Indiana - The Final Word

As well as being my final word on Indiana, this blog post marks my 200th entry on Learning about the World!  It's been almost four years since I started writing this blog and I sense that that is a reasonable amount of time in blog years.  With almost 26,000 page views from 141 countries, I'm quite happy with the way this blog has developed.  The 141st country the blog got a hit from, in April of this year, was Guatemala, which also happens to be the very first country I blogged about in September 2009.

A summary of the themes

It's taken a while to research and blog about Indiana - mostly because myself and my partner moved to a new flat at the end of April, so we were busy packing, unpacking and setting up our new home.  Nevertheless, I somehow found time to learn about Indiana being the Crossroads of America.  I learned about the Jackson 5 and Dr Kinsey's ground-breaking research on human sexuality.  I read Slaughterhouse 5 by one of Indiana's most famous writers, Kurt Vonnegut.  The very first meal I cooked in our new home was the Indiana dish - Pork Tenderloin sandwich. 

Tools for research

I read three books as part of my research about Indiana:

Research for Indiana blog posts

Slaughterhouse-Five, or the Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death (1969) Kurt Vonnegut

You Are Not Alone: Michael, Through a Brother's Eyes (2011) Jermaine Jackson

Alfred C. Kinsey: Sex - the Measure of All Things - A Biography (1999) Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy

I also watched quite a few movies set in Indiana, including:

Breaking Away (1979) directed by Peter Yates - I'd seen this incredibly poignant and funny movie when I was in my early teens and I remember trying to teach myself Italian after seeing this movie.  It was a real joy to see it again through adult eyes. 

A History of Violence (2005) directed by David Cronenberg - East Coast gangsters arrive in small town Indiana determined to make life hell for coffee-shop owner Tom Stall (played by Viggo Mortensen).  I quite enjoyed this thriller and probably wouldn't have watched it, if I wasn't blogging about Indiana.

Slaughterhouse-Five (1972) directed by George Roy Hill - I'm really glad they made a film version in the '70's, as I think it would be impossible nowadays to make this movie, in the way Hill did - I loved this interpretation of the book - it's quite odd and psychedelic and I think it complements the novel well. 

Hoosiers (1986) directed by David Anspaugh and starring Gene Hackman and Dennis Hopper.  It's also a movie of its era - an enjoyable 'underdog' story about a basketball team from a small town in Indiana who make it to the state championship finals.  A real feel-good movie, perfect for whiling away a rainy Sunday afternoon!




Bloomington (2010) directed by Fernanda Cardoso - a mediocre 'coming of age' story about a young celebrity who tries to escape the pressures of California by studying at Bloomington university in Indiana - she falls in love with one of her professors and they have a fraught relationship that I found very unbelievable - still, all in the name of research!

As well as listening to lots of Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson albums, I listened to three of Indiana's most famous musical artists; John Mellencamp, Axl Rose from Guns'N'Roses and Cole Porter. 

Mellencamp was a name I'd heard of, but this was the first time I listened to his music - it's definitely enjoyable and reminded me a lot of Bob Dylan. 

Guns N'Roses are a band that I grew up with, although I've never been much of a fan - Guns N'Roses fans in my school tended to be homophobic, right-wing bullies and there used to be quite a bit of rivalry between the rockers and Goths (like me) who listened to The Cure.  Having said that, with the distance of time and adulthood, I was surprised to find that I know their music quite well and - guilty pleasure - I've enjoyed re-discovering their greatest hits (although I'll be loyal to The Cure until the end!)




And I absolutely adore Cole Porter's music - he was such a prolific and talented artist.  I'd no idea that he was born in Indiana and only found out towards the end of my initial research, otherwise I would definitely have spent more time researching his eccentric and wildly artistic life!

It's fair to say that I've been spoilt for choice this time, with lots to read, listen to and watch. 

