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Bowie
Simon Critchley first encountered David Bowie in the early seventies, when the singer appeared on Britain’s most-watched music show, Top of the Pops. His performance of “Starman” mesmerized it was “so sexual, so knowing, so strange.” Two days later Critchley’s mum bought a copy of the single; she liked both the song and the performer’s bright orange hair (she had previously been a hairdresser). The seed of a lifelong love affair was thus planted in the mind of her son, aged 12.
In this concise and engaging excursion through the songs of one of the world’s greatest pop stars, Critchley, whose writings on philosophy have garnered widespread praise, melds personal narratives of how Bowie lit up his dull life in southern England’s suburbs with philosophical forays into the way concepts of authenticity and identity are turned inside out in Bowie’s work. The result is nearly as provocative and mind-expanding as the artist it portrays.
In this concise and engaging excursion through the songs of one of the world’s greatest pop stars, Critchley, whose writings on philosophy have garnered widespread praise, melds personal narratives of how Bowie lit up his dull life in southern England’s suburbs with philosophical forays into the way concepts of authenticity and identity are turned inside out in Bowie’s work. The result is nearly as provocative and mind-expanding as the artist it portrays.
192 pages, Paperback
First published October 11, 2014
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About the author
Simon Critchley
112 books380 followersSimon Critchley (born 27 February 1960 in Hertfordshire) is an English philosopher currently teaching at The New School. He works in continental philosophy. Critchley argues that philosophy commences in disappointment, either religious or political. These two axes may be said largely to inform his published work: religious disappointment raises the question of meaning and has to, as he sees it, deal with the problem of nihilism; political disappointment provokes the question of justice and raises the need for a coherent ethics [...]
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 119 reviews
October 14, 2014
I always liked David Bowie, but he was never someone to get excited about. He wasn’t authentic. All his poses were pulled from more pure sources, or so I thought. Unlike some of those influences, though, Bowie has aged better. There’s a carnivorous feel to his art, like hip-hop, that chews up the scenery of the times and spits out a wholly original yet recognizable pop gem. That’s a talent. Now add all the literary references and ideas about identity and more to his work and you can see why intellects have been glomming on the train of critical thoughts about Bowie probably since he first launched into the mainstream with “Space Oddity.” Few I’ve read do it with the brevity, wit and depth of Simon Critchley in BOWIE, a short book, part philosophical portrait, part memoir and all a great read. I felt as if lounging in Critchley’s gray matter, and I liked it. It was a good fit, but more so brought me to face my mistake about Bowie. He was never supposed to be authentic. Seems obvious, right? Art, in fact, is not authentic by design. It’s an artifice erected to create or reflect reality, but it’s not real. It’s all suspect. That Bowie could address such heady issues and rock out, well, that’s special, and too special to pigeonhole in one style or faux authenticity. He’s a cipher for an era, but also for a person. Bowie's more personal than his alien persona would suggest. Because he’s yearning for love. That’s pretty universal and offers a clue to why Bowie resonates.
December 13, 2024
“I feel that reality has become an abstract for so many people over the last 20 years. Things that they regarded as truths seem to have just melted away, and it’s almost as if we’re thinking post-philosophically now. There’s nothing to rely on anymore. No knowledge, only interpretation of those facts that we seem to be inundated with on a daily basis. Knowledge seems to have been left behind and there’s a sense that we are adrift at sea. There’s nothing more to hold onto, and of course political circumstances just push that boat further out.” ---David Bowie, Sound on Sound, 2003
“There’s no such things, unfortunately, anymore as facts.” ---Scottie Nell Hughes, news director, Tea Party News Network, 2016
Despite the fact that their quotes are so similar in content, I’m fairly certain that David Bowie and Scottie Nell Hughes were not feeling the same emotions while they were saying them.
One could almost hear the excitement in Hughes’s voice when she uttered those words on NPR, a kind of Orwellian dystopic joy at the chaos in which the world is drowning. One can almost hear the echo of “knowledge is ignorance” within her words, followed by a “double plus good”.
Bowie, on the other hand, is quite clearly---like most sane, rational adults---terrified about what he is saying. The fear may be disguised by an intellectual indifference, but it is still detectable, bubbling beneath the surface.
Both statements are, essentially, true. Both statements attempt to capture the authentic meaning of either speaker, which is: reality as we know it doesn’t exist because we all create our own reality now.
In a sense, Bowie had been doing this---creating his own reality---for his entire life and career, revealing layers of himself that were simultaneously inauthentic and honest. His multiple personas throughout the years were attempts at re-shaping the world around him to fit his current identity, rather than the other way around.
But unlike Big Brother Trump and his cohorts, Bowie was re-shaping reality as a path toward ultimate liberation, especially for those frightened young kids who were labelled “weird” or “different”. Trump is doing the opposite: he wants those weird kids outta here...
Simon Critchley was one of those weird kids. It wasn’t until his mother introduced him to Bowie one day, on a BBC show called Top of the Pops in 1972 that Critchley’s eyes were finally opened.
He spent the rest of his life trying to keep his eyes open. He writes about this, and how influential Bowie was on his philosophical worldview, in his short book, “Bowie”, a deeply thought-provoking memoir/long essay/stream-of-consciousness philosophical rambling.
I loved this little book, but I’ll be honest: some of it didn’t make sense. That’s okay. Not everything in life makes sense, and not everything I understand is stuff other people understand and vice versa. It’s that whole “creating reality” thing again.
