Christine Cowshed is a victim. She eats her chips behind the art gallery because society hasn't offered more to someone of her station. Who is Linder Sterling to judge her? People like Linder (and often Morrissey) so rarely consider their privileges. They judge others as if they were given the same opportunities, rights, and privileges as they were, but choose to put on the mousy brown cardigan and eat chips behind the gallery instead of becoming pop stars or the best friends of pop stars instead. It's unfair and unthinking.
It's about your choice. I have never had alot of money but as all galleries/ museums are free, I will always go yet some people choose to go shopping/drink/telly instead, this is their good time. They are not challenging their intellect, learning new things, opening their eyes. It was nothing to do with their station as Morrissey, Linder as many, many other creative people are working class.
Exactly. Morrissey and Linder are two artists, critical of those who don't appreciate their art. This is somehow wrong or surprising? Ordinary is an incurious state of mind, satisfied with nothing more than a greasy bag of chips, a double bed, and a stalwart lover. Morrissey has sung and talked about this over and over and over. Do you listen to the lyrics? The imaginary Christine Cowshed could be wealthy or dirt poor, but it doesn't change who she is or the fact that she's indifferent to anything besides whatever is contained in her little comfortable world. There are people like this everywhere, and I'll bet everyone expressing poutrage over the pretentiousness of this interview probably dreads being stuck in a room with their relative or co-worker who can't talk about anything besides the mundane minutiae of their kids' activites, American Idol, and who has never voluntarily set foot in a library or art gallery. These people aren't inferior but they are uninteresting.
Agreed. I stopped reading after a while.It's unavoidable really. Moz is an intriguing character in his own right; but even at his most arrogant and affected, he still kept in touch with reality and voiced valid points - on vegetarianism, art, pop culture, anything.
Linder sounds like a very ordinary woman trying desperately to be 'unique' and escape the mundanity of normal life (which is no bad thing), but she does it in such a way as to think herself above not just 'Christine Cowshed' but everybody. The Q & A was basically him telling her how wonderful she is, and her agreeing & presenting a few illustrative thoughts and ideas. Her whole demeanor seems painfully insincere. And quoting Moz' own lyrics back at him?
As pretentious as the interview was I still enjoyed it -- how many people would go as far as Linder to articulate something in that way? Painfully affected as it is...
I never said Morrissey and Linder had to be ordinary, or that the quest to escape the mundane is a bad thing. More people try to do it than you think. My point was that Linder's way of expressing herself is affected, haughty and insincere. Morrissey has much the same views as her, and manages to express himself without sounding like he's lost touch with the real world. Linder is desperately trying to impress, with a very contrived form of 'individuality', and it shows.
I think Linder means to be affected. That's the whole point of this "conversation". It's meant to be an artwork in itself. I doubt Morrrissey and Linder converse like this in normal life.
There are people like this everywhere, and I'll bet everyone expressing poutrage over the pretentiousness of this interview probably dreads being stuck in a room with their relative or co-worker who can't talk about anything besides the mundane minutiae of their kids' activites, American Idol, and who has never voluntarily set foot in a library or art gallery. They have no real passion for anything. These people aren't inferior but they are uninteresting.
This is one of those glorious instances when a typo speaks a greater truth than the word it was meant to be!
I don't think they were being pretentious, I think they are completely sincere.
I think many of us here feel very different from others in our lives. I'm not claiming to be a great artist, but I do dread being stuck in a room with people "who can't talk about anything besides the mundane minutiae of their kids' activites, American Idol, and who has never voluntarily set foot in a library or art gallery." And DisneyWorld. Don't forget DisneyWorld. I watch people like that, stunned that their lives, which seem so colorless to me, are satisfying to them, while I envy that satisfaction. And the reactions of people like... I presume to say "us," is inevitably going to sound defensive and somewhat pretentious, at least until someone figures out the right words to explain the difference between the Cowsheds and the Linders.
I like art galleries, libraries, opera houses, concert halls, chips AND Disneyworld.
I guess that makes me a Cowder. Or a Linshed.
I'm also not averse to a spot of poutraging.
This is one of those glorious instances when a typo speaks a greater truth than the word it was meant to be!
It wasn't a typo.
I will confess. I went to Disneyworld with my husband and two little boys a few years ago. We had an excellent time. But we were there for ONE day, not seven to ten. And we went there ONCE, not twice a year, every year, as our only vacation.
And I love chips/fries. They're my drunk food.
I even watched two seasons of American Idol. So I could converse with my momfriends.
It was brilliant.
This is one of those glorious instances when a typo speaks a greater truth than the word it was meant to be!
I don't think they were being pretentious, I think they are completely sincere.
I think many of us here feel very different from others in our lives. I'm not claiming to be a great artist, but I do dread being stuck in a room with people "who can't talk about anything besides the mundane minutiae of their kids' activites, American Idol, and who has never voluntarily set foot in a library or art gallery." And DisneyWorld. Don't forget DisneyWorld. I watch people like that, stunned that their lives, which seem so colorless to me, are satisfying to them, while I envy that satisfaction. And the reactions of people like... I presume to say "us," is inevitably going to sound defensive and somewhat pretentious, at least until someone figures out the right words to explain the difference between the Cowsheds and the Linders.