Nothing by Paul Morley

You ought to give it another try, PJ. The Pinefox and I were discussing 'Nothing' last weekend, and such was the PF's pleasure in the book that I was moved to reread it. Happily, it is even better than I remember. There is an emotional current to the book that focuses his more abstract meanderings and adjectival pile-ups - the kind of thing that often puts people off his writing. Also: it's very funny.

I disagree with Martin in that I don't think everything by Morley is classic - and I speak as an extreme fanboy. For example, I am kind of surprised there is such a fanclub for 'Ask' here at ILx. I think the best bit is the introduction, after which many of the interviews are pretentious, convoluted, confused. You get the sense of a writer searching for the answer to big, important questions and trying to find them by asking...Sting. (Cf- Lester Bangs looking for a reason to live from, of all people, Richard Hell). (As an interviewer I think PM only really came into his own when he was writing for Blitz magazine from 85-88. The Morrissey Interview from this time is a pretty good example.)

I often wonder why a writer like Morley shouldn't have the status in the pop world that, say, David Thomson does in film - as a world respected writer and critic, commissioned for extended features in the Sunday Supplements and op-ed pages. Mark S. once suggested to me that Thomson managed to wangle this status by writing an 'Encyclopaedia'. Never mind that it's the most quixotic, Borgesian, Nabokovian idiosyncratic volume - it gives him a certain authority in the field, especially among commissioning editors who may never have opened the book. I wonder with his new "history of pop", 'Words and Music', Morley isn't trying to do the same thing. And I hope that he's learned from what I think was his breakthrough with 'Nothing' - that a coherence of sentiment isn't necessarily something to avoid.

Meanwhile, I am disappointed to see that Morley is doing a reading in Glasgow for the new book - on August 10 - but as yet isn't scheduled to do anything in London!

I joined that Rocksbackpages.com thing the other day and was disgusted to see NO Morley on there. I mailed Mr Hoskins and he said Morley should be onboard soon, which is wonderful.