Starting today, hecklerspray will be endeavour to uncover the internet’s most tasteless efforts to cash in on Michael Jackson’s death…
To some, Michael Jackson will be an iconic popstar. To others he’ll be the walking hollow-faced freakshow who dangled his baby off a balcony that time. But for culture theorist Christopher Dewdney, Michael Jackson was none of these things. To Christopher Dewdney, Michael Jackson was a radical transhumanist biotech self-engineer.
We know this because earlier today we received a jaw-dropping press release asking ‘Was Michael Jackson a radical transhumanist biotech self-engineer?’ – it’s in full after the jump…
From: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Fri, Jun 26, 2009 at 7:34 AM
Subject: Was Michael Jackson a radical transhumanist biotech self-engineer?
To: hecklerspray“For me, Michael Jackson represents a sort of pioneer of self-transformation…” argues Christopher Dewdney, culture theorist and author of Last Flesh: Life in the Transhuman Era.? “The freedom to choose all your ‘inherited’ features, both familial and racial, will probably become an intrinsic part of the transhuman era.”
Michael Jackson “has taken us by proxy to the frontier of what is currently possible with cosmetic surgery and he has even escaped the constraints of race by lightening his skin color,” argues Dewdney. But he worries that given the power to choose, people will simply mimic mainstream celebrities, citing Botox as “a dreadful symptom of a new, radical mundanity enabled by biotechnology.”
His original vision — that explorers would “morph ourselves into elongated, blue-skinned, orange-haired, sixteen-fingered geniuses or perhaps flying ribbons of sensual bliss that performed acrobatic choreographies above the sunset” –turned out to be very unpopular.
And — unlike Michael Jackson’s strange flirtations with cosmetic surgery — “Individuality or creative improvisation is the last thing most people want.”
Genius. Also, while we’re here, we see that eBay has started to list actual commemorative newspapers featuring front pages announcing Michael Jackson’s death at the low, low Buy It Now price of $15. They’d be today’s newspapers, then. That people can go outside and buy today. From a shop. For probably a bit less than $15.
You people. You’re the best. We mean that.
More Michael Jackson Ghoulwatch soon…
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