Universe Honors David Bowie With Emotional Starlight Vigil Posted by The Onion on Monday, January 11, 2016

David Bowie’s passing has inspired a lot of tributes today — even one from The Onion, ordinarily a place too sardonic to melt over anything. Also making the rounds: Helen Green’s art piece featuring Bowie’s many looks over the years, some of the more notable covers of Bowie’s work, and some remembrances of his better moments:

In our 1983 David Bowie interview, he criticizes MTV for not playing enough music videos by black artists. https://t.co/G2ePJFcaRN — MTV News (@MTVNews) January 11, 2016

Remembering Bowie also comes tinged with the sad realization that, although we see him as a symbol — an immortal alien, an ageless Goblin King, a queer icon, a music idol — he is merely a human being, and hardly a perfect one. That’s a crushing lesson, as is the reminder that even Bowie was complicit in the abuse that ran rampant in 1970s rock music scenes.

Although Lori Maddox maintains that her decision to lose her virginity to David Bowie when she was just 13 was consensual, one can’t help but feel grim upon learning that Bowie was 23 at the time. By some accounts, in later years, Bowie refused to participate in the culture of sleeping with underage female fans — but this is hardly a satisfying redemption story arc. Perhaps Bowie was not “the worst” of the long list of rockers and celebrities who participated in the abuse of very young groupies — but “not being the worst” seems like cold comfort.

We want to believe that our idols are flawless, untouchable, and as eternal as the literal stars in the sky. It is okay to break that illusion sometimes, even if it’s hard. It’s also okay to admit that this is complicated — it’s hard not to love what Bowie represents. David Bowie is a character, after all — merely a “persona,” as his wife Iman Mohamed Abdulmajid once put it.

Store Brand Soda’s essay, “The Art Is Not the Artist,” also navigates the nuance of this topic in a smart way.

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