Sunday, December 12, 2010
The Simulacra of Major Tom
In 1969 David Bowie released his single "Space Oddity." The song tells the story of Major Tom, a fictional astronaut who gets trapped in space. While the song proceeded to become one of Bowie's most recognizable works, the character Major Tom wasn't given any particular emphasis as a persona figure or part of a larger narrative at the time.
Despite this, the story and even characterization Major Tom spread, first from Bowie himself and later from other artists.
Years later (1980), Bowie would go on to release Ashes to Ashes. The song is noted for immediately recalling the listener's memory of "Space Oddity"
"Do you remember a guy that's been
In such an early song
I've heard a rumor from Ground Control
Oh no, don't say it's true"
From the beginning, the song requires us to recall his prior song in order to understand who Major Tom is. By the time the chorus begins, Major Tom is explicitly mentioned by name:
"Ashes to Ashes
Funk to funky
We know Major Tom's a junky"
What is interesting though is the change that takes place. The fictional adventurous Major Tom becomes a drug addict in this version. It is one thing for an artist to recall a prior work, it is another to create a character that becomes an encompassing decentralized figure.
In 1983 Peter Schilling released Major Tom (Coming Home)
It is from here onward that Major Tom seems to take a life of his own. Though a fictional astronaut mentioned initially by one artist, Major Tom would go on to be referenced in at least five other songs by seperate artists including KIA (a Canadian Electronica band) "Mrs. Major Tom" in 2002 which continues the story of the original "Space Oddity" but from the perspective of Major Tom's wife.
In addition to music, Major Tom has been characterized in various shows. Notably, the popular cartoon series The Venture Brothers. The clip below features the character Major Tom, The Action Man (from "Ashes to Ashes"). The end result is a giant reference to fictional song characters, who themselves reference the song they came from.
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Well it is also interesting that Bowie's transition of Major Tom to a drug addict provides an additional layer about the whole character. It could be that Major Tom is a drug addict on a trip for Space Oddity, or any number of other things. It plays into the referential nature of post-modernism.
ReplyDeleteOn top of that the fact that other artists have taken this representation and chose to continue the mis-adventures of Major Tom in their own voice, brings me back to House of Leaves in how all of the authors within the book translate the "book" for the reader, and that each reader becomes an author in how they translate the "book" for themselves. It definitely plays into the theory that we are all authors and all texts.
(See my post about "Alan Wake") CONTAINS SPOILERS
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the 6th and final episode of the main game in "Alan Wake," during the credit roll, they play "Space Oddity." As Eric mentioned, it's about Major Tom getting lost in space. However, I also feel that the song and Major Tom could be compared to Alan Wake, just by the way the game ends. Wake ends up pitching himself into the Dark Place, where his wife is held captive by the Dark Presence. Alan goes there and successfully liberates his wife (the ending cinematic shows her swimming to safety). On the flip side, in order to maintain a perverse balance, Alan Wake becomes trapped in the Dark Place. The two downloadable Episodes off of Xbox Live follow Wake in his adventures in the Dark Place, where Thomas Zaine (again, see my post), tries to guide him back to reality. In the final cinematic sequence of the game's DLC, it's revealed that Alan doesn't necessarily escape, but begins writing again, breaking through the writer's block that plagued him in the main game, setting up a possible sequel game title, called "Return." A great song that's in the soundtrack to a great game. It doesn't get any better than that.