The Condition of Muzak

by Michael Moorcock

  Jerry got up from the table and went to let Frank in. He opened the door, lifting the handle so that it would not scrape on the floor as it usually did. “She’s dead,” he said.

  “Catherine?”

  “No, Mum.”

  Frank made a small, unpleasant sound and went to check.

  Jerry again picked up the dirty hand-out:

  He screwed it up and let it fall on the floor, then he called goodbye to his sobbing brother and left the basement, climbing aboard his Phantom, on his way to find Catherine. He turned on the stereo. The Beatles were singing ‘Hello, Goodbye’ again. The sky was dark grey. He switched on the windscreen wipers. It was raining heavily. He, too, had begun to cry by the time he reached Greyfriars Bridge, on his way to Blackheath, the bearer of bad news for the mother of his unborn son.

  APPENDIX I

  The following is reprinted from The Nature of the Catastrophe, London 1971:

  This chronology begins with the convenient date of 1900, but there is evidence to support the existence of a Jerry Cornelius even in pre-Christian times (the first significant reference, of course, is the famous one in Virgil!) just as there is evidence to say he did not appear on the scene until much later. We are not here suggesting, for instance, that a child of one year could have been a spy during the South African War. The chronology merely lists well-supported references to Cornelius. It does not propose that they can possibly refer to the same individual!

  The Compilers

  1900

  18 December

  Birth of a boy, christened Jeremiah Cornelius, at the Bon Secours convent, Guatemala City. Mother died: father unknown. He lived in the convent until the age of about six when he was transferred to a monastery school some distance from the city. (Letter to David Redd of Haverford West from Sister Maria Eugene of the Bon Secours convent, who died in 1960.)

  1901

  25 January

  Boer War double agent known as ‘Cornelius’ caught and shot by a party of Boers under Commandant Pretorius, about two miles west of Jericho, Transvaal. (Dispatch from Pretorius to Kruger.)

  1903

  9 April

  Log of the SS Maureen Key reports picking up an English-speaking seaman in Bay of Biscay about noon. Seaman was adrift in small boat and was incoherent. Name: Jerry—possibly Cornell or Carnell, Carmelion or Cornelius. Was handed over to port authorities in Bilbao but disappeared shortly afterwards having stolen a coat and a piece of meat.

  14 October

  Catholic mission in Djelfa, Algeria, contracts plague of unknown origin and all die. Scrawled on the side of the confessional are letters JE CORNELIU, plainly recently written by the monk who had been acting as Confessor when overcome by the disease. (Le Monde Catholique, 30 October.)

  1904

  24 January

  Programme of the Empire Theatre, Leicester Place. The Grand Spectacular Tableau, No. 7 on the bill—‘The Treasure Island of Monte Cristo’: the part of Edmund Dantes played by Mnsr J. Cornelius. At No. 10 on the bill Mdlle Marguerite Corneille, Comédienne.

  14 October

  The St Petersburg uprising. A list of arrested “foreign elements” issued by the Okharna (secret police) includes a Jeremiah Cornelius (thought to be a pseudonym). It is unclear whether he was deported or executed. (Burns Collection.)

  1905

  November

  Reports from the Carpathian Mountains in Romania that a bandit—“perhaps an Englishman”—called Jeremiah Cornelius has been operating there for more than a year, organising several bandit gangs into a single force. (Records of Transylvanian Central Police Bureau now at the Austrian War Museum, Vienna.)

  1907

  16 February

  Reference to a Jerzy Cornelius in list of thirty prisoners tried by military court as Socialist Democrat terrorists, St Petersburg. All found guilty and shot. (Burns Collection.)

  8 July

  Rouveniemi, northern Finland. A gang of criminals thought to be Russian nihilists rob several banks, a post office, several shops and are thought to have escaped by train. One suspect, a Russian Jew calling himself Bronsky, claimed that the leader of the gang was known only by the name of ‘Cornelius’. The Russian thought the leader was probably a Swede. (Dagbladet, Sweden, 12 July.)

