Re: Possibly the oddest Autobiography article I've seen yet...
the article is an interesting read, I even agree with some of it
however, the primary thing I took away from it was having pity for its author
having that much hate in one's heart and mind cannot be a good thing
I agree with you. I like some of his writing, once you've used a few red pens to strike through the nonsense. It needs editing and a style guide, but there's potential. However, he's had endless time, wealth and resources to educate himself to become a 'serious' writer, yet it reads like most of the rants here, including mine. But I'd never publish such stuff as 'serious' literature.
I think there's a feeling of pity but also compassion. He's clearly troubled and always has been, quite why he's so troubled isn't clear. It's very sad when he reveals how he was a client of Dr Anthony Clare, a good and decent man, but that he couldn't share the insights of those sessions with Jake as it was 'too much',too beyond the rules of the, presumably asexual, bromance. Having recovered from serious mental health issues as a result of violent crime, I do have a great deal of sympathy at treatment dilemmas, as it was hit and miss for me for years, despite the best efforts of the NHS. I'm well now, but it seems like a fluke, a lottery win in retrospect, I just happened to chance upon a therapeutic tool that worked when others had failed. The best thing about the book is that Morrissey 'comes out' about mental health issues, and I was moved to read of the various mood pills he was prescribe during the decades which failed to shift his underlying distress. SISMS shook me to the core when i heard it debut at The Roundhouse. It's very sad that, despite endless wealth and time, he doesn't seem to have been able to find a treatment plan to restore him to childhood bliss, or a version of it.
Because of this obvious mental distress, my overall feeling is of regret and also, forgiveness. He does appear to be consumed by hatred at times, but I place the blame on Penguin. Just because someone is rich and famous doesn't mean they should be encouraged to make a disgrace of themselves; Morrissey, Britney, Miley. Their personal avarice and attention seeking behaviour has to be balanced with a cold, hard look at the corporations that host this fake rebellion for profit. Yes, Morrissey is 54 and responsible legally and morally for everything he says on stage (Norway) or writes in his book. But it's really very alarming to think there is no one he trusted to read this and give him honest feedback. If he did and then rejected it, well, he has a lesson in life to learn, perhaps over and over again.
I hope that when the curtain comes down on his workaholic career chasing phantoms of fame, that there is someone or a few people there for him. Johnny Marr walked away from the workaholic obsessive for the pleasures of family life, friends, veganism and an interesting life in art, now he gets his late-in-life reward of a real, dedicated Audience who don't need to worship him to enjoy his emerging art.
Morrissey threw down the gauntlet, so did Penguin. By insisting that this was a 'classic' (sic) I had to look at the other tomes on my bookshelf under this marque and treat reviewing it as a serious project. I have done so, and my 'tough love' is entirely appropriate, given the debacle that has unfolded.
There's a ridiculous tautology which says "everything else is rubbish, Morrissey is less rubbish, therefore Morrissey is meritorious". This is sophistry. Only within the herd culture of NME/Chart/awards/sales enviroment which consumes Morrissey is such talk of any value. It's not about the paucity of merit in individual artistic offerings, it's about a wider cultural crisis, of which Morrissey is just an amusing, tragic example of Boomer betrayal of countercultural challenges.
I've recently sent Leonard Cohen and his cult packing. It's nothing personal about Morrissey. He's really not that important, other than as a textbook example of how not to live a life in art and commerce, and about why it is always a mistake to put your career before your personal life.
There's a paradox in that he seems "still ill", he claims crippling mental anguish, yet regularly tours for months on end. How likely is it that he's ever been "still ill" to the degree he sometimes claims, yet able to withstand the military drills of the tour-bus? We don't know as recent events aren't covered, but will, no doubt, be dealt with in the inevitable sequels/prequels of the franchise.
Enjoy it if you like, ignore the atrocious nonsense if that keeps you safe within The Cult of Morrissey and The Cult of Pop Culture, but don't ever expect a genuine polymath like me to endorse the critical consensus when it's clear most who have written about this book have either not read it, not understood it's implications, or are genuinely as silly and superficial as the author.
regards
BB
