Article: Men Test Ideas, Morrissey Tests Men: An Analysis

R

Rafferty

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link: https://theschoolboys.webador.co.uk/blog

in full:

Psychological questions offer social explanations. It was American contemporary art critic and transgender genius Camille Paglia who lamented the absence of psychological questions from the collective western psyche in an interview with Salon in 2015. And so, if it is the artist’s mission to elicit emotional arousal, then it is the critic’s mission to intellectualise emotional arousal.



As it so happens, Morrissey is in the possession of a very rare “sexual persona”, a term coined by Paglia, who's name he mentioned, in admiration, onstage during his last string of concerts in Las Vegas, Nevada in this year of 2021 and month of September. The crux of the sexual persona as an idea is that the most compelling and revered sexual archetypes - in other words, personified beauty standards as glorified individuals, who’s purpose it is to torment the collective heart - throughout the history of all human civilisations have been androgynes. The persona with which many of Morrissey’s qualities happen to correspond the most is that of, what Paglia would term, “the ageing male homosexual aesthete”.



Morrissey’s hero, American writer and left wing intellectual James Baldwin declared every person an androgyne. He was along the right lines, however, used too broad a definition. Provisionally, my accepted impression of the wholly realised androgynous being may be one who exists within what could be described as much more of an ambiguous sexual realm than deemed common, but who is not necessarily equal parts masculine and feminine. Simply for instance, the androgynous man may be one who possesses enough feminine qualities to short circuit himself, regardless of whether or not he finds his position of unintentional sexual superiority as “objet d’art” a lifelong prison of loneliness; and perhaps also one of intellectual alienation - as theories about the universe all begin with theories about ourselves.



At first glance, Morrissey has a more prominent brow than is typical for even the most virile of men. However, all he needs to do is rotate his head ever so slightly to one side for the feminine smallness of his nose and largeness of his eyes and mouth to clash with such an impression, and for the very same brow to begin to look much less like an expression of the masculine and, far more convincingly, an overpowering indication of the cerebral in the context of the rest of his face. He then comes to channel much less of the oedipal He-Man, emotionally infantile and perennially incomplete - open ended, as if wounded - and always searching, ensnared by his own self sabotaging pathology, and more the aloof Nefertiti, dauntingly autonomous.



When we gaze upon a person or object that we hypnagogically, that is, semi-consciously, detect as projecting the glimmer of a sexual persona, we momentarily experience the thrill of innate human mysticism binding us into its spell, while it remains unimpeded, formless and unchanged. After all, the mind itself is a hidden organ - for which there is no mechanical model.



English philosopher Alan Watts defined a shaman as “the holy man in a culture that is still hunting.” To some, it would not be an exaggeration to describe present day western culture, never mind its youth, as such, if only spiritually or metaphorically. Amidst moral regression and aesthetic disintegration - whether it be of tasteful architecture that has historical significance through our cultural devaluation of it, or the human body due to modern lifestyles, this metaphor is somehow appropriate. “Still hunting” in this context, is meant as hunting for meat as opposed to a settled, agrarian society, where people farm and harvest, and live as supplicants to the earth’s infallible seasonal clockwork. Survival in these communities is often dependent on the tribesmen venturing out for what they might truly yearn for; for what they cannot guarantee they will find. The components of this metaphor could be compared with the ideas that are sold to the citizens in modern society as manufactured sources of meaning, ready for harvest at predetermined universal ages which, to the shaman, have no meaning at all. This is done by way of the institution of marriage, child rearing and even education itself. Morrissey left school with hardly any O Levels, and is childless and unmarried at 62, despite the ever innocent supposition that his bisexuality would logically offer him what could crudely be referred to as an ‘advantage’.



The shaman knows only of the ever elusive ‘something more’ and it is his task to follow the scent, a task that requires his full attention, and then to share his discoveries with those in his tribe. Moreover, In psychometric terms, Morrissey exhibits the openness, neuroticism and introversion of a modern shaman, even having isolated himself since childhood and rejecting his own name, exactly as Watts described.



I reiterate that cerebral androgyny can be the the root cause for what I referred to as intellectual alienation. The shaman is one who lives in a world of complete dissolution between boundaries, whether they be those between youth and age, sex-specific thinking patterns, or even oneself and others entirely. Towards the end of Morrissey's memoir, he referred to himself as "a small boy of 52". In an interview for Earsay in 1984 he announced “I cannot segregate the sexes.” He possesses an eternal preoccupation with the unseen, for in it, he finds himself immersed; if not enamoured, or conversely, tormented. The world he inhabits, itself, is alive - “the abyss stares back”.



