BOOK REVIEW: Marilyn Manson's the Long Hard Road out of Hell....
This book was fascinating.
But I was scared to read it at first.
I saw it lying on Cory's floor, picked it up and started flipping through the glossy photo pages. It started out with normal looking photos of a young boy, that led to terrifying bloodied photos of a man with a painted white face, black lips, scars, and two different colored heavily lined eyes.
I don't know anything about Marilyn Manson. Nothing. Except for his creepy image and some vague scary rumors about satanism that I've heard about him.
So, I decide to read the book. And it was fascinating. It totally humanizes him and gives you a window into a mind that's so twisted and contradictory, but also sharply intelligent and ambitious.
The book is an interesting collection of journal entries, photos, memoir, interviews, articles and clips that breaks apart the traditional monotony of a memoir and that serves to keep the reader engaged. It starts out with his childhood. A normal boy who grew up sharply oppressed by his religious upbringing and school. From this early age, he developed a resentment for the hypocrisy that he saw in religion, and he clashed with it, an outsider who was always getting in trouble, and he eventually embraces this role, as an outsider and antagonist.
As Brian Warner, he was a writer, a journalist, who went to community college and wrote entertainment articles, poetry, until he grew frustrated at interviewing musicians who had nothing to say.
He writes: "Every successive interview I did, the more disillusioned I became. Nobody had anything to say. I felt like I should be answering the questions instead of asking them. I wanted to be on the other side of the pen."
And this was the subtle shift of his. One where he shed the desire to pursue a a society-approved role as a writer and began pursuing the less acceptable role as a performer. He began reading poetry at open mic nights, and eventually haphazardly collected a band.
Early on, he knew he had a message to bring, one targeting the hypocrisy of religion and the sheep-like attitude of most Americans. This message was fueled by his ever-growing frustration and hate, lack of self-esteem and angst.
He also wanted enough fame and attention to make that message powerful, he was desperate for this.
And so, he realized that he could get that by using the Catholic opposition to his shows as a springboard, to push him into the media spotlight. It's a careful manipulation on his part that worked. Because of all the Catholic/Christian opposition he faced, he was bathed in a media spotlight.
The name he chose to represent himself, "Marilyn Manson" was a reference to his message, Marilyn contrasting the good, beautiful whiteness of Marilyn Monroe with the evil mysterious darkness of Charles Manson.His shows were deliberately meant to confuse, shock and make people uncomfortable. And they did. He graphically recounts repulsive and disturbing acts of violence, sex, bondage fueled by rampant drug use that seems so outrageous that it can't be true.
Manson details his drug use, and how it clouded his mission, obstructed his quest to make a statement, how it crippled his judgment and wore down his morals, until he found himself becoming this stage monster he'd originally created as a alter ego.
He found that he was becoming isolated from family, friends, and he felt misunderstood. He writes: "Everyone I talked to asked if I was gay or a drug addict or a devil worshiper. No one had anything nice to say, and no one understood anything about me."
After reading the book, you feel a shred of understanding for this Spooky Kid.