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memphiscats

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His Majesty

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swiss


That's why I say it's brave. I don't mean Robin Hood brave. But the task of telling the story of your life...we can rely on anecdotes, or we can rely on facts and "history," or we can attempt to take the messy nonlinear pile of meandering stuff that is our life and make it one neat narrative, OR we can accept the ambiguities and contradictions and ugliness and beauty and certainty and uncertainty---and allow it to appear thus on the page. That's what LIFE is. It is not pretty. And it is not tidy. And it hits vexingly discordant notes. And it can be excruciating when he busts his own myths-- ruthlessly, in not making himself out to be a sterling guy (and sometimes he does that with intention, and other times he seems completely unconscious of how despicably he's coming off). And at times he is someone you admire. Who is sterling and true-blue. But it doesn't make him look like other than the all-over-the place guy he is. Which includes---as it would for all of us---apparent contradictions in how he sees himself and what he want to say to the public about that. Or put another way, multiple views of the same "reality."

-swiss

They should add this as a lil forward to the book.

Ditto. Swiss, your prose is lovely!

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proudmary
The real issue is that behind all the masks - a pirate. tough guy, bluesman, guardian spirit of the Stones, etc, we do not see real person, Keith Richards. Nobody at home. We do not know his real fears and joys, he does not write about anything that does not fit well with certain image of himself that he creates. He hides behind the Stones' history and cheap anecdotes
I even think that all this contempt for Jagger is also pose, another mask that he wears because thinks this is something that a public wants.
Pete Townshend said it best “The point is, when we read Keith Richards’s book, are we really reading who he is? James Fox [Richards’s ghost] is a brilliant writer. I think it’s sad that we will only remember Keith’s book because of what he said about the size of Mick’s genitals."
But certainly any perception is an individual thing. Where swiss sees "all-over-the place guy" I see petty and jealous old man.

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swiss

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proudmary
The real issue is that behind all the masks - a pirate. tough guy, bluesman, guardian spirit of the Stones, etc, we do not see real person, Keith Richards. Nobody at home. We do not know his real fears and joys, he does not write about anything that does not fit well with certain image of himself that he creates. He hides behind the Stones' history and cheap anecdotes
I even think that all this contempt for Jagger is also pose, another mask that he wears because thinks this is something that a public wants.
Pete Townshend said it best “The point is, when we read Keith Richards’s book, are we really reading who he is? James Fox [Richards’s ghost] is a brilliant writer. I think it’s sad that we will only remember Keith’s book because of what he said about the size of Mick’s genitals."
But certainly any perception is an individual thing. Where swiss sees "all-over-the place guy" I see petty and jealous old man.

proudmary, I see a petty and jealous man, at times, too. That's definitely in there. But so, too, undeniably, are parts that do convey "his real fears and joys." I'm curious -- not everyone has read Life -- have you?

-swiss

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proudmary

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memphiscats

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His Majesty

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swiss


That's why I say it's brave. I don't mean Robin Hood brave. But the task of telling the story of your life...we can rely on anecdotes, or we can rely on facts and "history," or we can attempt to take the messy nonlinear pile of meandering stuff that is our life and make it one neat narrative, OR we can accept the ambiguities and contradictions and ugliness and beauty and certainty and uncertainty---and allow it to appear thus on the page. That's what LIFE is. It is not pretty. And it is not tidy. And it hits vexingly discordant notes. And it can be excruciating when he busts his own myths-- ruthlessly, in not making himself out to be a sterling guy (and sometimes he does that with intention, and other times he seems completely unconscious of how despicably he's coming off). And at times he is someone you admire. Who is sterling and true-blue. But it doesn't make him look like other than the all-over-the place guy he is. Which includes---as it would for all of us---apparent contradictions in how he sees himself and what he want to say to the public about that. Or put another way, multiple views of the same "reality."

-swiss

They should add this as a lil forward to the book.

Ditto. Swiss, your prose is lovely!

Pity this is not the case for Fox-Richards prose.
The real issue is that behind all the masks - a pirate. tough guy, bluesman, guardian spirit of the Stones, etc, we do not see real person, Keith Richards. Nobody at home. We do not know his real fears and joys, he does not write about anything that does not fit well with certain image of himself that he creates. He hides behind the Stones' history and cheap anecdotes
I even think that all this contempt for Jagger is also pose, another mask that he wears because thinks this is something that a public wants.
Pete Townshend said it best “The point is, when we read Keith Richards’s book, are we really reading who he is? James Fox [Richards’s ghost] is a brilliant writer. I think it’s sad that we will only remember Keith’s book because of what he said about the size of Mick’s genitals."
But certainly any perception is an individual thing. Where swiss sees "all-over-the place guy" I see petty and jealous old man.