We’re Nobody’s Children: David Bowie and Existentialism

Richard Skinner reviews a book examining David Bowie’s life and work through an existentialist lens, arguing that Bowie’s career represented an act of creative ‘decreation’ wherein he adopted personas as spaces for listener self-reflection and authenticity-seeking. The book characterizes Bowie’s songwriting as self-effacement and persona-dissolution, framing his artistic practice as choosing ‘difference over identity, otherness over self.’ While Bowie’s existential aesthetics and performative identity politics align with post-punk intellectual concerns, the review lacks sufficient detail on the author or theoretical apparatus to fully assess relevance to the editorial line.

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