So I don’t know why I went and said that I was. Maybe I was feeling guilty that I compared him to Jorge Luis Borges, although who of the two has made a most lasting impression on his art form? To put it another way: who of the two has made a more lasting impression on you? I heard a bit of “I’ll Be There” on a television ad last night and I had to try not to cry.

But the article that convinced me to take up the subject again? This one, which links to this one.

He dubbed himself the King of Pop, which was a pretty daring act. Previously in our culture, the King of Jazz was Paul Whiteman and the King of Swing Benny Goodman and the King of Rock and Roll was Elvis Presley, all white men. This, in a way, radically redefined the black performer’s relation to music, made Jackson an auteur. In this way, Jackson may have paved the way for Obama in the sense of black man as auteur and self-mythmaker.

From Jackson the Mythmaker to Jackson the Kingmaker? In his own area of expertise, and to a proportionate degree, of course.