Other themes

If I'd had more time, I would have looked into the following additional themes:

German-Americans
Algonquian languages
Ghost legends of the Mid-West
Former Indian names for US cities
The Ku Klux Klan, who had their first headquarters in Indiana
Private Slovik
Great inventors
Basketball

Dinner party trivia

And I learned some trivia which will come in handy for dinner parties:

People from Indiana are called Hoosiers which comes from the dialect of English spoken in Cumbria and is believed to mean 'hill folk'
Fort Wayne was built on the site of the (Native-American) Miami capital, called Kekionga
The fridge, calculator and jukebox were all invented in Indiana
Fort Wayne has the US's highest population of Burmese-Americans
The first professional basketball game was played in Fort Wayne in 1871
There are more than 1,000 lakes in Indiana
The pharmaceutical giant, Eli Lilly and Company is based in Indianapolis
The largest coal mine in the US is in Indiana
Indianapolis is the least segregated city in the northern US

In the News

Whilst Oklahoma has been recovering from a terrible series of tornadoes, I've noticed the following news stories related to Indiana:

Sullivan High school traditional prom bans gay students

Gunman scare at Indianapolis university

Extreme weather conditions (blizzards and floods) in the state

School voucher system upheld by Supreme Court

Indianapolis voted as one of the worst-dressed cities in the US

45 years since the death of Martin Luther King - Indianapolis the only major city not to break out in riots at the news

Paul McCartney to play Indianapolis

Death of Otis R. Bowen, 44th Governor of Indiana

The Final word in Underdogs

One thing I learnt about Indiana (and the Mid-West in general) is that people there love a good underdog story.  Whether it's the cyclists in Breaking Away or the basketball players in Hoosiers - the story of small town athletes making it big touches on something that seems to run deep in the mid-Western psyche.  I guess it's a bit like 'middle-child syndrome' - the mid-Western states live in the shadow of their more famous east-coast (New England) and west-coast (California) compatriots.  I've noticed a similar theme in the popular TV show Glee, although this is set in neighbouring Ohio. 

I guess then Hoosiers will be happy with the outcome of last weekend's Indy 500 car race.  It's hard to blog about Indiana and not acknowledge the importance of the Indy 500 - the World's Greatest Spectacle in Racing.  Every year racing drivers from all over the world compete in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway - driving 500 miles in 200 laps of the speedway - it sounds fast, furious and exciting!

This year's winner was Tony Kanaan who is Brazilian, of Lebanese descent.  It took 12 attempts at the Indy 500 before Tony could claim the title - a true underdog story, if ever I heard one!

Well, here's to the next 200 blog posts - up next, J . . .

Image credits

The image of the book covers was taken by me.

The Hoosiers trailer and Guns 'N'Roses videos are from YouTube. 

Indiana - Sex in America

Although he was a very well-known figure during the 1950's, I might never have heard about Professor Kinsey's research into sexual behaviour, had it not been for Bill Condon's movie Kinsey (2004) starring Liam Neeson.  As part of my research, I also read Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy's Alfred C.Kinsey - A Biography: Sex, the Measure of all Things (1999), a very sympathetic portrayal of this ground-breaking scientist.

What's so embarrassing about sex?

The study of sexual behaviour is a fascinating subject area, incredibly relevant when trying to understand other people's cultures - yet, it is an area of study that carries a lot of 'baggage'; taboo, ignorance, (a)morality and downright animosity.  I don't consider myself to be a prude, but I did feel a bit self-conscious reading Kinsey's biography on public transport (with the word Sex prominent on the cover).  Strangely enough, the only other time I've felt like this was when I was doing research on alleged cannibalism in the South Pacific.

What is it about sex that shocks people so much?  Surely, it's an incredibly important aspect of human culture that every one of us is involved with?  Well, coming from Ireland, a nation that was incredibly sexually repressed when I was growing up (although I hope things have moved on a bit since then!), I can really relate to the sexual repression that Kinsey fought against for most of his adult life.  People suffer terribly because of the sexual laws of their particular society and not much of it makes sense.  Understanding another culture's attitude towards sex, means understanding the historical/cultural values that have defined 'morality' in that particular society.

Kinsey's crusade

Cerne Abbas giant from Wikicommons

Despite the importance of his work, Kinsey was questioned, undermined and morally castigated in ways that few other scientists have had to endure.  Perhaps if he'd stuck to his first great passion, the study of gall wasps, then he might have had a much quieter life, as just any other professor in Bloomington, Indiana! I'm sure, he wouldn't have achieved as much fame with his study of gall wasps, as he has done through his research into human sexual behavious and perhaps he wouldn't have lost his own sexual inhibitions and explored his own sexuality, as he did? 

