In finding myself isolated at a diamond mine in northern Ontario this past week (picture Homer in Africa minus the chimp slave workers), I have been graced with some time to ponder over the life of the self proclaimed 'King of Pop', Michael Jackson. Over the past couple of weeks, many members of this site have showered praise upon Jackson's musical genious and his undeniable effect on shaping pop music's direction in the latter half of the twentieth century. While all of that is 'nice', I find it much more fascinating, maybe even in a morose sort of way, to look at the man himself, and how Michael Jackson, in many ways, may have been the perfect living metaphor of the modern human condition and of modern society in general.
During my teenage years I stumbled upon a 1945 film titled A Picture of Dorian Gray, adapted from the 1890 novel by Oscar Wilde (which given the theme of this article is in itself ironic since Wilde is considered in many circles as the first modern celebrity). The following description of the film is from Wikipedia:
The novel tells of a young man named Dorian Gray, the subject of a painting by artist Basil Hallward. Basil is impressed by Dorian's beauty and becomes infatuated with him, believing his beauty is responsible for a new mode in his art. Talking in Basil's garden, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, a friend of Basil's, and becomes enthralled by Lord Henry's world view. Espousing a new hedonism, Lord Henry suggests the only things worth pursuing in life are beauty and fulfilment of the senses. Realising that one day his beauty will fade, Dorian cries out, expressing his desire to sell his soul to ensure the portrait Basil has painted would age rather than himself. Dorian's wish is fulfilled, plunging him into debauched acts. The portrait serves as a reminder of the effect each act has upon his soul, with each sin displayed as a disfigurement of his form, or through a sign of aging.
Years later, Dorian enters the storage room of his the attic and lifts the cover off his portrait to reveal the horror of an old grotesque figure (see inset). Realizing his adulterous and murderous ways he vows to reverse the course that his life has been following and attempts to become an honest, decent man in the hopes that the portrait will revert back to its original form. Alas, the portrait continues to degrade. In the end, Dorian Gray commits suicide and only then does his ghastly portrait transform itself back its original pristine state.
The parallels between Dorian Gray and Michael Jackson are plainly evident to the point of being surreal. Michael, like Dorian, yearned for an everlasting youth, and in doing so went through countless plastic surgeries in an attempt to improve his image. The irony here is that with each successive alteration, his physical image manifested his psychological self, in effect becoming his own self portrait of his degrading mental state. I'm confident that you won't encounter many individuals who will affirm that Michael's physical alterations were an improvement on that original African American child and young adult that wowed throngs of fans during the 1970's. Whether Michael's actions were brought on by some Peter Pan complex as a result of physical and psychological abuse during his youth or by the pressures and seductions of fame can be debated until eternity (and in the end is probably a little bit of both). What is becoming plainly evident in recent weeks is that this was a man who was never able to function in a normal society, whose dealings with children were at best suspect, and whose addiction to sleep medication and pain killers may have ultimately contributed to his untimely demise. It would not be a stretch to say that Michael had been slowly committing suicide for the past twenty years. What will be interesting to see is whether or not, like Dorian, Michael's death will cause our perception of his image to revert back to that "original form" that constituted a musical genious.
In a more holistic sense, Michael's life serves as a metaphor of the struggles we face in our modern day society. We live in a society where the media places higher value on youth, appearance, and vitality. We are forever bombarded with advertisements showing us how to keep our skin appearing younger and blemish free, our hair looking shinier, and our bodies appearing leaner and fitter. Being young and sexy sells, with the majority of consumer products catered to a younger demographic. Old and wrinkly is dull. And so we inevitably hold dear to our hearts the notion of preserving our youthful vigour as long as possible before we hear the ravages of time knocking at our door. It is Michael and not Madonna, as some would say, who portrays so well the role of materialism, indulgence, and greed in our society. He is the American dream gone haywire, the wrestler on steroids, the porn-star with augmented double D breasts, and the loner kid who plays World of Warcraft all day. The plethora of modern day archetypal figures that Michael's physical image and psychological behaviour represented were staggering and should serve as an eye opener to the ever increasing degradation of the "American way of life".
Lastly, as with Michael, our lives go through that supernova-like time period where we feel as if we are indestructible and capable of accomplishing anything with which we put our minds to. As we get older we slowly realize that life isn't all that it's cut out to be and that we can't do the things we once could or look the way we once did back in our 20's, and yet we still fight it. Like the Jewish people of Masada, who when confronted with the Roman legion, fought till the bitter end, so too we fight that battle with time, that battle against becoming obsolete and insignificant in the world. In the end, the battle is futile, and compared to the grand mysteries of our universe, we depart this world without so much as a whimper.
I leave you with this:
One should absorb the colour of life, but one should never remember the details. Details are always vulgar.
This quote by Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray brilliantly encapsulates how many of us will ultimately remember Michael Jackson. Dorian's tale is one of morality and the life choices that ultimately determine ones path combined with the legacy that that path leaves behind. With Michael, it is important to understand the vulgar details, though in the end, perhaps as with Dorian, it is best to remember the man that he was and not the man that he became.
In finding myself isolated at a diamond mine in northern Ontario this past week (picture Homer in Africa minus the chimp slave workers), I have been graced with some time to ponder over the life of the self proclaimed 'King of Pop', Michael Jackson. Over the past couple of weeks, many members of this site have showered praise upon Jackson's musical genious and his undeniable effect on shaping pop music's direction in the latter half of the twentieth century. While all of that is 'nice', I find it much more fascinating, maybe even in a morose sort of way, to look at the man himself, and how Michael Jackson, in many ways, may have been the perfect living metaphor of the modern human condition and of modern society in general.
nice piece