In 1987, Michael Jackson bought a 2,700 acres property in California’s Santa Ynez Valley. Located on the edge of the Los Padres National Forest, the region is characterized by its spring climate throughout the year. Jackson named the property Neverland after Peter Pan’s homeland, an imaginary paradise where, as in Dilmun (6.2) or the Isles of the Blessed, its inhabitants never grow old.
Neverland could very well be advertised with a promotional brochure of all the elements present in the classic and modern paradeisos. From Sycamore Valley Ranch’s brochure, the name of the property after Michael Jackson was forced to sell it a year before his death:
Beyond the pool and terrace areas is a marvelous green meadow that stretches out to the horizon and is crisscrossed by walking paths and a meandering stream. The stream is fed by the northern lake that flows down from the garden and under the stone bridge, where it cascades into the larger lake. A walking path encircles this lake and passes near a sandy beach and a charming viewing pavilion. Large boulder outcroppings offer delightful places to pause and con-template the breathtaking vistas. Both lakes feature tall water sprays that are reminiscent of the “jet d’eau” on Lake Geneva.
Meticulously manicured lush formal gardens feature colorful beds of begonias, petunias, bright orange marigolds and yellow snapdragons. These planting beds are changed seasonally and are similar in design to those in Bagatelle, one of the most beautifully landscaped parks in Paris.1
Neverland is a gigantic garden set in a valley with abundant water and shade (6.6, 6.11). As for the features of the modern paradeisos, the home of the King of Pop was simultaneously an amusement park that featured a ferris wheel, a carousel, bumper cars, a chair swing ride, an octopus, a video game arcade, as well as a petting zoo with elephants, giraffes, orangoutangs, tigers, bears, crocodiles and a serpentarium (6.8).
In the midst of the second wave of allegations of child abuse that led to his 2003 trial, Michael Jackson offered an explanation for Neverland in 60 Minutes:
ED BRADLEY: Tell me why you develop Neverland.
MICHAEL JACKSON: Because I wanted to have a place that I could create everything that I …that I never had as a child. So, you see rides. You see animals. There’s a movie theater. I was always on tour, traveling. You know? And — I never got a chance to do those things. So, I compensated for the loss by — I have a good — I mean, I can’t go into a park. I can’t go to Disneyland, as myself. I can’t go out and walk down the street. There’s crowds, and bumper to bumper cars. And so, I create my world behind my gates. Everything that I love is behind those gates. We have elephants, and giraffes, and crocodiles, and every kind of tigers and lions. And — and we have bus loads of kids, who don’t get to see those things. They come up sick children, and enjoy it. They enjoy it in a pure, loving, fun way. It’s people with the dirty mind that think like that. I don’t think that way. That’s not me.2
Regardless of whether or not there was child sexual abuse in Neverland, the infantilization (1.16, 3.3, 6.13) of which the prey of our paradeisos is subjected to could not be clearer; the only way to fully enjoy an amusement park, even for an adult, is taking it in with the openness (and vulnerability) of a child. In his role as a celebrity and “King of Pop,” Michael Jackson realized an implicit potential in the idea of sovereignty: he reproduced the unique threshold from which the locus amoenus and the locus terribilis (0.27) emerge in its original topology; amusing for the hunter, terrible for prey.
- Mark Pomeroy, “Sycamore Valley Ranch”, December 5, 2016, https://eqliving.com/sycamore-valley-ranch/ ↩︎
- Ellen Cream, “Jackson Interview Transcript: Interview With Ed Bradley On ’60 Minutes’,” December 28, 2003, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jackson-interview-transcript/ ↩︎
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