DrXparaMental wrote:I believe what MJ had was called Vitiligo. It causes light patches/blotches visible on the skin's surface. It seems his plastic surgery in combination with skin treatments to remove or damage the pigment of his skin, which was his choice response to the Vitiligo condition, left him looking like more so the victim of a severe burn and subsequent cosmetic surgery restoration gone terribly wrong. All the surface level changes to Michael were indeed his choice and speak of an immensely disturbed ego. Psychologically I believe you to be "right on the money"
I guess I'm too rigid in my opinion of his changing skin color. Of course it makes sense that as an entertainer who relies on his looks, that if this condition did in fact exist, that he would need to do something about it. I've never seen a black person where it affected their entire body, so it makes sense that he would have to either find a way to turn the white "sploches" black again or just take the pigment out of it all so it would match. Who knows?
DrXparaMental wrote:Stringtapper, you are without question one of the most brilliant people I have ever discussed much of everything with on the net. You have a clarity that IMO is the epitome of balance with respect to reserve and expression.
Gee thanks
Now if I could just get my thesis finished...
DrXparaMental wrote:Yes, you are so correct with respect to race based psychological transposition. A perfect example would be the amazing Dennis Rodman. Remember him? How about the entirety of the suburban white kid/inner city black gangster emulation? (styles from prison)
To give everyone a point blank understanding of the devastating power of transposition in a non society observed condition, transposition is the extremely real psychological mechanics behind what is literally one of, if not thee most painful of experiences, that a human being can have. That being the hole you feel in you self that the winds of emptiness blow through when you go through the heartbreak of a relationship termination. What you are really going through is the extremely painful recovery of your own transposed ego. This can be legitimately likened to an immensely deranged form of addiction or more accurately, dependence.
I dig the way these musical terms like "transposition" and "inversion" are creeping their way into this discussion.
I think any balanced evaluation of Michael would contend that he was an immense talent and inspiration, and at the same time a tremendously flawed and troubled man. I believe history will judge him by the aspects of his life that he could not control as well as the choices that he could have made differently.
Comparing the man himself to what he produced reveals a mix of joy and sadness. But for how many countless artists would this not be the case? Beethoven (and no, I'm not comparing what they produced, trust me) was a troubled soul, a drunk, at times a hateful curmudgeon, a man you would probably not want your children around either. But when we listen to that uplifting blend of chorus with orchestra in the fourth movement of the 9th, we don't see any of that. We see the man
as we would like to see him, the pure artist charging through the threshold of creative experience. The same will go for MJ, albeit on a much less sophisticated (and I would argue, much less significant) level as that of Beethoven, to be sure.