11.20.2003
the long hangover of michael
with michael jackson on the run, i can't help but find strange the amount of pity people continue to feel for him. the bits and pieces i've absorbed (from sources ranging from cnn & yahoo news to chit chat with taxi drivers) make him look increasingly guilty, and frankly, the bizarre, brutal documentary from several months back left me with little doubt to begin with. and yet, the pity still pours out. personally, i find him neither more nor less unfortunate than any other mentally ill celebrity, and i'd chalk the cultural reaction up to "cult of personality" if it wasn't so strangely melancholic.
so i'm wondering what it is about michael that provokes this outpour of compassion. in a sense, it almost reverses the logic of the typical nightly news, which (in my opinion) is too often centered around the pleasure of punishing/condemning urban, african american men (not that i see our reaction to michael as particularly progressive). is it his face? after all, charles manson is weird looking too, but our attraction to him steered more to the cowboy/outlaw stereotype. no pathos. and it certainly isn't his "feed the world" style philanthropy, as our hatred for any number of fallen televangelists will show. maybe we all just love "wanna be startin something"...
to me, the ornate dog-and-pony show of michael-in-the-media has the peculiar resonance of an ill-written fairy tale. this is, honestly, why i think that the current "scandal" is worth mentioning at all. like the unfortunate recipient of a storybook's morality, jackson is doomed to the banality of excess. his taut skin is the perfect "dorian gray" to the thriving id of a millenial consumer. if edward gorey were to interpret the winchester mansion story, he might situate it at the "neverland" ranch. jackson is like pinocchio becoming a donkey.
i grew up with jackson's music. i can remember my first cassette tape had a dub of "thriller" on one side of it. i'd imagine a lot of people my age developed an affection for him at a vulnerable age, and it's taken a heavy dose of tabloid pornography to feel any sort of resentment towards him. and now, for whatever reason, we're again bombarded with his android face, this time linked irrevocably to two of our final cultural taboos (namely molestation and pedophilia). it's funny how all the conversations i hear about this seem a bit sad. especially the jokey ones. in the end, someone always expresses a little bewilderment. the current dialogue seems strange and sincere. it's as if the media has unleashed a new kind of ruin.
so i'm wondering what it is about michael that provokes this outpour of compassion. in a sense, it almost reverses the logic of the typical nightly news, which (in my opinion) is too often centered around the pleasure of punishing/condemning urban, african american men (not that i see our reaction to michael as particularly progressive). is it his face? after all, charles manson is weird looking too, but our attraction to him steered more to the cowboy/outlaw stereotype. no pathos. and it certainly isn't his "feed the world" style philanthropy, as our hatred for any number of fallen televangelists will show. maybe we all just love "wanna be startin something"...
to me, the ornate dog-and-pony show of michael-in-the-media has the peculiar resonance of an ill-written fairy tale. this is, honestly, why i think that the current "scandal" is worth mentioning at all. like the unfortunate recipient of a storybook's morality, jackson is doomed to the banality of excess. his taut skin is the perfect "dorian gray" to the thriving id of a millenial consumer. if edward gorey were to interpret the winchester mansion story, he might situate it at the "neverland" ranch. jackson is like pinocchio becoming a donkey.
i grew up with jackson's music. i can remember my first cassette tape had a dub of "thriller" on one side of it. i'd imagine a lot of people my age developed an affection for him at a vulnerable age, and it's taken a heavy dose of tabloid pornography to feel any sort of resentment towards him. and now, for whatever reason, we're again bombarded with his android face, this time linked irrevocably to two of our final cultural taboos (namely molestation and pedophilia). it's funny how all the conversations i hear about this seem a bit sad. especially the jokey ones. in the end, someone always expresses a little bewilderment. the current dialogue seems strange and sincere. it's as if the media has unleashed a new kind of ruin.
