Bob Herbert offers one of the more interesting takes on Michael Jackson that I’ve read so far. The commentary so far has been a mix of fawning, celebrations of his life and work (he was a pop icon who made important and, early on, groundbreaking work), or weird dismissals.
Herbert, on the other hand, uses Jackson to get at the peculiar mix of immaturity and fantasy that has plagued our culture for going on three decades.
Author: hankkalet
Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.
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Hank Kalet 
It often happens that great artists are despicable human beings. Richard Wagner wrote great music but was a racist, a rabid anti-Semite, a proto-Nazi and had a hobby of sleeping with the wives of some of his benefactors. He was just an all around rotten vicious prick but wrote great music.