Douglas Coupland Meets the Moz

Author Douglas Coupland, who named a novel after The Smiths' song "Girlfriend in a Coma", travelled around the world to interview Morrissey but concluded that the eccentric singer was "interview proof." Thus, while Coupland's piece offers a few impressions about Morrissey that he gleaned during their meeting ("he has an almost clinical, Tourette's-like need to blurt out thoughtless things to people, and he's not even aware he's doing it, so when people retaliate, he genuinely has no idea why) Coupland spends much of the essay reflecting on why the interview is an obsolete genre in the age of Google. (On the whole, he's probably right, at least for the celebrity interview.) He advises fans to pay attention to the artwork, not the artist and proceeds to practice what he preaches. The essay concludes with an enthusiastic, if somewhat endearingly amateurish, review of Morrissey's forthcoming album, Ringleader of the Tormented, which, I'll admit, I'm eager to hear. Early reports are that Morrissey is taking his sound in new directions. We'll have to hear...