That said, Critchley’s thinking---much like Bowie’s music and lyrics---works on a visceral level, and while I may not have understood some of the words, I got the authentic meaning, the feeling behind the words. Bowie himself never fashioned himself a “poet”, although many of his lyrics are, arguably, poetic. He often chose a string of words which, when simply read together, read like gibberish, but when coupled with the music gave birth to meaning in the listener’s mind.
I recommend this book for anyone who is a Bowie fan, but it’s also a pretty fascinating philosophical examination of how people search for meaning, as illustrated by Critchley’s search for meaning through Bowie’s music.
“There’s no such things, unfortunately, anymore as facts.” ---Scottie Nell Hughes, news director, Tea Party News Network, 2016
Despite the fact that their quotes are so similar in content, I’m fairly certain that David Bowie and Scottie Nell Hughes were not feeling the same emotions while they were saying them.
One could almost hear the excitement in Hughes’s voice when she uttered those words on NPR, a kind of Orwellian dystopic joy at the chaos in which the world is drowning. One can almost hear the echo of “knowledge is ignorance” within her words, followed by a “double plus good”.
Bowie, on the other hand, is quite clearly---like most sane, rational adults---terrified about what he is saying. The fear may be disguised by an intellectual indifference, but it is still detectable, bubbling beneath the surface.
Both statements are, essentially, true. Both statements attempt to capture the authentic meaning of either speaker, which is: reality as we know it doesn’t exist because we all create our own reality now.
In a sense, Bowie had been doing this---creating his own reality---for his entire life and career, revealing layers of himself that were simultaneously inauthentic and honest. His multiple personas throughout the years were attempts at re-shaping the world around him to fit his current identity, rather than the other way around.
But unlike Big Brother Trump and his cohorts, Bowie was re-shaping reality as a path toward ultimate liberation, especially for those frightened young kids who were labelled “weird” or “different”. Trump is doing the opposite: he wants those weird kids outta here...
Simon Critchley was one of those weird kids. It wasn’t until his mother introduced him to Bowie one day, on a BBC show called Top of the Pops in 1972 that Critchley’s eyes were finally opened.
He spent the rest of his life trying to keep his eyes open. He writes about this, and how influential Bowie was on his philosophical worldview, in his short book, “Bowie”, a deeply thought-provoking memoir/long essay/stream-of-consciousness philosophical rambling.
I loved this little book, but I’ll be honest: some of it didn’t make sense. That’s okay. Not everything in life makes sense, and not everything I understand is stuff other people understand and vice versa. It’s that whole “creating reality” thing again.
That said, Critchley’s thinking---much like Bowie’s music and lyrics---works on a visceral level, and while I may not have understood some of the words, I got the authentic meaning, the feeling behind the words. Bowie himself never fashioned himself a “poet”, although many of his lyrics are, arguably, poetic. He often chose a string of words which, when simply read together, read like gibberish, but when coupled with the music gave birth to meaning in the listener’s mind.
I recommend this book for anyone who is a Bowie fan, but it’s also a pretty fascinating philosophical examination of how people search for meaning, as illustrated by Critchley’s search for meaning through Bowie’s music.
July 28, 2019
من دیوید بویی رو میپرستم
اما این کتاب افتضاح بود
بخاطر ترجمهی مزخرفش
واقعا تو طول خوندن کتاب نمیفهمیدم که میخواد چی رو به بقیه منتقل کنه!
اما این کتاب افتضاح بود
بخاطر ترجمهی مزخرفش
واقعا تو طول خوندن کتاب نمیفهمیدم که میخواد چی رو به بقیه منتقل کنه!
December 27, 2020
"Хотя бы на мгновение, на время звучания песни, на первый взгляд глупой, простой, ребяческой поп-песни мы можем "рассоздать" все созданное в нас и вообразить другой способ существования, нечно утопическое. Так работает невероятная надежда, звучащая в музыке Боуи. Это шаг Боуи, его акт свободы перед королевским величием абсурда и присутствием человека. В этом сила его поэзии".
January 3, 2016
LET ME BEGIN WITH A RATHER EMBARRASSING confession: no person has given me greater pleasure throughout my life than David Bowie.
Short, personal collection of quasi-chronologically sorted essays on Bowie's music and life-work starting with the Ziggy phase and ending with the release of "Where Are We Now?" (sadly no "Blackstar", which is amazing). After the personal introduction (Bowie as a symbol of the other for kids who grow up in terrible British suburbs, "Millions of self-conscious mini-Hamlets living out their loveless hells in scattered, sundry hamlets, towns, and cities"), Critchley is concerned with Bowie's message - what do all these fake characters mean, and can Bowie reach truth by using them? Is the dystopia so often described in Bowie's lyrics maybe an utopia of possibility? Can we re-invent ourselves in spite of our lacking authenticity?
The overcoming of the human condition is a disaster, yet man is still an obstacle. We’re human, all-too-human, and yet long to overcome that condition. Much of Bowie’s work circles obsessively around this dilemma.
Sadly the book is too short, and can't really develop any depth to its arguments - still, I'd recommended it to people interested in modern human life, and one possible approach to it.
P.S.: Was the note Bowie put on the bouquet for his brother's funeral used in Blade Runner?
The note on Bowie’s bouquet was extremely poignant: “You’ve seen more things than we can imagine, but all these moments will be lost—like tears washed away by the rain.”
