The Resistible Demise of Michael Jackson

Extremely well written and informative

lecture personnelle, je recherche de la littérature approfondie sur michael jackson, mais ce livre m'a quand même déçue

I was really, REALLY looking forward to this book. But by the time it came out, most of the essays -- written within two or three months of Michael's death -- already felt dated. Perhaps this was due to the accumulating mass of post-mortem analytical essays published in other venues by academics and serious bloggers, many of which have considerably advanced our understanding of Jackson. But more than that, too many of the essays in "Resistable Demise" were compromised by their inaccurate comparison to Michael's image in the rehearsal film "This Is It."It was sad also to see that the perceptions and insights of many obviously intelligent authors had been trapped in the "received ideas" of mainstream media. . . in the view of his sexuality (a child molester), his racial self-perception (that old canard of wanting "to be white"), even his body of work (nothing worthwhile since "Thriller"). In addition, Marxist critical theories seeing Jackson exclusively as a "creature" of late capital appeared flawed by not taking into account his position as the center of his own creativity -- amply on display in the new movie, but also viewable in the recent downpour of video uploads on YouTube. I personally feel that writers who see Michael as not having produced anything vital or analytically brilliant since Thriller have just not been listening or looking.A few of the essays in the collection held up well, though. My own favorites were those by Mark Sinker, Charles Holland, Suhail Malik, Dominic Fox, and Alex Williams. But too many essays were washed away in the continuing tide of new and old materials being released and re-released as we speak. In the end, I felt, the rush to publication could be judged not so much as unseemly but as an argument for taking at least a moment to reflect.

The idea for this book is indeed an interesting one- To compile a bunch of essays on Michael Jackson by different authors, and to look beyond the trashy headlines. Unfortunately, it falls way short. The blurb on the back of the book states that this is not a character assassination, but I'm struggling to recall more than a couple of essays that weren't just that. Check out that disturbing cover illustration too- something that my wife described as scary when she saw the book on the bedside table.Also, and a huge problem with a book like this, is that the contributors seem to get a lot of facts wrong, and always end up doing the same thing, which is looking at MJ through a prism of sensationalist headlines.The tone is sombre throughout, except for the woefully misjudged and embarrassingly unfunny essay by Chris Robert which stands out like a sore thumb for all the wrong reasons.Some essays stand out and generally have something interesting and fresh to offer, like Ken Hollings' and Reid Kane's efforts. However most are written by stuffy old men it seems, all focusing on the same aspects of Jackson's life and unsurprisingly coming up with the same answers. Yes, he had too much plastic surgery and yes, he seems to have had problems with his ethnicity, but that's hardly news is it? What about the music? There's very little discussion of it here, other than to trash his later records.So, a wasted opportunity all in all, I'm afraid. A shame, as I really thought that this was going to be a level-headed and interesting way to look at the subject from a fresh angle, and on that level it fails miserably.Scan through it though, and there are things worth uncovering. I would say that a good half a dozen essays here are well written and thought-provoking. A shame that they couldn't all be like that.

Having read all the other reviews I have to strongly disagree with what they have written . I felt this book was a total character assasination.One writer was not only rude but downright offensive. It did not do the man or his music any justice. Michaels later albums were amazing and in my view "Invincible" is his best album by far. On the back of the book it tells you to file this book with your music, my copy was filed in the bin. I have never read a book so tied into media rubbish as this one.