before fame and money, friend

meowww

(first 100 spoilers under the cut)

Shasta Daisy. Vaughan’s gardening illustrated. 1927.

Sound asleep. Health Habits. 1925.

What strikes me is the juxtaposition that doesn't really seem like one at all to me. The character not knowing he has a sexual interest in his best friend, or not letting himself know it because it's, again, embarrassing and private, doesn't mean they aren't there. It just seems a spectrum from "first inkling" to "straight-forward and outspoken desire" and I'd argue that Morrissey's lyrics always hover in the in-between anyway. The lack of actual sex and actual articulated desire doesn't necessarily mean the character is repressed, of course, but adding in the private shame and longing for something, well, what is that something supposed to be? Can it not be articulated because it's an indeterminate thing approaching the sexual, or can't it be articulated because of the shame surrounding sex and, even worse, homosexuality? And if it's supposed to be a sexless sort of homoromantic love, then why bring sublimated sexuality into it at all. Intense friendship love can be scary by itself, where you fear abandonment ("Driving in your car, oh, please don't drop me home"), but specifically sublimation as a defense mechanism means the sexual desire has to exist for it to be sublimated.