Manson15Marilyn
06-11-2015, 03:13 PM
I haven't given much attention to Antichrist Svperstar in the last 5 or 6 years, admittedly I've been too distracted with all the awesome albums that have been coming out since (The High End of Low, Darkly Darkly Venus Aversa, Born Villain, Alpha Noir, Omega White, Manticore, etc) and through all the constant reminders online I've remained more interested in the recent new material appearing over that time. Until now. I've grown bored today, and so I figured "why not?" and started to compile all my ideas about the album's concept and now I suppose I'll share it with the online community that practically worships the album and it's creator :P
Some time ago, with my playlist on shuffle, Man That You
Fear came on, which relayed the phrase to me several more
times "I was born into this." There are many lines through
the album connotating youth, angst, childhood, etc. Which
got me thinking: "Perhaps the character in the story is the
child of a celebrity."
As we open the insert, we see Revelation ch 12. A woman
clothed with the Sun (a star) gives birth to a child, who
is awaited to be devoured by the Dragon. Now it's no secret
that the Dragon is "that old serpent called the devil and
Satan which decieveth the whole world." So, now I allude
to the previous album before:
We are a symptom of your Christian America, the biggest Satan of all.
So as this child was born, the American audience were
waiting to "consume" this child, to be entertained by him.
I like to think of it like, just as the Christ was born of god
so the antichrist was born of the proverbial TV god. So who
is this star who has this child?
The album opens with a song recorded on Feb 14, 1997. The
same day on which another song, from another album, was
recorded. It is of my belief that those songs were by the same
person. And who is the person in Born Again? Based on
the lyrical content and the concept of HOLY WOOD (in the
shadow of the valley of death), I believe that person to be
the character from that album, Adam. It is in my perception
of the trilogy that toward the end of HOLY WOOD is when
Antichrist Svperstar begins. It is not only the date that links
the two together, imo, but also the chain of events at the
end of HOLY WOOD and the beginning of Antichrist Svperstar.
Also, coincidentally or not, as to the Antichrist being the
son of Adam:
In Revelation, the beast from the earth is said to come forth
and perform great signs and decieve mankind into believing
he is the Christ, but according Revelation he is actually
antichrist. The origin of the name Adam?
http://www.mansonwiki.com/w/images/2/24/HolyWoodBack.jpg
Of red earth
Etymology for Adam:
Its root is not attributed to the Semitic root for "man" -(n)-sh. Rather, ׳āḏām is linked to its triliteral root אָדָם (a-d-m), meaning "red", "fair", "handsome". As a masculine noun, 'adam means "man", "mankind" usually in a collective context as in humankind. The noun 'adam is also the masculine form of the word adamah which means "ground" or "earth".
Antichrist Svperstar goes through the stages of the antichrist
life in Hollywood, and the things he experiences and learns
there, as he rises to fame as an antagonistic superstar who
is abhored by many but adored by others. And then we get
to Man That You Fear.
I have it all and I have no choice but to.
He basically inherited the fame his father had. He has no
choice but to take up his father's trade being brought up in
his household. "I was born into this."
The boy that you loved is the man that / monster You fear.
To me, the song seems to be from his perspective of him
toward the general direction of the audience. He was the
subject of entertainment of people all his life. And people
adored him in his innocence as a child. But he'd become
quite abhorred by many in his later years. Closer and closer
to the end of Antichrist Svperstar, the character seems to
grow more and more nihilistic and narcissistic. "We're on the
other side. The screen is us, and we're TV." So what he'd
become is a mere projection for the viewer.
I'll make everyone pay, And you will see.
As famous as he'd gotten to this point, he obviously has people
who abhorred him as much as those who adored him. But if
he were to die, he'd surely earn his place in history since so
many are watching and projecting themselves onto him. "If
they kill you on their TV, you're a martyr and a lamb of god."
This was alluded to in HOLY WOOD, but one part of the line
I'm sampling from Man That You Fear was alluded to as well
on the same album: "I'd kill myself to make everybody pay."
