Noah, this is by far the best analysis of his death and all the hoopla I've seen.
I was bewildered by all the tearful twitters and facebook status messages I was seeing. I seem to remember the only mentions I've seen of MJ in the past 10 (more?) years referencing him as a pedophile, a "freak," and a guy who hangs babies over the balcony. Regardless of what I think of him--that's been the MJ the media has presented. And now it's like he died in 1992, just as you've noted. It's all very odd. (My thoughts of him, actually, are just as you've outlined here--first real celebrity I was aware of.)
As a side note, it makes me very sad sometimes to see who gets the "outpouring of grief" in our culture/world/society and who suffers/dies unnoticed.
yeah, I'm with you & Marjorie. The whole thing is very strange.
Regarding the lost childhood thing, though, when that documentary about him came out several years ago (maybe around 2002?), I remember seeing him interviewed talking about how he was so popular when he was child, and then he hit puberty and his fans didn't like him anymore. He wasn't cute anymore. So it seems to me (armchair psychologist that I am), that the whole Peter Pan thing was him trying to get back to the child that everyone loved. So, any mourning I'm doing (and frankly, I don't really care that much and am baffled too that everyone seems so distraught about his death) is about the entire trajedy of his f'd up life.
But the man did record some brilliant, brilliant songs, it's true.
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