Biography and Autobiography

God save the queen (with the safety pin through her nose)

(This was written when Queen Elizabeth II was celebrating 50 years on the throne, back in 2002).

This duplicate, couresty of graphic artist Jamie Reid remains irrevocably iconic.



Now, no disrespect to the head of what remains of the British empire, but being an Hitch (and one of Irish descent at that, not to mention a left winger), I must take that it's hard for me to be too reverential toward royal traditions. I favour to see these Buckingham Palace dwellers as little more than a interfering carryover from a bygone era, and probably not really advantage the care and feeing costs involved. But, as an American, I also accept that it's ultimately none of my business whether or not the British want to keep their Royals.


However, as an mediocre, but passionate, pop historian and punk fan, the thought of the Queen celebrating an anniversary will always call to tell off something else for me. The great punk year 1977 was 25 years ago. It was in this year that Johnny Depraved/Lydon got his face slashed by some nationalistic drive thugs in retaliation for the symbolic slashing by him of the Queen. She was for him, and for many, an empty inefficacious signifier, and so he, with his sense of ironic black humor, called her a "moron" and a "imminent H-Bomb." With this, the punk poster/t-shirt of Elizabeth with a safe keeping pin through her nose became one of punk's (and thus rock's) great signifiers - a detail of beauty (in the postmodern sense of beauty). It was a indication, an act of toppling an apple cart or the throwing of a tomato at some revered interfere with. The punks like Johnny Rotten instinctively knew that which I always betray my students in my sociology classes, namely to recognize what the norms are,
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