Who in the Bradbury universe does he most remind you of? I gotta go with George Garvey in "The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse," except that Michael started off remarkable and ended up looking like a wax dummy instead of starting off looking like one. Consider the attention addiction element, though: every time the public might begin to be bored and stop watching, he produced something even more bizarre, and, like Garvey, at the expense of his own body (and ultimately his health and life.)

The song "Ben" celebrates the misfits of life with a love song to a rat. You can just picture misunderstood little Timothy with his pet spider.

"Thriller" definitely shows the Weird Tales side of Michael. The setting and characters are reminiscent of "The Crowd," and Bradbury wrote a number of stories with undead and zombie-type characters. The theater motif is also pure Bradbury.

I managed to catch the second half of the documentary Living with Michael Jackson and the most purely Bradbury moment was when the filmmaker got Michael to demonstrate dancing. His explanation went much like, "Don't think. Feel. Thinking is the enemy of dancing." If someone cares to get the exact quote and compare it with Zen in the Art of Writing or other quotes of Ray's, it is almost word-for-word. It was also very Bradburyesque to me when the children ran out in their masks.

Michael Jackson was fascinated to the point of obsession with Peter Pan. The children in "The Veldt" are named Peter and Wendy, and, like Michael, construct a world of their own at odds with the real world and ultimately destructive of life. (Hey, does the kid in "Black or White" dropping his dad, armchair and all, into the middle of a safari remind you of anything?) Michael could not only be accused of being a "Millie Montag," living in a fantasy world, but of creating it for others, at times brilliantly so.

In the end, though, Michael became "The Martian." By trying to do too much and be too many things to too many people at once, he disintegrated.

At last we come to "Jack-in-the-Box." Michael raised his kids in a big strange mansion, never sent them to school or had them around other kids or even family members much, so they mostly absorbed his own brand of reality, and then died abruptly leaving them alone at young ages. How much shock will leaving that unreal world be to them?

...or did he think of himself as the boy from "Hail and Farewell", always 12 years old, never growing up...

quote:

Originally posted by dandelion:
...and then died abruptly leaving them alone at young ages.

Which was also the Edward Scissorhands theme. Edward, a very MJ character.

In the popular cultural sense, let's see: Michael brought in...crotch holding dancing. Seems that every gangsta' rap and edgy rock n' roller and rap singers use the crotch holding, including the girl groups. All in all I agree with 'dandelion': Jackson just did a slow cracking-up over the years under the weight of trying to be all things to all people. Even as a Jehovah Witness upbringing, he should have known something of the impossibility of doing that and holding onto your personality intact.

Let's see, what else?

This has become like the Al Capone scenario to me. Look at all the good Michael has done. Yeah, but there is a freaky side. Makes me think: What would happen if there was a story written about this amazing character, musician, or artist, or orator-gifted charismatic icon, a conductor of great music, someone of enormous stature in the world of communication, the whole world looks up to, but in the dark secrets of his life, a long time terrible serial killer. So what will be most admired about that person?

Capone was admitted into a world of acceptance and protected by the law because of his good will to the community and his many social contributions. Can you remember any of them?

quote:

Originally posted by Doug Spaulding:

quote:

Originally posted by dandelion:
...and then died abruptly leaving them alone at young ages.

Which was also the Edward Scissorhands theme. Edward, a very MJ character.

Rather freaky that Johnny Depp played both Edward Scissorhands and J. M. Barrie! Wonder if he knew Michael?

quote:

Originally posted by dandelion:
...Rather freaky that Johnny Depp played both Edward Scissorhands and J. M. Barrie! Wonder if he knew Michael?

I don't know if he knew him, but it was widely reported that his characterisation of Willy Wonka was based on M Jackson.

quote:

Originally posted by dandelion:
Rather freaky that Johnny Depp played both Edward Scissorhands and J. M. Barrie! Wonder if he knew Michael?

I don't know. I had breakfast with Johnny Depp once.

quote:

Originally posted by philnic:
...or did he think of himself as the boy from "Hail and Farewell", always 12 years old, never growing up...

Good one! Matter of fact, after his 2005 trial, Michael abandoned Neverland for a nomadic lifestyle involving deception of his hosts, then fleeing when they got tired of the situation.

quote:

Originally posted by embroiderer:
This has become like the Al Capone scenario to me.

Although I can't see Michael being as bad as Al Capone, he is like the "Hail and Farewell" boy in presenting one face until another is ultimately unmasked. Certainly history, going back to the Medici or earlier, is full of "wise guys" who tried to justify themselves by doing great good to society or the church--like Andrew Carnegie, who built all those libraries, including the one Ray frequented as a child.

quote:

Originally posted by embroiderer:
...Capone was admitted into a world of acceptance and protected by the law because of his good will to the community and his many social contributions. Can you remember any of them?

I don't have any particular affinity for Michael Jackson, but I feel the need to point out that while Capone was famous for being a convicted criminal, Jackson was famous as a result of his creative talents and just happened to exhibit strange behaviours. To compare the two seems perverse.

(It occurs to me that you might have made the comparison with ironic intent - if so, the irony flew past me!)

quote:

Originally posted by philnic:

quote:

Originally posted by embroiderer:
...Capone was admitted into a world of acceptance and protected by the law because of his good will to the community and his many social contributions. Can you remember any of them?

I don't have any particular affinity for Michael Jackson, but I feel the need to point out that while Capone was famous for being a convicted criminal, Jackson was famous as a result of his creative talents and just happened to exhibit strange behaviours. To compare the two seems perverse.

(It occurs to me that you might have made the comparison with ironic intent - if so, the irony flew past me!)

Capone was not generally known for being a criminal, not in parts of Chicago. Not during the heydey of illegal booze. He was known as a good guy, everybody in the neighborhoods loved him. This idea that he was a bad guy was buried beneath the shelter of the common folks.

We've come to accept horrible life styles as a means to an end of great talent. People sells their souls for talent. I've heard of movie stars that know they must compromise their soul to connect with deeper meaning to their talents. But are those really talents, or just side-effects to loosing one's soul? Or a combination?

Preverse comparison? Oh come now. Have you not read the transcripts of his child molestation accusations? And will, since Michael is dead, some of these accusing Michael of molestation,
come forth even tho they were paid off? Now that is perverse.

The question is what value on the display of talent is there if it is offset by a need to submit to the dark side of one's personality, that will ultimately destroy the person?

quote:

Originally posted by embroiderer:
Have you not read the transcripts of his child molestation accusations?

Of which he was acquitted.

Dark side? Come on, the guy was quirky, but dark? You paint him as a villain, do you not?

Doug Spaulding: Come on. You can't see that he bought his way out of the child cases. Suppose you think OJ didn't kill his wife either.

I don't know whether Jackson was a molester, Spaulding doesn't, embroiderer doesn't. (Unless either of you witnessed something, in which case you should have got yourself to a police precinct before MJ shuffled off his mortal coil!)

I DO know that he was an incredibly successful music artist and performer.

I DO know that Capone was a convicted criminal. He might have been a popular and charming man, but I'm not aware of any lasting contribution to the arts by Mr Capone.

I'm not saying that one aspect of a person can excuse another. I'm just pointing out that Jackson's fame was founded on his talent and predated his quirkiness. Capone's fame is founded solely on his criminal record.

Only in America could a poor black boy grow up to be a rich white woman!