From what I've seen and read, it seems as though he was an eccentric character; stubborn, passionate and determined in his pursuit of a greater understanding of this key area of human life.  He may well have been ahead of his time and despite the constant attempts by the religious 'right' to turn back the clock, Western society, in general, seems to be moving forward in terms of understanding human sexuality, although there is still a long way to go.

Misconceptions about sex

One of the most interesting things I learned from reading Kinsey's biography was that the 'missionary position' - woman on her back, man lying on top, facing her - such an accepted 'norm', certainly in Anglo-Saxon culture, is perhaps the most unnatural position for a woman to start with.  Kinsey got interested in sex research because of problems he had with his own wife, when they first got married.  For many women, the first experience of sex was off-putting, painful because of the deeper level of penetration that the missionary position permits.  Kinsey argued that a much more natural position for male-female couples is 'woman on top, man on his back' - this way the woman can control the level of penetration and do what feels most comfortable and enjoyable for her.

I realised that the 'traditional' missionary position is something that has been imposed on male-female couples by a male-dominated, religious society.  As with female castration in parts of Africa, the missionary position was encouraged, to ensure that women didn't enjoy sex too much and also because this position reinforces man's dominating role over his female partner.  Not surprisingly, it worked and many of our mothers and grandmothers led lives that were sexually unfulfilled.

Anyone's crime?



The Death of Hyacinth by Alexander Kiselev

One of the things that shocked people so much, when Kinsey's studies were published, was the high percentage of people, particularly men, who had engaged in sexual activity with the same sex.  This was during a time when sodomy, which included all homosexual acts and many heterosexual ones (eg. oral sex) was a felony or serious crime, in every American state.  Kinsey was distressed when he visited 'sex offenders' in prison, many of whom had been convicted for performing oral sex or engaging in homosexual acts - his study showed that 'everyone's crime is no one's crime', ie. it was hypocritical for society to imprison people for sexual acts that were so widespread in the general population. 

Gay or Straight?

Kinsey didn't believe, as many people still do, in a simple 'gay/straight' dichotomy - instead he pioneered a 'spectrum' of sexuality, a six-point scale to indicate whether someone was more attracted to their own or the opposite sex.  Given the harshness of sodomy laws at that time, I personally feel that it was important for society to first embrace a 'dichotomy' and recognise same-sex relationships - although our choice of a life-long partner hardly seems relevant to our choice of sexual partners and I tend to agree with Kinsey that we are all born bisexual and learn our sexual behaviour as we mature. 

Punishing people for their sexual choices is, quite simply, barbaric and I'm really happy to live in a world where same-sex relationships are sanctioned by many (mostly Western) societies.  However, I've never really believed in the 'genetic' argument, as to why someone is gay and I also find it hard to believe that someone's sexuality will remain the same throughout their entire life. 

When Kinsey studied gall wasps, he discovered that no two specimens were exactly the same - he also caused a lot of controversy by his 'expansive' approach to taxonomy.  Like Kinsey, I also believe that each person's sexuality is unique - although the straight/gay dichotomy helped late-20th century society find a place for same-sex relationships, I still think we have a long way to go, in terms of really understanding human sexual behaviour.

Sex and War

Detail, Bathers at San Niccolo

My theory on society's sexual phobia is that the society/community leaders fear the powerful energy of sexual release.  People have risked life, limb and career to find sexual satisfaction and it's an impulse that every culture/society struggles to control.  Sex is used as a weapon in times of war, as a motivating factor in terms of achieving fame and success (how many musicians started writing music because they wanted to attract sexual partners?)  Sex is even promised as a reward in the after-life for people who can remain 'pure' in this life. 

Truth be told, most societies are scared of releasing people's sexual energy - sexual liberation is all-too-often linked to a fear of breakdown in law and order.  However, studies of cultures outside the West have shown that sex can, in fact, be a great peace-maker in society - I personally believe that, when people are sexually content, they are less likely to feel frustrated, aggressive, abusive or violent towards society/other people.  Perhaps sexual freedom is the worst thing for a country intent on making war - could this be another factor in a society's instinct towards sexual repression?

Americans and Europeans

Towards the end of his life, Kinsey travelled to Europe - it surprised me to hear that he found Europe incredibly 'liberated' compared to the United States.  I think we Europeans usually assume that Americans are much more liberated in sexual matters than we are - our perception of American sexuality is, all too often, a result of our experience of American movies and TV shows.  The reality, I imagine, is that the US is still a fairly conservative place, on the whole, when it comes to sexual attitudes.  The US seems to contain many of the extremes of human experience - at once, the most liberated/wealthiest/modern country on Earth, at the same time repressed/poor and backward looking?

