The writers who shaped the world of Joy Division

Posted On March 16, 2025March 16, 2025

For unknown reasons, it’s human nature to romanticise darkness, like the seeds of intrigue are at their most beautiful when torn and frayed by the haunt of death and decay. Although bleak, it’s a natural psychological phenomenon, one shared by Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis, who festered in it, bathed in it like it was as much a part of him as breathing.

This fascination was always there, but it was nurtured and fostered by the band members’ interest in other idols or creative or literary greats who shared the same passion. Incidentally, Joy Division grew and flourished during a time when Manchester was a vestibule of political and societal decay, so while this backdrop suited them well, it also intensified their desire to lean into the shackles of a city worn down by its own past.

While idolising lost heroes from the past came naturally to them, especially Curtis, so too did works of fiction that mirrored the disillusionment they felt in their hearts, shaping their world in a way that legitimised the suspicion that most things were gloomy at their core, even if some hues when lived up close seemed brighter and more beautiful than others.

Writing the music often meant keeping these sources close, literally, on the floor or table where scribblings of lyrics were jotted down in haste, with Curtis often going back and forth between what he was thinking and feeling and the books he was reading. As Jon Savage once recalled: “Deborah [Curtis] recently recalled that Ian Curtis never read these books in her presence, which she felt was “an indication to me that he considered them part of his work. […] His books would be on the floor next to his drafts.”

While some may seem more obvious than others, like Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange, others, like Jean-Paul Sartre’s Nausea, likely helped him develop and understand his own despair in a fractured world and how you can become overwhelmed by your sense of existence, especially when realising the meaninglessness of the world and its things.

Likewise, studying Franz Kafka’s works like In The Penal Colony and The Castle likely gave him space to feel less alone in his despair towards unquestioned entities like authority, especially when it comes to the latter, which also incorporated themes of alienation when everyone else seems to be able to conform naturally without any struggle.

Likewise, many of Peter Hook’s favourite works include similar themes, some delving more into the realities of human mistakes and how we can learn from others when it comes to our own shortcomings. One of his favourites, Peter Stringfellow’s King Of Clubs, was once given to him by manager Rob Gretton “to show me that we weren’t the only ones who had made monumental errors in the club world.”

He added: added: “Peter Stringfellow pretty much emulated what we had done. Hopeless naivety, trusting people you shouldn’t, being taken advantage of, having a good time doing it and nothing stopping you doing it. It is a great book.”

Hook also favoured stories like F Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender Is The Night, showing his gravitation towards stories that analyse and explore the fragility of the mind, even when materialistic things seem to offset such mental health struggles. This also highlights how, like Curtis, Hook was drawn to stories that detail the difficulties of existence and how, even in our fight to find meaning, sometimes it’s about accepting there is none.

Many of these feelings bled into the music of Joy Division. Filling their hearts and souls with the words of others, the band created music that reflected the same flavour of detached disillusionment, transforming topics like death and decay into art that presented them in raw and authentic ways. Enhancing this was that much of this became a lived experience, with Curtis feeling exactly the same as the protagonists in the stories.

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