In his memoir, Morrissey also reveals details of his birth - “naturally, I almost kill my mother for my head is too big”. Paglia speaks of the Nefertiti sculpture as having a disproportionately larger than average skull - attributed to the sheer weight of her cerebral burden. I speak only of one who is androgynous by nature and not culture, by destiny and not adventure, for here in lies the true tragedy - the super evolved brain of the artist as modern sorcerer, blighted to a life sentence behind the bars of his own human nature. From within the confines of said prison, the creation of art is but the ritualised rebirth of the personality, and through such a process, he liberates himself via the sublimation of human matter into spirit.



On average, women score more highly on verbal intelligence tests than men. The bell curve, on the other hand, dictates that there are more male geniuses than female geniuses, but with that, more male cretins than their female counterparts. To be a man is to roll the dice, "you fail as a woman and you lose as a man" Morrissey says in "Earth Is the Loneliest Planet". The especially rare verbosity, for which he is famous, in a man such as Morrissey only adds to the novelty of his existence, even more so than it would were he a woman. In an interview with Paul Morley in 1998 for Blitz, Morrissey stated that he “always felt closer to transsexuality than anything else.” Paglia refers to the transsexual as “the modern shaman”; whether or not one has been surgically or hormonally altered is irrelevant. The transsexual is no pervert. At least, not inherently so, that is, not on the basis of their gender identity. Many are sexually inhibited. One, who I will term the autogyno-fantasist - perhaps autogynophile or transsexual, though not strictly either, is a lone problem solver who, ingeniously, focuses inward with heroic humility and uncertainty. The same applies to the autoandro-fantasist, who used to be far less common. This particular problem solver and explorer of human nature is, too, an artist, who’s timeless medium is identical - empathy without lies.



It was also Morley who once remarked of Morrissey, with whom he grew up, “he seemed a bit retarded. You were a bit worried for him.” Here, I will paraphrase Canadian clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson for effect - “In Salford, the youth called to be a shaman attracted attention by his strange behaviour. For example, he sought solitude, became absent minded, loved to roam in the woods or unfrequented places, had visions and sang in his sleep.” Peterson, in the past, has claimed that one is not creative unless one has a “problem to solve”. Morrissey has repeatedly, since his first rise to fame, verbalised an emphasis on his belief in pain as the driver of creativity, however stereotypical. It is talent that polarises and in that compromises the soul; forcing it into a position of vulnerability.



In the 80’s, instead of celebrating the societal move towards liberal attitudes regarding homosexuality, Morrissey famously declared himself a celibate, in what appeared to be a longing for a truly meaningful relationship from inside a cocoon of abstinence. Again in his Earsay interview, he said “I would never settle for second best in life. If I [can’t] have exactly what I [want] then I [will] have absolutely nothing.” This logic explains his lifelong devotion to music as his only legacy, as well as his chastity. A lover who sleeps on nails is not one who will come quietly to the conjugal bed.



Paglia once referred to “virginity as autonomy”, which also echoes Morrissey’s self description as “autosexual”, which endorses the sentiment that the more people one sleeps with, the more people one debases oneself for. If you take him for a strictly miserable celibate, then you underestimate his imagination, as do you his sense of self completion - a state, which I have previously expressed, is far from painless. With that said, sleeping on nails usurps sleeping around. An emotional or sensual preference, however vague, for such a persona as the ageing aesthete is a preference for the former over the latter, as the latter will always be, by definition, unrefined. Autosexuality may be the ultimate manifestation of individuality, likely for the aesthete, if not the androgyne.



Watts noted that the path of shaman, who inherits no tradition to hide behind, bifurcates from the path of the priest, to whom individualism is irrelevant and the seeking of new spiritual frontiers is discouraged by his superiors, something the former does not have to answer to. Alone in the forest, the shaman roams, to exorcise his neurosis, ridding himself of it so as not to burden himself or others. It was Gareth Roberts, who, earlier this year penned an article for Unherd and in its title referred to Morrissey as “the lunatic seer of the modern world”. In the article, he remarked that “[Morrissey’s] intelligence and learning is of the scattergun, autodidactic variety that sometimes lights on obvious things that we have been accustomed to ignore or to look at without seeing.” In other words, his erudition of the instincts is the product of never having taken part in society as it is traditionally done and also one of the loner wanderer in the wilderness.



