The Postmortem Consumption of Michael Jackson
Posted by Andrew Sneddon on June 29, 2009 in Blog tagged withThe saturation press and television coverage of the sad death of Michael Jackson highlights the (unfortunate?) ubiquity of ‘theory’ in considerations of cultural events today. One cannot lift a newspaper, or spend some quality time with one’s television, without being force-fed the latest diet of Princess Diana-esque accounts of His story and importance. In death, as in life,
To a degree this is our fault. Nothing seems to fascinate us like a celebrity corpse – Elvis, John Lennon, Diana et al - and so his sorry carcase will be ritually poured over by the very people who scorned him for his own alleged morbid curiosity with the remains of John Merrick. There are even rumours doing the rounds that the infamous Gunter von Hagen has a ‘contract’ to plasticize and display his remains alongside the already-stuffed Bubbles the Chimp. In the 02 arena no less. Whether this is true is almost beside the point. This is precisely the kind of rumour that should be circulating. It ‘feels’ right given what we know about Jackson the man, which is to say nothing.
One of the most inventive tributes I have read this week came from the pen of Germaine Greer who neatly side-stepped all this monstrosity and low-cultural tackiness by dreaming of
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jun/26/michael-jackson-death-in-la
He will, of course, be forever associated with the casual omnipresence of Gothic tropes and figures in popular culture, and none more so than the groovy troupe of flesh-eating zombies in the ‘Thriller’ video. Perversely, like the von Hagen / Merrick rumours this now seems to have circled round to be focussing on us as complicit viewers and consumers. As the Goth queen in Titus Andronicus learns, the real horror lies in the moment of being confronted with the precise nature of the body you’ve been eating. But, as
Ultimately,
‘The loved Jackson, the gloved Jackson, the wealthy Jackson, the bankrupt Jackson, the Motown Jackson, the moonwalking Jackson, the MTV Jackson, the despised Jackson, the genius, the mutant, the addict, the oddball, the victim, the black, the white, the creepy, the glorious, the narcissist, the pathetic, the gentle, the monster.’
I could get all Deleuze and Guattari on you at this point. And someone probably will. But, enough is enough.
Tiny URL for this post: http://tinyurl.com/2crjggd
There is a certain quality in MJ’s work that deploys gothic tropes. The Thriller with Vincent Price’s disembodied voice and its visual references to schlock horror, such as Romero’s Return of the Living Dead and American Werewolf in London (the video was directed by John Landis), is emblematic of the 80s and early 90s gothic /horror in pop culture. There’s always a transformation, a becoming animal, just as the later videos are becoming more and more about racial transformation eg. black or white.
Beautifully written, and you put into words a lot of my thoughts on the situation.
@Frumpiefox – Thanks!
@Jo – there is a good article on Jackson, with regard to race and ‘threat’ in a journal. I think its called Callalloo but I read it a long time ago. I would like to read something on the way MJ referenced other performers and mediums in his videos but I don’t know of anything. It would be nice to know if anyone reading this knows of some things we can follow up.
Was Michael Jackson really involved heavily in the concept/production of his videos? Surely John Landis, as the director of An American Werewolf in London and The Twilight Zone Movie, is responsible for the Gothic elements in the Thriller video?
I would think that the ‘monstrosity’ that Jackson embodied was, for most people, through the allegations of child abuse. This idea of a threat to children is of course a very gothic image in itself. With the child being such a symbol of innocence and the image of the grotesque, purposefully disfigured man preying upon it.
Hi Lisa. As far as I know Jackson was responsible for the original concept and got Landis on board after seeing American Werewolf. If you look at the full version on Youtube you can see the various credits which includes Landis and Jackson as co-writers.
As for the rest, whatever else, we have to remember MJ was aquitted of all ten charges in the trial. He has never been found guilty of anything ‘criminal’ except in the court of public opinion.
But, I’m not trying to defend his reputation – I was just wondering aloud about the kind of monsters he / we actually became.
Just to add something about the racial implications of Michael Jackson’s subjectivity/racial identity (cosmetic surgery) while reading Haraway’s reference to him in Modest Witness. Race in the case of Jackson becomes fashion,its the result of high-technology commodification. She writes, “science and fiction implode with special force in Jackson’s iconic body, which is a national treasure of the first order.” The racism of this for Haraway it’s in the disappearance of difference and history by technology.