P.P.S.: I didn't realize how much of Bowie's work is based on Nietzsche or Mishima or French revolutionary history, I didn't grow up with the man so I missed all this
August 11, 2016
Not a pop star biography, this is a loving philosophical investigation into the underpinnings of David Bowie’s many personas and why he has exerted a practically lifelong fascination over the author. Predictably my favorite elements of this book were the parts where the author talked about his own life and what individual Bowie songs meant to him. Like you would expect, Critchley covers gender, sexuality, creating identities, and dystopias. But what was different from everything else I’ve read about Bowie was the material about narrative identities and how Bowie “breaks superficial conventions between authenticity and truth.” Critchley explains how David Bowie uses utterly constructed, self-conscious fakery to be original and convey deep emotional truth, with just one example being an anecdote about how Robert Fripp watched Bowie trying to generate exactly the right emotion in his voice, playing the loop and trying different things over and over.
This same dynamic was unconsciously illustrated in a description of how David Bowie didn’t attend his brother Terry’s funeral after his death by suicide, because he didn’t want to turn it into a media circus. Critchley says, “The note on Bowie’s bouquet was extremely poignant: ‘You’ve seen more things than we can imagine, but all these moments will be lost—like tears washed away by the rain.’” My reaction to this was, yeah, it’s extremely poignant, especially if you’re a fan of the movie Blade Runner, since Bowie’s note is an unabashed rephrasing of Rutger Hauer’s character’s dying speech at the end, minus the bit about space travel. Always a pose to tell a true thing. Also, it’s worth noting that I had to look up what year Blade Runner came out and make sure it was first, because Bowie is such an influential icon that I thought it wasn’t out of the question that the screenplay writers were copying Bowie instead of the other way around.
What other book is this like? Every other book about David Bowie, but thankfully not too much so. Okay, it was also kind of like Uncommon: An Essay on Pulp by Own Hatherley
Theme Song? “The Secret Life of Arabia”
This same dynamic was unconsciously illustrated in a description of how David Bowie didn’t attend his brother Terry’s funeral after his death by suicide, because he didn’t want to turn it into a media circus. Critchley says, “The note on Bowie’s bouquet was extremely poignant: ‘You’ve seen more things than we can imagine, but all these moments will be lost—like tears washed away by the rain.’” My reaction to this was, yeah, it’s extremely poignant, especially if you’re a fan of the movie Blade Runner, since Bowie’s note is an unabashed rephrasing of Rutger Hauer’s character’s dying speech at the end, minus the bit about space travel. Always a pose to tell a true thing. Also, it’s worth noting that I had to look up what year Blade Runner came out and make sure it was first, because Bowie is such an influential icon that I thought it wasn’t out of the question that the screenplay writers were copying Bowie instead of the other way around.
What other book is this like? Every other book about David Bowie, but thankfully not too much so. Okay, it was also kind of like Uncommon: An Essay on Pulp by Own Hatherley
Theme Song? “The Secret Life of Arabia”
January 11, 2016
R.I.P. David, you meant a great deal to me (and millions of others too). The new album is great.
11.1.16
enjoyed this immensely (I am a Bowie fan - a big one in the 70s when I saw him live, not so much in the 80s and 90s)..more later
If I grew up with the Beatles – I was 7-15 during their reign – then Bowie took over from 17 – 25. I went to see Bowie in 1972 – see this review – and was taken by his fast and furious musical ch-ch changes, which made me grow with him and open up my mind to new music (eg soul when he did ‘Young Americans’, funk with ‘Station to Station’, electronic sound with ‘Low’). Also his lyrics fascinated me from the Man who sold the world, and all that gazing a gazely stare, to ‘as ugly as a teenage millionaire pretending it’s a whizz kid world’ (sung in 1980 and predicting the financial quarter take over of our lives). Beneath the nihilism (Critchley points out that the word nothing keeps recurring in his lyrics) and fascination with dystopias (eg Diamond Dogs) lies a yearning for love, usually obtained only fleetingly (Heroes: just for one day).
I’d maybe not go as far as Critchley in making him pivotal in my life or reading as much into his lyrics (eg linking the great couplet: ‘We’ll buy some drugs and watch a band/Then jump in the river holding hands’ with the suicide of German writer Heinrich von Kleist and Henriette Vogel), but he provided the soundtrack to my later growing up – I bought every album as they came out. I stopped listening after ‘Let’s Dance’, and Critchley admits a downturn as he became a suntanned ‘star’ touring, and then part of a heavy rock band (Tin Machine). I’m grateful to the author for pointing out the tracks that were good or good-ish from 1983-2000 (one Tin Machine track – I Can’t Read).
Heathen, Reality and, after a ten year gap, The Next Day are all returns-to-form (unevenness aside), and Ctritchley covers them all. For a fan, even a part time one like me this is a great read.
11.1.16
enjoyed this immensely (I am a Bowie fan - a big one in the 70s when I saw him live, not so much in the 80s and 90s)..more later
If I grew up with the Beatles – I was 7-15 during their reign – then Bowie took over from 17 – 25. I went to see Bowie in 1972 – see this review – and was taken by his fast and furious musical ch-ch changes, which made me grow with him and open up my mind to new music (eg soul when he did ‘Young Americans’, funk with ‘Station to Station’, electronic sound with ‘Low’). Also his lyrics fascinated me from the Man who sold the world, and all that gazing a gazely stare, to ‘as ugly as a teenage millionaire pretending it’s a whizz kid world’ (sung in 1980 and predicting the financial quarter take over of our lives). Beneath the nihilism (Critchley points out that the word nothing keeps recurring in his lyrics) and fascination with dystopias (eg Diamond Dogs) lies a yearning for love, usually obtained only fleetingly (Heroes: just for one day).
