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wmhenrymorris's review against another edition
It was somewhat startling, but not really surprising that even though as far I can recall I had never previously read anything by Morley, my writing style is kind of similar to his. Not quite so post-modern. But the use of paired adjectives, the overreliance on the conjunction 'and' and sentences that begin with conjunctions, the slightly off verbs, the circling around a subject, the repetition, and perhaps most of all the lapses into the mystical and gnomic followed by undermining those effects.
Of course, it's quite possible that my influences are similar to Morley's influences or that my influences were influenced by Morley.
And there's also the possibility that my vocabulary and his vocabulary were shaped by the same source -- the music and lyrics (not just the lyrics) of Joy Division.
This collection is not likely to be interesting to anyone but the most ardent fan, the completist. There is a lot of repetition of themes and phrases. There's also the injection of Morley in to the mix. But at the same time it's also not just a bunch of reviews and such he wrote for NME along with some Tony Wilson obits. As he collects, he attempts to stitch things together, to expand, to comment upon. It is a literary project. It is an attempt at understanding. And if it gets self-indulgent and repetitive at times, it's because, well, writing about Joy Division, about how the band started, about what it accomplished, about how it all feel apart when Ian committed suicide and how it got put back together and how the myth grew and how to fight against that while also trying to exegete your way in to the fact that for you the music is deserving of the myth.
I have no idea whether that appeals to someone else. There were pages where I got bored. But on the whole, it makes sense to me to read this book and to read it in May, and it brought back for me what this music, once I found it, has meant for me and how it has shaped me and how it's quite a bit more than just some depressing post-punk by some blokes who saw the Sex Pistols in concert and said, hey, we can do that, and then got hijacked by a genius in the studio, and a madcap television presenter, and others and then just as they were about to break big, their lead singer killed himself. Quite a bit and still just about that.
Of course, it's quite possible that my influences are similar to Morley's influences or that my influences were influenced by Morley.
And there's also the possibility that my vocabulary and his vocabulary were shaped by the same source -- the music and lyrics (not just the lyrics) of Joy Division.
This collection is not likely to be interesting to anyone but the most ardent fan, the completist. There is a lot of repetition of themes and phrases. There's also the injection of Morley in to the mix. But at the same time it's also not just a bunch of reviews and such he wrote for NME along with some Tony Wilson obits. As he collects, he attempts to stitch things together, to expand, to comment upon. It is a literary project. It is an attempt at understanding. And if it gets self-indulgent and repetitive at times, it's because, well, writing about Joy Division, about how the band started, about what it accomplished, about how it all feel apart when Ian committed suicide and how it got put back together and how the myth grew and how to fight against that while also trying to exegete your way in to the fact that for you the music is deserving of the myth.
I have no idea whether that appeals to someone else. There were pages where I got bored. But on the whole, it makes sense to me to read this book and to read it in May, and it brought back for me what this music, once I found it, has meant for me and how it has shaped me and how it's quite a bit more than just some depressing post-punk by some blokes who saw the Sex Pistols in concert and said, hey, we can do that, and then got hijacked by a genius in the studio, and a madcap television presenter, and others and then just as they were about to break big, their lead singer killed himself. Quite a bit and still just about that.
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