Stop All the Clocks – Mourning Without Object
Sharon July 7th, 2009
I have refused to turn on a tv or a radio today, or to even look at CNN, in the hopes of avoiding any knowledge of the spectacle of Michael Jackson’s funeral. I can almost forgive my friend Rod Dreher for making me know that the generally mediocre Maya Angelou has whored herself to write a poem about the death of Michael Jackson - almost. It reads like Auden’s “Stop All the Clocks, Cut off the Telephone” written by a maudlin and none-too bright fourteen year old. More importantly, there’s something genuinely disturbing about someone who has written so clearly and evocatively about the role of child abuse in her life eulogizing someone whose relationship to children was so overtly sexualized.
Let’s be clear. In the generally rather boring genre of pop music, Michael Jackson made some original, and debatably good pop music. Even when I was 11 and everyone else loved Thriller I still didn’t like him, but I will cede the fact that for people who like that sort of thing, this is the sort of thing that they will like. He then turned into a fountain of creepy weirdness, narcissism and child molestation. I think that the only reasonable response to the death of Michael Jackson is “that’s something of a relief” since pedophiles rarely cease molesting others.
So how to explain the outpouring of passion for someone, who, after all, hadn’t made an album anyone listened to in quite a while, and who more importantly, and done some truly horrifying things? How to explain the transformation of someone so totally pointless and bad into a hero – the Princess Di-ization of Michael Jackson (and Princess Di herself, before her martyrdom was also pretty clearly a freaky loon, if a better dressed and more charitable one)? Why do we do it?
The explanation is this – we love grief itself. It is so much fun to feel bad, to mourn, to grieve. I can still remember the death of a student in my high school, and the waves of grief that poured out – suddenly everyone had been her best friend, everyone had known and loved her best, everyone was awash with grand passion, eyes red, enjoying (here I obviously except her genuine friends and her family) the sensation of participating in spectacle. It is so exciting to feel something, particularly something that costs us nothing. Well, it costs us nothing in some senses – the tickets were black marketed at 700 bucks, last I’d heard, and of course, California can’t pay all that police overtime in money, they have to issue IOUs.
As the saying goes, there is no “there” there – Michael Jackson is not Michael Jackson the pop star, or Michael Jackson the boy from the silly Jackson Five, or Michael Jackson the child abuser – he’s simply an empty space of fame into which we can pour our need for saints and stories of redemption.
And of course, we have an endless sack of grief to call upon. We are, of course, not permitted to mourn dramatically for things actually worth grieving over – it is either normal or trivial that we cannot safely fish in the water, that small frogs that I once captured and released no longer exist, that we face a world of declining resources and a great deal of conflict over those resources. We are not permitted to grieve extravagantly or get maudlin over the fact that we pass on less to our children in every generation, or that we have a much less secure future than we once did. Instead, our grief is channelled into spectacles, into the iconic representation of all that is trivial about a generation – as the media prepared to run all Jackson, all the time, the front piece of yesterdays MSM page included the quote “New book says Jackie Kennedy may have had Torrid Affair with RFK.” Gee, that’s relevant – let’s also bring up the trivial losses of a previous generation, into which they could pour all their fantasies.
Anything so that we don’t have to think about the world as it actually is. Anything to wipe the death of all green shoots off the page. Anything to harken back to less important questions than whether your kids have a future, how hot the planet will get, how poor you will be. Anything to give us outlet for our emotions so that they may be expelled pointlessly on things that do not matter. Anything to let us feel passion for things that are totally harmless, conveniently distracting, and, bluntly, make us dumber just for being near them.
Weep now. Stop all the clocks. He is dead. He was not our North, our South, our East or West, but he’ll do in place of actual content, meaning or a moral compass. After all, a great many things worth grieving over are truly dead, and we never even wept for them.
Sharon
- America
- Comments(97)
A refreshing observation on the wretched excess of popular culture. 1.6 million people wanted to attend the funeral. More accurately 1.6 million shallow, tasteless buffoons wanted to participate in a love festival celebrating the trivial musical slop of a creep.
Pop music is an apt reflection of America’s pop culture: tasteless, shallow, disposable, forgettable and embarrassing. The paucity of any depth or meaning is exacerbated by the fawning adulation heaped upon a deeply flawed individual.
