Multiverse (Michael Moorcock)

The multiverse is a series of parallel universes in many of the science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories written by Michael Moorcock^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4] (many other fictional settings also have the concept of a multiverse). Central to these works is the concept of an Eternal Champion who has potentially multiple identities across multiple dimensions. The multiverse contains a legion of different versions of Earth in various times, histories, and occasionally, sizes. One example is the world in which his Elric Saga takes place. The multiplicity of places in this collection of universes include London, Melniboné, Tanelorn, the Young Kingdoms, and the Realm of Dreams.

References

^ Mann, George (1999). The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Robinson. pp. 219–221. ISBN 1-84119-177-9. Some of Moorcock's genre fiction is borderline SF, though most of it is better described as fantasy. One of the most impressive aspects of this achievement is the way in which he has linked much of his fiction together into one monumental sequence, The Tale of The Eternal Champion. Central to this ongoing series is Moorcock's concept of the Multiverse. The Multiverse was introduced in Moorcock's early novel The Sundered Worlds (1963) and is an imaginative construct of transitorally intersecting parallel and alternate worlds, an apparently infinite series of concurrent, sometimes intertwined universes between which the Eternal Champion moves. This Multiverse concept has been accepted by Physics as the Many World Theorem lending authenticity to Moorcock's ideas. Moorcock's multiverse was explained in detail in his introduction to his graphic novel Michael Moorcock's Multiverse (1999) in which he describes a quasi-infinite series of worlds separated by size and mass, effectively invisible to one another and varying very slightly, with major differences appearing only between widely separated realities in the 'chain'. The idea that there are an infinite number of worlds as real as our own provides quite the platform for elaboration and conjecture by authors of today and tomorrow. Moorcock's multiverse stands as perhaps the first exploration of these many worlds and the possibilities within".
^ Heaphy, Maura (2008). Science Fiction Authors: A Research Guide. Author Research Series. Libraries Unlimited. p. 162. ISBN 978-1-59158-515-2. Much of Moorcock's sf is played out in the "Multiverse", a kaleidoscope of alternate realities that interconnect and shift in time. The Multiverse has subsequently been used, with Moorcock's permission and encouragement, by numerous other writers in their own stories.
^ John Clute, John Grant (1999). The encyclopedia of fantasy. Macmillan. p. 668. ISBN 0-312-19869-8. A term coined by Michael Moorcock (also, earlier and independently by John Cowper Powys) to describe a universe consisting of innumerable alternate worlds, all intersecting, laterally and (palimpsest-fashion) vertically. Some of these parallel worlds operate according to SF premises, some – like the worlds in which various avatars of Moorcock's Eternal Champion series play out their linked destinies - operate in fantasy terms. Worlds governed by incompatible premises are not, however, barred from each other and in this sense the overall concept belongs more properly to fantasy than to Sf. Moorcock himself treats his extremely large and varied oeuvre as though all its venues occupy niches in the one multiverse.
^ "Oxford English Dictionary". Retrieved 28 February 2010. b. orig. Science Fiction. A hypothetical space or realm of being consisting of a number of universes, of which our own universe is only one; (Physics) the large collection of universes in the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, according to which every event at the quantum level gives rise to a number of parallel universes in which each in turn of the different possible outcomes occurs. 1963 M. MOORCOCK in Sci. Fiction Adventures 6 No. 32. 54 Jewelled, the multiverse spread around him, awash with life, rich with pulsating energy.

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[1] Mann, George (1999). The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Robinson. pp. 219–221. ISBN 1-84119-177-9. Some of Moorcock's genre fiction is borderline SF, though most of it is better described as fantasy. One of the most impressive aspects of this achievement is the way in which he has linked much of his fiction together into one monumental sequence, The Tale of The Eternal Champion. Central to this ongoing series is Moorcock's concept of the Multiverse. The Multiverse was introduced in Moorcock's early novel The Sundered Worlds (1963) and is an imaginative construct of transitorally intersecting parallel and alternate worlds, an apparently infinite series of concurrent, sometimes intertwined universes between which the Eternal Champion moves. This Multiverse concept has been accepted by Physics as the Many World Theorem lending authenticity to Moorcock's ideas. Moorcock's multiverse was explained in detail in his introduction to his graphic novel Michael Moorcock's Multiverse (1999) in which he describes a quasi-infinite series of worlds separated by size and mass, effectively invisible to one another and varying very slightly, with major differences appearing only between widely separated realities in the 'chain'. The idea that there are an infinite number of worlds as real as our own provides quite the platform for elaboration and conjecture by authors of today and tomorrow. Moorcock's multiverse stands as perhaps the first exploration of these many worlds and the possibilities within".

[2] Heaphy, Maura (2008). Science Fiction Authors: A Research Guide. Author Research Series. Libraries Unlimited. p. 162. ISBN 978-1-59158-515-2. Much of Moorcock's sf is played out in the "Multiverse", a kaleidoscope of alternate realities that interconnect and shift in time. The Multiverse has subsequently been used, with Moorcock's permission and encouragement, by numerous other writers in their own stories.

[3] John Clute, John Grant (1999). The encyclopedia of fantasy. Macmillan. p. 668. ISBN 0-312-19869-8. A term coined by Michael Moorcock (also, earlier and independently by John Cowper Powys) to describe a universe consisting of innumerable alternate worlds, all intersecting, laterally and (palimpsest-fashion) vertically. Some of these parallel worlds operate according to SF premises, some – like the worlds in which various avatars of Moorcock's Eternal Champion series play out their linked destinies - operate in fantasy terms. Worlds governed by incompatible premises are not, however, barred from each other and in this sense the overall concept belongs more properly to fantasy than to Sf. Moorcock himself treats his extremely large and varied oeuvre as though all its venues occupy niches in the one multiverse.

[4] "Oxford English Dictionary". Retrieved 28 February 2010. b. orig. Science Fiction. A hypothetical space or realm of being consisting of a number of universes, of which our own universe is only one; (Physics) the large collection of universes in the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, according to which every event at the quantum level gives rise to a number of parallel universes in which each in turn of the different possible outcomes occurs. 1963 M. MOORCOCK in Sci. Fiction Adventures 6 No. 32. 54 Jewelled, the multiverse spread around him, awash with life, rich with pulsating energy.

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Multiverse (Michael Moorcock)

See also

References