For anyone interested in David Bowie’s creative process, Rick Moody at The Rumpus got a pretty cool scoop last week. Bowie broke his silence about his remarkable new album by providing Moody with a work flow diagram of what he was thinking about while creating the album. He provided Moody a list of 42 words, sans commentary.
…which, we have to admit, is infinitely cooler than Bowie just bluntly telling us what it all means. Instead what we have is an ambiguous gesture (Why a list of words? Why these specific words?), and a long, provocative, and fascinatingly obtuse list of words to pore over and analyze. (Moody singles out “chthonic” as being especially beautiful and telling.)
And, in lieu of Bowie’s commentary, Moody provides his own observations and analyses about the list and what he believes each word to mean in relation to Bowie and the new album. It’s well worth a read.
Here’s the 42-word list; a peek, however small, into the creative process of the famed British musician:
Effigies
Indulgences
Anarchist
Violence
Chthonic
Intimidation
Vampyric
Pantheon
Succubus
Hostage
Transference
Identity
Mauer
Interface
Flitting
Isolation
Revenge
Osmosis
Crusade
Tyrant
Domination
Indifference
Miasma
Pressgang
Displaced
Flight
Resettlement
Funereal
Glide
Trace
Balkan
Burial
Reverse
Manipulate
Origin
Text
Traitor
Urban
Comeuppance
Tragic
Nerve
Mystification
Tell us below what you think of the list or, even better, your thoughts on word lists and creative processes.
