I haven’t agreed with
any of your comments that you’ve made about Negative Capability over the last few months, but as your comments seemed not to be inclined to delve too deeply into the subject, it didn’t appeal to me as a conversation worth exploring. But you’ve brought it up in a transitory superficial way so many times now, that I find it really interesting that you seem to want to use it as framework with which to judge something - that you continue to be insistent that you’re “not judging”.
Also, the common and most blindingly pervasive thread in all your comments over the last few months on Negative Capability, have been your realization that you’re dealing with your own personal, internal disillusionment about your own former feelings about Morrissey’s work, and your subsequent disappointment. None of any of that is my business or what I’m making comment about now, because certainly there are a lot of people whose opinions and perspectives might change over time. People need different things in different phases of their lives, including from music, from the arts in general, or from what they perceive as another person has brought/brings into their lives.
But when you go on about Negative Capability and about how you perceive that it does or doesn’t apply to Morrissey, or that he knows or doesn’t know about it - it’s a VERY didactic stance on your side.
Also, you made some posts previously talking about Negative Capability and how you interpreted it as applying to some of his business/career decisions. That’s fine, obviously you can do whatever you want and think whatever you want and apply it however you want - but the question that stands out is,
why is that the way in which you choose to frame your own judgement (while saying you’re not judging)?
Yes, Negative Capability as a concept can be broadened as in the case of that book you mentioned one time - but why on earth is sone therapist’s interpretation of a concept he didn’t invent in the first place, the round hole in which you want to jam your square peg?
As I assume you very well know, when Keats introduced the concept of Negative Capability, he was talking about the qualities that make great artists, and he believed that artists could remain enshrouded in uncertainty, mystery, and doubt, without being forced to desperately seek logical or factual solutions.
In this sense, it means artists are able to explore the complexity of human experience, including contradictions and unresolved tensions, allowing for a deeper, more emotional, and (often) more profound representation of reality. This is evident in art that embraces ambiguity rather than providing neat answers; so i don’t think anyone needs to further highlight how this applies to any of Morrissey’s work?
Oscar Wilde never directly referenced Keats’ concept of Negative Capability. But his writings obviously show a philosophical openness to ambiguity and paradox, and he was a MAJOR proponent of the Aesthetic Movement, which emphasized the value of Art for
its own beauty and emotional power. Wilde’s own life and works often display a fascination with paradox and duality, and he was vocal in his critique of certainty and moral absolutes - including those who sought to impose rigid moral and philosophical structures around life and art. His personal life and self-stylization reflected an embracing of his own fluid identity and of his shifting roles, and he often presented himself as a living work of art -
resisting the simplification of fixed societal standards. This is also reflective of the spirit of Keats; of living in a world where certainty and self-definition are ever
elusive.
So Wilde’s philosophy of Art IS that it is something that transcends rationality and certainty.
Yet your superficial and throwaway comment above ends with “Furthermore, I’ve recently highlighted at length, that Oscar would have many doubts and criticisms of Morrissey’s own work.” (LOL!)
Have you? Where? Because I’d love to read that!
As I’ve said, I’m not making any comment on your struggle with your personal disillusionment about Morrissey, that’s something that you have to accept or reconcile for yourself, just like everyone else does who may feel anything similar.
My comments are specifically on the much broader pronouncements that you’re making, which sorry to say, I think are a complete nonsense.
www.morrisseycentral.com
