, his actions had instead only deflected the asteroid bound for the moon. Jerry believes this deflection probably saved the planet from total destruction (although Beya-Sev had obviously not been spared). Jerry and Cathy repair The Hope of Man and return to Earth, where they are greeted by a relieved planet.

Meanwhile, Back On Earth...
In addition to the main narrative described above, there are a couple episodes on Earth portraying  civilization's descent into chaos, driven by out of control religious fervor and general desperation. It's interesting to compare and contrast this Terran narrative with the one presented in The Black Corridor. In The Black Corridor, mankind's twilight is described by a civilian businessman with questionable scruples, whereas in The Distant Suns the Earth-based drama is seen through the eyes of a military commander and a group of news reporters who struggle to prevail against the narrow-minded tendencies of mob psychology. In The Black Corridor, Ryan blames "the visionaries" for ruining the Earth due to their lack of practical leadership, whereas in The Distant Suns, Jerry blames humanity for not trusting the visionaries enough.

The Distant Suns frontispiece from Sailing To Utopia 1997, Rick Berry

Well-Behaved
Also in contrast to The Black Corridor, the ending of The Distant Suns leaves no room for misinterpretation, and the narrative is more or less as straightforward as the Michael Kane Martian romance novels. However, since I've been reading Moorcock's books in roughly chronological order, it's odd to experience such a well-behaved Jerry Cornelius after the exploits of Nick Allard/Jerry Cornell and the Jerry Cornelius of A Cure For Cancer. Because the writing style is more adult than that of the Michael Kane books, it then has a tendency to make me hold my breath for the "punchlines" associated with the more adult satirical works. However, for most readers of "The Illustrated Weekly of India" I'm sure this was all quite straightforward stuff.

Wikiverse Entry

In any case, these kinds of "serious" science fiction stories would soon come much less frequently from Moorcock's pen, as he would be devoting much more ink to the Eternal Champion concept.

Next Chapter: Phoenix In Obsidian

(Previous Chapter: Jerry Cornelius: A Cure For Cancer)