I’d maybe not go as far as Critchley in making him pivotal in my life or reading as much into his lyrics (eg linking the great couplet: ‘We’ll buy some drugs and watch a band/Then jump in the river holding hands’ with the suicide of German writer Heinrich von Kleist and Henriette Vogel), but he provided the soundtrack to my later growing up – I bought every album as they came out. I stopped listening after ‘Let’s Dance’, and Critchley admits a downturn as he became a suntanned ‘star’ touring, and then part of a heavy rock band (Tin Machine). I’m grateful to the author for pointing out the tracks that were good or good-ish from 1983-2000 (one Tin Machine track – I Can’t Read).
Heathen, Reality and, after a ten year gap, The Next Day are all returns-to-form (unevenness aside), and Ctritchley covers them all. For a fan, even a part time one like me this is a great read.
April 15, 2021
It is an essay rather than a book, and a subjective one, at that. The reader learns few things new about Bowie, but learns a whole lot about Critchley's perception and understanding of Bowie. The books is filled with literary and cultural references of varying obscurity, that are meaningful to the author, but are tedious for the reader. If you get them all - good, but if you do not - it's a choice between ignoring a chunk of text or, well, spending time to Google. And the latter route is just unwise, because the book itself is a quick read that took up about two hours of my time front to back.
As a fan myself, I respect the author's devotion to Bowie and believe that this book was indeed a passion project that was born in good faith. However, I cannot imagine what this text brings to the table for other fans, who are less interested in Simon Critchley, than they are in, well, David Bowie.
As a fan myself, I respect the author's devotion to Bowie and believe that this book was indeed a passion project that was born in good faith. However, I cannot imagine what this text brings to the table for other fans, who are less interested in Simon Critchley, than they are in, well, David Bowie.
January 4, 2016
personal and illuminating
simon critchley is a fan and writes like one. he also happens to be a smart guy. unlike critics, fans usually are able to navigate the corpus of an artist as a geography where peaks and valleys have a value of their own and at the same time make sense only if you understand long processes, like a geologist. in this case, critchley's "geology" happens to be philosophy. while reading the book, i was able to recognize the love and to bodn with the author in his assessments of albums and songs. i especially appreciate his attention to bowie's later albums. highly recommended.
simon critchley is a fan and writes like one. he also happens to be a smart guy. unlike critics, fans usually are able to navigate the corpus of an artist as a geography where peaks and valleys have a value of their own and at the same time make sense only if you understand long processes, like a geologist. in this case, critchley's "geology" happens to be philosophy. while reading the book, i was able to recognize the love and to bodn with the author in his assessments of albums and songs. i especially appreciate his attention to bowie's later albums. highly recommended.
October 4, 2016
Bowie es una lectura muy recomendable para aquellos que deseen acercarse a la figura del artista desde una perspectiva alejada de la simple enumeración de sucesos vitales. El enfoque de Critchley es novedoso, el libro está bien escrito y va más allá de la simple biografía, buscando el significado profundo de la obra de un personaje complejo como pocos. Reseña completa: http://www.libros-prohibidos.com/simo...
January 18, 2019
Very short book written by a fan and giving his thoughts about some of the songs. I wouldn’t recommend it for someone wanting a more general book about Bowie’s life or career, but as a fan tribute for other fans to read, it’s quite an enjoyable little book.
December 6, 2020
LET ME BEGIN WITH A RATHER EMBARRASSING confession: no person has given me greater pleasure throughout my life than David Bowie.
в моей старой тачке музыку можно было слушать только с дисков, поэтому я сразу собрала по магазинам и знакомым много дисков, очень много дисков. в том числе 2 диска Боуи: лучшее из 70х и лучшее из 80х, каждый раз я слушала и удивлялась, как много еще лучшего из 70х и 80х сюда не вошло и возможно это один из немногих исполнителей, чьи лучшие песни можно выпускать не только 10летиями, а даже 5-летиями, не теряя в концентрации хитов. но вернусь к той куче дисков, спустя много лет оказалось, что слушала я только эти два диска Боуи, потому что зачем вообще вся остальная музыка было не очень понятно.
особенный кайф читать книгу о музыканте, с чьим творчеством так хорошо знаком, что каждая упомянутая песня или концерт в то же мгновение начинают играть в голове, да и весь текст в голове как будто Боуи и читает.
December 19, 2014
This slim little volume lets loose philosopher Critchley on the oeuvre of the rock star who gave him his first sexual response as a 12 year old watching Top of the Pops. Not many musicians could provide enough grist for this type of mill, but Bowie, almost 50 years into an almost indescribable career, certainly does. In fact, the book feels short, the punches (friendly or otherwise) pulled. These are sketches, cunningly arranged to give a suitably non-linear overview of Bowie's career, full of textual insights in which even long-term fans will find plenty to chew on.
