chaplin

Saturday, September 04, 2010

Why Morrissey says these things

All discussions about whether Morrissey is a "racist" (whatever that means) are a waste of ink, breath and, in some cases, money. What's more interesting about his latest blurt in The Guardian is that the choice of words - "you can't help but feel that the Chinese are a subspecies" - suggests that he started to say one thing and then said another.

Unless Morrissey is more familiar with zoological taxonomy than I'm giving him credit for he may have started that sentence gaily accelerating towards saying that the Chinese were "sub-human" before a self-censoring synapse intervened and persuaded him to say "sub species" instead. As he said it there must have been a Homer Simpson thought bubble above his head admitting "I don't have a clue what this term means - why didn't I just say they were horrible to animals?".

Why does he do it? Most of us have never known the erotic thrill of being invited to say anything we like into a tape recorder. Just imagine that feeling. It's powerful medicine. For an egomaniac like Morrissey it's a reason for living. And for a personality like him, who only knows what he thinks when he hears himself saying it, it's a permanent invitation to get himself into trouble.

The Guardian prints the whole interview and then editorialises about how shocking it is, so they get to have it both ways. The twitterati will huff and they will puff. Funny how "Disgusted Of Tunbridge Wells" seems to have so quickly given way to "Appalled of Stoke Newington".

World turns. Chinese wonder who this Morrissey is.

3 comments:

  1. Mozza will now join the growing list of celebs (Bjork, Sharon Stone, etc) who have hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.

    The Chinese for 'miserablist singer with gladioli in his pocket' is:
    有唐菖蒲在口袋里的悲伤明星

    ReplyDelete
  2. I had started to type something that somewhat defended what Morrissey said and how it is being reported.

    I decided against it.

    I'm no fan of the man but I stopped because I don't want to be tarred with the R word.

    I'm sorry I said it really. I never meant it to be a lousy racist thing. I apologize if that will make you happy. I still don't know quite what I've done. I've tried to tell you what I did do but if you want me to apologize, if that will make you happy, then OK, I'm sorry.


    Bigger than Rod.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Apropos nothing much, some fascinating insight into Morrissey's favourite drink:-

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanta

    ReplyDelete