Mark Simpson (1)

An extraordinarily energetic book. Saint Morrissey treated lyrics as literature a decade before Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize. Not to mention the cultural anthropologist's look at several decades of British pop.

But the final chapters were what stay with me. My takeout: misanthropy can be a highly moral act. If violence—cultural or physical—breeds more violence, a principled withdrawal from a world that provokes it can stop the cycle. At what cost to the misanthrope? Simpson gave me a sense show more that Morrissey knew what price he paid, and it was steep.

The author calls it a psychological biography, but it goes far beyond that. Cultural anthropology, literary criticism, and a political portrait of the time—Saint Morrissey rewards the reader on many levels. show less

In this hilariously perverse collection of essays, celebrated British writer and satirists Mark Simpson takes a warped look at a fin de siecle world of pop culture where nothing is as straight -- or as gay -- as it seems. You'll revel in Simpson's wild adventures and shocking "discoveries". Along the way, Simpson interviews Oscar Wilde and discovers that he's perplexed by all those rumors about his private life and would like to set the record straight; nearly has a fight with Jimmy show more Somerville (whom he describes as "a lesbian trapped in a gay man's body"); talks with London Suede about posing sodomites and why straights do camp so much better than dreary gays these days; "outs" Tom Cruise; discusses the cultural significance of foreskins with some U.S. Marines in Tijuana; and watches a groom being buggered by lesbian strippers at his stag night party. show less

A series of essays forming an entertaining romp around sex-related behaviour at the turn of the century.