We are all martyrs to our own individual causes, and I have been literally stoned to death for bringing the Swallowneck posts to this forum...

Swallowneck believes the "hatred" I receive from some quarters on Moz Solo is nothing more than Catholic guilt on the part of supposedly "hetrosexual" men that happen to get turned on whenever they read of his carnal prowess - and they take all of their guilt and self-loathing out on me!!!

I can see that now...

I always like articles that take Morrissey seriously, and Jean Genet is as wonderful a writer as any to compare him to, but Morse's article left me with some comments and more than a few questions.

*"Dionysian" does not remotely describe The Smiths' appearance on TOTP nor the song they were singing. Right away you feel that Morse is dressing Morrissey in borrowed clothing.

*How many songs besides "Suffer Little Children" could accurately be described as 'macabre'? In the loosest sense, with death as a subject, there are several. In the context of the Moors Murders, however, Morse is using 'macabre' in its more common meaning, the gruesome or horrifying, which are seldom if ever found in Morrissey's songs.

*It could be said that Morrissey's one-time fascination with graveyards and death is 'macabre' but when the author tells us graveyards are filled with 'slaughtered innocents' his point is somewhat weakened. Aside from common sense, one only has to think of the line "Some dizzy whore/1804" in "Cemetry Gates" (or the fun he and Linder had reading epitaphs like "Bugger Bognor!", as told to a journalist) to understand that Morrissey's fascination with graveyards had a great deal of humor and levity to it.

*Why is Morrissey called 'dour'? Weren't the flowers an attempt to produce exactly the opposite effect-- and explicitly so in the case of their notorious appearance at the Hacienda, when they took the stage deliberately hoping to poke fun at Factory's dour image?

*Mark Simpson, good guy that he is, probably had little to do with Morrissey's resurgence. Whenever the subject of Simpson's work comes up on this site it usually meets with tepid approval at best.

*A zenith by defintion does not continue an ascendance.

*Genet's "queenish adage" about bad taste doesn't describe Morrissey at all. Morrissey has always stood for good taste and would be appalled to know that some viewed him as a shameless purveyor of bad taste. Compared to the rest of rock and roll he is a Vestal Virgin and a paraplegic one at that. The biggest mistake in comparing Morrissey to Genet is in this point-- Morrissey has always cultivated modesty whereas Genet, most strikingly of all in "The Thief's Journal", intentionally and gleefully made an art of doing the opposite.

*Morrissey's "self-mythologizing PR" was either not approved by him or, at any rate, substantially toned-down shortly after when he issued a statement saying in effect "Thanks for your support, but don't worry if you can't come".

*I don't think anyone is preparing Morrissey for 'sainthood'. This only makes sense if one stubbornly insists on Brian's Pera-llel with Sartre's "Saint Genet" and of course Simpson's "Saint Morrissey", a comparison that is interesting but withers on closer inspection. I think it is closer to the truth to say that Morrissey has appropriated some Genet-like traits as one part-- by no means the largest-- of a larger and complicated personality which he has constructed with bits taken from many other inspirations from Oscar Wilde and Marc Bolan to Shelagh Delaney and Sandie Shaw. The 'sainthood' described by these critics is far too limiting and narrow, and in their own way they're as far off base as the more conventional analyses of Morrissey.

My Morrissey certainly has engaged in the macabre with songs like Margaret On A Guillotine, Death At One's Elbow, Unhappy Birthday, and Suffer Little Children, just to name a few.

My Morrissey is politically flippant, and naive about many social issues.

My Morrissey often chooses aesthetics over substance.

My Morrissey likes anything but the ordinary as can be seen by his interest in violence, eccentric older women, and bands like the New York Dolls who derived most of their press from the way they dressed.

My Morrissey is anything but humble. He uses his shyness as a badge of superiority, likely delaying personal growth. His vegetarianism interests are grossly oversimplified, and come across as an attempt to project a sense of moral righteousness. This mindset is not at all uncommon in devout loners. It's clinical. It's not a strength.

My Morrissey admitted to not following the news, liking literature, and a belief that most people are "scum." My Morrisey also saw his close friends admit that his favorite past-time is sitting a round and shredding people's characters. What a sweetheart.

My Morrissey has backed Animal rights terrorist groups who have killed innocent people, and has acted as a blind follower of a dishonest organization in PETA.

My Morrissey attracts incredibly pretentious homebodies who act as if they've just signed up for their first creative writing course.