Even after death, Michael Jackson remains a central figure in global pop culture fantasies, and debates on gender, race and politics. We continue to talk about his passing, trying to pin him down in the history of global music and entertainment. The conversation about his life, death and legacy continues 24 hours a day. Is this because we delight in talking about the life of the man or are we more fascinated by the freakish and warped public figure that was produced by his handlers and MTV?

There are plenty of things that make up the public persona of Michael Jackson that don't have to be fleshed out to keep his fans satisfied. I am frankly satisfied with his music. It gives me joy. But most of what I remember of Jackson doesn't come through the music that roars through my brain. Images. This is what I am left with after the death of Michael Jackson. I have memories of something produced in the flicker and print of modern media, a silhouette of the human being behind the light show. But I don't feel that I really know who Michael Jackson was as an artist. Maybe this is what it means when people say that he was "larger than life."

Michael Jackson for me was all about modern spectacle and what I remember of him comes to me in flashes. First come the flashes of his performances on stage. When I think back to the images of him that I remember from the early '80s, I see the glitter-gloved, moonwalking and crotch-grabbing figure of Michael Jackson. I don't have to think very hard if I want to bring an image of him to the fore. He pops up in my head, like a larger-than-life comic book superhero complete with speech bubbles. His image was — and will probably continue to be — an important part of what I consider to be the ultimate entertainer.

The second way in which I remember Michael Jackson is through the sound bites of rumor, often vicious, that filled in most of the mindless banter that polluted evening TV. I remember the hearsay, the whispers of his supposed bizarre life that he kept behind the many closets of his sprawling estate in Southern California. News of sleeping in oxygen chambers, the purchasing of the Elephant Man's remains and the building of his amusement park made him into a cautionary tale of excess. News of his relationships with his wives, his chimpanzee, Bubbles, and his botched plastic surgeries were the kinds of things that junior high school students delighted in talking about at lunchtime. I delighted in talking about it.

There was so much about the man that was hidden that people began to fantasize about what he veiled from our gaze. As the world's most public pop icon, he became the world's biggest and most talked about tease.

But is talking about the image enough? When will the lines around the silhouette of M.J. fade?

Really, the saddest thing about the passing of Michael Jackson is that the only thing that I have to remember of the man is his cartoon outline, all warped and covered with glitter. So even in death he has his global audience in his rapture, at the center of the global pop culture spectacle.

I feel it was fitting that in his very public memorial there was a constant stream of iconic images flashing behind the deceased, still glittering in his golden casket in center stage, in front of 15,000 of his fans. The image of Jackson is what we delighted in talking about and I feel that the constant talk about his body, and how it is being examined, is partially a symptom of people's desire to believe that he was more than just a smoke-and-mirror show.

Like the figure of Elvis Presley living on through kitsch performances, I am worried that the memories of Michael Jackson will continue to live on through poorly produced print biographies, film and other kinds of performances. These will probably make a lot of money for the people who have rights to his image and he will continue to be with us for many years to come, the glitter of Jackson's image tarnishing slower than many of his fans might feel comfortable with.

The writer lives in Japan and is completing his Ph.D. in history.