I've leaving with a trailer for Kinsey - if you haven't seen this movie already, I'd highly recommend it!




Image credits:

All images are taken from Wikicommons, you can find the copyright conditions on the following pages:

The Cerne Abbas Giant

Kiselev - the Death of Hyacinth

Detail of the Bathers at San Niccolo by Domenico Passignano

Indiana - How I made Pork Tenderloin sandwich

After some research online, I quickly came to the conclusion that Indiana's most traditional dish is 'Pork tenderloin sandwich'.  I find it interesting that some of the main foods that we consider to be typical for the USA, have their origins in Germany.  I'm mostly thinking of the ubiquitous hamburger (from Hamburg), but also of frankfurters (from Frankfurt).  Indiana Pork tenderloin sandwich is pretty much a burger and chips and a variation of the European dish Wiener Schnitzel. 

I've made Schnitzels before, so Pork Tenderloin sandwich was quite straight forward and familiar to me.  I couldn't find a perfect recipe, as there seems to be some variation in how the version from Indiana is made - I mostly got my inspiration from the following recipe and then improvised.  I didn't want to oven bake the tenderloin, as I didn't have time and I also didn't want to deep-fat fry it, as this is really unhealthy, so I just pan fried it.  Finally, I used pork loin chops, not tenderloin, so traditionalists should stop reading now!

The ingredients

The main ingredients

300g Pork tenderloin (or loin chops, depending on how fast you want to cook!)
4 burger baps
2 pieces of stale bread, to make breadcrumbs
2 eggs
Half a cup of milk
Half a jar of pickled onions
Half a jar of cornichons (or gherkins)
Three healthy dollops of mayonnaise
A box of oven-bake french fries
Garlic salt
Oregano

How I made Pork Tenderloin sandwich

First you should use a food processor to make the breadcrumbs - it's important that the bread is fairly stale, as this creates better crumbs for the 'breading' of the pork.  Of course, you can buy ready-made breadcrumbs, but I find it easier to make my own. 



Use a food processor to make breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs

The recipe I looked at recommended adding Garlic salt and oregano to the breadcrumbs, which I think were a really nice addition to the taste of this dish, although I doubt that either of these ingredients is very traditional for the Indiana version!  I also added ground black pepper, but I omitted the salt, as I'm trying to keep down my salt intake. 

Add Garlic salt and Oregano to the breadcrumbs for a non-traditional twist

In a separate bowl, I whisked the two eggs together and then added milk to create a sticky liquid which helped the breadcrumbs stick to the pork pieces. 

Whisk the eggs

Egg/milk and crumbs for 'breading' the pork

If you're using loin chops, as I did, you will need to take the fat off, then cut each chop in half lengthwise and then cut each length into two thinner slices.  The real trick to making tenderloin, or any kind of Schnitzel, is that you need to tenderise the meat and flatten it out into thin slices.  I don't yet have a meat tenderiser, so I used a rolling pin instead.  It's a good idea to cover the pieces of pork in cling film, before you tenderise them. 

Pork chop cut into four thinner slices

Ready to be bashed - sorry, tenderised - by a rolling pin!

The slices of pork after they have been tenderised

The result was a plate full of thin pork slices.

I then dipped the pork slices in the egg/milk mixture and in the breadcrumb mix, then fried them over a high heat.

Add the pork pieces after dipping them in the egg/milk mixture and breadcrumb mix

Fry the pieces until the pork has cooked through

You can choose whichever condiments you like for this dish - my preferences were pickled onions, cornichons and mayonnaise.  If Pulp Fiction is anything to go by, then it's clear that people in the US prefer ketchup on their fries, just like in the UK and unlike Belgium/Germany/France where people use mayonnaise.  I'm not sure why I opted for mayonnaise, but it seemed to fit better with the dish and I enjoyed dipping my chips/fries in the mayo and smearing it over the fried pork. 

Pork tenderloin sandwich with fries

I guess it's a matter of taste.  I found an interesting blog post about the use of ketchup and mayonnaise, which you might also find interesting. 

The finished dish with a selection of condiments

Anyway, the result was delicious - an easy dish to make and one you should definitely try for yourself. 

