Turns out I’m not the only one surprised at both the intensity and the persistence of my grief over David Bowie’s death. For many of us, this is unlike any other loss of someone we do not know but love. His cultural impact is, at this writing, the most “think pieced” subject in internet history. But more touching is the outpouring of feeling from fans, the fitful attempts to express and explain this expansive sense of bereavement for someone we never spoke to. Read essay