His ‘knowledge’ is experiential - an ode to the eerie universality somehow intrinsic to that deeply subjective intuition that can only be the product of inner chaos. Both shaman and artist are permissive of all the instincts in an attempt to integrate them - they are all the same, but they will help you choose. Morrissey is non-judgemental, casual but also measured about human nature “Let’s be perfectly honest, sometimes we do get so angry with people that we are not averse to violence, which of course is a terrible thing to say, but true none the less.” (Earsay, 1984). Roberts also said of Morrissey that “[his] mind is unschooled. One might even call it deschooled.” Watts says of the shaman that the primary reason for his venture into the wilderness is to decondition himself from the lie of who he is; a lie that others have bestowed upon him, as well as the world view that has been drilled into his psyche to ensure his social conformity.



Artists who have had much easier treatment than Morrissey from the arbiters of public discourse are renowned for their having slept with 14 year olds, their drug addictions and for flirting with political extremism to artificially make themselves more interesting only to fail miserably - please see David Bowie's overt admiration for Hitler. Morrissey has never once relied on substances to induce creativity within himself, nor has he ever once engaged in predatory behaviour - the opposite - the way he wields himself is he taunts with unavailability; and for this he is crucified. After all, it was only recently when he publicly decided he had finally found a political party that for the first time in his life he claimed he would vote in favour of - "For Britain".



Some are drawn to the innate elusiveness of his character, some to the musical and intellectual sophistication in his songs, as opposed to the repetitive cacophony and brain dead lyricism coming from modern music. Some are simply grateful for the ageing aesthete as an antidote to the mass cultural lunacy of child saint worship, whether they be pushed by the powers that be as political idols or as new sensations on manufactured “talent” shows - the mainstream media equivalent of fluoride in the water supply. Critics of Morrissey have no power over him, as they cannot tell him anything he does not already know about himself, and they will never begin to achieve what he has, for they lack his power of self conception and all its subelements that comprise true creative genius.



The shaman as an artist is but the mystic who mercurially alternates between bursts of aggressive self expression and passive self alignment. At his service, a tangential mind, quick to frame every situation, so as not to die left behind. To tempt fate is his duty, albeit one that ties a knot in the stomach of those that love him.



Into himself he further grows, the maddeningly beautiful ageing androgyne who puts the young to shame. The looming threat of even the faintest hint of closure found by an artist at his own self resolution - by way of success and age - banishes us all to the fate of eternally peering in from outside, to where we, the loyal audience are always and forever damned.



an expert in all things to be laid to rest

he was and had always been

even before

underground

went his love.
 
God, that's incomprehensible. It's like you've just entered random names, quotes and ideas into a text-generator and pasted the wall of nonsense that came out.

Even "List of the Lost" made more sense.
 
God, that's incomprehensible. It's like you've just entered random names, quotes and ideas into a text-generator and pasted the wall of nonsense that came out.

Even "List of the Lost" made more sense.
Yes, I agree. Whoever wrote it is unutterably stupid.
 
Yes, I agree. Whoever wrote it is unutterably stupid.
Top marks for identifying Morrissey as an "ageing male homosexual aesthete”, though, I bet that took a while to work out.
 
I didn't realize that Camille Paglia had identified as transgender. I think she's been trolling the art world and academia in general successfully for decades though, and I wonder about the advantages of trading "female" for "transgender." Being a woman, I think, kind of gave him an advantage because his biggest critics were feminists and it placed them in the position of trying to censor a member of a gender that they were arguing should be more widely heard. If he's just another man now then all of his interpretations of pop culture, art, and society can be written off as just more of the same from the patriarchy, right?
Or does transgender work better as a defense device than woman? It doesn't seem to help Caitlyn Jenner that much but she entered the public world as a man and maybe Camille Paglia can have it both ways, or all three ways? Woman, transgender and man?

Anyway, well played and this is a good indication of how he is still influential and relevant thirty years later which is an eternity in progressive politics.
 
I didn't realize that Camille Paglia had identified as transgender. I think she's been trolling the art world and academia in general successfully for decades though, and I wonder about the advantages of trading "female" for "transgender." Being a woman, I think, kind of gave him an advantage because his biggest critics were feminists and it placed them in the position of trying to censor a member of a gender that they were arguing should be more widely heard. If he's just another man now then all of his interpretations of pop culture, art, and society can be written off as just more of the same from the patriarchy, right?
Or does transgender work better as a defense device than woman? It doesn't seem to help Caitlyn Jenner that much but she entered the public world as a man and maybe Camille Paglia can have it both ways, or all three ways? Woman, transgender and man?

Anyway, well played and this is a good indication of how he is still influential and relevant thirty years later which is an eternity in progressive politics.

Well played??? 🤥
"0r does transgender work better as a defense DEVICE than a woman????? WtF??? :hammer:
 
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