Bowie's use of the concept of "nothing" - plain as the nose on your face when you think about it and run the lyrics through your mind - as a focus of both his existentialism and his desire to trade in absolutes is a favourite theme here. Similarly, Bowie's affection and empathy with the desolation of postwar and post-oil crisis Britain is laid out in an insightful section. There need never more be any doubts as to how this man could bounce from the dystopia of Diamond Dogs to the Philly soul of Young Americans to the transcendental European decadence of Station to Station and the dark quest of the Berlin trilogy in only a few short years (4 to be precise), with a starring role as the world's most convincing alien without prosthetics in between. His aspirations are voracious, clear-eyed and conversant with the gutter and the stars alike. He wants to reach magnificence through failure, or if not failure as such, through that sense of hopelessness that grimy reality can give off, presented as challenge or excuse depending.
It is, in a sense, an artistry that it is hard to imagine coming from the U.S., where the harshness of poverty gets trammelled up into the overexposed concept of the American Dream, which is supposed to be classless and purely aspirational. That is, it's a given that if you came from the trailer park that the denizens of that trailer park would be cheering you into your mansion. British aspirations have a thornier path to travel down: your class origins, your identifications, your ongoing connections with where you came from… Bowie got around it by being the most elemental form of otherness that could be imagined at the time (the early 1970s). In some ways he was the American ideal with British roots calling upon the transcendence of omnisexuality and an extraordinary palette of Transatlantic touchstones that he forged into a singular vision that is not yet quite done with.
Critchley gets all of this and parses it through his own childhood, in which Bowie played the role model for the disaffected youth of the UK and beyond. Bowie showed Critchley and his contemporaries that the suburbs could be a fertile breeding ground for flights of fancy. Curiously that led to the suburban punk phenomenon, but look at the way Bowie was able to remain close to the punks, if not exactly "of" them… It was only his moment of playing the game (we could say, playing with fire and knowing it), assuming a platinum-selling matinee idol character (we're talking about Let's Dance and the Serious Moonlight tour) that threatened to derail him. Indeed, it lowered the tolerance factor for the sonic excursions of his middle age and put him into a second division where he has been placed now for nigh on 30 years. And yet… if ever there was a second act that could potentially be reappraised, that was created on a parallel track, perhaps this is it. The easy line is that marital bliss took away his hunger, but is The Next Day the work of someone resting on laurels?
Critchley correctly notes that Bowie became more eloquent the more abstract his lyrics became. And now, raging against the dying of the light (or not), resuming his search for posterity's imprimatur, but doing so without playing the familiarity-sells posterity game that is expected of his generation, could it be that Bowie might achieve the kind of reappraisal that Bob Dylan has managed to reap for the Rolling Thunder Review, Self Portrait (!) and The Basement Tapes? I'm not sure that he will, because his charms are more complicated than Dylan's, his palette more wilful and varied. But it doesn't really matter. When you listen to Nothing Has Changed, despite your initial response that this is yet another retrospective of the man who once sold futures on his catalogue (or 'Sold the World' as we might term it), the backwards sequencing is brilliant, in that it subverts most of your easy answers. The first disc is a different kind of brilliant, shorn of the meeting of the generational ache and the culture machine. It's not as familiar, it has fewer mnemonics. The second disc sees him slide backwards through the 1980s - treadwater decline back to hits back to exhilarating summation of postmodernity - and the third takes him all the way back through his many earlier Ch-ch-changes to his R&B roots. The voice is unmistakeable, even at that point. The artist is indelible, even in failure. The effect is thrilling, something we didn't expect to feel about at this remove. At least I didn't, judging my fellow Capricorn to have succumbed to Apollo over Bacchus when bliss and plenty reached him together as an offer he couldn't refuse. But is that really the case?
Bowie's use of the concept of "nothing" - plain as the nose on your face when you think about it and run the lyrics through your mind - as a focus of both his existentialism and his desire to trade in absolutes is a favourite theme here. Similarly, Bowie's affection and empathy with the desolation of postwar and post-oil crisis Britain is laid out in an insightful section. There need never more be any doubts as to how this man could bounce from the dystopia of Diamond Dogs to the Philly soul of Young Americans to the transcendental European decadence of Station to Station and the dark quest of the Berlin trilogy in only a few short years (4 to be precise), with a starring role as the world's most convincing alien without prosthetics in between. His aspirations are voracious, clear-eyed and conversant with the gutter and the stars alike. He wants to reach magnificence through failure, or if not failure as such, through that sense of hopelessness that grimy reality can give off, presented as challenge or excuse depending.
It is, in a sense, an artistry that it is hard to imagine coming from the U.S., where the harshness of poverty gets trammelled up into the overexposed concept of the American Dream, which is supposed to be classless and purely aspirational. That is, it's a given that if you came from the trailer park that the denizens of that trailer park would be cheering you into your mansion. British aspirations have a thornier path to travel down: your class origins, your identifications, your ongoing connections with where you came from… Bowie got around it by being the most elemental form of otherness that could be imagined at the time (the early 1970s). In some ways he was the American ideal with British roots calling upon the transcendence of omnisexuality and an extraordinary palette of Transatlantic touchstones that he forged into a singular vision that is not yet quite done with.
