Morrisseys Letters to his pen pal

[Mclenarr]

OMG..I would be so embarrassed if letters I wrote from my youth turned up on the internet for all too read.

Poor Moz..but at least they are funny..If he knows they are online for all to read, he's probably pleased about it

'cause he knows!! Jeez!! He's obsessed with himself, he'll know everything.

 

[Mclenarr]

huh? i couldn't care less. and you guys can slag australia off as much as you like. it's a geographical backwater.

That's a very unusual thing to hear!!

 

[Pokey]

I don't care who slags us off really, everyone country has something you can slag them off about really ... it just makes me sad that it just keeps mounting up the evidence that he's not coming here (even if these were written 73 years ago)

 

[Mclenarr]

I don't care who slags us off really, everyone country has something you can slag them off about really ... it just makes me sad that it just keeps mounting up the evidence that he's not coming here (even if these were written 73 years ago)

Hasn't Moz ever played Oz?

 

[the judge]

I think he is fine that these letters are on the internet. If he were not, then, I think, he would not continue to communicate with his friends in written form as much as he is said to do. Most likely he expects all his correspondence to be published one day.

i dunno, i enjoyed reading them a couple of years ago but it feels a bit like voyeurism and i don't like that and i hate philologists. some things should remain private.

 

[PregnantForTheLastTime]

I think he is fine that these letters are on the internet.

I don't think so. I just have a sense that this kind of thing really, really bothers him.

 

[Worm]

I don't think so. I just have a sense that this kind of thing really, really bothers him.

I think the loss of privacy hurts him less than the fact that these letters, as funny as they are in spots, read like they were written by the most painfully insecure person in the world.

 

[Pokey]

Hasn't Moz ever played Oz?

He played one gig in 1991 before cancelling the rest of the tour, then he toured in 2002 and hasn't been back since

 

[Worm]

Which parts make you think that he comes across as the most painfully insecure person in the world?

Everything. The mockery, the non-sequiters, the general tone of combativeness combined with breezy nonchalance. It's a pretty thorny style for a pen-pal. The letters read like he's desperate to communicate with someone.

I realize-- as someone already astutely pointed out-- that we don't know the other half of the conversation, which is important and might change how we read Moz's side, but these letters seem to me to be the work of a young man with "a murderous desire for love". "You're an illiterate with bad taste and I don't know why I'm bothering-- oh, do send me a photo!"

Don't get me wrong. I like the letters and find them funny. I'm completely aware Morrissey is simply writing in an amusing, sarcastic style. Just strikes me as someone who doesn't know how to make friends and probably suffers from crippling shyness and insecurity. Which is how Morrissey described himself back then.

 

[CrystalGeezer]

Everything. The mockery, the non-sequiters, the general tone of combativeness combined with breezy nonchalance. It's a pretty thorny style for a pen-pal. The letters read like he's desperate to communicate with someone.

I realize-- as someone already astutely pointed out-- that we don't know the other half of the conversation, which is important and might change how we read Moz's side, but these letters seem to me to be the work of a young man with "a murderous desire for love". "You're an illiterate with bad taste and I don't know why I'm bothering-- oh, do send me a photo!"

Don't get me wrong. I like the letters and find them funny. I'm completely aware Morrissey is simply writing in an amusing, sarcastic style. Just strikes me as someone who doesn't know how to make friends and probably suffers from crippling shyness and insecurity. Which is how Morrissey described himself back then.

Well said. And I'm wondering if the guy's sister really died and that was Morrissey's response.

 

[CrystalGeezer]

Actually going back and extrapolating a few of the letters it seems like he says (loosely quoted) "you never mentioned a sister before" then the guy presumabley writes "oh yeah she passed away in an accident" or something and then Morrissey writes "I;m sorry you lost your sister. That was very careless. (Perhaps referring to the way she was lost.) I wish I could lose mine." which is a total joke but it struck me odd the first time I read it as though they guy was just saying "I'm sorry I haven't written for a while because my sister just died." and I thought OMG MORRISSEY'S SUCH AN ASSHOLE!!!! but he's just being insecure and trying to lighten the mood of the topic of death by throwing his sister into the flames. I'm almost positive that Morrissey loves his sister more than anyone, even then.

 

[this_tired_heart]

I thought it was a reference to the line from The Importance of Being Earnest:

To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.