I agree that the tabloids mirror aspects of humanity and sometimes also, despite the shoddy aims, raise spectres that need an airing. I'd imagine they'd be quite eager to hear about your discovery of 16 different genders!

You pretty much answered my point about Virginia in that her fate was sealed. She might have fared much better a few decades later, feeling that more options were available, and more assistance. Yet, in stubbornly refusing to be a conventional 'crushing bore' and in sharing her original vision with the world, she cleared a path and indeed ranks as someone who opened the gate for an easier route for others. Indeed not a mass production!

Here's a piece from one of Morrissey's interviews that has similarities, about providing a voice in the pop wilderness to identify with, and his views on suicide and mortality. Can we assume a down-to-earth approach to the ageing question there too? We might agree that he experienced fewer external controls than Mrs Woolf, which he seemed aware of himself: "I think people can recognize the integrity of the group," says Morrissey. "I'm quite determined that we'll never lose it. Not as long as I'm holding the reins."

Enjoy (again!), and blessings!

From HotPress Interview 1984
Morrissey:"Too many pop stars are not good figureheads. Young people need figureheads, I know I do, and popular music is the only thing left for them. They don't read books, they don't believe in movies. Popular music is all there is, and too many pop stars are shallow and worthless as figureheads, or else content to be obscure and mysterious. We would never be obscure, we could never be obscure, because I use very fundamental language in my lyrics. I use very simplistic words, but hopefully in quite a powerful way. And by that I mean saying things that people in daily life find so very hard to say, like 'I don't want a job,' 'I don't want to be loved,' or 'I am ugly.' I mean things that are really quite simple words but things that people can never really say. I mean if you say to your friends or to your parents 'I am very unhappy' it's like scraping open nerves... it's too close and it just can't be said. So I want to say these things instead of being very esoterical and other worldly and mysterious, because I think it's more effective and... I don't think it's ever been said in popular music. I really don't."
So if you are a figurehead, what are you a figurehead for?
"It's quite curious but I seem to get masses of letters, people writing to me telling me their problems. They write telling me of trouble they're having at school, or in love or with their parents, or saying they identify with some song. It seems as though people who have quite difficult lives see me as some kind of a kindred spirit, or a person who has some of the answers which of course isn't true. But, ehm, it's much more interesting than just simply the usual fan letters where they just want to know what size shoes you take. So it's quite curious but I do get the impression people treat me quite seriously instead of just being a popular figure, a nonsensical pop star, which of course, I wouldn't want to be."
Do you answer these letters?
"Religiously, every day. Of course you have to be careful, and sometimes it's important not to take them seriously. I get suicide letters which you never really know how to deal with. It would be laughable to suggest you could solve anyone's problems with a scribbled note on the back of a postcard."
It seems you're being cast in the role of agony aunt to a new generation! As someone who seems to feel your lot in life is an unhappy one, what qualifies you to advise others?
"I can't think of anyone more qualified (laughs). I've been through it and I understand it. I don't think a happy person could ever really understand it, they think you'll grow out of it. Unhappiness is too deeply ingrained just to be solved by getting a mere job or having a whirlwind romance. But I think what you can do is just simply learn to cope with it and learn to master it on a