Simon Critchley, Paul Mellon Distinguished Fellow Lecture 2014

Writer and philosopher Simon Critchley gives a lecture diving into a critical inquiry of the practice and life of David Bowie. For Critchley, his close study of Bowie has allowed him to realize that art is a series of allusions which constitute the fictions that one inhabits, and how these fictions are tied to place. Critchley also reflects on his own moment of fake humility as a way to provide Bowie a due that he has felt has not been given. Critchley reflects on how he approaches the world through lyrics and tunes, and how music provides him a space of critical distance, allowing him to see that music is much closer to how art works and literature works. Critchley continues to reflect on his relationship to images, particularly Bowies images, and how these images are digested.