Image credits:

All photos were taken by me, please feel free to reuse, under the Creative Commons license:

Attribution (especially to this blog post)
Share alike
Non-commercial 

Indiana - Vonnegut's 'Slaughterhouse 5'

I was vaguely aware of the name 'Kurt Vonnegut' before I started researching for this blog post, however, I'm not sure if I'd ever have made it as far as reading one of his novels, which I have now done, having just finished Slaughterhouse 5 (1969), probably his most famous book and a seminal work of the post-war period.

A satirical novel about the bombing of Dresden?

Whilst a satirical novel about the bombing of Dresden might not sound like an easy read, actually, Slaughterhouse 5 is incredibly accessible, enjoyable and beautifully written.  I don't usually have a lot of patience for satirical or humorous novels, so I surprised myself by liking Vonnegut's book, as much as I did.  The title of the novel itself is satirical - when I first picked it up, I assumed there would be a climatic scene in a slaughterhouse where someone (possibly 5 people) would be murdered.  In fact, the slaughterhouse is a refuge for the main character of the novel and ensures he survives the bombing of Dresden when thousands of other people perish. 

Theme: Humour

Vonnegut uses humour to deal with a topic which is, actually, incredibly traumatic.  His position is ostensibly anti-war, having experienced the bombing of Dresden first-hand.  Vonnegut, like his main character, Billy Pilgrim, creates a parallel fantasy world where he can escape the real horror of war and look at it from a slightly skewed and sidelong point of view.  I guess there is nothing more ironic than an American of German descent witnessing the destruction of a German city from the viewpoint of an enemy combatant. 

Although we mostly associate laughter with the feeling of being happy, I'm sure most of you reading this blog post will also recognise the connection between fear and laughter.  Why do we laugh when we're afraid?  Well, I guess, it dispels some of the tension in a situation.  Being Irish, I'm also very conscious of our national tendency towards humour, historically a respite from the horrors of being a colonised nation. 

Theme: The unreliability of time

Dresden after the bombing by Deutsches Bundesarchiv

One of the most interesting themes of Slaughterhouse 5 is the unreliability of time.  Vonnegut very clearly weaves the narrative around events in Billy Pilgrim's life, as he comes unstuck in time and travels backwards and forwards to different periods of his life, as well as to his parallel life on a faraway planet called Tralfamadore.  Vonnegut connects the different time periods and parallel lives of Billy Pilgrim with some beautiful images and continuity in the elements of the narrative.

For example, when, as an older man, Billy Pilgrim survives a plane crash in Vermont, Vonnegut places some Austrian tourists in the vicinity, so Billy comes around to the sound of the German language, immediately transporting him back to the forest in Luxembourg where he was taken prisoner by the Germans in the Second World War. 

It's a real joy to join Billy Pilgrim on this narrative roller coaster backwards and forwards through time and across the universe!  It also reminded me a little bit of someone in their dotage, confusing one period of their life with another, each being equally real.  By breaking with the constraints of a time-logical narrative, Vonnegut somehow removes a fear of death that would otherwise dominate the story that he wants to tell.

Theme: Sexual (im)potency

I was quite interested in Vonnegut's portrayal of sexuality in Slaughterhouse 5.  When Billy is first captured by a young German soldier, he describes him as a 'heavenly Androgyne' and 'as beautiful as Eve'.  I think Vonnegut is expressing the feeling of being captured as akin to sexual passivity or impotency, ie. when you give up control to your captor - it's a strangely erotic experience.  Apparently, Slaughterhouse 5 was the first work of fiction which referred to the fact that 'fairies' (gay men) were sent to concentration camps by the Nazis. 

The old sex and death routine, so popular in the 19th century, also makes an appearance in Vonnegut's novel - Billy falls asleep on the train on the way to his father's funeral and wakes up with a massive erection!  His oedipus complex is certainly complex!  According to the novel, Billy is very well endowed, but his sex life on earth is unfulfilled.  By contrast, on Tralfamadore, Billy is a great lover and satisfies the fictional porn-star, Montana Wildhack, even if their love-making is arranged by the Tralfamadorians, who want to observe human reproduction. 