A handful of individuals attended Mozart’s funeral. He was buried in a common pauper’s grave. His grave site is unknown. The transcendent genius of his music will be revered and last as long as the human species. Michael Jackson’s music will in time disappear into the historical garbage pail of musical pap.
As the looming disasters of global warming and the winding down of the fossil fuel age relentlessly march on, Michael Jackson’s funeral constitutes a pathetic spectacle representing the worst in popular culture.
It’s more like we love being able to tell people how intelligent we are for not being religious, but all the aspects of modern life have almost become a religion.
At least a lot of the spirituality of the past (looking at beliefs of indigenous peoples around the world) had a lot to do with caring for nature, the preserver of life, respecting life, etc. Today it’s all replaced with something else, imitations of wisdom… a sort of craving for something to worship, to destroy, to love.
It’s very interesting. Especially when the day before his death most people would think about his reputedly perverse past. One day can change a lot.
If you think Sharon’s post was harsh, you obviously haven’t read Kunstler’s piece!
Apart from this whole Michael Jackson ‘good guy’/ ‘bad guy’ debate is the unavoidable truth that virtually all we get from the media is celebrity gossip or arrogant commentators trying to shout each other down. Gail nailed it on the head when she listed the important stories of the day, most of which we never hear about at all. Ever. Even after the side show closes down and the last straggler takes his souvenir ticket and goes home.
It’s the news we *aren’t* hearing while we wallow in the salacious that has me concerned!
Megan, it it consoles you in any way, I’ve been saying that Michael Jackson was totally overrated and dull since I was 11 years old (that would be 1983, the year my sister played his album nonstop for six months
), and I said he was a creepy child molester before he died too. I do feel sorrow for his children, but frankly, I feel more sorrow that they had to participate in this spectacle, and be used in it – how can one mourn one’s imperfect but loved father in the spotlight, in a show everyone has a right to?
The reason I’m writing more about MJ now is because his funeral was watched by millions, and it was the center of events for days – I write about events. But I haven’t said anything here I haven’t said publically before.
Sharon
@Sharon
“I do think that there is a case to be made that the quality of the art made since WWII is overarchingly lower in a number of genres, than it was before, at least in the rich world.”
Is it that the quality of art made since WWII is lower? Or is it that in our wasteful society we drown ourselves with volume, and the vast amounts of mediocre stuff published/printed/displayed as art drowns out the very good stuff still being produced?
I’m a huge speculative fiction (science fiction and fantasy) fan. I discovered the genre in the mid 60′s – and read everything in the genre I could get my hands on then. These days, I’m very selective, because far more is published in the genre, and much of it is crap. That doesn’t mean there is less quality published (and I’d match the best in that genre against any other literature published today), it’s that the quality gets lost in the vast amounts of mediocre stuff published so someone can make a buck.
Michael
@gaiasdaughter
I don’t read Kunstler much. I consider him to be a modern version of the hellfire-and-brimstone preacher, condemning any and all who don’t live according to his standards. It seems to me that he sees the vast majority of humanity as flawed and evil/shallow/stupid/lost/whatever. I see all of humanity as flawed (i.e. – human), including myself. I find Kunstler’s self righteousness a turn-off, and I consider it counter productive when it comes to educating people on the predicament we face.
That being said, I find the focus on celebrity and scandal, while critical issues are ignored to be disturbing and destructive. You’re quite correct, we’re not hearing the news we need to hear. I’ve become just bitter and cynical enough recently to believe that by design and purpose from powerful folks protecting their (perceived) entrenched interests, rather than being (only) a reflection of a shallow culture.
Michael
Hi Sharon,
Don’t think I can much buy into your “it feels so good to grieve” explanation, but I do think you hit it on the head in your next to last paragraph.
For me, #1 it isn’t grieving, it’s mass hysteria. Real grieving does not feel good, it feels like salt in a wound. MJ dropping dead just provided the excuse for acting out in the face of all those wolves at the door that the mob just isn’t equipped to deal with. The hoopla really has nothing to do with Jackson, he was simply the trip wire.
The whole sorry spectacle just illustrates how deep the do-do is that we’re all standing in.
All my courageous posts seem to be going to you these days, Sharon. Here’s another: MJ may have been a victim, however his whole reason to be was to teach 13-year-old males to masturbate. Who’s going to complain? Not the males – they don’t want anyone to know what they were doing. Not the rest of us – we know we’ll be accused of having dirty minds. This IS our culture, making gobs of money off the sexual energies of pubescents and adolescents. Perhaps you sensed this, and that’s why you are so angry. You have a valid reason to be angry.
