The novel “The Condition of Muzak” by Michael Moorcock was published for the first time in 1977 and in a revised version in 1979. It’s the fourth novel in the Jerry Cornelius series and follows “The English Assassin“.
In a Europe now in full decline in which nations have fragmented, Jerry Cornelius and other people close to him are now like the characters of Commedia dell’Arte. Jerry brings more chaos than order, also because he’s fragmented into different realities.
“The Condition of Muzak” is the last novel of the so-called Jerry Cornelius quartet. Michael Moorcock wrote them, along with various short fiction works, with no desire to create one big consistent story. On the contrary, he’s one of the characters he created in various versions within a complex multiverse. Despite this, the author warns that this volume’s structure reflects the quartet’s overall structure. The novel also contains references to Elric, perhaps the most famous incarnation of Moorcock’s Eternal Champion.
The title refers to Walter Pater’s maxim: “All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music”. Muzak is a type of music but over time it has become a commercial brand. Michael Moorcock was one of the most important people of the science fiction new wave movement promoting and writing highly experimental works that blended styles and inspirations from different art forms, including music and Commedia dell’Arte.
Being familiar with Jerry Cornelius’ previous novels also allows you to be prepared for other elements of “The Condition of Muzak”. The structure is fragmented, with a loose plot and various pages with crime news headlines. Various characters previously present appear, and in particular the Cornelius family, at the center of a harlequinade, as the author is also inspired by a genre derived from the Commedia dell’Arte.
Michael Moorcock brings together elements that may seem antithetical, in this case, the harlequinade in a post-apocalyptic world. Entropy was at the center of the events of “The English Assassin” and now seems dominant in “The Condition of Muzak”. Jerry Cornelius himself seems prey to entropy in his fragmentation into different realities. This incarnation of the Eternal Champion has been presented in various versions in the various works in which he appears but in this novel he often seems to bring chaos to the multiverse.
It’s no coincidence that “The Condition of Muzak” ends with an appendix that contains a list of references to people who could be Jerry Cornelius. That’s also a part of the many facets of Michael Moorcock’s multiverse, like the appearance of other characters from this quartet in other of the author’s works.
Probably, to fully appreciate Jerry Cornelius’ quartet, you must be an admirer of the new wave movement and have some knowledge of Michael Moorcock’s works to have a good knowledge of the cross-references that he includes in abundance. The problem is made more complex by the author’s revisions of various of his works, including “The Condition of Muzak”. I have the first edition and I can’t say how different it is from the revised version. I understand that there are also differences in the included drawings, which in the first edition are by Richard Glyn Jones.
“The Condition of Muzak” is a complex work with a unique style, and that’s true throughout the Jerry Cornelius quartet. If you want to get to know Michael Moorcock and the new science fiction wave movement, in my opinion, they’re a must-read.
