David Bowie as antidote to our over-zealous belief in "authenticity." Bravo @willwilkinson: https://t.co/vaGe6RTKuU pic.twitter.com/lzUY0i7T0b
— Austin Kleon (@austinkleon) January 19, 2016David Bowie as antidote to our over-zealous belief in "authenticity." Bravo @willwilkinson: https://t.co/vaGe6RTKuU pic.twitter.com/lzUY0i7T0b
— Austin Kleon (@austinkleon) January 19, 2016
3 comments:
Authenticity is one thing that can be great, but it's not the only thing.
Of course, on one level, David Bowie didn't come out of the womb dressed like David Bowie, so there's a sense in which one could argue that that's not his "authentic self." But there's certainly another way in which you could argue that the persona Bowie took on is VERY authentically David Bowie. Authentically the version of himself that he constructed/created/BECAME.
We're all finding/creating ourselves. You get to decide some things about who you are and what you'll do, what you'll say and how you'll appear. Some things you don't get to decide. But you get to nurture your nature, and there can be authenticity to both of those things.
If you care about framing things still with respect to authenticity. Which you authentically don't have to.
Yeah, I think Bowie was of the mind that performing is inherently inauthentic (discussed it on Fresh Air interview that aired recently if you wanna dig deeper). I interpret his view as being under the umbrella that "sometimes telling a lie is the best way to communicate the truth."
That makes sense.
What if "telling a lie is the best way to tell the truth" is a lie that tells the truth?
(Because another way that might be BETTER at telling the truth is telling a truth that tells the truth.)
Now we're having fun. Like we were before and will keep doing. THIS IS AUTHENTIC!
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