David Bowie was a mythgician (myth-maker & magician). He was a high-priest of culture who simultaneously mastered it and was mastered by it, but that’s not why his death hit us so hard.
His command of symbols and communication is what did it to us.
He was a leader of the young who represented rebirth through reinvention. As Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane, he appeared other worldly, beyond the limitations of ordinary humans. He presented to us various other personae, but significantly, he dropped out of public view for years.
Resulting from this combination of highly symbolic presence and absence is that we were left with a vision of him that was mythical and from the past. We thought of him as vibrant, young (or at least youthful for his age), vital and creating. While it’s true that we didn’t know he was sick, and that set us up for a big shock, it’s also true that we held a time compressed view of the man, pictures in our minds from the past. Look around the internet and you’ll see Bowie at ages 23, 34, 50…then quite shockingly and suddenly age 68 and at the brink of death. Here is the personal profundity that is really so stunning: the event reminds us of the time that has passed. Where has the time gone? When did Bowie become a senior citizen? Our manipulation of images, our ability to summon the past, our access to the sound and sight of Bowie from any time in his life, none of these distractions from ageing, sickness and death can remove us from that painful reality. Our virtual world gives us the power of creation, but it’s ephemeral and not equal to the real world. Perhaps this is what drives Transhumanism, a desire to control the body, extend its powers and longevity, because we’ve experienced that power in the virtual realm. No matter, David Bowie is dead, and we’re all a step closer to seeing the world we’ve known vanish into the haze of the future, left to summon our courage, gather strength and use our time well.