- Hardcover: 146 pages
- Publisher: Pantheon Books (10 Jan 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0375423265
- ISBN-13: 978-0375423260
- Product Dimensions: 19 x 13 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,666,924 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
On Michael Jackson
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Michael Jackson was once universally acclaimed as a song-and-dance man of genius; Wacko Jacko is now, more often than not, dismissed for his bizarre race and gender transformations and confounding antics, even as he is commonly reviled for the child molestation charges twice brought against him. Whence the weirdness and alleged criminality? How to account for Michael Jackson’s rise and fall? In On Michael Jackson—an at once passionate, incisive, and bracing work of cultural analysis—Pulitzer Prize–winning critic for The New York Times Margo Jefferson brilliantly unravels the complexities of one of the most enigmatic figures of our time.
Who is Michael Jackson and what does it mean to call him a “What Is It”? What do P. T. Barnum, Peter Pan, and Edgar Allan Poe have to do with our fascination with Jackson? How did his curious Victorian upbringing and his tenure as a child prodigy on the “chitlin’ circuit” inform his character and multiplicity of selves? How is Michael Jackson’s celebrity related to the outrageous popularity of nineteenth-century minstrelsy? What is the perverse appeal of child stars for grown-ups and what is the price of such stardom for these children and for us? What uncanniness provoked Michael Jackson to become “Alone of All His Race, Alone of All Her Sex,” while establishing himself as an undeniably great performer with neo-Gothic, dandy proclivities and a producer of visionary music videos? What do we find so unnerving about Michael Jackson’s presumed monstrosity? In short, how are we all of us implicated?
In her stunning first book, Margo Jefferson gives us the incontrovertible lowdown on call-him-what-you-wish; she offers a powerful reckoning with a quintessential, richly allusive signifier of American society and popular culture.
Who is Michael Jackson and what does it mean to call him a “What Is It”? What do P. T. Barnum, Peter Pan, and Edgar Allan Poe have to do with our fascination with Jackson? How did his curious Victorian upbringing and his tenure as a child prodigy on the “chitlin’ circuit” inform his character and multiplicity of selves? How is Michael Jackson’s celebrity related to the outrageous popularity of nineteenth-century minstrelsy? What is the perverse appeal of child stars for grown-ups and what is the price of such stardom for these children and for us? What uncanniness provoked Michael Jackson to become “Alone of All His Race, Alone of All Her Sex,” while establishing himself as an undeniably great performer with neo-Gothic, dandy proclivities and a producer of visionary music videos? What do we find so unnerving about Michael Jackson’s presumed monstrosity? In short, how are we all of us implicated?
In her stunning first book, Margo Jefferson gives us the incontrovertible lowdown on call-him-what-you-wish; she offers a powerful reckoning with a quintessential, richly allusive signifier of American society and popular culture.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I wish I'd given this book 5 stars when I first reviewed it as since then I find I return to this book time and time again - it's so thought-provoking. This is a very well thought out book - musings - on the life and work of Michael Jackson. It is especially fascinating on child stars and what we ask of them.
Worth reading by anyone interested in fame, our celebrity culture, race and gender. I would recommend this as THE book to read for anyone who is interested in, puzzled by or even repulsed by who they think Michael Jackson is. This book goes a long way to explaining what the man may be all about. It is a book for the open-minded, or those who wish to explore this subject in an intelligent way. I'd imagine that some MJ fans won't like this book but while Ms Jefferson's language and conclusions may seem harsh in places, on reflection, she does Jefferson does come down on MJ's side in the end.
I heartily recommend On Michael Jackson.
Worth reading by anyone interested in fame, our celebrity culture, race and gender. I would recommend this as THE book to read for anyone who is interested in, puzzled by or even repulsed by who they think Michael Jackson is. This book goes a long way to explaining what the man may be all about. It is a book for the open-minded, or those who wish to explore this subject in an intelligent way. I'd imagine that some MJ fans won't like this book but while Ms Jefferson's language and conclusions may seem harsh in places, on reflection, she does Jefferson does come down on MJ's side in the end.
