http://www

[NZZ am Sonntag, Switzerland]

 

 

Le Figaro, France

Michael Jackson: A Man Who Lived His Life in Reverse

 

"Accusing him of pedophilia when he was 'grown up' made no more sense than accusing him of gerontophilia when he was 'little.' A child (at last) when his fortune and fame allowed it, he spent his final years playing with children."

 

By Yann Moix

                          

 

Translated By Sandrine Ageorges

 

June 30, 2009

 

France - Le Figaro - Original Article (French)

Throughout his life, Michael Jackson was a man living in reverse. Usually, one begins with being a child, and only then moves on to become an adult. Michael was deprived of childhood: First by a father who beat, hated, mocked and humiliated him, and finally, because of celebrity. At seven-years-old, he was already a global star, with businessmen breathing down his neck, managers hot on his heels and groupies on his tail. It was therefore necessary for Michael to postpone his childhood until later: i.e.: until an age usually considered adulthood.

 

Accusing him of pedophilia when he was "grown up" made no more sense than accusing him of gerontophilia when he was "little." A child (at last) when his fortune and fame allowed it, he spent his final years playing with children. So we haven’t often seen him on stage. Rather than engaging in trips around the world, it was his chance tour his own world, i.e.: around the merry-go-round. When a seven-year-old has to delve into bank accounts and yell at roadies; when one begins at the end, one finds oneself at age 45 being photographed alongside Mickey Mouse, simply by virtue of having postponed (for scheduling reasons) immaturity until later in life.

 

Michael Jackson is, indeed, a being who had a chronology in reverse. But this isn't the only reason he was a man in reverse. Indeed, the "reverse" aspects of his life are also reflected in his relationship with celebrity. Michael was a global star at a time when others went quietly home to drink hot chocolate and do their homework. He began his existence at the height of celebrity, which, again, corresponds to a pattern in reverse: it usually takes years and years to gain worldwide fame and notoriety. Mick Jagger, for example, had to finish his studies in economics before becoming Mick Jagger. When she was twenty-years-old, no one knew who Madonna was. But when Jackson was 25, the world had already known him for 20 years. Here again, having started at the end, Michael would have had no choice but to end with the beginning. Hence his obsession, at mid-life, for anonymity, withdrawal and seclusion. He wanted to erase himself from the walk of fame. He wanted to end, not only as a non-celebrity, but as never having been one. He dreamed of not merely being unrecognized, but never to be recognizable again. (Let’s admit - in this he almost succeeded.)

 

It's clear that we're now at the heart of his desire to "change color": in a world not only of Whites - but made of white. To whiten himself was a way to blend into the background, to disappear from view, to be nothing but a flake of snow in snow-covered landscape. Jagger and Presley spent their whole lives working hard to become Black; but upside down in every way, Michael did everything he could to become a White man.    

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

 

 

SEE ALSO ON THIS:

Le Figaro, France: Jackson: The Tragic 'Genetically Modified' Icon of Globalization
Novosti, Russia: Russian Fans of Michael Jackson Still Devastated
El Universal, Mexico: Hugo Chavez Scolds CNN for Coverage of Jackson's Death
  

What's also fascinating about this inversion, this sought-after passage from celebrity to its absence, is that his transformation had become so monumental that to cross paths with Michael Jackson in the street (the streets of Disneyland) had become evidence that it could not in fact have been him. This abnormal form of celebrity served to provide him with anonymity. Who else in the history of humanity has experienced being endlessly mistaken for a lookalike - far too real to be true? What's so surprising is seeing Michael Jackson so poor at the end of his life. But nothing could be more logical. Since he was a millionaire during adolescence, he was once again the victim of a reversal of all traditional human careers. His goal was always to finish his days as they should have begun - in poverty. Here again, he succeeded.

 

He had accomplished three unheard-of things by the age of 35: at last he had become a child, he finally became anonymous, and he ultimately became poor. But he was a child living as an adult, achieving anonymity by virtue of his notoriety, and he became poor only with the assistance of his wealth (his manner of plunging into debt is possible only for those with colossal fortunes). He made for himself, with the force of his own hand and by deploying unheard of means, a natural point of departure. He succeeded through much slight of hand and displays of fireworks. Even his death appears as a birth in reverse: having died from taking too much medication to live.

 

'THRILLER'

[El Tiempo, Colombia]

 

Yes, a man living in reverse - but who appeared to be moving forward. That's the very principle of the dance that made him famous: the Moonwalk. That is the very definition of a revolution - to move ahead toward the past. It is advancing toward the rear. In this, Michael Jackson has not only revolutionized music, but his times. And today, with the entire planet shedding - Muslims, Jews, Christians and atheists - impeccably planetary, identical and universal tears, one can at least rejoice about one thing: that all people are suffering from the same thing. Michael has provided us, with his way of walking in place, something unexpected: the first global peace.

 

CLICK HERE FOR FRENCH VERSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US July 1, 12:45am]