the not so nice Jan Morris

[JanieAllen]

Review of new book about Jan Morris 'disgracefully self centred' after having Jan Morris shoved down our throats this really cheered me up.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/jan-morris-by-paul-clements-review-pqtd7z7jl

archive here archive.ph/usCl8

It does make the experience of reading less pleasant than if you had no concerns about the writer. Also, when there are more than enough great books to read, I'll get round to the ones written by people I feel are very unpleasant last of all.

Yes you are right it is sexist but there is no angle into a life defined by someone else's selfish sexism that isn't going to be sexist.

Thanks for the archive link, that was an interesting read. However the part that upset me the most was

Her four surviving children (the fifth died as a baby), aged from 8 to 20, had agreed she should write Conundrum,

The fact they are trying to say everything is fine because the EIGHT year old says so. Putting an adult decision on a child.

The fact they are trying to say everything is fine because the EIGHT year old says so. Putting an adult decision on a child.

Yes that’s so horrible @Pixiedust1234 , but so typical of selfish parents who force their kids to be the adult and miss out on their own childhood, so they can remain childish and irresponsible themselves. It’s EA.

Not surprising. The entire focus of drag queens, is male contempt mockery and belittlement of real women. TWAW, is all about male control of women's territory, lives, speech, thinking, feelings, independence. Same old same old.

I enjoy Jan Morris's travel books but his descriptions of women are jarring. Women who aren't chic and groomed are judged to be lazy and morally failing.

It also struck me that his books would be completely different, or perhaps wouldn't exist, if he had been a woman. Not just going on men-only expeditions or visiting religious communities where women are banned, but the everyday roaming carefree in isolated places, dark backstreets and macho dives. Women have such a different experience of travelling.

Share token @IcakethereforeIam
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/40d23ce8-4a34-11ed-8176-c5c5e560820a?shareToken=1de68b919321fa445800de825ce2ff54

It really is.

There is someone who often pops up in the Times comments whose argument is always "but remember the lovely Jan Morris, why would you not want to share toilets with someone like that?" I hope he reads this.

Germaine Greer has always been and is my heroine

Unsurprisingly Jan thinks the kids "adjusted perfectly" as these narcissistic males always do.

As always thank you so much Igneococcus.

I met Jan Morris on a couple of occasions. Paul Theroux’s description of her looking like Tootsie is spot-on. She said the following: that she hated being called a travel writer, and that “all my books are about me”.
She was an object of worship for some writers (I saw this myself), but I never bought into her mystique. It always seemed to me that she denied the advantages of being born male. She only cast her privilege aside once her career was established.
That said, I don’t think Elizabeth owed anyone an explanation of why she stayed.

Thank you @Igneococcus and OP @JanieAllen (I completely overlooked the archive link) and @Fenlandia for the link to the twitter thread, you'll all have to share my eternal gratitude.

I totally read the caption under the second photo as Dick Caveat!

”That said, I don’t think Elizabeth owed anyone an explanation of why she stayed.”

But she did give an explanation:

”Later, when same-sex marriage was introduced, they remarried. Suki told Clements her mother was undeniably affected by the transition. “When I asked her why she didn’t leave, she said she was married in the eyes of God, and that was the reason she stayed.”

This is how many people of that era thought - it’s how my Mum thought, and why she didn’t leave my emotionally abusive father.

Morris always seemed to me to be an over-rated writer. I didn't much like Conundrum, and her travel writing was very florid. Sathnam Sanghera's Empireland is worth a read - he's very good on how, in the Pax Brittanica series, Morris glosses over the appalling acts of the British Empire. I'm not terribly surprised that Morris turns out to have been not a particularly nice person.

I enjoy Jan Morris's travel books but his descriptions of women are jarring. Women who aren't chic and groomed are judged to be lazy and morally failing.

Imagine being the daughter of a dad who thought himself to be a better woman than actual women, due to his own sexist thoughts about fashion and hairstyles?

I don’t doubt it did Elizabeth’s head in, but christ it must’ve been proper headfuckery for a young Suki.

I note Morris went to all-male boarding schools, the army and a male college at Oxford. Then into a very macho profession. All the time feeling sexually attracted to men. Father in the military so probably away a lot. Lots of these feature in the backstories of male transitioners. Can't live up to the stereotype of an alpha male (understandably, it's toxic), so must actually be something else. Change your appearance but not your mindset. Meanwhile the real women around you just have to put up with what you have decreed.

You've misunderstood the comment

When I think about Elizabeth’s glaring silence, it’s not an expectation she should explain herself.

It just feels suffocating for me to contemplate the silence of a woman who, rather than being supported, was put through years of extremely testing circumstances by her husband, who was so profuse with public words - and so was able to completely control the narrative. It says so much.

And there was God, tearing her hair out, screaming that it was not a marriage in her sight because one of the parties to it did not enter into it in good faith. Elizabeth needed a Jesuit. Or maybe not that, even. There are clergy in the CofE who will assist victims of that vile belief that traps women into slavery and even enable remarriage in church

It sounds like AGP to me, where the homosexual encounters are largely about affirming the view of oneself as a woman for purposes of sexual satisfaction.

I actually don't think that is ever a "classic" old-school trans presentation, in so far as such a thing exists I think it's limited to homosexual men. I don't believe in "true-trans" as such, but I do think that there have in the past and even now are gay men, often often who are mainly attracted to straight men, and so end up identifying with culturally feminine presentation. The same way young women do for pretty much the same reasons. It's not just a conscious decision about wearing attractive clothes etc, it's very tied up with self-perception.

I don't think Morris falls into that category.

Germaine Greer is just fantastic. No wonder woke youth are demonising her.

Here you go

Jan Morris by Paul Clements review — a biography of a brilliant but selfish life

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/40d23ce8-4a34-11ed-8176-c5c5e560820a?shareToken=d683d245b73ffeb0ecfc4544a2b80f09

@mcduffy

🎁eternal gratitude, slightly used