nihilist • \ˈnī-(h)ə-list, ˈnē-\ • noun
1. someone who rejects all theories of morality or religious belief
2. an advocate of anarchism
The word nihilist has appeared in six New York Times articles in the past year, including on Jan. 11 in the Opinionator blog post “Nothing Remains: David Bowie’s Vision of Love” by Simon Critchley:
The word “nothing” peppers and punctuates Bowie’s entire body of work, from the “hold on to nothing” of “After All,” from “The Man Who Sold the World,” through the scintillating, dystopian visions of “Diamond Dogs” and the refrain “We’re nothing and nothing can help us,” from “Heroes” and onward all the way to “Blackstar.” One could base an entire and pretty coherent interpretation of Bowie’s work simply by focusing on that one word, nothing, and tracking its valences through so many of his songs. Nothing is everywhere in Bowie.
Does that mean that Bowie was some sort of nihilist? Does it mean that his music, from the cultural disintegration of “Diamond Dogs,” through the depressive languor of “Low,” on to apparent melancholia of “Lazarus” is some sort of message of gloom and doom?
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