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London Review of Books review of "Saint Morrissey"

posted by davidt on Thursday March 04 2004, @10:00AM
TheMoonlander writes:

Oh look, it's a well written discussion of Morrissey & his fans from a respected literary source!

Cartwheels over Broken Glass by Andrew O'Hagan, London Review of Books

Excerpt:

The best thing about writing by fans is that it really matters to them: nobody wants to read a measured assessment of life on the road with the Rolling Stones. Fans must be capable of hating people who don't agree with them - they have to have the mentality of a teenager, in other words, as well as the acquisitive beakiness of the train-spotter. But despite occasional enjoyment of one another's company, fans never really get on, and that's because it's in the fan's essential make-up to imagine that they are The Only One. Morrissey, by the same token, seems to have lived his life imagining he's the only person ever to get the point of Shelagh Delaney or Charles Hawtrey - the fan's conceit, the fan's unaccountable belief in the secret and singular nature of their love.
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Update: 03/10 08:38 GMT: lifebegins sends a link to the same article that appeared in the Daily Telegraph:

The Daily Telegraph, a highbrow but newsworthy UK national daily newspaper carried the following article in their Saturday supplement last weekend. I had to register to access it but its free.

The magic of Morrissey - the fan who became a star
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  • Excellent! (Score:0, Informative)

    An extraordinary piece of writing and a really intelligent critique that totally understands the Simpson v Goddard face off and seems to appreciate the separate efforts of both authors, especially the latter.
    Anonymous -- Thursday March 04 2004, @10:06AM (#89122)
    • Re:Excellent! by Georgethetwentythird (Score:1) Thursday March 04 2004, @10:50AM
  • Yum Yum.
    Benton -- Thursday March 04 2004, @02:56PM (#89183)
    (User #7241 Info)
  • Seems to me that Morrissey will get a LOT of attention in the papers here when the album comes out - hope the articles are as considered as this, rather than the "...maudlin miserablist mopes back to Manchester!" kinda stuff.
    TheMoonlander -- Friday March 05 2004, @06:14AM (#89256)
    (User #10132 Info)
  • To me, this is all bollocks.I am a fan of Morrissey because his music is superb, his lyrics are deeply amusing and his consciousness is exceptionally advanced.I don't care about whether or not he could love me.
    I love the talent of the man...period.
    Anonymous -- Friday March 05 2004, @07:42PM (#89372)

  • Hmm.. Good book? (Score:2, Interesting)

    I've just started reading this book, and frankly, I'm pretty disappointed so far.. I read quite a lot, and in the last week have given myself a refresher on "Morrissey: Landscapes In The Mind" by David Bret, which is excellent, and also read Stuart Maconie's "Cider With Roadies", which was superb.

    But this book is really failing to tickle my fancy. It reads like an A-level student's coursework, in that he knows to refer to 2-3 original sources (must. mention. Oscar. Wilde. James. Dean. Shelagh. Delaney. As. Much. As. Possible.) continually, which eventually just gets plain irritating. The writing style is fairly disjointed, with some dreadful analogies (I can't remember them at the moment...) and it is just not an enjoyable read.

    It's probably worth getting for the completist, but wait until paperback as it's definitely not worth £16.99 to hear some rehashed views that you could have gotten from Landscapes Of The Mind. OK, it's more up to date, but still seems to use LOTM as it's main frame of reference.

    Disappointing in the extreme.
    reeling_around -- Monday March 08 2004, @01:46AM (#89537)
    (User #10007 Info | http://www.ephemerisrock.com/)
    ----------------------- Dreaming of a better yesterday
  • This article also appeared in the Daily Telegraph’s Arts & Books section on Saturday (6th March). A nice picture of Moz being hugged by a female fan on the cover and more on the inside (the article took up the first three pages). Good to think it got the wider audience it deserved.
    Benton -- Tuesday March 09 2004, @05:41PM (#89814)
    (User #7241 Info)
  • Only Belligerent Ghoul get's "all upset" about being moderated down. More sensible people get mildly irritated for a few seconds. Upsetting Belligerent Ghoul is a worthwhile thing to do.
    Anonymous -- Thursday March 04 2004, @05:25PM (#89198)
  • 2 replies beneath your current threshold.

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