2 Am I Nowhere Now? Hoping for Utopia in David Bowie’s Lazarus

This chapter analyzes themes of hope in David Bowie’s musical output and their correlation to Ernst Bloch’s conception of utopia by examining the song “No Plan” as it appears in the musical play Lazarus (2015). Bloch ruminated on the ways that hope and the human drive for freedom and satisfaction manifest in our present. Bloch also asserted that music has the most utopian promise, as it has immediate, affective potency to convey the “not yet.” I assert Bowie’s Lazarus performs that same function, celebrating a future that has not yet occurred, but has been made manifest in the music. “No Plan” and Lazarus present an affirmation of the utopian potential that can be achieved when an individual embraces hope and agency. By doing so, the play performs utopian work, providing audiences an emotional experience of the way in which a better world can be achieved.