Episode 70: Masks All the Way Down, with James Curcio

Weird Studies

Phil Ford and J. F. Martel

Society & Culture, Arts, Philosophy

4.8 • 688 Ratings

🗓️ 1 April 2020

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

James Curcio is an American multidisciplinary artist and nonfiction writer whose works include the novels Join My Cult, The Party at the World's End, and the upcoming Tales from When I Had a Face. Recently, Curcio edited Masks: Bowie and Artists of Artifice, an anthology of essays by various thinkers and artists on the complex interplay of fact and fiction, self and other, in the life of the modern creator of artistic works. David Bowie's career, from the early experimentations to the great working that was his final album Blackstar, provides the book's gravitational field. In his effort to better plumb the mysteries of the aesthetic universe, Curcio penned the anthology's opening essay, "Masks All the Way Down," and it is on that piece that this conversation focuses. Join James, Phil and JF as they discuss the terrifying and liberating idea of an aesthetic cosmos as seen from the vantage point of the artist who learns that with new each work comes a new face, an amalgam of symbols and forces drawn from a depth of surfaces, a paper-thin dream that goes ever so deep... REFERENCES James Curcio (editor), [Masks: Bowie and Artists of Artifice](www.intellectbooks/masks) James Curcio's website: https://www.jamescurcio.com James Curcio's new novel, [Tales from When I Had a Face](www.TalesFromWhenIHadAFace.com) David Bowie, Blackstar Judith Butler, Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex Poppy, American singer Anatta, the Buddhist concept of no-self Nagarjuna, Indian philosopher Yukio Mishima, Japanese writer Hunter S. Thompson, American writer Lewis A. Sass, Madness and Modernism: Insanity in the Light of Modern Art, Literature, and Thought Friedrich Nietzsche, "On the Use and Abuse of History for Life" in Untimely Meditations Ornette Coleman, Change of the Century Thomas Merton, The Way of Chuang Tzu Vladimir Nabokov, Russian novelist Nicholas Roeg (director), The Man Who Fell to Earth Raphael Bob-Waksberg (creator), BoJack Horseman Richard Dyer, Heavenly Bodies: Film Stars and Society Euripides, The Bacchae Special Guest: James Curcio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Spectrevision Radio
0:03.3	Welcome to Weird Studies, an arts and philosophy podcast with hosts Phil Ford and J.F. Martel.
0:23.3	For more episodes or to support the podcast, go to weirdst. I'm J.F. Martel. James Kersio is a writer, editor, visual artist, and musician from Philadelphia.
0:57.8	His published work includes the novels Join My Cult and the Party at the World's End,
1:02.6	and he's currently putting the finishing touches on an illustrated novel titled Tales from When I Had a Face, soon to be released.
1:11.0	Recently, James edited a non-fiction anthology entitled Masks, Bowie and Artists of Artifice,
1:16.7	published by intellect books earlier this year.
1:19.3	Boasting an eclectic list of contributors, including notably Slavoie-Zegek and John Gray,
1:25.3	Masks also contains memorable interviews with Gary Lachman and David
1:29.2	the Angeles, all on the theme of the masks are personae that artists must create as phantoms
1:34.7	that haunt their work and all too often that haunt them. The book's many streams converge on
1:40.6	the phenomenon that was David Bowie, whose death in January of 2016 led James to think
1:46.6	deeply on the interplay of fact and fiction in the modern artist's life. It is well known that
1:52.9	Bowie wore many masks, and for James, he was the opportunity to reflect on the concept of the
1:58.7	mask as the principal figure of an aesthetic universe. In this 70th episode
2:03.6	of Weird Studies, James joins us to discuss his own contribution to the book, a long-form essay titled
2:09.3	Masks All the Way Down. Together, we explore the complex relationship of persona and identity, art and
2:16.7	artifice, fact and fiction in the contemporary imagination.
2:21.1	For the truth is that nowadays, as we spend more and more time amidst the artifice of digital spaces,
2:27.4	the ambiguities of public self and the private soul, a face and mask that preoccupied Bowie
2:33.2	throughout his careers and media figure, have become a problem that preoccupied Bowie throughout his careers, a media figure,
2:35.2	have become a problem that each of us must confront in our own way. We hope you enjoy our
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