Never-Never Land

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Tuesday, December 2, 2003 | GERALD EARLY

[TroutStalker]

One cannot help but be slightly suspicious of an artist who, by his own proclamation, feels worthy of public attention but who has failed consistently over the last decade of his career to capture our attention in any way that is meaningfully connected to his art.

[EggsAckley]

I noticed this morning that there is a striking resemblance these days between Mr. Jackson and Mr. Mouse.

[camle]

well? ya gotta admit that he does look a lot like a picasso...

all kidding aside, has anybody ever seen him AND Yoko Ono in the same place at the same time? I think they're the same person. there can't be two of 'em, can there?

[martin_fierro]

[1Old Pro]

Michael Jackson. If it were a play, it would most certainly be a tragedy, or for some, a comic tragedy.

[dighton]

Yikes, I've never seen those two combined.

[ThinkLikeWaterAndReeds]

Mr. Early really does flaunt his love for Michael.

[razorback-bert]

I would pick Denise, but only for her mounds money.

[aristeides]

Is Disney behind the new Peter Pan movie that's about to be released?

[aristeides]

Ping.

[hang 'em]

Jacko in the year 2010:

[Reeses]

If you read this short history on the castrati, Michael Jackson's bizarre behavior falls into place:

Many of the castrati’s well-documented personality disorders were a direct result of their disfigurement, as well as their inability to lead normal sex lives. They were neither man nor woman, but something in between.

wa.essortment.com/castratihistory_rzna.htm

[Dante3]

LOL!

To me one of the more bizarre acts by Michael Jackson was his hiring of a witch doctor to eliminate several Hollywood big shots.

And now death threats are being made against the DA, Diane Diamond, possibly others also.

[ravingnutter]

I really resent the use of the Peter Pan analogy. Not wanting to get old is one thing, but I certainly don't remember the part in the Peter Pan story where he molests the children.

I nicknamed my hubby Peter Pan years ago after he had a few too many beers and "flew" off of the front deck onto a moonwalk balloon to impress the kids...too bad they had blown it up with a fan instead of hot air...he was down for three days. He unwinds at the end of a hard day's work by playing Nintendo and plays basketball and coaches baseball in the back yard with the neighborhood kids on the weekends. Now THAT is a Peter Pan story. And to top it all off...his ex-wife's name is actually Wendy, LOL!

Seriously though, I was going to get him a Peter Pan snowglobe this Christmas, but now every time I think about the analogy they are using, it nauseates me. Michael Jackson is just plain sick.

[anniegetyourgun]

Oh my - what a fabulous word from this article! palimpsest

[aristeides]

Don't knock palimpsests. Cicero's De Republica only survives in palimpsest form.

[aristeides]

But Peter Pan is a basic myth of Western life, not the neurotic fantasy of a middle-aged pop singer who didn't want to die before he got old and who didn't want to get old either.

One can view Peter Pan as the neurotic fantasy of the middle-aged dramatist J.M. Barrie.

[Revolting cat!]

What a brilliant analysis! (Is it over the head of some?) Maybe I don't read the right newspapers/magazines, but this is the kind of analysis you'll see often in European press, rarely here. Compare, please: same day, same topic, typical American journalism's laundry list of clichés.

After reading Early's piece in its hardcopy version this morning, I googled on "Gerald Early" to find he's a quite an interesting writer. See this first Google hit, for example.

[Revolting cat!]

The author.

[Yaelle]

Wow. I kind of figured this out about 20 years ago. I realized he MUST be a castrato. The long limbs and slight bone structure, the high voice, all in contrast to his brothers, who widened and deepened normally.

Unfortunately, children are not meant to be stars. It ruins their development into normal adults. His self-image came from his singing. Probably around the time of his ballad to a rat, "Ben," his everything was wrapped around that perfectly tuned, sweet voice. Somehow, he must have gotten someone to help him avoid his worst fear: puberty. I have no idea whether he got some cruel doctor to literally castrate him or whether he managed to have it done chemically, but he never did lose his high voice.

I remember as a child seeing a film about the Viennese Boys' Choir. Each boy dreaded that day when his voice would finally crack, for it meant his time with the choir was over. I think Michael could not bear to give up that voice that millions loved him for.

His characteristics do indeed meld perfectly with those of castrati. I do not believe you will find his DNA in those children of his.