Space Oddity- accident or suicide?

[Johnny_L.A]

@Johnny_L.A

Does that mean he’s committing suicide? Not as such. I agree with WordMan that he was experiencing euphoria. He’s had an epiphany that he is a very small entity from a very small world, and floating in his ‘tin can’ he has almost become one with the universe. To truly become one with the universe he needs to leave his capsule. Technically it’s suicide, but in context Major Tom is transcending his human existence and going on to a higher plane where his consciousness will be infinitely expanded. It reminds me of ‘Talby’ from Dark Star (1974) where he joins the Phoenix Asteroids (which admittedly did happen after an accident).

To back up my interpretation, here is an article that explains the urge to jump off a bridge, dive over a waterfall, jump off a ferry, or whatever.

[Jophiel]

I always thought of it as an accident and the way it played in my mind was Tom going on about the beauty of space while things were going to shit. Figured Tom saw the bad lights come up on his display and sent a last message off (“Tell my wife…”) and settled in to die while ground control tried to reach him.

That said, there’s only a handful of lyrics to work off of so it’s hard to build a case.

[dracoi]

@Johnny_Ace

But seriously folks, I always took “And the stars look very different today…” as being in comparison to how he’d seen them from the surface.

I can definitely see where the non-accident interpretation comes from. It seems reasonable enough, it’s just not how I see it.

All of this is before my time, so when I first heard the song as a kid in the 80’s, I thought it was referring to Apollo 13, using a fictionalized scenario in which there isn’t a happy outcome. It wasn’t until the Apollo 13 movie came out in the 90’s that I realized the song is actually a year older than the launch, but the connection has always been there in my mind.

[Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew]

“Suicide” is the wrong word. I agree with the “space euphoria” interpretation, but that just means he’s blissing out. He has no intention of dying, even if that’s what would happen in reality. Hell, it’s only a song, maybe he really *does *become one with the universe. Or finds love with an alien.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

@Johnny_L.A

To back up my interpretation, here is an article that explains the urge to jump off a bridge, dive over a waterfall, jump off a ferry, or whatever.

Here’s the Perfect Master on the phenomenon: I have an urge to jump off a cliff. Does that mean I’m suicidal? - The Straight Dope

[solost]

Huh. I’ m actually surprised that several of you assumed suicide and never even thought accident until recently, or even just now. I was not so astute as to associate it directly with Apollo 13 like dracoi, but my mindset had always been that since the song dated from early in the life of the space program, it came from an idea of “what are we doing up there, we don’t belong in space”. The Hubris of Man kind of thing. And Tom was figuring that out once he was in space-- “Holy crap, I’m floating in a tin can up here and I’m completely helpless. Wtf have I gotten myself into?” And then something goes wrong…

[Chronos]

Call me crazy, but in my mind, for some reason, the song is inextricably linked with the Far Side cartoon about the two astronauts falling into Mr. Sun.

So, accident.

[Peter_Morris]

@Chronos

Call me crazy, but in my mind, for some reason, the song is inextricably linked with the Far Side cartoon about the two astronauts falling into Mr. Sun.

So, accident.

I had to look that one up.

I don’t get it.

[lisiate]

I always just assumed accident too. Never really considered the suicide interpretation.

Bowie himself said it was inspired by obsessively watching 2001 while stoned.

“In England, it was always presumed that it was written about the space landing, because it kind of came to prominence around the same time. But it actually wasn’t. It was written because of going to see the film 2001, which I found amazing. I was out of my gourd anyway, I was very stoned when I went to see it, several times, and it was really a revelation to me. It got the song flowing. It was picked up by the British television, and used as the background music for the landing itself. I’m sure they really weren’t listening to the lyric at all (laughs). It wasn’t a pleasant thing to juxtapose against a moon landing. Of course, I was overjoyed that they did. Obviously, some BBC official said, ‘Oh, right then, that space song, Major Tom, blah blah blah, that’ll be great.’ ‘Um, but he gets stranded in space, sir.’ Nobody had the heart to tell the producer that.”

Sounds like an accident to me.

[Yookeroo]

@lisiate

I always just assumed accident too. Never really considered the suicide interpretation.

Bowie himself said it was inspired by obsessively watching 2001 while stoned.

Sounds like an accident to me.

?? I don’t read that quote as an accident at all.

The “space euphoria” interpretation fits in with the “heroin euphoria” interpretation (Ashes To Ashes).

[Ranger_Jeff]

@Peter_Morris

I had to look that one up.

I don’t get it.

The joke is that “Mr. Sun” is what a small child or his teacher might call the sun. One would expect an adult astronaut to refer to it with a less childish name.

[Peter_Morris]

Thanks for that.

It’s not funny. I suppose they can’t all be gems. Another “cow tools” IMHO.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

@Ranger_Jeff

The joke is that “Mr. Sun” is what a small child or his teacher might call the sun. One would expect an adult astronaut to refer to it with a less childish name.

Especially moments before his fiery death.

[cjepson]

I once read an old science fiction story about the first manned spaceflight, and if I recall correctly the central idea was that, as it turned out, being in space caused something similar to “rapture of the deep”, a state of being so cosmically blissed out that you were incapable of functioning. So that’s what I think of when I hear “Space Oddity”.

[WordMan]

@Yookeroo

?? I don’t read that quote as an accident at all.

The “space euphoria” interpretation fits in with the “heroin euphoria” interpretation (Ashes To Ashes).

Exactly: 2001, per my comment at the start of this thread = space euphoria + transendence.

Now, Major Tom may actually be a moth hypnotized into killing himself by going towards the flame, but he’s caught up in the wonder of it.

In the Right Stuff, astronaut Scott Carpenter apprently got caught up in what he was doing and seeing and did a bit of off-mission joyriding. He was thought of as having “screwed the pooch” - botching his mission - and didn’t go into space again.

[solost]

@lisiate

I always just assumed accident too. Never really considered the suicide interpretation.

Bowie himself said it was inspired by obsessively watching 2001 while stoned.

Sounds like an accident to me.

Ohhhhhh…“Space Oddity” is a play on “Space Odyssey”…! Seems obvious now, but it’s a connection I never made before. A puzzle piece just clicked into place in my brain. Great story, thanks!

[Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew]

BTW, gotta salute the appropriateness of the OP’s user name to the topic.

[HMS_Irruncible]

Just going from the song, all we know is Major Tom was acting totally high and there was some communications issue. From that point, maybe he pulled it together, maybe he was lost, we have no way of knowing. Never really saw the outcome as being important to the song, anyway.

[Johnny_L.A]

@HMS_Irruncible

Jthere was some communications issue.

Major Tom turned the radio off.

[HMS_Irruncible]

@Johnny_L.A

Major Tom turned the radio off.

You’re probably right, though the song doesn’t really say that. Still, we don’t know what happened next.

Reading back over the lyrics, I think I am in the camp of… he took a spacewalk and it was so awesome that he disconnected from the ship. Beyond that it’s a mystery but we can probably guess he just stayed floating out there forever.