The Bowie Book Club discussion

Chapters 4 to 8 cover the afternoon (as of 1 pm).

Please, mind the book part you are commenting on in order to avoid spoilers.

Discussion leader checking back in... I finally got my hands on a printed edition, and I find once again how much better I read/retain when I've got old-fashioned bound paper and ink in my hands.

Chapter 4 was a little irritating to me, as I found the interactions with "the Witch" both tedious and baffling... she's portrayed in this very outmoded, sexist way (which is bad enough), but if she's so awful it begs the question as to why Billy is even with her. I know that part of the novel is that Billy's supposed to be juggling multiple girlfriends (there's Rita in the preceding chapter, and Liz in chapter 8), but it's odd that he doesn't seem to even like Rita or "the Witch" at all, and they don't seem to like him much in return. I guess the implication is supposed to be that he's hoping to be able to sleep with them...? I don't know, this angle just seems sort of mystifying to me. It's clear that he really hits it off with Liz, though.

Things take a somewhat surprising twist in chapter 5, when he tries to resign from his job and Shadrack essentially won't let him -- telling him that he's figured out all about the missing calendars and everything else Billy's been up to. (Why, exactly, did Billy never mail the calendars in the first place? I didn't quite get that, either.) This was amusing, and I didn't see this wrinkle coming -- it all comes off a very dark comedy, with the Shadrack being so ridiculously self-important and serious. And then it's kind of bookended a couple of chapters later, when Billy runs into Councillor Duxbury, who seems to speak to him as a kind of mentor, which makes it all the worse when Billy gets caught out for mimicking his dialect.

(Incidentally, the line where Billy says "I always talked to [him] in his own dialect, half-mockingly, half-compulsively" reminded me of the thing Bowie said in an interview in 1973, when he notes that he's a "collector" of people's voices, and can find himself picking up someone's accent immediately upon speaking with them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M6J3...)

In any case, Billy's propensity for telling stories seems to be catching up with him from multiple angles during these chapters, as if he's leaving no choice for himself but to get out of town, even though he doesn't really have anything set up for himself in London at all.

^ Good points Sara. I think Billy's relations with the Witch and Rita are partly about the possibility of sex - hence the passion pills - but more about escaping the boredom of the repressive world described in the book. This also, in part, explains (but not excuses) his pathological lying which frequently serves no purpose other than to amuse him and, perhaps, as an outlet for his creativity.

Nigeyb wrote: "^ I think Billy's relations with the Witch and Rita are partly about the possibility of sex - hence the passion pills - but more about escaping the boredom of the repressive world described in the book. "

Great point. There's a real sense of Billy being so closed in, so stifled, so bored by everything that he's desperate for just about any distraction. (It kind of reminds me of that line in Waiting for Godot where one of them suggests hanging themselves, because at least it would give them an erection!)

It's also a reminder for me to keep in mind that Billy isn't in a place like London, or even any major city at all... all the British novels I've read of this period are set in London (e.g., Absolute Beginners, Adrift in Soho, etc.), and so there's always a whirl of some sort of activity going on outside the protagonists that they can choose to be a part of, no matter what their own ups and downs are. Billy has none of that.

The way he's treating those girls is bad. It's terrible. On the other hand, they don't know what do with their lives either. Their only perspective is marriage and it seems quite of a struggle to achieve that too.

By the way, here is the girl with the mousy hair in Chapter 8.

Cynthia wrote: "By the way, here is the girl with the mousy hair in Chapter 8."


I missed that. Good spot.

Sara wrote: " all the British novels I've read of this period are set in London (e.g., Absolute Beginners, Adrift in Soho, etc.)"

^ Two personal favourites right there Sara

PS: (Apologies, I cannot remember which chapter this scene is in, but I feel quite confident it's in the middle section) The cinematic adaptation of Billy rehearsing his resignation speech in Mr Shadrack's office made me cry with laughter the first time I saw it. And now, c20 times later, it still makes me chuckle every time....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX6Fi...

the girl with the mousy hair in Chapter 8.

Yes! I don't think I'd noticed this when I initially read it on the Kindle, but now that I've gone back to read the print edition, that line practically jumped off the page at me.

Billy rehearsing his resignation speech in Mr Shadrack's office made me cry with laughter the first time I saw it.

"Hope my singing didn't put you off." Comedy gold.

Yes, the scenes with Shadrack in this section are some of the funniest, definitely. And the descriptions are brilliant: "Shadrack had a habit of hoarding words and dropping them into a sentence when they got too heavy for him."

Sara wrote: "Yes, the scenes with Shadrack in this section are some of the funniest, definitely. And the descriptions are brilliant: 'Shadrack had a habit of hoarding words and dropping them into a sentence when they got too heavy for him.'"

... implemented.