Michael Jackson's talent and giftedness are one thing; but his fragile persona was also the site of astonishing personality contradictions, a meeting place in which the fixed and given contours of age, race, class and sexuality dissolved, and a model of self-created elective personalities was made manifest to the young.
The answer can be found in the dichotomy of Iverson's personality, his fascinating contradiction.
"It was a hero America needed, a hero central to his time, a man whose personality might suggest contradiction and mysteries which could reach into the alienated circuits of the underground, because only a hero can capture the secret imagination of a people, and so be good for the vitality of his nation".
Within his personality resided the contradictions of the revolution.
His force of personality, and his contradictions, were coextensive with his genius.
Skipping around in time, the director, Andrés Wood, skates over Parra's involvement with Communism to focus on a personality awash in contradictions.
In real life, Thomas is an even more complex character, with a personality rich in contradictions.
In the best plays, however, Simon's schema enables him to dole out the contradiction of personality in small hints, keeping the conflicts surprising until they attain a critical mass.
Instead, they are a reminder of how every revolutionary movement has to deal with personality clashes and internal contradictions.
And each manifestation was marked by a contentiousness that seems to have resulted partly from his commitment to principle and partly from a personality rooted in the contradictions of Irish history.
