Public Lecture: ‘The Beat Godfather and the Glitter Mainman: Appreciating Bowie through Burroughs’

William Burroughs fertilised an A to Z of postwar creativity, quite literally from Kathy Acker to Frank Zappa. This lecture, which forms part of the ESRC Social Science Festival 2024, will consider one of Burroughs more notable offspring, David Bowie and, in particular, the way Burroughs’ writing, and especially the cut-ups technique he helped popularise, whereby a written text is cut up and rearranged to create a new text, exerted an influence on Bowie. In many ways, Bowie, at his best, at his most sublime, attempts to convey the ineffable, that is, to provide an experience of that which cannot be captured in words. His ability to do so preceded his engagement with Burroughs, but to experience Bowie at his most transcendent is to listen to his music post-Burroughs. The lecture will focus on Bowie’s 1974 album, Diamond Dogs (now in its 50^th year) which was the first to draw explicitly on the cut-ups technique, and is arguably his best. While the power of the album is obviously not reducible to Burroughs, containing as it does many other elements, the sense of vertigo the listener experiences, the sense of being out of kilter, of delirium, is heightened by use of cut-ups. The lecture promises to be an audio-visual feast, accompanied by Bowie text, images, and music from his back catalogue.It will be approximately 45 minutes duration and will be followed by a Q&A with Alex.

Alex has presented public lectures on ideas, ethical debates, and creative methods, through the lightening rod that is David Bowie at cinemas, theatres and festivals in the UK, Australia and the USA (2016-2024). These include the Dublin David Bowie Festival (2020 and 2021). She has also participated in panel discussions on the importance of Bowie with, among others, Woody Woodmansey, the legendary drummer in Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (Dublin David Bowie Festival 2020; David Bowie Convention Liverpool 2022). She is the author of several books, including, and most recently, David Bowie Outlaw: essays on difference, authenticity, ethics, art & love (London: Routledge, 2022) https://www.routledge.com/David-Bowie-Outlaw-Essays-on-Difference-Authenticity-Ethics-Art–Love/Sharpe/p/book/9780367691066

For more information on Alex see: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/people/alex_sharpe/