Michael, I like speculative fic too, and think it is a genre that in some ways isn’t as limited as other genre fiction. But I do think there is a case to be made (note, I am not saying I am making that case or want to
) that the overall quality of some genres of art has declined since WWII, at least in the developed world. I love spec fic, I used to teach literature, and I read constantly, and I simply don’t think the sheer quantity of great stuff is coming out of the US as from other nations. On the other hand, I think that some genres of American music are still really vital – I think one of the questions is how old a particular genre is, and when it comes into its own – most of the great old sci fi, for example, really wasn’t that great – it was merely incredibly new and original, which is important, just not everything. A lot of what’s being written now is less original, but better. How one judges that is always interesting.
I might try and sit down and make the case at some point, at least for literature – I’m less capable of doing it for other art genres. But I do think we have periods of art in our history where we make better stuff and worse stuff, and generally, we see that only in hindsight The mid-1700s, for example, were not the fiery birth of the best of British or European literature – music, on the other hand…
Sharon
Sorry this doesn’t add anything to the conversation, but.
Whereaway – wow. I totally agree.
Ann – ditto.
Sharon,
Thank you. I’m glad someone said it.
-Bill
Sharon,
Your eloquence speaks for itself. I simply want to say:
Deb’s e-mail, regarding her son’s friend’s return from Afganistan is one of the most quietly sad, poignant things I’ve ever read.
Paul
Sharon, I had exactly the same reaction that you did. AND I got lambasted by some of my closest friends for it.
I said “he was a pedophile.”
They said “He was ACQUITTED. Twice.”
As if that has anything to do with anything.
They got really mad at me for implying that somehow this public spectacle wasn’t a sacred occasion to be solemnly observed by all. It’s like public displays of misplaced sentimentality are the new religion in this country.
And yes, Paul, Deb’s comment made me cry.
I disagree with Sharon’s very caustic criticism of the Micheal Jackson Funeral . She does not speak for me.
Michael Jackson’s songs such as ” We are the World”, ” , “Earth Song” and the ” Man in the Mirror” alerted maybe two billion people on the planet, years ago , to the destruction of the earth. She seems envious and jealous of his ability to communicate and reach people on a range of important environmental issues. It is easy to poke fingers at non white people . If she wants to change the world, she ought to look in the mirror . Start there.
Sharon,
Although I have followed your writings for quite some time, I am outraged at your commentary regarding Michael Jackson, and I’m not a die-hard fan of his either. That you didn’t personally appreciate his music and may have had suspicions regarding alleged pedophilia is absolutely no excuse to slander a man that engendered enormous appreciation by millions around the world. And on the day of his funeral? How incredibly crude!
How many consider that Jackson donated and raised more than three hundred million dollars for beneficial causes through his Heal the World Foundation, charity singles, and support of 39 charities, mostly supporting children, veterans, and disease? How many consider that, even if they didn’t appreciate his music, he was unmatched in his worldwide influence through his music and humanitarian work as compared to his peers.
I would like to remind you, and other readers of your blog, that despite his awkward life, and despite accusations of inappropriate behavior with children, our United States Constitution clearly states that a man is innocent until proven guilty. Though he was accused of child sexual abuse in 1993, the criminal investigation was closed due to lack of evidence and Jackson was not charged. In the second case, in 2005, Michael Jackson was examined by mental health professional Dr. Stan Katz; the doctor spent several hours interviewing the accuser too. Katz testified that Jackson was a regressed 10-year-old, and did not fit the profile of a pedophile. Jackson was ultimately acquitted of all 10 charges, including all counts that he molested the boy.
You owe your readers a retraction.
I really don’t care much about grieving for Michael Jackson. But calling Maya Angelou a whore, twice, is over the line for me. I don’t love her work. But why the vicious name? I couldn’t support it to my friends. You could have vilified her work and her self-promotion all you wanted without using the word whore.
What Peter said. This was awful. In my opinion you have written some mildly offensive stuff before (I recall one in which you complained about stereotypes while stereotyping a lot of people) but this tops it all. I won’t be back.
