{"id":62900,"date":"2019-03-25T00:12:38","date_gmt":"2019-03-24T18:42:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/?p=62900"},"modified":"2019-03-25T00:12:38","modified_gmt":"2019-03-24T18:42:38","slug":"watching-neverland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/2019\/03\/25\/watching-neverland\/","title":{"rendered":"Watching \u2018Neverland\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n[Monday Musing]<\/strong><\/p>\n

[Asok Pillai]<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a kid growing up in the \u201880s, I was, like millions across the globe, a star-struck Michael Jackson fan. As if mirroring Wade Robson and James Safechuck, in an unremarkable little town on this side of the world, I bought a videocassette of The Making of Thriller<\/em>, and I must have seen it dozens of times, trying to ape Jackson\u2019s mannerisms and dance moves. My dancing skills were certainly not up there with other Jackson fans\u2019, but they weren\u2019t all that bad, either. (Not to put too fine a point on it, I can still do the moonwalk when I\u2019m sufficiently drunk.)<\/p>\n

When it came to music, Michael Jackson\u2019s songs, with their post-disco, rock and funk beats \u2013 particularly his ballads – unwaveringly stood second on my list of choices (country\/bluegrass being the first). I would try to sing along with his songs like Off the Wall<\/em>, Human Nature<\/em>, Farewell My Summer Love<\/em>, and, later, Man in the Mirror<\/em>. I never could hit the high notes, but I knew the lyrics word for word.<\/p>\n

After Thriller<\/em> was released in 1982, Jackson gained a cult stature; he became a demigod, a figure of worship, almost a surreal being. For better or worse, I was one of those who wanted to sing like Jackson, dress like Jackson, walk and talk like Jackson\u2026 not that I succeeded.<\/p>\n

Then, as Phil Collins sang, something happened on the way to heaven. Jackson\u2019s seventh studio album, Bad<\/em>, was released in 1987. When the video of the title track was telecast during the 1988 Grammy Awards season, I failed to identify with Jackson\u2019s looks, his dress, or his music. Looking back, I figure it must have been because by that time I had ceased seeing him in isolation, as a haloed icon smiling down from a gilded picture frame. I was staying in a boarding school, where I was introduced to several other genres of music, and, being in the process of learning how to appreciate music in its diverse forms, I guess I had matured as a listener.<\/p>\n

The years went by, Michael Jackson started becoming weirder and whiter, and his music\u2019s rhythms began bearing more and more of a staccato quality, as if keeping up with the android-like appearance Jackson was apparently working hard to achieve. By the time he announced his concert residency, This Is It<\/em>, in March 2009, he was looking like a mannequin with a wig on. He was reportedly deep in debt, and was scheduled to do 50 concerts at London\u2019s O2 Arena to pay it off. The concerts never happened. Michael Jackson died on 25 June, 2009.<\/p>\n

As I write, I have just seen the first part of HBO\u2019s documentary, Leaving Neverland<\/em>, which was released earlier this year. I\u2019m not sure if I can stomach the second part, but I intend to plough my way through to its end.<\/p>\n

Wade Robson and James Safechuck are the subjects of the documentary \u2013 two former child performers who describe, in graphic detail, how Michael Jackson allegedly groomed them and sexually abused them as children. The alleged abuse began when Robson was 7 and Safechuck was 10.<\/p>\n

Whether or not the allegations are true, one thing is for sure: this documentary is tailor-made for the #MeToo era. That\u2019s my first impression. It doesn\u2019t show too much of Michael Jackson himself, and it doesn\u2019t feature any interview with Jackson\u2019s family members to learn their side of the story. Its maker, Dan Reed\u2019s approach is decidedly biased. Reed explained that it is so because the documentary is \u201cnot about Michael Jackson\u201d but about the larger issue of the survivors of child sex abuse \u2013 even though Jackson is the centre-point of Reed\u2019s spin.<\/p>\n

Leaving Neverland<\/em> has attracted fire and fury like the world of entertainment has never seen before, coming as it does in the wake of another documentary about another superstar accused of abuse, R&B singer R Kelly. Warriors are still fighting on the social media, rapping on Michael Jackson and offering thoughts and prayers to the alleged victims. The intensity of their hatred is matched scale for scale by Jackson\u2019s fans, pointing out that Robson and Safechuck were the same people who had testified in the court, as adults, in favour of Michael Jackson in earlier charges of child abuse which had been brought against the singer. Jackson had been exonerated on all counts on the strength of the testimonies of Robson, Safechuck, and former child actor Macaulay Culkin.<\/p>\n

So, were they lying then, or are they lying now? That is the question to grapple with. Was Jackson, in truth, guilty of the crimes he is being accused of posthumously? This is a cloud of suspense which will not be lifted until there emerges concrete evidence, either from the accusers (that he did it) or the Michael Jackson estate (that he didn\u2019t).<\/p>\n

All said and done, however, Michael Jackson is not alive anymore, and we\u2019ll never know how he would have defended himself this time. Sitting at a computer, in a small corner of this overgrown town on this side of the world, I am watching a video on YouTube. A young Michael Jackson \u2013 then himself a black child with an Afro haircut and a wide nose \u2013 is singing Who\u2019s Loving You<\/em>?… and I cannot bring myself to believe that the same child could have grown up into the man his accusers say he was.<\/p>\n

And, watching Neverland<\/em>, a question bubbles up to the fore of my mind: Good or evil, black or white, angel or monster\u2026 what kind of man did Michael Jackson see in the mirror?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Monday Musing] [Asok Pillai] As a kid growing up in the \u201880s, I was, like millions across the globe, a star-struck Michael Jackson fan. As if mirroring Wade Robson and James Safechuck, in an unremarkable little town on this side of the world, I bought a videocassette of The Making of Thriller, and I must […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-62900","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-monday-musing","7":"category-state-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62900\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}