S.D.
07-27-2009, 07:58 AM
I was asked earlier what my thoughts were on the lyric "Putting my face in the Beehive", and my immediate response, though I hadn't considered it fully before, was a comparison between the bees of Target Audience (Narcissus Narcosis), and the flies that later appear in Valentine's Day.
If we suppose (a little like the "Rapist Werewolves" of Into The Fire) that the beehive acts as a metaphor for an environment where the artist is open to criticism, and is "stung" for being an individual, then they are not a part of the hive. The artist's expression is a process of braving the beehive, putting their "face" inside an arena where they will be attacked, and used as a scapegoat, which is reflected in the accompanying lines "Am I sorry to be alive" and "Am I sorry for Booth and Oswald, pinks and cocaine too?", which interestingly, in that it references John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald, leads into the following song on the album, President Dead...
In this hive metaphor, I see reflections on Columbine, and Manson's treatment as an artist by the public at large. There is also the fact that in being able to make the statements he would like to the people that need to hear it the most, an artist like Manson has to endure the criticism of the accumulated public, and as he commented once himself "You have to become a part of the mainstream in order to subvert it", literally putting your face (we'd really like to sell you) into the beehive. But, in doing so you open yourself up to the people who would choose to exploit that in order to divert attention from their own ineptitude and mistakes.
Anyway, before I digress too far, I'll move back to the comparison between the bees and the flies. Later, we have the aforementioned line, "Flies are waiting", which to me has always implied a parasitic group, ready to feast on a corpse. So you have these two winged creatures, one administering the wounds that cause the downfall of a celebrity, or public figure, and another that will readily "Devour" the remains after the "Death" - "Like Christians at a suicide...". Also, both flies and bees were featured on the last, and arguably most Celebritarian manifestation of the official Marilyn Manson website. Here are some visuals:-
http://i403.photobucket.com/albums/pp112/providermodule/Analysis/beemm.jpg
A bee in the far bottom left of the scrolling homepage.
http://i403.photobucket.com/albums/pp112/providermodule/Analysis/beemm2.jpg
A hive, with eyes, in the far top right of the scrolling homepage.
http://i403.photobucket.com/albums/pp112/providermodule/Analysis/flymm.jpg
From the news page, the flies are literally "waiting" around our Celebritarian figure.
So, I believe that we are hearing commentary on a cyclical nature of flying creatures, ones that either kill or consume the dead, one leading to the other - "When one world ends, something else begins" - "This is where it starts, this is where it will end". Also, the bee pollinates to create new flowers, and flies will prey on compost (often containing dead plants and flowers, which in turn fertilises crops), so there are further cycles of creation and destruction.
Perhaps the commentary also takes into consideration that there must be an end to facilitate the beginning (an oft visited theme in Manson's work and lyrics). The fly may be a negative emblem, but it also partakes in the cycle of the living, as does the bee, in creating honey, even though it is seen as a predator. To reference those lyrics directly, there is also the song Diamonds and Pollen, which could be relating the diamond shapes of the beehive compartments to the same process of beginning and ending. We are as much a part of the hive as we are the individual "seeds":-
"waiting to grow and to die like flowers do"
That is to say, we are a part of the creative process as much as the artistic, we all destroy public figures as much as we create our own. I was reminded also of the lyric from Spade, "I'm a diamond that is tired, of all the faces I've acquired", which might relate to the aforementioned compartment of the hive, an individual sick of "Devouring" the culture to whom it owes its "faces". These are just my thoughts, I don't know if they seem plausible, but it was a nice subject to mull over, perhaps others would be able to offer similar theories?
If we suppose (a little like the "Rapist Werewolves" of Into The Fire) that the beehive acts as a metaphor for an environment where the artist is open to criticism, and is "stung" for being an individual, then they are not a part of the hive. The artist's expression is a process of braving the beehive, putting their "face" inside an arena where they will be attacked, and used as a scapegoat, which is reflected in the accompanying lines "Am I sorry to be alive" and "Am I sorry for Booth and Oswald, pinks and cocaine too?", which interestingly, in that it references John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald, leads into the following song on the album, President Dead...
In this hive metaphor, I see reflections on Columbine, and Manson's treatment as an artist by the public at large. There is also the fact that in being able to make the statements he would like to the people that need to hear it the most, an artist like Manson has to endure the criticism of the accumulated public, and as he commented once himself "You have to become a part of the mainstream in order to subvert it", literally putting your face (we'd really like to sell you) into the beehive. But, in doing so you open yourself up to the people who would choose to exploit that in order to divert attention from their own ineptitude and mistakes.
Anyway, before I digress too far, I'll move back to the comparison between the bees and the flies. Later, we have the aforementioned line, "Flies are waiting", which to me has always implied a parasitic group, ready to feast on a corpse. So you have these two winged creatures, one administering the wounds that cause the downfall of a celebrity, or public figure, and another that will readily "Devour" the remains after the "Death" - "Like Christians at a suicide...". Also, both flies and bees were featured on the last, and arguably most Celebritarian manifestation of the official Marilyn Manson website. Here are some visuals:-
http://i403.photobucket.com/albums/pp112/providermodule/Analysis/beemm.jpg
A bee in the far bottom left of the scrolling homepage.
http://i403.photobucket.com/albums/pp112/providermodule/Analysis/beemm2.jpg
A hive, with eyes, in the far top right of the scrolling homepage.
http://i403.photobucket.com/albums/pp112/providermodule/Analysis/flymm.jpg
From the news page, the flies are literally "waiting" around our Celebritarian figure.
So, I believe that we are hearing commentary on a cyclical nature of flying creatures, ones that either kill or consume the dead, one leading to the other - "When one world ends, something else begins" - "This is where it starts, this is where it will end". Also, the bee pollinates to create new flowers, and flies will prey on compost (often containing dead plants and flowers, which in turn fertilises crops), so there are further cycles of creation and destruction.
Perhaps the commentary also takes into consideration that there must be an end to facilitate the beginning (an oft visited theme in Manson's work and lyrics). The fly may be a negative emblem, but it also partakes in the cycle of the living, as does the bee, in creating honey, even though it is seen as a predator. To reference those lyrics directly, there is also the song Diamonds and Pollen, which could be relating the diamond shapes of the beehive compartments to the same process of beginning and ending. We are as much a part of the hive as we are the individual "seeds":-
"waiting to grow and to die like flowers do"
That is to say, we are a part of the creative process as much as the artistic, we all destroy public figures as much as we create our own. I was reminded also of the lyric from Spade, "I'm a diamond that is tired, of all the faces I've acquired", which might relate to the aforementioned compartment of the hive, an individual sick of "Devouring" the culture to whom it owes its "faces". These are just my thoughts, I don't know if they seem plausible, but it was a nice subject to mull over, perhaps others would be able to offer similar theories?