Theme: Illogical relationships with women

Billy's relationship with women in the novel is, at best, absurd.  When he returns from the war and has a nervous breakdown, he is admitted to a psychiatric ward.  His mother, 'a perfectly nice, standard-issue, brown-haired, white woman with a high-school education' comes to visit him and he describes her thus:

She upset Billy simply by being his mother.  She made him feel embarrassed and ungrateful and weak because she had gone to so much trouble to give him life, and to keep that life going, and Billy really didn't like life at all.

Shortly after the scene with his mother, Billy describes his relationship with his wife, Valencia:

Billy didn't want to marry ugly Valencia.  She was one of the symptoms of his disease.  He know he was going crazy when he heard himself proposing marriage to her . . .

To Billy, his relationship with his wife defies all logic and merely serves to confirm his insanity.

Theme: The annoyingly cheerful Englishmen

I was amused by Vonnegut's depiction of the annoyingly cheerful Englishmen that Billy meets when he arrives at the Prisoner of War camp in Germany.  Billy arrives with a ragtag bunch of American POWs, looking like a 'filthy flamingo'.  The English POWs welcome them with a very cheerful song, Hail, Hail, the Gang's all here! which was featured in that classic English musical, The Pirates of Penzance.  According to Billy 'they made the war look stylish and reasonable, and fun'. 

Knowing Vonnegut's anti-war sentiment, you can read between the lines and sense the resentment that the American POWs feel when confronted by this jolly bunch of Englishmen.  Sure enough, the cheery welcome soon turns to hostility, as the Englishmen look down their nose at the Americans and despise them for their ragged appearances and low spirits. 

The Englishmen seem to get on very well with their German captors, playing chess together and sharing a common disdain for the general appearance of the American POWs.  In a very subtle way, Vonnegut highlights the sense of separation between the Americans and the Europeans, not to mention the absurdity of American soldiers fighting in Europe, many miles away from home, with an 'ally' that seems to have more in common with the enemy!




Theme: The joy of human nature

One of the things I enjoyed most about Slaughterhouse 5 was the way human nature penetrated the absurd situations that Billy found himself in.  A reference is made to Lot's wife and how she couldn't help looking back, although warned not to - Vonnegut describes her looking back as a plain and simple 'human reaction' and there is a real sense of optimism in the idea that people will still behave like people, even in unnatural situations such as war. 

Another example of this is when the American POWs arrive at the camp in Germany, the German soldiers laugh with relief, as they realise how pathetic the enemy is.  Again laughter as a release for anxiety!

There is so much going on in this novel that I can't hope to do it justice in a short blog post, so why not order a copy and read it for yourself! 

Image credits:

The image of Dresden after the bombing has been released by the Deutsches Bundesarchiv under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license.  You can see more information at the file description page on Wikimedia commons - Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1994-041-07 / CC-BY-SA [CC-BY-SA-3.0-de], via Wikimedia Commons

I've also embedded two videos from YouTube.

The first is the official trailer for the 1972 film directed by George Roy Hill.  I haven't yet seen this movie, but it's on my 'to do' list!

The second is a very clever recording of Hail, Hail, the Gang's all here uploaded by Dan Priest, which shows original footage from an WW2 entertainment show for Russian and US soldiers

Indiana - Death, Kingdom Hall and the Jackson 5

Probably the state's most famous export, the Jacksons have gained global recognition in a way that might have seemed unimaginable for a family from Gary, Indiana.  No matter where I go in the world, when I say my name is 'Michael', most people immediately say 'Jackson', which shows how much of a global phenomenon Michael Jackson was, as he dominated the pop industry in the late 20th century and became an even much bigger star than his talented siblings in the Jackson 5.

Michael Jackson through his brother's eyes

It's a massive topic to undertake and there is so much information out there, that I thought it would be best to concentrate on the biography Michael: Through a Brother's Eyes (2011) by Jermaine Jackson.  There's something really beautiful when families sing together and, likewise, I wanted to hear about Michael Jackson from someone who knew him best in their early years, growing up in Indiana.

I must put my hand up at this point and say that I wasn't a massive fan of Michael's music - I enjoyed it, as most of the world did, but I never bought any of his albums and I wouldn't really be listening to his music now, if it wasn't for the fact that I've been researching for this blog.  A lot of his work and the music of the Jackson 5 is really familiar to me and, I must admit, it's been nice to take a trip down memory lane and rediscover some of their classic tracks. 




