David Bowie is remembered as one of the past half-century’s greatest singer-songwriters.
Perhaps less well known was the extraordinary intelligence and eclectic literacy of Bowie, who died at 69 in 2016. He read widely, broadening his understanding and appreciation of the world and humanity, at its best and worst.
The Bowie Book Club has preserved a list of Bowie’s top-100 books that he read and ranked highest during his lifetime as major influences on his thinking, creativity and development of artistic tastes.
Among them are two Prometheus Hall of Fame winners for Best Classic Fiction: George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, inducted in 1984, and Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange, inducted in 2008.
Both novels offer dystopian cautionary tales that highlight the devastating consequences of tyranny and eloquently remind readers of the value of freedom and respecting individual rights.
Here’s an excerpt from the Prometheus Blog Appreciation of Burgess’ classic that compares and contrasts it with Orwell’s classic:
“Most dystopian novels – from We and Anthem to Nineteen Eighty Four and Fahrenheit 451 (all Prometheus Hall of Fame inductees) – portray outright dictatorships in cautionary tales about totalitarianism of all flavors of the extreme Left and Right.
“But the bleak narrative of A Clockwork Orange remind us that government need not go to such extremes to become oppressive, unjust and deeply inhuman. Few works dissect and dramatize better the authoritarian potential inherent in the perversions, corruptions and excesses of the modern welfare state and its attendant bureaucracy.”
Does the inclusion of such libertarian Prometheus-winning classics on Bowie’s list mean that he was a libertarian? Probably not.
But these and other titles on his list certainly indicate that Bowie was a discerning and independent thinker with distinctly anti-authoritarian views and classical-liberal sympathies.
But judge for yourself.
OTHER ANTI-AUTHORITARIAN NOVELS
Among the other novels on Bowie’s curated list that expose the evils of tyranny are The Master and Margarita, Russian novelist Mikhail Bulgakov’s fantastical and devastating satire of Soviet life under communism; and Darkness at Noon, Arthur Koestler’s landmark expose of the rigged show trials and mass executions under the Soviet communism of Lenin and Stalin.
If the Prometheus Awards focused on all types of fiction – not just fantastical or speculative fiction – that dramatize pro-freedom and anti-tyranny themes, both Koestler’s and Bulgakov’s acclaimed novels would be prime candidates to be nominated for and eventually inducted into the Hall of Fame. (Given our focus on the fantastical, though, only Bulgakov’s novel might be eligible for consideration.)
Regarding non-fiction, Bowie also listed an iconoclastic book by avowed libertarian feminist Camille Paglia: Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson.
OTHER CLASSIC AUTHORS
Also on Bowie’s list are widely acclaimed fictional works by Albert Camus, Truman Capote, Dante, John Dos Passos, Fyodor Dostoevsky, T.S. Elliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Homer, Gustave Flaubert, William Faulkner, D.H. Lawrence, Yukio Mishima, Vladimir Nabokov, Tom Stoppard and Evelyn Waugh.
These rank among the most notable writers of the past century or two, along with a few giants in the history of Western civilization. I think that says something admirable about Bowie’s intellectual curiosity, open-mindedness, insight and discriminating sense of taste.
Other novels on Bowie’s list are some of the trendy and critical favorites of recent decades, some of which may pass the test of time but which the verdict is still out on. Among the ones I find most intriguing, and potentially worth reading some day: Julian Barnes’ Flaubert’s Parrot, Don De Lillo’s White Noise, Colin Wilson’s The Outsider and Michael Chabon’s Wonder Boys.
A few titles on the list may be more popcorn or fast food than enduring classics, but are amusing to read – most notably, Fran Liebowitz’s contemporary satirical essays in Metropolitan Life, which I’ve read twice and that remains on my book shelves in case I want to enjoy it again.
To be fair, Bowie’s list is eclectic and can’t be easily categorized in terms of ideology. For example, his list includes Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, Frank Norris’s McTeague, J.B. Priestley’s English Journey, Jessica Mitford’s The American Way of Death and Vance Packard’s The Hidden Persuaders, a flawed but still-relevant critique of advertising and excesses of consumer capitalism.
These books generally reflect progressive or leftwing perspectives, in some cases taking illiberal and/or anti-capitalistic positions inconsistent with philosophical or classical liberalism. Yet, even firm liberals or libertarians should maintain open minds and consider disparate views and critiques to test our own thinking.
MORE BURGESS AND ORWELL
For Burgess and Orwell fans, it’s worth nothing that Bowie admired these authors sufficiently to include two of their works on his list – a rare degree of recognition afforded to virtually no other writers.
Besides A Clockwork Orange, Bowie listed Burgess’s Earthly Powers, an exploration of the essence of power focusing on two very different men, one an influential novelist and the other a religious figure rising through the Vatican hierarchy.
Meanwhile, in addition to 1984, Bowie listed Orwell’s nonfiction collection, Inside the Whale and Other Essays. The book explores politics and literature with essays such as “Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool” and “Politics vs. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver’s Travels.”
It also includes what I consider to be one of the seminal (and implicitly libertarian) essays of the 20th century: Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language,” an examination of the connection between political orthodoxies and the debasement of language. I view the 1946 essay, which greatly influenced my intellectual evolution, as a must-read companion piece to (and commentary on the themes in) Orwell’s two greatest novels, 1984 and Animal Farm.
Note: David Bowie also was an accomplished actor. He performed resonant roles in several excellent films, including The Prestige, The Hunger and The Man Who Fell to Earth – the latter nominated in 2021 for the Prometheus Hall of Fame.
ABOUT THE LFS AND PROMETHEUS AWARDS:
* Join us! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards and support a cultural and literary strategy to appreciate and honor freedom-loving fiction, join the Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf/fantasy fans.
Libertarian futurists believe that culture matters. We understand that the arts and literature can be vital in envisioning a freer and better future – and in some ways can be even more powerful than politics in the long run, by imagining better visions of the future incorporating peace, prosperity, progress, tolerance, justice, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other’s rights, human dignity, individuality and peaceful choices.
* Prometheus winners: For the full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees – including the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards – visit the enhanced Prometheus Awards page on the LFS website, which now includes convenient links to all published essay-reviews in our Appreciation series explaining why each of more than 100 past winners since 1979 fits the awards’ distinctive dual focus on both quality and liberty.
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