Critchley gets all of this and parses it through his own childhood, in which Bowie played the role model for the disaffected youth of the UK and beyond. Bowie showed Critchley and his contemporaries that the suburbs could be a fertile breeding ground for flights of fancy. Curiously that led to the suburban punk phenomenon, but look at the way Bowie was able to remain close to the punks, if not exactly "of" them… It was only his moment of playing the game (we could say, playing with fire and knowing it), assuming a platinum-selling matinee idol character (we're talking about Let's Dance and the Serious Moonlight tour) that threatened to derail him. Indeed, it lowered the tolerance factor for the sonic excursions of his middle age and put him into a second division where he has been placed now for nigh on 30 years. And yet… if ever there was a second act that could potentially be reappraised, that was created on a parallel track, perhaps this is it. The easy line is that marital bliss took away his hunger, but is The Next Day the work of someone resting on laurels?
Critchley correctly notes that Bowie became more eloquent the more abstract his lyrics became. And now, raging against the dying of the light (or not), resuming his search for posterity's imprimatur, but doing so without playing the familiarity-sells posterity game that is expected of his generation, could it be that Bowie might achieve the kind of reappraisal that Bob Dylan has managed to reap for the Rolling Thunder Review, Self Portrait (!) and The Basement Tapes? I'm not sure that he will, because his charms are more complicated than Dylan's, his palette more wilful and varied. But it doesn't really matter. When you listen to Nothing Has Changed, despite your initial response that this is yet another retrospective of the man who once sold futures on his catalogue (or 'Sold the World' as we might term it), the backwards sequencing is brilliant, in that it subverts most of your easy answers. The first disc is a different kind of brilliant, shorn of the meeting of the generational ache and the culture machine. It's not as familiar, it has fewer mnemonics. The second disc sees him slide backwards through the 1980s - treadwater decline back to hits back to exhilarating summation of postmodernity - and the third takes him all the way back through his many earlier Ch-ch-changes to his R&B roots. The voice is unmistakeable, even at that point. The artist is indelible, even in failure. The effect is thrilling, something we didn't expect to feel about at this remove. At least I didn't, judging my fellow Capricorn to have succumbed to Apollo over Bacchus when bliss and plenty reached him together as an offer he couldn't refuse. But is that really the case?
November 10, 2023
Hans ord var motsatsen till Olivia Laings direkta tilltal, jag förstod inte vad som var poängen och hans ord tilltalade mig inte. Läste nu i efterhand att han är en engelsk filosof men tycker inte han hade några djupa spaningar, djup på ett mycket grunt och manligt sätt möjligtvis. Uppfriskande att läsa något dåligt typ? En stjärna plus för de små skisserna vid varje kapitel och hans bekännande över att ha smitit in på David Bowies utställning på V&A museeum för att kön var för lång
July 7, 2018
Hello Critchley!
September 7, 2016
Creo caigo en lo repetitivo al iniciar siempre ésta clase de reseñas con la aclaración de que me gusta leer biografías. Pero sí, me encanta leer biografías, especialmente de personajes que me causen curiosidad, como bien viene siendo el caso de David Bowie. De él no me considero una fan o admiradora, ya que a pesar de contar con su discografía completa en mi colección musical, no la he escuchado lo suficiente y antes de leer éste libro, tampoco sabía mucho de él.
Y fue —debo admitir— un error mío el pensar que éste libro me enseñaría mucho sobre éste emblemático artista. Pensaba que me encontraría con una biografía, pero cuando llegó a mis manos y vi lo delgado que era, supuse que sería un relato bastante resumido de su vida. Y no, tampoco es eso. Bowie de Simon Critchley es más que nada un ensayo sobre la trayectoria de Bowie. Un ensayo escrito por una persona que desde las primeras páginas nos muestra que es un gran admirador, y eso fue algo que me gustó mucho de la experiencia de leer el ensayo. A mi me gustan muchísimo los Beatles, y puedo hablar horas sobre ellos si alguien se dispone a escucharme, y habiendo tantas teorías, chismes y mitos sobre ellos, siempre he fantaseado con la idea de escribir un libro sobre ellos desde la perspectiva de una fan. Y leer Bowie de Simon Critchley me hizo ver que no es tan imposible.
Pero el ensayo es escrito por un fan para otros fans, así que aunque sentí que aprendí muchísimo sobre Bowie al leerlo, también sentí que no entendí muchas referencias. No estaba totalmente en blanco, conocía los nombres de muchos de sus discos y de muchas de sus canciones, pero habían otras que de plano desconocía. Pero eso me llevó a la tarea de Googlearlas o escucharlas, y así aprender sobre el proceso musical y artístico de Bowie.
En el libro encontraremos la trayectoria de Bowie desde sus inicios. Todo ésto acompañado de la opinión y experiencia personal del autor. Lo que fue para él verlo por primera vez en la televisión y cómo adquirió su primer disco. Además de lo que Bowie significaba para él. Bowie fue un artista con muchas personalidades, y el autor ahonda en ellas, y para gente como yo que saben poco, fue un gran viaje saber lo que dichas personalidades significaban y los mensajes que representaban.
Realmente disfruté mucho leyendo éste libro, si son fans de David Bowie lo van a amar, ya que creo se sentirán muy identificados con todo lo escrito por el autor. Y si como yo apenas están comenzando a aprender sobre él, tal vez se perderán algunos datos, pero lo disfrutarán mucho y les dejará con muchas ganas de escuchar su música. El libro simplemente me encantó.
January 3, 2017
I had a medical procedure this morning. The doc was running late, and thus, I was gifted the time to read this amazing gem of a book in its entirety. This book was wrapped under our Christmas tree with a label saying "To: Jess, From: David Bowie" - the kids were mystified and a bit alarmed, as one often is when contemplating Bowie.