Bla, bla bla…
You are all just as bad as the media with your ranting about Michael this and Michael that. If you don’t want to hear what the media has to say, then turn off your TV and don’t read that section of the newspaper.
Michael Jackson was a very talented entertainer. Leave it at that and move on. Who cares if you liked him or not.
I agree that the “mourning” over MJ is empty and meaningless and trite, and that we are failing to mourn genuine losses in our lives.
However, I should note that in Western society, people are generally considered innocent until proven guilty, and not guilty when found not guilty in a criminal trial. We may instinctively feel some guilty and not guilty verdicts are wrong, but unless we’re one of the 12 on the jury, that’s irrelevant.
Trial by media is just another form of lynching, and I cannot support it. The loss of the presumption of innocence would, I think, be a thing to mourn.
I have no idea whether the man ever molested anyone or not, much less whether he was doing so at any recent time, but he definitely was mentally unbalanced. Shouldn’t that aspect of his life merit pity rather than vitriol? If you had a relative with OCD, who had no particular talent or fame, you would probably not like it if people who witnessed their abnormal behavior labeled them as “a freak.” Some of the above makes it sound like certain people feel his mental illness made him subhuman, and are actively happy that he’s dead. Do you feel the same way about bums on the streets who are equally insane (and a lot more likely to be a physical threat to you than Michael Jackson ever was)?
So who are you?
I wonder if your opinions of Jackson would have been different if he had finished his rumored “Global Warming” song. I don’t know about y’all, but I’m rather enjoying this nippy 74 degree summer weather in New York City.
This whole thing happened before. Elton John could make a killing by rewriting ‘Candle in the Wind’ every time a celebrity dies.
Suddenly, everyone became Princess Di’s biggest fan. Heath Ledger went from moderate star to the most promising young actor Hollywood had ever seen. Farah Fawcett’s skanky (but iconic!) poster suddenly outshone the Mona Lisa AND the moon.
And baby-dangling freakshow Michael “Peter Pan” Jackson (a TRUE pioneer in the realm of washed-up celebs who only exist to have their next crazy meltdown made public for our enjoyment and amusement) who, two days before his death was considered guilty or at least highly suspicious in the eyes of MOST people, is now innocent and mourn-worthy because he, a pillar from a bunch of people’s adolesence, has been toppled. They’re suddenly noticing the crows feet around their eyes and realizing for the first time it’s not the 80s anymore.
Pass out the kleenex.
“Well, I never believed those allegations anyway! I ALWAYS knew Michael Jackson was innocent! I’ve always LOVED ‘Thriller’!”
Except the irrelavent husk of Michael Jackson we ended up with wasn’t the same guy we loved in ‘Captain EO’. Maybe THAT’S who people are really mourning. Regardless, I find it awfully funny that people who reviled the man one day are worshipping him now that he’s dead. As if the Michael Jackson grief-a-thon bandwagon was the midnight launch of the new ‘Harry Potter’ book. It’s not that it’s even any GOOD, it’s that EVERYBODY’S doing it!
I thought the network news channels were bad last fall. Today they have completely devolved into the National Enquirer…LIVE!
Now that we’re all distracted, this would be the PERFECT time for the aliens to strike.
Oh, and it sure was nice of Al Sharpton (I love that guy!) to waive those unpaid dues and reinstate Jackson’s black card status to “Member in Good Standing” for the memorial circus–er–service. Lest we forget who he REALLY was. Nevermind the fact that he alienated most of his black fans when he started dressing like Joan Crawford and palling around with Elizabeth Taylor.
But back to something we can really weep for; so sorry to hear the cuddly polar bear families at the north pole can’t find ice to stand on. Maybe we should do something about China.
This article made me wince. Not because it was an inaccurate portrayal of a public that wastes its emotional and mental powers on distractions and superficial involvements. On the contrary, it was very accurate. I winced because the author thought she needed to trivialize a life in order to do it.
Michael Jackson was a human being, Sharon. You may not have liked his work. Fine. You may have considered his actions freaky or suspect. Fine. However, until you have lived a life from the inside, judgments as to the human significance or motivations of that person cannot be legitimately made. You reveal a self-righteous harshness here. Separate your cultural observations from your personal judgments if you would be a trusted commentator.
Concerning the ‘innocent until proven guilty’ principle that many people are bringing up here, I have a quote and a question.
