There is a point in One Assassination Under God – Chapter 2 where the language of survival finally becomes the language of retaliation. “The Arsonist” is that point. The song is not simply about having survived an attempt to destroy you. It is about what happens afterward, when the person who has been burned decides that the fire did not finish him and that the scars it left behind have become part of his strength. Manson himself described the song as the moment when the narrative of the two chapters “crystallizes into a battle stance,” and, referring to the painting he created for it, said that the “burned scar tissue” had formed into armor. That description gets very close to the heart of the song. The fire has not disappeared. It has changed him. The title is important because Manson does not call the song The Survivor or The Victim . He calls it "The Arsonist." An arsonist deliberately starts a fire, and this changes the entire perspective of the song. The speaker is no...
James Dean and Marilyn Manson (and another interesting comparison between Natalie Wood and Evan Rachel Wood)
At the peak of his career at the age of 24, James Dean died on September 30, 1955 after crashing his Porsche Spyder, which he nicknamed "Little Bastard", on the highway. Within a year of the accident nearly four million people had joined his fan club and his studio was receiving up to 4,000 letters every day. Since today is the anniversary of his death, I thought I would share what I think is a relevant interview with Natalie Wood, his co-star in Rebel Without A Cause , where she analyzes the James Dean she came to know in the months before his death, as opposed to the pop culture icon the world came to love. Listen to this interview in light of the Marilyn Manson allegations, and the perception of Marilyn Manson and his art as opposed to the reality, and see if you can take from it what I took from it, which I think Natalie Wood explains eloquently and sincerely. Since we are on the subject of Natalie Wood as well, I thought it would be fun to share something I wr...