  8 October

  “A young man of well-bred appearance, speaking Danish with a French accent, giving the name of Jeremiah Cornelius and his country of origin as Australia, formally accused of indecent assault by Miss Ingeborg Brunner at the 11th Precinct Police Station, Göteborg, last night. So far police have failed to arrest the accused.” (Dispatch sent by Thomas Dell to Sydney Herald.) The story was not published, although a subsequent cable informed the newspaper that Miss Brunner had dropped the charges. (Sydney Herald correspondence files.)

  12 November

  The journal of Yüan Shih-k’ai, Commissioner of Trade for the Northern Ports, China, notes the employment of a Captain J. Cornelius, described as “an American soldier of fortune”, to “help in the training of officers for the Peiyang Army”, Tientsin. It appears that Yüan Shih-k’ai’s commission was later countermanded, but that an appeal to the Empress Dowager reinstated Cornelius, though his position with the Peiyang Army became poorly defined. When, in 1909, Yüan was dismissed from office, his American protégé, on leave in Shanghai, disappeared. (The Journals of Yüan Shih-k’ai, edited with an introduction by Prof. Michael Lucy Smith, Collett Press, 1942.)

  1908

  19 February

  Calcutta. Aurobindo Ghose of the extremist Nationalist Party records that Tilak, leader of the party, sent “a Eurasian called Cornelius with a message” to Congress leader Gokhale, a moderate. Gokhale never replied to the message which, Ghose thought, contained some suggestion of a secret meeting, but Cornelius was later arrested in a waterfront brothel where he had disguised himself as a woman. He was charged with the attempted assassination of Gokhale’s close associate, Shastri. “A meaningless action,” comments Ghose. There is no reference to the result of any trial. (Ghose, India’s Lost Opportunity, Asia Publishing Co., Bombay, 1932.)

  13 April

  Afghanistan. Dispatch from Colonel R.C. Gordon commanding 25th Cavalry Frontier Force. Rumours that dissident hill tribes are united under a quasi-religious chief who appears to be of European or Eurasian ancestry and is referred to variously as Elia Khan, Shah Elia or Cornelius. “A tall man with burning eyes who rides better than any tribesman and who has already cost us some fifty men, including three lieutenants and our Risaldar Major.” Colonel Gordon asked for reinforcements but died with the rest of his post when it was wiped out two days later. (Michelson, ‘Lords of the North West Frontier’, Strand Magazine, April 1912.)

  1909

  30 March

  A man known only as ‘the English assassin Cornelius’ is arrested in Innsbruck after hurling a bomb at the Kronprinz Frederik of Statz-Pulitzberg whose horse reared in time so that the bomb missed and exploded in the crowd. The assassin later escaped under circumstances which indicated help (or even orders) from someone highly placed in the government. (Daily Mail, 2 April.)

  17 May

  Secret dispatch from Captain Werner von K. (probably Koenig) dated Linz, 17 May, to Ludendorff of the German General Staff, Berlin: “I am sending to you Herr Cornelius, who has convinced me that he can supply much exact information concerning our good neighbours!” (Records in Berlin Military Museum Document PRS-188.)

  1910

  29 January

  Gustav Krupp writes to his chief ordnance technician Fritz Rausenberger: “You were quite right to employ the Herr Doktor Cornelius. His efforts have contributed greatly to the speedier development of our new gun. Please convey to him the firm’s congratulations.” (Krupp correspondence files.)

  1911

  22 May

  Passenger list of the SS Hope Dempsey, leaving Southampton 22 May, bound for Rangoon, via Aden, Karachi, Bombay and Madras, gives a Mr Jeremiah Cornelius (who later disembarked at Port Said).
>
  August

  Sir James Keen, an amateur archaeologist exploring ruins in Chad, reports meeting a fellow Englishman in the town of Massakori. “A tall, youngish chap, very brown, affecting native dress and living, apparently as the sheik’s chief lieutenant, with one of the tribes of armoured nomad horsemen. He was civil, but reticent about his origins, offering me only his local name, which I did not catch. However, I learned the day after he had left that he was regarded by the French as one of the most painful thorns in their sides and that the garrison at Fort-Lamy had orders to shoot him on sight, no matter what the circumstances. I was informed that his name was Gerard Cornelius and that he was a deserter from the Foreign Legion.” (The Lost Civilisations of Africa, Harrap, 1913, p. 708.)