First the quote. It’s from Dmitry Orlov’s book:
“Many people believe that a criminal is someone who commits s criminal act. This is not true, at least not in the American system of justice. Here, a criminal is someone who has been accused of committing a criminal act, tried for it and found guilty. Whether or not that person has in fact committed the act is immaterial: witnesses may lie, evidence can be fabricated, juries can be manipulated. On the other hand, a person who has committed a criminal act but has not been tried for it, or has been tried and exonerated, is not a criminal, and for anyone to call him a criminal is libelous.
It therefore follows that, within the American justice system, committing a crime and getting away with it is substantially identical to not committing a crime at all.”
And now the question: would you have left your child (or any child you cared about) alone with Michael Jackson?
(I do, however, agree with Leila on the Maya Angelou issue.)
I feel like I’m from another universe, having only the vaguest awareness of MJ.
Does seem that it’s sad when anyone dies, when someone does bad things and is confused.
A mixture of good and bad, like all of us.
Bart / EB
Sorry the word “whore” offended you, Leila – I think it is the accurate word for someone who has something of value to offer (their talent) who writes or performs something without merit purely for money or publicity (ie, media whore) – there’s no sexual context implied, however. I stand by the use of the term – I can understand why someone wouldn’t like it, but intellectual prostitution is a real thing – and have used it on myself, as the title of an essay “I was a whore for the mainstream media.”
Kiashu, you cannot lynch the dead, quite literally, so your claim is kind of silly. Neither is this “trial” by anything, but the expression of a single person’s opinion. The most you can do is harm their reputation – and until MJ’s death, I couldn’t have harmed his reputation with this post, because the vast majority of people thought that Jackson was a child molestor. The moment he died, his reputation changed – and I suppose were the earth to stop in its tracks and begin rotating another way, I could have a meaningfully detrimental effect on a reputation being altered positively by millions, but since that isn’t the case, I’m none too worried about it. Had I written this post two weeks earlier, I’d have gotten almost no comments – the idea that because people are dead we must never tell the truth about them is a strange one – that’s why when Nixon died, he became one of our great presidents, when, this week, Robert McNamara died, he became a tragic figure who only helped kill American soldiers because he was so sadly misled. Bullshit. It is bullshit every. single. time. You cannot become a decent human being by dying – you have to do it when you are alive.
Michael Jackson may have been a troubled human being, but my sympathies for people who perpetrate on others, no matter how much their pathologies were formed by their experiences is limited. There are plenty of people who were abused, pushed into the spotlight, misused and harmed who did not perpetrate harm on others. There are plenty of rich people who, despite the incentives to get money out of them who have never had multiple charges of child sexual abuse, the most heinous single crime short of murder – and one of the hardest to prove – lodged against them. There are plenty of abused children who grow up and do not poison others. I feel some pity for anyone who is so much in the grips of their pathologies that they cannot stop themselves who harm others, but a lot more for the others. If he was so mentally ill, there was more treatment available to him than any other person on the planet – virtually every other mentally ill person has less access to care, help, support and medication. The man had a staff, for cripes sake – if he’d cared about others he could have had enough help to stop himself from the harm he did. He didn’t.
I don’t deny that abuse gets transferred from generation to generation. What I deny is that we belittle the people who stop the cycle by suggesting that most people are powerless not to abuse and molest – particularly those with enormous wealth and access to every form of care.
Sharon
I have to drop the hammer on part of this. Was it over dramatized? Yes, most definitely. The media has always over dramatized anything MJ related. It’s the child abuse I get defensive on. He was acquitted. In America we are supposed to be assumed innocent unless proven guilty. The alternative to the trial by jury would be horrific. Whether we agree or not, a jury of 12 found him not guilty. He did pay off a civil case, however most public figures loose civil cases, because the requirement for “shadow of doubt” is much less (50% certain as opposed to 98% in criminal law). This is why most public figures make a settlement. Also civil cases allow speculation and hearsay as evidence. No one has proved him guilty of these things. We have no way of knowing, and no way of judging. I know he stood before the ultimate judge, and what ever happened there is good enough for me.
Sharon, you seriously need to take a vacation. You are bitterly angry about something, which isn’t defined clearly from your writing here, but comes through powerfully in its undercurrents. What in your own background is promoting this unnecessary hostility?
