January 14, 2016

"My lack of feeling is, perhaps, a late-flowering fastidiousness which feels somewhat repelled by the flood of sob signalling which takes place on social media whenever a famous person dies."

"And a revulsion with a sub-section of my fellow hacks who – for a fee – will say something even if they have nothing worth saying. For every Suzanne Moore – who produced a small, perfectly-performed elegy within hours – I knew that there would be a hundred old bores from the dear dead music press who would crawl out of the woodwork just to put up photos of themselves with the Great Man, in the most distasteful groupie fashion. Hearse-chasing is such a bad look."

From "Please spare us the sob signalling over David Bowie," by Julie Burchill.

15 comments:

Nonapod said...

Is the theme of todays blogs empathy, perceived empathy, or the perceived lack of empathy?

Bob R said...

I think she has the wrong kind of friends. I didn't see any sob signaling. Mostly, what a shame, sad, too young,...people posting favorite songs. That's a great thing about YouTube. Sharing favorite songs is a fitting way to remember a musician.

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Shouting Thomas said...

I was completely neutral on David Bowie.

Didn't particularly care for his music, because he was all over the place and not particularly good at any one thing. I recognize his success and impact for what it was and respect him for that.

He was all theater and costume with no substance. This is particularly appealing to fags and fag hags, and I have no problem with that. I'm up for going to a club with gay friends and seeing the local Hedda Lettuce once a year and I'm all for theater and costume, but I like a little meat on the bone.

The guy seemed like a mannequin for costumes to me. Zero emotional impact. No moral lesson are archetypical story to tell.

He represented the consumer desire for a Holodeck... a consumer appliance that allows one to don and doff identity like a costume without risk or danger. That consumer desire is overwhelming and will one day be met.

Limited blogger said...

Bowie put Lou Reed into our conscientiousness. Him and Mick Ronson produced, performed and sang on Transformer. Lou Reed never looked back.

Paddy O said...

My wife and I were talking about this just this morning!

traditionalguy said...

Don't speak ill of the dead. Let your music do the talking . Play Mozart's Requiem Mass for the good guys going to Heaven and Wagner's Siegfried's Funeral March for the bad guys going to burn.

Robert Cook said...

I commend Julie Burchill for her column!

CJinPA said...

Isn't social media in general, whatever the topic, dominated not by info-sharing but by signaling?

Sebastian said...

"or every Suzanne Moore – who produced a small, perfectly-performed elegy within hours" She writes, "He was my lodestar . . . Bowie would guide us." Perfectly performed absurdist comedy, indeed. Especially good because of the straight-face pose.

mccullough said...

So she gets money for writing nasty things about people who get paid to write nice things about the rececntly departed.

How meta. While the Theater of Mourning can be a bit tiresome, this type of shit is far worse.

retail lawyer said...

So ignoring social media, I get to have feelings. Good to know.

Brent said...

All said by a person of no value to anyone else on the planet

CatherineM said...


David Bowie had a great sense of humor:

http://youtu.be/x22swFn52Ng

Known Unknown said...

"The guy seemed like a mannequin for costumes to me. "

Listen to the album Low and get back to me.