While it is impossible to divorce Morrissey’s written, fictional prose from the many (many) other self-indulgent, ill-advised diatribes spawned from the tips of those fingers over the years, it’s still as wrong to perceive the narrator of List of the Lost as the voice of the man himself as it is to assume Patrick Bateman is necessarily a refraction of Bret Easton Ellis. The answer, of course, as it is with all “yes or no” questions, is yes and no. Does it – or, rather, should it – matter, then, that List of the Lost is the most Morrissey thing that Morrissey has ever done that it’s the apotheosis of Morrissey peak Morrissey the caesarean birth of Morrissey (and his bulbous salutation) as meme? I bring this up, whatever it is, because reading Morrissey’s List of the Lost is different to reading Morrissey’s Autobiography: whatever else it is or isn’t, List of the Lost is a novel. (Side note: imagine Roland Barthes’ fetid, remnant junk hooking up with Jeremy Bentham’s perfectly preserved head. Now, I’m not saying Roland Barthes can go fuck himself – Roland Barthes is dead and 25 years of decomposition probably means he lacks the basic equipment required to attempt the beautiful act of self-love – but, while the Death of the Author is one thing, complete separation from context is another entirely. What is closer to the truth, though nowhere near as catchy, is that socially, culturally – and probably ecologically – nothing happens in a vacuum.Īn artist of more or less any kind can absolutely claim that their work is a-political in terms of intention – but that piece of work, whatever it might be, was created under the influence of layers upon layers of social discourse that its creator either consciously understood or was, at the very least, aware of by a kind of idea osmosis.

The entire history of the known universe, from year zero to the present day, for example, has played out in within the infinite confines of the vacuum of space. As truisms go, it’s not exactly true that nothing happens in a vacuum.

Novel less is lost