Why is Jerry Cornelius coloured negative in Cure for Cancer
In four books of The Cornelius Chronicles
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Moorcock, the hero Jerry Cornelius for the duration of the second book, A Cure for Cancer, is coloured in negative. I can't remember if any explanation for this was given in the book, and if
there was I somehow missed it or didn't understand it. By the start of the third book, the English Assassin, he appears coloured normally again. Again no explanation of how he returned to normal
that I remember.
So my question is, was there actually an explanation for these changes that I missed in the books and if not did Moorcock ever explain them in an interview or elsewhere?
In A Cure for Cancer, which is a kind of negative scherzo on the pattern of the first book, he has polarized into a black with white hair, and continues to vampirize those around him to maintain
his own image stability. A couple of years have passed in the real world, the scene has darkened.
It's also partially is hinted at in several of MM's interviews. When Moorcock wrote the first draft of A Cure for Cancer it wasn't a Jerry Cornelius book. A friend pointed out that the main
character was really JC, just in a different disguise. Moorcock,
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completing it in record time, apparently.
Symbolically, Negative-Jerry is the emotional and psychological opposite of Normal-Jerry. He says it himself in the first couple of pages of the book.
The In-Multiverse answer is a little more complicated and relates to the concepts of the "Eternal Champion" and the Guild of Temporal Adventurers. The appearance of a multiversal traveler depends
very much on the universe and the role in that universe. So changes in appearance, even dramatic ones, are to be expected as one travels through the mega-flow.
(1977, page 175) Jerry dresses and views himself in the mirror.
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A very negative appearance, he thought, pursing his lips and smiling.
Later in A Cure for Cancer, when he is recognized by Bishop Beesley and Frank (his brother), they comment on his change of appearance and attitude, however they don't seem to think it
particularly unusual (especially for Jerry).