  2 November

  Report of Lieutenant Kurt von Winterfeld, commanding a company of Protectorate Troops stationed temporarily at Makung on the Njong River, Cameroons, states that a European called Cornelius was shot while attempting to steal the steam launch serving the garrison. He had passed himself off as a German trader in order to board the vessel, but von Winterfeld suspected that he was an English spy. His body fell into the water and was not recovered. (German Imperial Year Book for 1911.)

  1912

  7 March

  The Bight of Biafra. The Santa Isabella, a Portuguese schooner, hailed by a European sailing a dhow. The European gave his name as Cornelius and offered to work his passage to Parades, the ship’s home port. In Parades Cornelius was believed to have transferred to the Manité, an American barque bound for Charleston via Boston. (Log of the Santa Isabella.)

  1 June

  Captain Simons of the Manité records loss of the seaman Cornelius overboard three miles off Nantucket in heavy seas. (Log of the Manité.)

  13 November

  Discovery of a cabin, recently built, on Tower Island, Galapagos, by crew of an Indian fishing boat blown off course and seeking shelter. No sign of cabin’s occupant. Indians frightened, left island as quickly as possible after one of them, a half-caste known as ‘Cortez’, had taken an empty metal box bearing the lettering ‘Asst. Comm. J. Cornelius, Sandakan’. (Journals of Father Estaban, San Lorenzo mission, San Domingo, Ecuador.)

  27 November

  An English engineer Jeremiah Cornelius offers his services to help in the completion of the Panama Canal but cannot produce satisfactory references. He is not employed. Later, parts of the canal near Cristoban are dynamited. Colombian guerrillas are suspected. Manager of the Company hears rumours that Cornelius is working with the Colombians. (Records of the Panama Canal Co.)

  1913

  5 April

  United States troops in Nicaragua attacked by a well-organised band of ‘nationalist’ terrorists in several areas around Lake Nicaragua. US marines in Granada are wiped out and all arms, including several artillery pieces, stolen. Interrogation of suspects reveals that the terrorists are said to be led by an American, Jerry Cornelius. (Records of US Marine Corps.)

  30 October

  Peking. The missionary Ulysses Paxton mentions a conversation between himself and Liu Fang of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Referring to the possible conversion of the military leader Feng Yü-hsiang (later to be known as the “Christian General”), Liu told Paxton that a certain “Father Cornelius” had been responsible for Feng’s interest in Christianity. Neither Paxton nor Liu knew of a missionary of that name in the area, though Liu had heard it said that the so-called “White Wolf”, a remarkably intelligent and powerful bandit leader who had taken to roaming north-central China in the wake of the Second Revolution, was rumoured to be an ex-Catholic missionary called Kang Na Lu (“Acting with High Resolve”) or Cornelius. (Devil against Devil by Ulysses M. Paxton, Grossett and Dunlap, NY 1916, p. 179.)

  1914

  Summer

  The White Wolf, pursued by Feng’s and other armies, is killed in Shensi during a pitched battle between his men and ‘government’ troops. Feng weeps beside the corpse and repeats the name ‘Cornelius’ over and over again. “Later he ordered the body burned, but it had been stolen, presumably by survivors of the White Wolf’s band.” (North China Herald, 25 August.)

  1915

  May

  Rumours of the White Wolf’s reappearance in Kansu. In Kungchang Mission, Father King, an American priest, lends rail fare to a fellow missionary, Father Dempsey, who claims to have been the captive of a bandit gang. Father King notes the initials J.C. on the other priest’s bag. Father Dempsey claims that the bag belonged to a fellow missionary, Father Cornelius, who was killed by the bandits. Father Dempsey boarded train for Haichow and Father King comments on his surprising fitness, his apparent youth, his brilliant eyes. (Letter to Father King’s sister, Maureen O’Reilly of Brooklyn, 8 June.)

  3 August

  During the famous Okhotsk Raid (thought to be inspired by Germany), two of the attacking gunboats were sunk before the defender’s batteries were put out of action. The commander of a Russian launch heard the name Cornelius shouted several times during this engagement and gathered that this was the name of the officer in charge of the raid. He assumed the name to be German (although Germany continued to deny responsibility for the raid long after the end of the war). Upon the surrender of the garrison, the attackers disembarked, imprisoned all military personnel, and looted the city of most of its food, treasure and arms. The name Cornelius was heard by civilian witnesses who thought it referred to the tall man in elaborate Chinese dress who wore an ivory mask, carried no weapons, and appeared to supervise the pillage of Okhotsk. (Report of the Official Committee Investigating the Fall of Okhotsk, St Petersburg, March 1916, pp. 306–9.)

