Like most people of my generation I too was saddened by the untimely demise of Michael Jackson .I belonged to an era when the defiance in MJ’s songs was endearing.
But when he metamorphosed regressively from a cute Black guy into a ghoul many of his admirers, including me, backed off ( If readers detect ridicule it is entirely evoked by the subject himself).
Of course MJ had issues possibly like no one else had. With a control freak for a father who was constantly jibing at his nose it was easy to understand why he channelized his angst onto this ridiculed anatomical component reducing it to a pint-sized triangle.
It was pretty much evident that Jackson was uncomfortable in his body- he perceived an ugliness that did not exist ( this condition is clinically referred to as Body Dismorphic Disorder).
There was no looking back once the surgeons began to steadily chip away……..now a chin implant, now new cheek bones, lip fillers another time, not to mention depigmentation of a kind never seen before. However, when the final picture emerged it was as if the local anatomy students were at work.
Michael Jackson’s lip stick shades would give his long- term friend Liz Taylor a run for her money. His saucer- shaped eyes and permanently tattooed eyeliner earned him the dubious distinction -–as Sashi Tharoor puts it- -of being ‘distinctly odd’. Now we know that Tharoor is a diplomat/politician, and odd is a gentle word.
I tried to obliterate MJ from my memory believing that ‘this too shall pass’…but the mystery continued to deepen.
MJ’s demise has actually taken the world on a tour of the dark alleys of the glamour world – perhaps not for the first time. It revealed yet again that the cries of misery cannot be silenced by the chimes of success.
Somebody referred to MJ as ‘low life’…now who is to judge how low is ‘low’ ? I am not equating him to the Dalai Lama but what I do know is that low lives do not impact the world the way MJ did--by breaking geographical and cultural barriers.
One question that remains is ‘what went wrong?’-was oddity in his genes or was it the ‘enviornment’ (courtesy his dad and his own debilitating diseases)?
He ‘fathered’ children without ever growing up himself.
Despite the ‘odds’ I cannot help but acknowledge the man-child and thank him silently for the magical moments he gave the world.
RIP MJ!
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Great article… Although, I do feel that it’s difficult to set limits to someone like MJ. To say that this was right, and this wrong.
ReplyDeleteMJ was a bundle of his own contradictions - of both flamboyance and simplicity, of his confusion between staying black and turning white (as opposed to it not mattering whether you’re “Black or White” – one of my personal favourites).
Greatness always comes with certain whacky sensibilities. Call it a freak of nature, but that’s unfortunately true. Like all rags-to-riches stories go, we have this irresistible urge to decry individual greatness as mere mediocrity and over-the-top theatrics. But what we abhor in somebody can also turn out to be terribly addictive. Maybe that explains the world’s fascination with MJ.
It’s difficult to define this God of Pop. I wonder if he ever understood his own eccentricities. But no matter what’s said about his private life oddities, it’s impossible not to thank him for the music!
- Tanya Thomas
Its sad that he passed away. Its also unfortunate that he developed Vitiligo and Lupus out of his his skin color changed, but almost all the western news that comes to India get tailored and restiched by magazines and partly by people and most Indians think that he changed himself..
ReplyDeleteShyam
Nice one Reeja! I was never a fan of Michael Jackson myself but was wondered at the challenges he faced as a celebrity. He will be remembered as a superstar buried in his own contradictions and obsessions.
ReplyDeleteWell written Reeja. Its true that there was a dark side to this great personality. But out of that darkness he gave the world a lot to enjoy through a portrayal of immense talent.
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