This book - written by "the most powerful and provocative philosopher now writing" (so says Cornel West) - dissects and reassembles Bowie's complete body of work, uncovering its connective tissue and its rhythmic heart. The author puts forward "nothingness" as this heart - the Buddhist nothingness.
So timely, this book, because I had a breakthrough around the concept of nothingness in the last few months, prompted by a visit to my son's eye doctor. We were in the waiting room a long time there, too, and my young companion was figuring out - for the first time - how to "see" one of those Magic Eye pictures - they were big in the 80's - an image you can only see by unseeing - the image often comes into view obliquely, when you release or even give up. And I was describing to him how to do this, and I heard myself say, without really thinking about it, "it's like the Buddhist concept of emptiness..." and he said, "Of course! Oh! I get it now!"
I highly recommend the book, and Bowie, and magic eye images. I recommend avoiding long waits at doctor offices unless you are with a wonderful companion, as I was with my kid at the eye doc, and not as I was this morning, naked waist down and shivering, clinging to my Bowie book.
This book - written by "the most powerful and provocative philosopher now writing" (so says Cornel West) - dissects and reassembles Bowie's complete body of work, uncovering its connective tissue and its rhythmic heart. The author puts forward "nothingness" as this heart - the Buddhist nothingness.
So timely, this book, because I had a breakthrough around the concept of nothingness in the last few months, prompted by a visit to my son's eye doctor. We were in the waiting room a long time there, too, and my young companion was figuring out - for the first time - how to "see" one of those Magic Eye pictures - they were big in the 80's - an image you can only see by unseeing - the image often comes into view obliquely, when you release or even give up. And I was describing to him how to do this, and I heard myself say, without really thinking about it, "it's like the Buddhist concept of emptiness..." and he said, "Of course! Oh! I get it now!"
I highly recommend the book, and Bowie, and magic eye images. I recommend avoiding long waits at doctor offices unless you are with a wonderful companion, as I was with my kid at the eye doc, and not as I was this morning, naked waist down and shivering, clinging to my Bowie book.
March 5, 2018
Despite this being a book about Bowie, and, ostensibly, about the meaning of persona, transformation, and the negotiation of "nothing," this is a very personal, beautiful book. Obviously, as a book titled, "Bowie," it will resonate with those already familiar with Bowie's body of work and litany of characters. But its an accessible book that might prove meaningful to anyone interested in the discussion of persona, of "authenticity," and an artist's complete commitment to their cause over a lifetime of work. In the end, this book worked for me because it was about Bowie, because it shed an easy, accessible light on the connecting threads throughout Bowie's oeuvre, and because this was the book of someone clearly and profoundly affected by this singular yet multiplicitous character called Bowie. For my own reasons, I'll forever be affected by the day that Bowie went away. This book offers a shared sense of wonder at a world that ever contained such a character, and a world that will never be without him, either, even if we have to let him go.
February 4, 2016
A breeze of a read, very deeply processed appreciation here. Critchley is opinionated to the max and that's good and bad. He does provocative drive-by shootings on memoir and levies wrong-headed hatred, to me, of Bowie's joyous, deep 1983 hit "Modern Love." But what you admire and even envy is his love and knowledge of Bowie. How he seized as a boy upon the artist and his music, seeing from the start Bowie's genius. A key appeal of the book for me is that it almost becomes a stealth memoir. We see the author wowed by Bowie in 1972 and then get other glimpses of Critchley's life as the years pass and the albums pile up. Then one night, by happenstance, middle-aged Critchley finds himself in an apartment below Bowie's residence listening to . . . Bowie.
January 25, 2021
Not my cup of tea. Way too personal for supposedly being about someone else. I know more about the author after reading it than I do about Bowie. I knew it wasn't a biography "On Bowie" or anything like that, but I expected more context. Also just felt like a bunch of jibber jabber sometimes, but, you know, trying to sound smart and quoting "important people" to top it off. Felt a bit arrogant, even towards some of his idols work that apparently wasn't good enough for some reason.
Can I interest anyone else in my copy?
Can I interest anyone else in my copy?
May 31, 2016
Este es un libro maravilloso. Un libro que afirma esa intuición que teníamos sobre Bowie, sobre su arte, su filosofía y su estética. Un libro que hace que uno comulgue y sienta todavía mucho más con su música. Que logra que entendamos por qué la música de Bowie da consuelo y compañía. Y sobre todo, que logra que entendamos con mayor profundidad y certeza la fascinación que provoca. Es un "caer en cuenta" y en consciencia de la conjunción de música, palabras y sensaciones.