Further, you state above that you were stating “one persons opinion”. Quite frankly, your writing did not precede your disgraceful and disrespectful claims as you have suggested. You presented your claims as “facts”. Libel is defined as, “1. A false publication, as in writing, that damages a person’s reputation. 2. The act of presenting such material to the public.” Slander is defined as, “Oral communication of false statements injurious to a person’s reputation. A false and malicious statement or report about someone.”
Each of the above quotes, from you, infers and reinforces your claims. Whether a person is alive or dead is irrelevant in legal terms. You have made several comments, in writing, in a public place, that represents acts by Michael Jackson as facts, that were never proven. Just because popular opinion may be on your side does not make it “OK”.
Take a break. Think about it.
If Jackson’s estate wants to sue me for libel, I’ll worry abou that when I get served. That said, I’m a blogger – I’m not a newspaper reporter, obligated to say “allegedly lied” when we all know they just plain lied, or required to argue that someone who admittedly really liked to climb into bed, allegedly clothed, at least most of the time, with boys on the cusp of puberty, was doing something that was totally cool, because they could never prove it, and he only had to pay out in civil court.
Most celebrities don’t get accused of child sexual abuse over and over again. Most celebrities don’t admit sharing sleeping bags with 12 year old boys (awfully small space, a sleeping bag). There are a lot of rich celebrities out there for the plucking, and yet I’ve never heard anyone say they saw, say Beyonce or Brad Pitt patting the genitals of an unrelated preteen with whom they’ve been sleeping.
Let us also note that child sexual abuse is a hugely difficult charge to prove – this works both ways. Michael Jackson had billions of dollars, quite literally, and the best defense money could buy. The accusers were children, and usually the children of his servants, under huge pressure not to attack a public figure. There are differentials in power and class that are overwhelmingly on Jackson’s side.
As long as we’re worrying about libel, I’ll go for broke here:
OJ wasn’t convicted, but he was guilty – sure, there was that civil suit and we all know those have nothing to do with reality, but I’m still going to say it. He killed his ex. He done it.
George W Bush knew there were no WMDs that were any danger to anyone except the Iraqi people about whom he did not give a shit – he lied, and so did Cheney. They lied flat out, knowingly, and they were responsible for the murder of American soldiers and Iraqi civilians by their lies. Oh wait, they haven’t been convicted of lying and war crimes in any court. Still, he done it.
If I had said any of these things, I’d never have gotten a comment here about my obligation to write only to standards of legal guilt – not a word. I’ve said both – I know this for a fact. And in the same way I can’t prove it but it is still true, Michael Jackson was a freaky weirdo who did harm to children and ought not be canonized. I wish I could harm the reputation he’s gotten by dying – I will say it again – you can’t become a decent human by dying, you have to do it when alive, and some things are forgiveable, if they are forgiveable, only by G-d. I’m not obligated to do that work.
Sharon
Hi Sharon – I’m not feeling “offended” personally. I think your use of the word whore to characterize Maya Angelou is troubling. Would you consider discussing it with a friend of yours who is of color? Perhaps a writer of color? A woman writer of color? A real life conversation about it face-to-face, with someone you know and trust, might make the issue more clear. You and I have never met and we only correspond via the internet, therefore our discussion might not be so fruitful.
And of course if I am completely over-sensitive and out of line in calling you out about it, then you and your friend can make fun of me together.
Best wishes,
Leila
Sharon,
There is no such thing as clean coal ;and nuclear waste disposal is not safe.
Wow.
I mean, wow.
I have not been a fan of MJ’s for many years, however; I respect the people who mourn his passing. Most generations have icons that they mourn when they die (Monroe, Lennon, Presley, etc.) and there is generally spectacle when this happens.
Is it over the top? Perhaps, but, in a declining economy, a little spectacle and a chance to cry is not so terrible.
I agree with most of your post. I am, however, rather disheartened by the words you chose to convey your displeasure. Terms like “freak” and “whore” are pretty vitriolic (as someone else noted) and convey not only displeasure for someone but disregard for their humanity. Does he deserve your regard? Well, that is for you to decide. Others think he does and not all of them are “baseless and shallow” as another poster indicated. Some grew up with him and mourned what he became. Others just like the music. What is wrong with that? Was he a pedophile? Only he and those children will ever know the truth. Not you. Not I.