  1916

  4 February

  Sale by Henrik van der Gees of Samarana, Java, of his estates (inc. rubber plantations and tin mines) throughout the East Indies. To: Mnr Jeremiah Cornelius, a Dutch banker. The estate was the largest singly held property in the East Indies and was sold for a disclosed sum of eighteen million guilders. (Samarana Land Office records.)

  17 August

  The Cornelius estate made a public company, the managing director being a Francis Cornelius, believed to be the brother of the purchaser who has returned to Rotterdam. The chairman is given as a Herr Schomberg of Sourabaya. (Die Gids, Batavia, 20 August.)

  1917

  14 July

  Parish register for St Saviour’s Church, Clapham, records the marriage of a Captain Jeremiah Cornelius, RFC, to a Miss Catherine Cornell, respectively of Nos 32 and 34 Clapham Common South. Captain Cornelius was on a forty-eight hour leave and returned to France immediately after the marriage. (Note: There is no record of a Captain Jeremiah Cornelius having served with the Royal Flying Corps.)

  1921

  6 May

  The Interior Department of the USA leases naval oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyoming, to the Jeremiah Cornelius Company of Chicago. Various accusations in the Press (notably the Philadelphia Enquirer) concerning the allegations that the founder of this company is none other than ‘German Jerry’ Cornelius, a notorious racketeer often considered to be a more dangerous, though less notorious, character than Dion O’Banion, of whom he is a known associate. Thomas Redick of the Enquirer disappears, presumed killed. The Cornelius Company continues its activities, although it denies any connection with criminal elements and claims that its president is “travelling in Europe”. (American Mercury, 15 October, 1923, p. 38.)

  1922

  1 March

  The Munich Riots of February/March. Arrested as a “socialist agitator” by the police, a J. Cornelius. Tried 3 March and imprisoned for thirty days before being expelled from Germany on his failure to produce papers proving his citizenship. (Munich Court Records.)

  September

  Rout of Greeks from Asia Minor by Kemal Pasha greatly facilitated by the tank company commanded by Major Cornelius, a South African soldier of fortune. (Daily Mail, 3 October, The Sin of Pride by Victor Manning.)

  December

  During the March on R
ome a Geraldo Cornelius prominent in the Fascist takeover of power (for a short time he was editor of Il Popolo d’Italia) until assassinated “almost certainly on Mussolini’s orders” in December of the same year. (Threatened Europe, J.P.H. Priestley, Gollancz, 1936, p. 107/8.)

  1923

  July

  Lithuanians capture Memel from the French garrison installed by League of Nations. “The plan was successful almost certainly because of the work of the Dutch adventurer Cornelius.” (French commander quoted in Le Figaro, 12 August.)

  1924

  21 January

  Death of Lenin. A suspicion that he was assassinated on Stalin’s orders voiced in the English-language Exile (14 February), a White Russian newspaper published in London and aimed at arousing sympathy for the émigré cause. Count Birianof wrote: “Various Russian expatriates were approached by those who were plainly agents of the Bolsheviks and told that they would be given the opportunity to ‘eliminate’ the Red leader. It was so plainly the kind of trap we have become used to that all émigré organisations gave orders to their membership to pay no attention to the schemes. However we have reason to believe that a Levantine gentleman, originally of Kiev and familiar in the Whitechapel area as ‘Cornelius the Nihilist’, made it known that he would be willing to do the deed. Whether ‘Comrade’ Lenin died of natural causes (a guilty conscience, perhaps?) or whether he was killed, we shall probably never really know. However, if he was killed it was almost certainly by Cornelius acting on the orders of General Secretary Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili (who prefers to hide behind the name of ‘Stalin’)—a man with a greater lust for power than even his fanatical master knew! And what has happened to the nihilistic Jew? Dead, himself, by now, if we know anything at all of Bolshevik plots and counterplots.”