There has been so much negative publicity about Michael, that it was refreshing to read an account of his life that was written by someone who really loved him.  Of course, I understand that Jermaine's story is less likely to be objective but, in some ways that doesn't matter, as it balanced off all the negative publicity I've read about Michael over the years in the press.

Peter Pan or Paedophile?

That Michael Jackson loved children is very well-known and accusations of paedophilia overshadowed the latter part of his life.  On one hand, he could be seen as a Peter Pan-type character, who lost his childhood to the demands of celebrity and being in the public eye - he compensated in later life, by building a paradise for children at his ranch in Neverland and he literally became the boy who never grew up.  One the other hand, he violated expected standards of American society in relation to his conduct with children, especially children who came from vulnerable families and weren't related to him. 

Sharing a bed with a child who isn't your own child is definitely unacceptable in Western culture, although this might seem less unusual in other cultures around the world.  Like it or not, we now live in the shadow of a more innocent age, when adult/child contact was freer, but also abused by many sexually repressed adults, such as celibate priests.  If Michael Jackson's contact with children was innocent, then it still transcended the accepted norms of a society that views such contact with suspicion.




Guilty until proven innocent?

By coincidence, during the time I was researching this blog post, I saw a very interesting Danish film called Jagten (The Hunt) (2012), dir. Thomas Vinterberg.  The movie deals with a teaching assistant who is wrongly accused of sexually abusing a young girl who is in his care.  It highlights how quick we are to judge and what a nightmare it is to be wrongly accused of such a serious crime. 

It's almost too easy to believe that Michael Jackson behaved inappropriately with children - people judged him (or were prejudiced against him) because of his eccentric personality and odd behaviour - but what if he was innocent, then how wrong would that judgement/prejudice be?  My personal take on it is that he cleared his name in court and we should respect this judgement. 

Thriller, Kingdom Hall and the American obsession with death

There are so many aspects to the Michael Jackson story that I could write about but, in the interests of a succint and readable blog post, I want to concentrate on one other aspect of Michael Jackson's life that fascinated me.  Before I started my research, I didn't know that the Jacksons were raised in a fairly strict Jehovah's Witness household.  Religious beliefs had a really strong influence on the lives of Michael, Jermaine and the other Jackson siblings, whether they ultimately rejected their religious upbringing or not.

I had the pleasure of re-watching Thriller (1983) after so many years - I remember first seeing it on MTV when I was a child and, I think it's fair to say that this video changed the pop industry forever, as well as influencing the development of modern dance. 

It's shocking to realise that it's already 30 years since the video was released and amazing that it still feels incredibly 'fresh', despite the technological developments in video and film production that have happened since then.  I think it was the most expensive pop video ever produced at that time, costing half a million dollars and being directed by John Landis of American Werewolf in London fame.  If, like me, you haven't seen this video in years, then do yourself a favour and click on the embedded YouTube video!




The video displeased the elders at Kingdom Hall, so Michael put a disclaimer at the beginning to assure fans that he wasn't endorsing belief in the occult.  Like so many things in Michael's life though, you can't help wondering what his real motivation was.  He certainly seems to have been fascinated by the 'dark side' and troubled characters (eg. Billy Jean which was based on a stalker and Smooth Criminal which is believed to have been inspired by the gruesome murders of the 'Night Stalker', Richard Ramirez). 

We think of Michael and the Jackson 5 as being African-American performers and that's certainly how they were first 'sold' to the US public, however, their heritage is more complex than that and I was really interested to learn that the Jacksons also traced some ancestry back to the Choctaw and Blackfoot tribes.  It's a heritage they were proud of.  Jermaine describes how, during their camping trips to Wisconsin as children, they would walk along the Indian trails. 

The more I learn about the United States, the more I sense a national obsession with death.  As I watched the ghouls rising out of the graveyard in Thriller, I couldn't help but imagine the souls of millions of native Americans who were killed in the name of Manifest Destiny (see my previous blog post on this subject).  Perhaps Michael's treatment of the occult and death were guided by some sort of ancestral memory, which conflicted with the religion he inherited from his parents?

There is so much more that I could write about Michael and the Jackson 5, but I'll stop there for now and leave you with one last video from YouTube which shows Michael's first performance of 'the Robot dance' - a hint of what would come in later years, it shocked contemporary audiences, when he first performed this on the Carol Burnett show in 1974. 




