Death of a Sci-Fi Icon [heroes]

Michael Jackson

Did the "King of Pop" spawn an entire generation of sci-fi fans?

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I’m sure many of you are getting a little sick of all the Michael Jackson coverage – frankly I am too. But the sheer amount of press the King of Pop’s death has attracted is an inevitable byproduct of the loss of someone who has had so much influence over the lives of so many people. Michael Jackson was more than a man, more than a singer – he was a cultural institution.

As sci-fi fans, the loss of MJ also means the loss of quite possibly the geekiest pop star that’s ever walked the Earth. Fantasy, horror, magic and futurism were ever-present throughout Jackson’s career in his videos, his stage performances and his fashion sense. Michael always looked like he just stepped off a space ship from the future, even until the end of his life (though I’d categorize that look more as Galactic Emperor than his usual Han Solo).

The guy single handedly invented the concept of the mega-star pop idol – a concept that has since taken root in many a sci-fi story. He introduced a whole generation to zombies and techno-futurist fashions. He got everybody thinking about walking backwards on the moon. He insured the brilliant John Landis an eternal spot in the collective consciousness. He slept in a pressurized oxygen chamber. He made an epic 3-D space adventure movie that (though cheesy) still looks pretty cool to this day (and inspired Star Trek: TNG’s Borg). In short, the mofo did more than enough for sci-fi to ensure a place in the geek hall of fame…quite possibly a lifetime achievement award, even.

Of course, you can’t talk about Michael Jackson without mentioning the plethora of controversy surrounding him. From the skin thing, to the chimpanzees, to Peter Pan, to little children…there was no shortage of weirdness from the man. But you know what, people? That’s what it’s like when you come from the future – people just don’t get what you’re all about and they eat you alive because of it. I mean, look what happened to David Bowe in “The Man Who Fell To Earth”.

The most important thing to remember about the gossip and controversy is that 99% of it is unfounded and unproven and the other 1% is just a result of him being so damn weird. The oxygen chamber? Whatever, that’s not even that weird – it was cool when it was in “Alien”, but somehow it’s creepy when MJ does it. Bullshit. Bubbles the chimp? That’s not weird, that’s awesome! I would totally have a chimp if I could. I wouldn’t name him Bubbles, by any means, but we’ll chalk that up to taste. Speed Racer had a fuckin’ chimp and people loved that guy. The sexual abuse allegations? If they were true, they’d surely be unforgivable crimes, but come on…the circumstances surrounding both of the cases were more than fishy in terms of the true motivation behind the lawsuits and that’s before we even consider the fact that Jackson doesn’t fit the profile of your typical child rapist whatsoever (acting more like a regressed child himself at times) and that he was never found guilty of any of the accusations.

A lot of people also suggest that Michael Jackson was ashamed of being black and therefore bleached his skin and got plastic surgery to make himself look white. I just don’t buy it. This is the guy who portrayed Egyptian kings as blacks in his “Remember The Time” video (which isn’t exactly the norm), called Tommy Mottola a white devil, almost always cast himself opposite ethnic females in his videos, spearheaded the “We Are The World” campaign for Africa, talked about the white man needing to make a change, sang African chants in his music and donated countless millions to the United Negro College Fund, but somehow he also had such a deep seeded self-hatred that he would counteract all that racial pride he displayed by bleaching his skin in such a drastic and obvious fashion and then blame it on a skin disease in order to cover it up. That makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?

Just leave the poor guy alone and stop doggin’ him around, for fuck’s sake. Yea, he was a goddamn weirdo, but so was Salvador Dali, so was DaVinci…every great artist is a weirdo. How else do you come up with weird shit, if not from your fucking weird-ass brain? You know what else is true of most great artists? They’re overly sensitive individuals with traumatic, troubled pasts who usually end up becoming reclusive drug addicts in order to cope with the fact that they can’t seem to make sense of the blatant contradictions and cruelties of our world. Sound familiar?

My only hope from all of this is that the resurgence of interest in his career will put the spark back in people’s eyes and get them celebrating the uniqueness and forward thinking vision that made Michael Jackson such a massive success in the first place. Michael was never a trend follower – he made his own path. Our culture has become so stagnant these past decades, relying too heavily on nostalgia and reinventing old ideas, that what we need more than ever is a visionary to lead us through and show us the wonder in new ideas. We need someone to blow our minds and show us that anything is possible. If Michael can’t be that guiding light, then hopefully his legacy will inspire others to step up and take his place, blazing their own trails instead of blindly following the ones already trodden.

Much respect to the man who personally opened up my imagination and inspired many of the lofty goals I’ve set for myself in life. R.I.P.