Does Angelou deserve your regard? Again, you can decide. I would only say that if writing bad poetry and getting public accolades makes you a whore then many poets (or anyone who makes a living in the public eye) could fall into that category since “good” anything is with the beholder.
I understand you find the circus repugnant. I did as well so I turned off the t.v. and took a break from the news. Let people have their grief. It will pass and we will get back to more relevant news.
I, in general, respect your opinion enough to read your blog and buy your books. I, also, respect that this is your space to use as you see fit and say what you like, however; I found this posting hate-filled and will not (as I normally do) be forwarding it to my friends.
Hopefully, as you seem not to want to do for MJ, many who read this can separate what is a very emotionally charged response from you from the compassionate and, in general, good work that you do here.
Leila, I will do as you ask.
I get what you are saying, and I get how laden the term is. That said, I honestly can’t think of a single better example of intellectual prostitution – I mean, if you had to come up with a model for “this is selling out one’s gifts in the most cheapening and blatant possible way” that would be it.
I will have the conversation you ask for, but I find it hard to imagine that I would change my language in this particular case. That may be my flaw – but what she did is so very ugly that milder terms seem inadequate to me.
Sharon
When the world lost Michael Jackson, we lost a great artist, a gentle, and loving humanitarian who gave away at least $200 million to charities. He was musical and magical .
My hope is that one day you will learn to appreciate his art, his vision and his accomplishments. Even if you do not appreciate him, many will continue to love him and appreciate him as an exceptional human being.
At last!!! Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you, Sharon. Brava!!!
I’ve been maniacally reading everything I can find on Michael Jackson’s death – but, why??? I was never a real fan. Thought he sang some catchy tunes during the Motown era, but there were other Motown musicians who far surpassed in him talent. Yeah, he was an excellent dancer – I watched the debut of the Thriller video on MTV like everybody else, and although I appreciated its uniqueness and enjoyed the dancing, never bought the album, or any recording of his, for that matter.
So I wasn’t searching out everything I could find to read about him following his death b/c I was a bereaved fan. I was looking for a truth-teller, and now I’ve found her. Do not apologize, Sharon, for anything you have written here or your anger. Every word is true and the anger is justifiable.
I’ve had the same reaction as you – why are so many people adamant that because he was not CONVICTED of child molestation, he is innocent, when it is obvious that many powerful and wealthy people escape conviction for their crimes? I am truly stymied by the eagerness of so many, who should know better, to make excuses for this man. Are they ignorant (perhaps willfully so) of the facts of these cases? That, as do other predators, he chose vulnerable prey? In his case, children from dysfunctional families, or, as you point out, of his servants? Do they understand that this was his pattern over many years? That police told investigative reporter Maureen Orth they had reports going back over a decade, but were unable in most cases to get the kids to testify in criminal proceedings? That in the one case that went to trial, the boy involved was able to draw markings on Jackson’s penis that were accurate and confirmed by police photographs?
Do they understand the modus operandi of child molesters? That they try to entice children with toys and other things children like? Neverland was a pedophile’s trap writ large by a man with the financial means to create it.
I don’t believe Jackson built Neverland solely b/c he never had a childhood. Although Jackson was a very good singer and dancer, these were not his greatest talents. His true genius was as a performer. Quincy Jones helped him produce his best records; great choreographers taught him to dance (including the moonwalk). But he had “it” when it came to performing. He was electric. I was never a fan, but even I couldn’t take my eyes off him when he performed Billie Jean at the Motown 25th anniversary celebration.
I believe that he cultivated his persona as a man-child, a Peter Pan who needed to dwell in Neverland, a wounded soul who was beaten by his father. Yes, he did have to work through his childhood, and I have no doubt he was beaten. Many of us in that generation were beaten by our parents (I was born just a year before MJ, and all the kids in our family were all beaten.) And I worked through most of my childhood, too, (but that’s another post.)
His faux innocent, man-child persona was part of his performance. The only part of your post I don’t agree with is that people are grieving b/c it feels good or is therapeutic in some way, or keeps us from thinking about and grieving over things that are really important. I think many of them were taken in by Jackson’s wounded soul, man-child performance. Of course, the cult of celebrity plays a part as well.
So your assertion that Maya Angelou “whored herself out” is spot on – every word appropriate. Even the sexual connotation of the word “whore” – given the sexual nature of Jackson’s crimes and her own experiences. And your anger at our society’s willingness to let this guy off the hook, especially coming from a mother of four boys, is entirely justifiable. (Why all the crocodile tears for Jackson’s pain? What about the pain of those many children he molested???)