His end game is to commit suicide so that he would be
cemented in his fame rather than being forgotten after his
15 mins of fame are up. And the song is wrapped up with
"When all of your wishes are granted, many of your dreams
will be destroyed." Growing up in such a luxurious home
he was practically handed everything throughout his life.
As he never learnt how to go without, he never learnt any
of the important ways to cope with key situations and
people in his life.
In Of Grammatology, the author talks about the dangers
of supplimenting for that which is natural, particularly the
supplement of writing and of images in place of speech
because "It diverts the immediate presence of thought to
speech into representation and the imagination." He goes
on to talk about how the supplement is exterior to nature
and therefore is evil. But also that supplementation is necessary
in life, and without childhood there would be no supplement
because
Plants are fashioned by cultivation, and men by education. If man were bom big and strong, his size and strength would be useless to him until he had learned to use them; they would create a prejudice against him, by not allowing others to think of assisting him; and, left to himself, he would die miserably before knowing his needs. We complain of the state of infancy; we do not see that, if man had not begun by being a child, the human race would
have perished (p. 67).
The author continues by talking about the possibility of
perversion, and how once children figure out they can use
people as tools they tend to "use them to carry out their
wishes and to supplement their own weakness. This is how
they become tiresome, masterful, imperious, naughty, and
unmanageable; a development which does not spring from a
natural love of power, but one which gives it to them, for it
does not need much experience to realize how pleasant it is
to act through the hands of others and to move the world by
simply moving the tongue." This I feel is the fate of the
character on Antichrist Svperstar. As the saying goes “As the
child does not know how to be cured, let him know how to be
ill." The character never became ill, and therefore never learnt
how to cure himself.
The cut that never heals.
So how does this all relate to Marilyn Manson? Well, for one
\thing I don't think it would be to anyone's surprise that the
album is about Marilyn Manson through the character in the
story. In a way, it foreshadows the future of the band in real
\life and how much fame they would ultimately acquire in the
coming years. Though I feel like that was the plan.
But Marilyn Manson is a lot like the character as well. Marilyn
Manson's origins are in the name, obviously. The character
itself was born into stardom. Etc. So it definitely feels to me
like a symbolic autobiography for the persona of Marilyn Manson.
But through that are morals to the story as well.
That's pretty much all I got from the album. Thoughts? Questons? Concerns? Etc.
Some time ago, with my playlist on shuffle, Man That You
Fear came on, which relayed the phrase to me several more
times "I was born into this." There are many lines through
the album connotating youth, angst, childhood, etc. Which
got me thinking: "Perhaps the character in the story is the
child of a celebrity."
As we open the insert, we see Revelation ch 12. A woman
clothed with the Sun (a star) gives birth to a child, who
is awaited to be devoured by the Dragon. Now it's no secret
that the Dragon is "that old serpent called the devil and
Satan which decieveth the whole world." So, now I allude
to the previous album before:
We are a symptom of your Christian America, the biggest Satan of all.
So as this child was born, the American audience were
waiting to "consume" this child, to be entertained by him.
I like to think of it like, just as the Christ was born of god
so the antichrist was born of the proverbial TV god. So who
is this star who has this child?
The album opens with a song recorded on Feb 14, 1997. The
same day on which another song, from another album, was
recorded. It is of my belief that those songs were by the same
person. And who is the person in Born Again? Based on
the lyrical content and the concept of HOLY WOOD (in the
shadow of the valley of death), I believe that person to be
the character from that album, Adam. It is in my perception
of the trilogy that toward the end of HOLY WOOD is when
Antichrist Svperstar begins. It is not only the date that links
the two together, imo, but also the chain of events at the
end of HOLY WOOD and the beginning of Antichrist Svperstar.
