David Bowie’s “Heroes,” the Soundtrack of a Spiritual Libertine
“Questioning my spiritual life has always been germane to what I was writing. Always. It’s because I’m not quite an atheist.”
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Leper Messiah: A Jesus Freak’s Search for the Meaning of Bowie—A Critical Novella
In this special series Dery uses his spiritual crisis, as a born-again teen torn between his conservative faith and his obsession with David Bowie, to explore the historical connections linking religious zealotry and rabid fandom.
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The Transfiguration of the Fanboy: How I Lost One Leper Messiah, and Gained Another, The Conclusion
In the eighth and final installation of Mark Dery’s “critical novella” about a ’70s Jesus Freak who switches saviors (from J.C. to Ziggy), the author connects the dots between his devout Bowiephilia and what theologians call kenosis—the emptying out of the self to make room for the indwelling spirit of god.
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“My Prayer Flies Like a Word on a Wing”: How I Lost One Leper Messiah, and Gained Another, Part 5
In this fifth installment of Mark Dery’s cultural critique-cum-“nonfiction novella” about a born-again teen’s transcendent encounter with Ziggy Stardust in the 1970s, our hero Accepts Bowie as His Personal Savior. Delving deep into Bowie’s religious cosmology, we encounter Tibetan Buddhism, Nietzchean existentialism, Crowleyite magick, dimestore occultism, Kabbalistic mysticism, and — mirabile dictu! — Christianity.
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Make Way For The Homo Superior: How I Lost One Leper Messiah, and Gained Another, Part 6
In this sixth installment of Mark Dery’s cultural critique-cum-“nonfiction novella” about a born-again teen’s encounter with Ziggy Stardust, Dery traces the religious geneaology of Bowie’s spacefaring genderbender through Jesus to Orpheus (by way of Plato) and, ultimately, to Bacchus/Dionysus.
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The Church of Man-Love: How I Lost One Leper Messiah, and Gained Another, Part 7
In this, Part 7 of Mark Dery’s cultural critique-cum-“nonfiction novella” about a teenage Jesus Freak’s life-changing encounter with Ziggy Stardust, Dery considers the ancient, orgiastic, sometimes cannibalistic roots of all rock fandom—and, for that matter, Christianity.
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Jesus Loses His Freak: How I Lost One Leper Messiah, and Gained Another, Part 4
In this fourth installment of Mark Dery’s cultural critique-cum-“nonfiction novella” about a born-again teen’s transcendent encounter with Ziggy Stardust in the 1970s, our hero reckons with a conflicted Christ and watches in disgust as his beloved friday night coffee house is subsumed by the very church it served as an alternative to.
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Coffeehouse Churches and the ‘Party-on Messiah’: How I Lost One Leper Messiah, and Gained Another, Part 3
In this third installment of Mark Dery’s cultural critique-cum-“nonfiction novella” about a born-again teen’s transcendent encounter with Ziggy Stardust in the 1970s, our hero experiences an agape that is equal parts sanctified rapture and endorphin rush at a radical Friday night coffeehouse church. Meanwhile, the hippie Jesus of the Jesus Freaks reaches the big time in mainline protestantism.
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Till There Was Rock You Only Had God: How I Lost One Leper Messiah, and Gained Another, Part 1
In this opening episode of Mark Dery’s original, autobiographical essay (a “nonfiction novella”) about a suburban teen’s transcendent encounter with Ziggy Stardust, we’re introduced to David Bowie’s astro-hippie alter ego from the early 1970s, a glam-rock deity of Frankensteinian spookiness and ladyboy vulnerability.
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Should I Scream and Shout, Should I Speak of Love?: How I Lost One Leper Messiah, and Gained Another, Part 2
In this second installment of Mark Dery’s autobiographical essay (a “nonfiction novella”) about a suburban teen’s transcendent encounter with Ziggy Stardust, our hero has his congenitally straight brain blown in a late-night, black and white encounter with the confusingly feminine Ziggy during Bowie’s final appearance as the character.
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