Week of 13/1/13: Autobiography (yes, it's really called just that)

Prompt: Summarize what has happened in the book so far. (Hey, give me a break, it's my first summary of the year.  Also I wanted to interpret Autobiography, but I couldn't find a statement that stood out from the others (because there were a lot of insightful ones I guess. This is an extremely wordy and detailed book, I'm really not kidding. I needed to rant a bit.)
Pages read: 0-102

If you're wondering who/what this Autobiography is about, it's one of the world's most annoying yet brilliant men, Morrissey.  You don't know who Morrissey is?  Not even The Smiths? Well... Look them up!  The Smiths are the best!  Just kidding, you don't have to look them up, I'll give you a brief summary: Morrissey is the singer/lyricist for The Smiths, an indie band popular in the mid eighties.  They are considered one of the most influential bands and are praised for their poetical lyrics that deal with life and it's absurdities along with their inventive musical style.  That sounded really pretentious, oops. Let's just say The Smiths were a band in the 80's and Morrissey has a big ego (I mean it can be quite suffocating), while being what you would called depressed.  He is often very VERY whiney, so reading this book is a bit of a challenge. But still interesting enough, as I admire his lyrics


Now if I ranted and whined as much as Morrissey does in this blog, I would have 0 reads and 0 comments on this.  Well actually that's kind of normal for this but whatever.  So I'll obey the prompt (ugh) and summarize what's happened so far in this book.  Basically, we travel back in time to Manchester, England in the 1970's and 80's to view his childhood, which he describes in great, great detail.  After reading 100+ pages, I can tell his childhood was not desirable, but not quite excruciating. Manchester has been described as the Chicago, or rather Detroit of England, being a working-class "hellhole". Morrissey goes into the specifics of his few friends (acquaintances really) and gives the reader pictures of family, friends, and the New York Dolls (who you totally have to check out, they're bizarre and truly awesome), who he never quite stops talking about.  In case you don't know who the New York Dolls are, well, it's a lot more of an experience to go look for them yourself.  Listen to "Personality Crisis" look up a few images, you're all set ;D)  He also talks about Oscar Wilde, who you should definitely know about.


One of my favorite parts of this book is how Morrissey adds in little personal details in the book (besides the obvious facts) and you have to read each story closely to know about his personality more and how he came to be like this.  I also enjoy his activism on certain issues, like animal rights.  He is a devout vegetarian, who is very proactive in his protesting.  Actually, one of the Smiths albums is "Meat is Murder".  Below I will link to (or embed, I haven't decided) a few of their songs, just in case you want to hear them.  I will also include pictures.

A gif (duh)  of The Smiths performing "How Soon is Now"










"How Soon is Now" (song)

"There is a Light That Never Goes Out" (song)

"Panic" (song)






In case you were wondering, my background is lyrics from The Smiths.

"The Death of a Disco Dancer" lyrics pictured.