Re: Article: "In publishing Morrissey's autobiography as a classic, Penguin has destroyed its own re
You really, truly have to admire Morrissey: he always succeeds in throwing a wrench into the works. Now he's "destabilizing" the venerated Penguin Books and upending the notion of the literary cannon. He's redefining "classic."
I happen to have a bit of sympathy with those who see this as a cheap stunt. Were it any other pop star's scribblings I'd roll my eyes. But, as Pregs and King Leer point out, this is Morrissey - the man who raised pop lyrics and "performance" to a high art. He's not the only lyrical genius of the last 30 years, but he's the one who sang "there's more to life than books you know, but not much more." He's the one who wore those prophylactic spectacles and had himself photographed surrounded by books and hugging typewriters. He's one of the Great Geek Generation, and proud of it.
I hope that there's a bit of Mozmania on the way, enough to distract from his recent (mostly self-imposed) trials and tribulations. Morrissey is a man of massive, glaring contradictions, but he was one of the bookish tribe back in the day and he made sure everyone knew it. We admired him for being the geek who left his bedroom and showed the world that smart was sexy, introverted was intriguing, and bookish was beautiful.
Penguin will weather this storm. What started out as a bit of a joke on Morrissey's part may end up being a bit more profound. It will be fascinating to not only read the book, but to see how it all shakes out. It may fizzle or it may pop. Whatever the case, people will be talking.
*rollseyes* FFS! Talk about desperate attempt to save your sunk investment. People are *talking* about Miley Cyrus and Rihanna too, also face time attention whores who think they are "destabilizing" pop culture when it's their minds that are heading for the cliff.
I wonder how many books he's actually read from cover to cover rather than a critical synopsis. Anyone can pretend to be educated and well-read so long as they never submit to any probing interview other than through the fluffers at 80s NME.
No doubt most will apply the same time-saving logic to his forthcoming comedy classic. It will be *quite good* or so I hear on the grapevine, but a "Penguin Classic"? That brand is now firmly in the shitter, let's see if this booky-wookie gets flushed down the pan in a week as well. Frank Ocean has achieved more than Morrissey with a mix-tape and a CD. His blog and video are genuine Art not lumpen thud recycled Dad-rock riffs from the jurassic era.
Let's not forget that Ian McCullough debunking of the pretentious pseudy one:
"
I thought he was very nice but I quickly learnt it was a (French word I can't translate "tocard"). At one point to display his literary skill he talked of a chassam (chasm). You only need to open a dictionary to know you don't pronounce it like that. Contrary to him I never read books, but I've known how to pronounce that word since I was six years old."
http://www.morrissey-solo.com/news/1999/243.shtml
Nothing wrong with being ill-prepared for the literary life becuz of my poor edukation, but there's more, much more since, up to the absolute car-crash press release statements of the last few years which I'm sure he doesn't intend as ironic pastiche of Jerry Sadowtiz in full flow.
I have high hopes for utter lulzfestz from whatever dog's dinner of a final text has emerged from the smoking cauldron of his mind. I put the odds on truth vs dare at 20%, a bit more than my posts and persona, but I doubt there'll be any real BIG REVEAL, certainly about 'who', 'what' and 'where' his early incandescent offerings were forged.
People will be talking about how Penguin have made arses of themselves, but I doubt many will be reading the book to the end, beyond the inbred cult here, of course. If he could write prose, it would have been evident by now. He's a minor poet, and a magpie who cherry picked the great and the obscure. In other words, he's like any other remix cultural curator on a blog, youtube, or social media. It's all great fun, and he did it well with fonts and cover stars in an era when most people weren't hip to postmodernism, but anyone who imagines he's a "serious writer" is a cultural philistine. We shall soon know if Morrissey was the boy least likely to reveal his light hidden under a bushel, or just another cultural appropriating chancer who got lucky.
I'm sure most of the zombies wandering around Cheltenham will love it as he's a part of the scenery now. The only really scandalous thing he could do now is to tell the truth. But, like me, he won't. Maybe he, too, is leaving The Big Reveal for "Posthumous".
Make sure you all wear winter socks and have a flask of soup when waiting in line for midnight like Apple fan boys/girls. Same thing, really, delusional cult of personality. But Jobs actually did change the world for good or ill. Unlike Morrissey who was/is/always will be 'almost famous' but doesn't understand that Nick Drake will be remembered as long as the River Avon flows whilst Morrissey will be a laughing stock footnote. How the promising trip up whilst some big nose who knows....knows what? *thinking*...*amnesia* Sorry, never met the guy, can't remember any of his tunes, is he any good?
regards
"B.B"..allegedly..
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-e...classics-sinks-in-the-ship-canal-8871847.html