I heartily recommend On Michael Jackson.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A refreshing change from the more sensationalist extremes of writing about Michael Jackson and his life.
This is a thoughtful and insightful book. It is worth a read to understand why Michael Jackson's life and talent spoke so strongly to so many people from different cultures and nations across the world, though it focusses more on the culture of American in which he lived his life.
Occasionally the book veers a little too much to the kind of clever, armchair academic view of life, removed from the nuances and complexities of Michael Jackson's all too human life where reality is often messy and has too many loose ends and contradictons to make a such a nice neat story. I felt this the most when the author talks about his parents and his mother, as whatever their faults as parents, had they not worked so hard to help their children develop careers in the music industry they would probably be equally criticised for allowing them to go down the road of poor prospects, gangs or drugs. We have all benefited from Michael Jackson's enormous gifts,so if they can be blamed then we should take some share of blame.
Still, ultimately the writer showed compassion and a willingness to learn from the life of this gifted, complicated and all too human being, a person whose presence in life I will miss greatly, and whose death reminded me to appreciate others while they are here with us, rather than after they have gone.
This is a thoughtful and insightful book. It is worth a read to understand why Michael Jackson's life and talent spoke so strongly to so many people from different cultures and nations across the world, though it focusses more on the culture of American in which he lived his life.
Occasionally the book veers a little too much to the kind of clever, armchair academic view of life, removed from the nuances and complexities of Michael Jackson's all too human life where reality is often messy and has too many loose ends and contradictons to make a such a nice neat story. I felt this the most when the author talks about his parents and his mother, as whatever their faults as parents, had they not worked so hard to help their children develop careers in the music industry they would probably be equally criticised for allowing them to go down the road of poor prospects, gangs or drugs. We have all benefited from Michael Jackson's enormous gifts,so if they can be blamed then we should take some share of blame.
Still, ultimately the writer showed compassion and a willingness to learn from the life of this gifted, complicated and all too human being, a person whose presence in life I will miss greatly, and whose death reminded me to appreciate others while they are here with us, rather than after they have gone.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Despite the huge numbers of articles, texts and stories (or should I say fairy tales) written about Michael Jackson, it is very very difficult to find anything that is credible, well thought through and non-sensational. Well, this is one of such texts, and it is sorely needed.
Ms Jefferson dares to take on a topic and a viewpoint which not many of her peers would or do, and for that I say kudos to her. The text makes for fascinating reading, for those who adore the man, those who loathe him, and those who in fact know very little of this person whose life has been scrutinized so closely.
However, the text is not perfect. What bothered me was that, while Ms Jefferson clearly did her academic homework thoroughly, some of the arguments and points she puts forward are based on inaccuracies. These are small things, such as song lyrics or music video details, but there are so many of them (the majority of examples contain a flaw of some kind) that it eats away at the credibility of the text.
Revised once, this would be a brilliant text. As is, it feels as though Ms Jefferson was in a hurry to finish it and did not take time to check the details.
Ms Jefferson dares to take on a topic and a viewpoint which not many of her peers would or do, and for that I say kudos to her. The text makes for fascinating reading, for those who adore the man, those who loathe him, and those who in fact know very little of this person whose life has been scrutinized so closely.
However, the text is not perfect. What bothered me was that, while Ms Jefferson clearly did her academic homework thoroughly, some of the arguments and points she puts forward are based on inaccuracies. These are small things, such as song lyrics or music video details, but there are so many of them (the majority of examples contain a flaw of some kind) that it eats away at the credibility of the text.
Revised once, this would be a brilliant text. As is, it feels as though Ms Jefferson was in a hurry to finish it and did not take time to check the details.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Dispersive but excellent book
It is written in a very good way, it is simple, curious and sadly true.
Only, sometimes it is just a bit dispersive, with sentences and discussions less inerent to the... Read more
Only, sometimes it is just a bit dispersive, with sentences and discussions less inerent to the... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Julia
On Michael Jackson
Book bought for wife, she stated that this was the worse purchase she ever made,
otherwise delivery and service was excellent as always
otherwise delivery and service was excellent as always
Published on 5 Sep 2009 by Francis Beckles
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