[j. d. worthington]

Well, one of the things I'd say he was attempting to get across, judging from this and other writings (and interviews, etc.) is "there are no easy answers" -- hence the "What Would You Do?" sections become more and more difficult, until there simply is no alternative that isn't arguable. As a matter of fact, those sections are based on something Moorcock used to write when he was starting out -- a series of such puzzles (only with more easily definable solutions and moral boundaries) in the magazine Boy's Life (if I remember correctly).

I don't really think he was exorcizing his demons as such; a lot of the same themes run throughout much of his work (especially things such as the Cornelius stories, the Oswald Bastable books, etc.) As the subtitle says, it's "A Novel of Inhumanity" -- yet it has elements of hope and optimism running through it, nonetheless. But Karl being Karl (the particular aspect of the Eternal Champion he is), things are much darker, more morally and ethically ambiguous, and considerably more confusing.

On the "framing story" (if one can call it that)... I've seen different thoughts on this one. One is simply a parody of the "White Man's Burden" idea, though I'd say that's far too simplistic for this novel. Another is the symbolism of the character -- for example, considering Karl's fascination with Jung, this could be seen as his Shadow, in which case, Karl more or less becomes the Shadow -- he doesn't truly reach an assimilation, or a healthy balance, but he drains the Shadow, becomes it, while it becomes Karl (recall how many aspects of the Champion are vampiric in one form or another, from Elric to Jerry Cornelius -- who recharges using high-energy situations with others -- etc.). That one seems, perhaps, a bit closer to the mark. After all, the "black man" is the reverse of Karl himself; easy-going, sexually multivalent, bursting with self-confidence, etc., which all gradually changes as they exchange roles. Thus one can say that, though Karl doesn't reach a true "psychic wholeness", he does survive, becomes stronger ... though whether this is a "good" thing or not remains, in context, debatable....

There are lots of different things one can read into this situation, from the "black man" of the older traditions concerning witches (itself a form of the Shadow, I'd say), to the racial ambiguities of the 1960s and early 1970s.

At any rate, this remains one of my favorite Moorcock books, because it isn't an easy book in many ways; it's a challenging book that can bear several different types of readings....