January 12, 2024
Var fan af denne bog! Mange ord, referencer, album osv. jeg ikke kendte, men følte stadigvæk jeg forstod bogen. Elsker Bowie og lærte meget nyt om ham - også fra Simon Critchley’s perspektiv. Kunne godt lide, den var så nem og overkommelig at komme igennem. Med korte kapitler, stor skrift og tegninger. Cool tegninger btw. Fandt den på mit gyms bogbyttebiks, og jeg fandt en stick it note i den, der sagde “En god bog til dig, der søger efter digselv:)”
Margaret Thatcher blev også nævnt i denne bog ligesom ‘Fight Club’, jeg lige er blevet færdig med. Jeg har lært meget spøjse ting om hende de sidste par dage…
Stikord: nothing, længsel, identitet, androgyn, religion, Lazarus
Margaret Thatcher blev også nævnt i denne bog ligesom ‘Fight Club’, jeg lige er blevet færdig med. Jeg har lært meget spøjse ting om hende de sidste par dage…
Stikord: nothing, længsel, identitet, androgyn, religion, Lazarus
Read
April 10, 2025"Dentro de la negatividad de Bowie, bajo su aparente negación y pesimismo, podemos oír un clarísimo sí, una afirmación absoluta e incondicional de la vida en toda su caótica complejidad, pero también de sus momentos de éxtasis y placer. Para Bowie, creo, sólo cuando desterramos toda la impostura de las convenciones sociales, el papismo y las triquiñuelas de la religión organizada y la felicidad obligatoria que infesta nuestra cultura podemos oír ese sí que resuena.
En el centro de la música de Bowie y su aparente negatividad, hay un anhelo profundo de conexión y, por encima de todo, de amor" (99).
En el centro de la música de Bowie y su aparente negatividad, hay un anhelo profundo de conexión y, por encima de todo, de amor" (99).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 31, 2021
A collection of personal musings/essays about the magic that was Bowie. Critchley brilliantly captures the feeling of sexuality, sadness, and hope that David Bowie exuded with every breath. Though most of us never met the man, Bowie transcends stardom and instead moves each person whose life he touched with his music in a way that is almost spiritual. There will never be another being like him...and how beautiful and tragic that is.
June 9, 2017
Inteligente, lúcido, pero por sobre todo, escrito con profundo cariño. Critchley construye el relato del ídolo de los solitarios, los rechazados, los que están fuera. Allí encontraremos las tesis para explicar la lógica del cambio, su visión del arte y el rol del artista. Bowie miró y atravesó una época llena de
contradicciones, asumiéndolas, tomando el riesgo de ser lo que podría llegar a ser.
contradicciones, asumiéndolas, tomando el riesgo de ser lo que podría llegar a ser.
April 30, 2023
A short book about David Bowie, a very personal collection of observations by the writer, merging songs, albums and changes to the singer’s personae throughout his career. It is both entertaining and enlightening as a book for fans of the man and his music.
January 17, 2018
Bowie siempre será esa persona que cambio el mundo y quienes crecimos con su música jamás vamos a olvidar el momento antes y después de Bowie.💙
December 24, 2020
I don't recall why I stopped reading this back in 2014. Probably boring schedule demands and nothing more. After the tragedy of 2016, I couldn't bear the thought of reading anyone else's thoughts about my favorite human being. However, a few nights ago, a friend asked if I often felt sad that I would never get to meet Bowie. The answer to that is complicated, and too personal for a Goodreads review.
Nevertheless, the question reminded me I still had this on my shelf. I started fresh with it yesterday and got the treat of a wordsmith who cannot overstate the positive and profound impact that David Bowie has made in his life. I feel pretty much the same, and it's a delight to read someone else's gushing on the subject and feel validated in your own devotion. This is simply a long essay in book form, but I would recommend it to any diehard Bowie fan.
Nevertheless, the question reminded me I still had this on my shelf. I started fresh with it yesterday and got the treat of a wordsmith who cannot overstate the positive and profound impact that David Bowie has made in his life. I feel pretty much the same, and it's a delight to read someone else's gushing on the subject and feel validated in your own devotion. This is simply a long essay in book form, but I would recommend it to any diehard Bowie fan.
May 27, 2016
I received this from my son and daughter this year 2016 for Mother's Day. I was and still am a massive Bowie fan from the first time I heard and saw him on TV. More so as Mum thought he was just plain weird! We do that as a teenager enjoy shocking our parents. I began reading this that night but his death was still too raw. I finished the rest of it tonight and loved how Simon portrayed David's life and explained his music. I had my own views of the meanings of his songs so this added to my own. I found the last section added by Simon difficult to read as this is an updated edition of his 2014 book after David's death. Maybe now I might be able to listen to his new album released days before his death and watch the videos but maybe not as I know I will still get upset again. Thank you Simon for explaining your interpretations to me and for writing such a wonderful book on this iconic man and his music! RIP David we know you'll live on in your music and videos forever. My advice on this is to try to read it in one go, it is not a long book and you will then get the full meaning,
August 17, 2022
I very much appreciate the author taking Bowie very seriously on an intellectual level. And I learned a lot of lyrics I have misheard for a long time! But there is a LOT of German philosophy in this book, and as far as I can tell, it’s because that is the author’s area of expertise, and not because it was where Bowie was coming from.
As such, it might be very satisfying to the author to write about Bowie in that context, but not as satisfying for me as a reader. The book is so brief that there isn’t really room for background on the philosophical premises, so there was a fair amount of “huh?” from me as I read.
The book is not written for a general audience, and yet obviously a book entitled “Bowie” with his photo on the front is marketed to a general audience. Not sorry I read it, at least the essays were very short so I didn’t get bogged down too much. But not a keeper for me.
As such, it might be very satisfying to the author to write about Bowie in that context, but not as satisfying for me as a reader. The book is so brief that there isn’t really room for background on the philosophical premises, so there was a fair amount of “huh?” from me as I read.
The book is not written for a general audience, and yet obviously a book entitled “Bowie” with his photo on the front is marketed to a general audience. Not sorry I read it, at least the essays were very short so I didn’t get bogged down too much. But not a keeper for me.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 119 reviews