Videos:

All of the videos are taken from YouTube.

The first is one of my favourite Jackson 5 songs, Can you feel it?  It's so upbeat and optimistic and I also loved the 1998 remix by the Italian dance group Tamperer featuring Maya, which reminds me of driving from Omagh and Derry.

Black or White (1991) is one of my favourite Michael Jackson songs, with another great video from John Landis. 

The third video is Thriller (1983) and the fourth is a recording of Dancing Machine from the Carol Burnett show in 1974. 

Indiana - the Crossroads of America

Indiana is the third place in the United States that I have decided to blog about.  I really enjoy learning about the United States, especially as I have yet to visit this country, which has had such an influence on 'modern' culture, both in Western societies and around the globe.  I learned a lot during my previous blogging experiences about Oklahoma and Wisconsin and I'm sure that Indiana will be no exception.

Not to mention the fact that around 40% of people who visit this blog are from the United States - it's to be expected that an English-language blog would get the majority of its visitors from the biggest English-speaking country on Earth, nevertheless, I'm grateful for the interest US readers have shown in my writing and I hope they have found my blog posts interesting and informative!

Entering White County by J Stephen Conn

Before I started researching for this blog, I only knew one thing about Indiana, which was that it has some great universities that offer comprehensive language courses.  I had a Tajik colleague in Samarkand who spent some time teaching Uzbek in Indianapolis and this sums up my 'personal experience' with the state of Indiana. 

Of course, now that I've starting researching, I've found out a lot more about the state and I look forward to continuing my research on topic areas such as The Jackson Five, Kinsey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the writings of Kurt Vonnegut. 

I've also learned that Indiana was originally designated as an 'Indian territory', hence the name, and lay on the border between French and British influence in the 18th century.  Like Oklahoma, Indiana was designated as a place where Native American Indians would live, until the Europeans later changed their minds and did everything they could to claim the land back and make Indiana the 19th US state (just after Louisiana and a year before Mississippi joined the Union). 

The United Methodist church in Caley

Indianapolis was specifically designed as the capital of the new state and lies almost exactly in the geographical heart of Indiana.  Indiana had two former capitals, Corydon and Vincennes, which have since played much smaller roles in the state's destiny.  The other major cities in Indiana are Fort Wayne, near the border with Ohio and Evansville, which is in the south near Kentucky. 

The small city of Gary, where the Jackson Five grew up, is practically in the suburbs of Chicago and, indeed, the 'suburb' of East Chicago is in Indiana.  This is one the US's biggest steel-producing regions and attracted a lot of African American workers, who decamped from the southern states, in search of better opportunities in the north.  I first became aware of this demographic trend when I was blogging about Oprah Winfrey and Wisconsin. 

Indiana is also known as 'the Crossroads of America' - Indianapolis is a hub for many of the interstate highways and Indiana finds itself slap bang in the middle of the US and the heart of the Mid West!  This might not seem significant until you realise how convenient Indianapolis is as a convention centre - whether it's the Gen Con gaming convention, or Star Trek meetings, the city promotes itself as a central location for nation-wide meetings. 

Monon, White County by J Stephen Conn

Indiana's nickname got me thinking about the significance of 'crossroads' in different cultures around the world - whether it's the 'comely maidens' dancing on the crossroads of Ireland, as imagined by our first President, US-born, Eamon DeValera, or the grim English tradition of executing and burying criminals under crossroads (such as Tyburn in London), the place where roads meet has interesting cultural associations.  It's a magical place of voodoo, or a meeting place with the Devil - somewhere beyond the rules of civilised society, an area between settlements, at once sacred and out of human control. 

And of course, there are less scary Crossroads in Western culture - I'm thinking of the famous soap opera that I watched as a child on British television, or the French supermarket chain, Carrefour, where I have spent many a hard-earned euro! 

So join me on this virtual journey to the crossroads of the United States - let's find out together what Indiana is all about!

Image credits:

For this blog post, I wanted to highlight the work of semi-retired clergyman, J Stephen Conn, who is an avid traveller and seems to have methodically documented many counties in each of the United States.  I thought it would be interesting to randomly choose one of the Indiana counties, White county and show you the pictures Mr Conn has taken there.  I think it's an interesting slice of 'everyday life' in the United States.

You can see more of Mr Conn's work on his photostream.