Prof. Alex Sharpe, Bowie and Existentialism Preview

Professor Alex Sharpe will return to my show tomorrow to discuss her new book, We’re Nobody’s Children: David Bowie and Existentialism. Professor Sharpe previously appeared to discuss her book, David Bowie: Outlaw, and the video of that earlier interview is embedded in this post.

So how does Bowie relate to existentialism? I’ll leave that to Professor Sharpe, but I will make a few observations. “David Bowie” is a kind of meta-character distinct both from his (its?) creator, David Jones, and the various subordinate characters Bowie portrays. A through line is a tension between the idea that Bowie is, to paraphrase from “Word on a Wing” (1975) trying to find his place in God’s scheme of things, versus the idea that, to paraphrase from “Red Money” (1979) responsibility is up to you and me. This latter thread suggests that Bowie, or the individual, is responsible for the outcome of his own decisions and actions, “things” don’t necessarily work out, and there isn’t necessarily a reason, well, for anything. “I love nihilism,” Bowie jokingly said in, of all venues, an interview alongside Iggy Pop on the Dinah Shore Show in 1977.

Bowie, I think, was at least half-kidding, but he’s also the guy who sings, in a song called “Heroes” (1977), “we’re nothing, and nothing will help us.” Faithful readers of this blog will know that Bowie’s repeated use of the word “nothing” is an ongoing topic of my posts. I don’t think Bowie used the word as if “nothing” was a thing like antimatter, but his wordplay suggesting that “nothing” can be held on to (“After All,” 1970) or that it can shriek (“Ashes to Ashes,” 1980) does suggest that nothing is something. What is it? Well, maybe everything (“Sunday,” 2002). Several Bowie songs, from the ambitious “Star” (1972) in which Bowie lays out his entire plan, to the regretful and reflective “Thursday’s Child” (1999), eschew the idea of fate or divinely inspired destiny. The younger Bowie announces his plan to chart his own course, while the older Bowie takes responsibility for his own failures. Variations on these themes occur again and again in Bowie’s lyrics.

But Bowie offers an alternative. In “Station to Station” (1975), Bowie pledges to keep searching and searching for something to believe in, with “Word on a Wing” taking the form of a flat-out prayer for guidance later on the same album. “God is on top of it all,” Bowie declares in “Pallas Athena” (1993), though as he repeats the line over and over, it seems like his voice becomes less sure. As if frustrated by never having received a response from years of reaching out to God, Bowie makes one last attempt at a deal in “I Would Be Your Slave” (2002), to throw in with the believers if only God would reveal himself.

Did Bowie ever get the chance to resolve this tension? Well, I have a theory about that, and I’m working on something that I’m not yet ready to roll out. But We’re Nobody’s Children is indeed ready and gives us plenty to think about. So, check out the book and come back tomorrow for my interview with Professor Sharpe.