From the Lymond Chronicles to David Bowie, WHY?
http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2837
I was thinking how weird it is that I went from obsession with Dorothy Dunnett’s historical fiction series The Lymond Chronicles to obsession with the music of David Bowie. They seem so different. Then I thought:
They both come from Britain around the 60s/70s and concern a central figure who is charismatic, frequently androgynous, (questionably) bisexual, a social “outsider,” and whose core concerns center around identity, worldly success, and the struggle for human connection.
Both works are dripping with ambiguity and complexity; both make frequent use of allusion; both focus often on the dark side of human nature (suicide and insanity); both are concerned with music, art, and decadence; both revolve around the construction of identity and the question of “true” self (construction of differing identities to appeal to a particular audience and achieve a particular goal, the difficulty distinguishing between performance and reality, whether what you do changes who you are).
I think the biggest difference is that Bowie (I’m thinking particularly Ziggy) is postmodern, ironic, self-aware, very much of the 1970s, whereas the Lymond Chronicles are pretty rooted in the philosophy and style of the historical era they describe.
Must think further on this. Possibly completely insane.
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