Finally, let me just say I’m a long-time reader of your blog, but have never posted a comment. But it was important to me to let you know how much I appreciate this post, and to show support.
Goddess bless,
lilith
“I wish I could harm the reputation he’s gotten by dying”
Keep trying. Sooner or later you’ll figure out you’re trashing your own marginal reputation in the process.
Interesting how so many are so sure he was a pedophile. Not sticking up for him but how does one know? From watching TV? The same TV that spews forth nothing but lies and illusion night after night?
For my self all I can say is, how the hell do I know?
Peace
I take your larger point, and I think I even agree with it — it *is* exciting to be emptily and dramatically grieving, and I do find it distasteful. But I choke on declaring that any person is “totally pointless and bad”, particularly someone I’ve never so much as met.
Also, Michael Jackson seems to have meant something different to a lot of African-Americans than he did to me or my white peers. I don’t get it, but I trust that they aren’t nuts. Something is there for them that isn’t there for me.
I just came back to this thread, some of whose contents disturbed me, having seen this marvellous new interview with peak oil thinker and activist, Carolyn Baker:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnxGd_zUUjE
Towards the end, there’s some very good thought on grief. Baker talks about how, in indigenous cultures (she studied with an African shaman) they will occasionally conduct public funerals even if no-one has died, because they know it opens up things they need. (I believe Martin Prechtel has talked about something similar in South America.)
That really is ‘mourning without object’ — in any literal sense — but it has a deeper, non-specific and non-rational object which remains valid even if the grief has no definite source.
I believe the Jackson funeral set off things of that kind. I don’t believe the ‘need to grieve’, the instinct for it, even in the absence of full consciousness of events, should be shouted down as pointless. On the contrary, at the unconscious level, it may serve very important purposes.
When you are dealing with Michael Jackson you are dealing with symbols of certain things, and the idea of laying them to rest can be significant on the symbolic level which exists in all of us.
By instantly moving to condemn the (admittedly less than fully conscious) process the mainstream is going through, I feel Sharon’s approach to this question may have missed important aspects of it.
I’m sure no-one is really coming back to this page to look, but I thought it was worthwhile to say.
That interview’s great anyhow:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnxGd_zUUjE
There is a lot of truth in the occurrence of escapism amongst consumers of the most popular artists in music.
Even when brilliant writers like Joe S. Harrington and David Keenan show Michael Jackson was no innovator whatsoever in purely musical terms, it is still important to understand the nature of his legacy (something I overlooked reasoning those and similar writers’ arguments). I agree that people today have trouble mourning deeply for the issues that are critical and that many will focus on a person who had a amazing level of visual talent and significant business acumen – together it was capable of making him into a superstar. Even to very conservative outer suburbanites Michael Jackson was a significant force – judging by Thriller’s seven hundred thousand sales amongst a population of fifteen million in Australia. To the young people in these suburbs Jackson’s music was easy entertainment that they could like without effort, and which they will remember forever even without listening to it for a long time.
Seems to me MJ was a pretty easy target because he literally never grew up. Did he show good judgment? Absolutely not. Did that mean he left himself wide open for accusations? Sure. Does that mean he was a pedophile? All we have to go on is the legal record, and the law said “no.” I am chary of branding someone with a label because “most people” (whoever they are) think it is so.
He was also ill with lupus which caused a pigment disorder, his scalp was scarred where his hair had caught on fire, and he was addicted to painkillers. He had to lighten his skin to even out spotting and wear a wig from a young age. He was a child star abused by his father, and he seemed confused about his sexuality. He was odd-looking and acting as a result, and people of odd appearance and behavior often attract rumours and sometimes unfounded accusations. Particularly those with money. But again, I note that innuendo and rumor aren’t the same as a legal conviction.
And despite all that, Jackson was a very gifted dancer and performer. I was not a big fan of his music when I was a teenager in the 1980s, but I could not deny he was a cultural phenomenon. It is the juxtaposition of the two images of misfit and cultural icon that people find fascinating, probably something Maya Angelou found fascinating. Maybe that is why she decided to write about it.
[...] Astyk lights on something rather interesting in her attack on the near-constant Michael Jackson memorializing: The explanation is this – [...]
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