Morrissey essay competition

Submit an essay entitled - "Morrisseyism - what does it all mean?"

This can be an essay exploring Morrisseyism from an intellectual, personal, or critical perspective. The essay must be of no more than 1000 words, and no fewer than 500. Closing date for submissions has been delayed for the time being. Send them as soon as you can.

Firstly, the most interesting three essays will be published in full here. The idea is to celebrate the release of a great Morrissey album by re-evaluating what his contribution has meant to us all. Ideally, we would love to publish a book of collected essays in the latter part of this year all on this subject. This is reliant on various factors, not least getting a few well-known Morrissey fans on board to make such a project feasible.

Please note by submitting an essay, you are consenting to us posting it on this site in part or in whole. All authors will be cited. If your submission is used at a future date in another publication, you will be cited as the author.

Essays are pouring in. Please send them to ringleaderofthetormentors1972@hotmail.com. Below are a couple of excerpts from essays sent to us so far, to whet your appetite. The first was sent by internationally published essayist and poet Yahia Lababidi of Cairo, Egypt whose essays have been published by Arena among others and can be viewed and purchased online. The second excerpt was submitted by Paul Schofield of Manchester, a student of English literature and lifelong fan of Morrissey and the Smiths. The third, fourth and fifth excerpts are from essays by Petroc Gold, "Hector" Ramirez and Abigail Damms.

excerpt from 'Monks in Los Angeles' by Yahia Lababidi - a meditation on Leonard Cohen and SP Morrissey.

Ultimately, they both move us because of an intensity they inhabit, an emotional profundity, and the earthly mysticism borne of living in close proximity to suffering and solitude. Or, in the words of another spiritual warrior, philosopher Nietzsche, "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."

In that sense, Cohen and Morrissey are not merely despairing artists but artists of despair, and they have returned from the underground to share with us what they’ve seen. "Ring the bells that still can ring/ Forget your perfect offering/ There is a crack in everything / That's how the light gets in…/" Cohen coos in an old classic, Anthem. Similarly with Morrissey, in a Smiths song, There is a light that never goes out; and that light is all the more powerful on account of the darkness they’ve shared with us. Now, with both back on the public stage, we realize just how much we have missed these brave witnesses and their poignant threnodies.


excerpt from 'The Devil in Disguise' by Paul Schofield

It would be quite wrong to analyse the impact Morrissey has had on pop culture without considering this: the inherent truth of Morrissey's writing and singing is that - not in spite of our flaws but because of them - we are beautiful, possibly eccentric and certainly living in a perpetual state of denial. Is the defence mechanism the very basis of civilised society as Freud believed or will pop culture's unabashed, indignant free-for-all actually result in a better form of society in which individuality, acceptance and gentleness are more kindly regarded than strength and conformism?

Morrissey recognised himself as a repressed creature, but sought to transcend the forces of containment by abolishing boundaries in his writing and interviews. More radically, Morrissey sought to render obsolete altogether the boundaries that had oppressed him so terribly in grey old 70s Manchester. His clothes were those of an old woman; his quiff was that of James Dean; his voice was wooden and immersed in no less than a completely shattered faith. He was a contradiction. Seemingly pedantic about his appearance and yet unconcerned by prevailing norms; Obsessed with sex and sexuality in his writing, yet declaring his celibacy and talking in depth about literature, sensuality and politics in his interviews; Singing about acceptance and yet reserving a tongue lashing for anyone who dared cross him, as well as many who didn't. This had the effect of making Morrissey difficult to pigeonhole. How could this be so? How dare this man refuse to conform to our categories and subcategories?

excerpt from 'Sister, he's a poet' by Petroc Gold

We stood under The Iron Bridge with him on that first occasion and forevermore, and how we wished so desperately to feel the chill of the Manchester air on our cheeks. Cheap perfume blending with exhaled petrol waste. Pale skin under raw sodium lights; drifting through empty streets, wondering who might be behind us. How could something so horrific, so grey, so desolate sound so crushingly beautiful? Nothing would ever be quite the same again.

excerpt from 'Moz Angeles' by "Hector" Ramirez

I've always been a doer. I do things. I was in a gang at age 11 and killed a guy aged 12. I paid the price and did time. Morrissey is a thinker and a dreamer who wants to be a doer. He wants to be me. He also makes me think, makes me wonder about deeper things, but he also makes me happy I can do things too and not just dream about doing them. My life and Morrissey's songs are something special. He's the canvas and I'm the paint.

excerpt from 'Who asked you anyway?' by Abigail Damms

Morrisseyism represents the power of language to induce love and provoke loyalty, and although it is a subjective philosophy, it is ‘the choice I have made’. As Morrissey himself says, it ‘may seem strange to you, but who asked you anyway?’