Also, coincidentally or not, as to the Antichrist being the
son of Adam:
In Revelation, the beast from the earth is said to come forth
and perform great signs and decieve mankind into believing
he is the Christ, but according Revelation he is actually
antichrist. The origin of the name Adam?
http://www.mansonwiki.com/w/images/2/24/HolyWoodBack.jpg
Of red earth
Etymology for Adam:
Its root is not attributed to the Semitic root for "man" -(n)-sh. Rather, ׳āḏām is linked to its triliteral root אָדָם (a-d-m), meaning "red", "fair", "handsome". As a masculine noun, 'adam means "man", "mankind" usually in a collective context as in humankind. The noun 'adam is also the masculine form of the word adamah which means "ground" or "earth".
Antichrist Svperstar goes through the stages of the antichrist
life in Hollywood, and the things he experiences and learns
there, as he rises to fame as an antagonistic superstar who
is abhored by many but adored by others. And then we get
to Man That You Fear.
I have it all and I have no choice but to.
He basically inherited the fame his father had. He has no
choice but to take up his father's trade being brought up in
his household. "I was born into this."
The boy that you loved is the man that / monster You fear.
To me, the song seems to be from his perspective of him
toward the general direction of the audience. He was the
subject of entertainment of people all his life. And people
adored him in his innocence as a child. But he'd become
quite abhorred by many in his later years. Closer and closer
to the end of Antichrist Svperstar, the character seems to
grow more and more nihilistic and narcissistic. "We're on the
other side. The screen is us, and we're TV." So what he'd
become is a mere projection for the viewer.
I'll make everyone pay, And you will see.
As famous as he'd gotten to this point, he obviously has people
who abhorred him as much as those who adored him. But if
he were to die, he'd surely earn his place in history since so
many are watching and projecting themselves onto him. "If
they kill you on their TV, you're a martyr and a lamb of god."
This was alluded to in HOLY WOOD, but one part of the line
I'm sampling from Man That You Fear was alluded to as well
on the same album: "I'd kill myself to make everybody pay."
His end game is to commit suicide so that he would be
cemented in his fame rather than being forgotten after his
15 mins of fame are up. And the song is wrapped up with
"When all of your wishes are granted, many of your dreams
will be destroyed." Growing up in such a luxurious home
he was practically handed everything throughout his life.
As he never learnt how to go without, he never learnt any
of the important ways to cope with key situations and
people in his life.
In Of Grammatology, the author talks about the dangers
of supplimenting for that which is natural, particularly the
supplement of writing and of images in place of speech
because "It diverts the immediate presence of thought to
speech into representation and the imagination." He goes
on to talk about how the supplement is exterior to nature
and therefore is evil. But also that supplementation is necessary
in life, and without childhood there would be no supplement
because
Plants are fashioned by cultivation, and men by education. If man were bom big and strong, his size and strength would be useless to him until he had learned to use them; they would create a prejudice against him, by not allowing others to think of assisting him; and, left to himself, he would die miserably before knowing his needs. We complain of the state of infancy; we do not see that, if man had not begun by being a child, the human race would
have perished (p. 67).
The author continues by talking about the possibility of
perversion, and how once children figure out they can use
people as tools they tend to "use them to carry out their
wishes and to supplement their own weakness. This is how
they become tiresome, masterful, imperious, naughty, and
unmanageable; a development which does not spring from a
natural love of power, but one which gives it to them, for it
does not need much experience to realize how pleasant it is
to act through the hands of others and to move the world by
simply moving the tongue." This I feel is the fate of the
character on Antichrist Svperstar. As the saying goes “As the
child does not know how to be cured, let him know how to be
ill." The character never became ill, and therefore never learnt
how to cure himself.
The cut that never heals.
So how does this all relate to Marilyn Manson? Well, for one
\thing I don't think it would be to anyone's surprise that the
album is about Marilyn Manson through the character in the
story. In a way, it foreshadows the future of the band in real
\life and how much fame they would ultimately acquire in the
coming years. Though I feel like that was the plan.
But Marilyn Manson is a lot like the character as well. Marilyn
Manson's origins are in the name, obviously. The character
itself was born into stardom. Etc. So it definitely feels to me
like a symbolic autobiography for the persona of Marilyn Manson.
But through that are morals to the story as well.
That's pretty much all I got from the album. Thoughts? Questons? Concerns? Etc.