In a recent podcast interview about narcissistic abuse, Evan Rachel Wood said that Marilyn Manson described in his autobiography how the Brian Warner part of him was dead and whatever he had become was now his true self. Her purpose was to show that Manson completely abandoned his humanity and truly came to embody a disassociated narcissistic monster. But is this what his autobiography actually said or even implied? No, of course not. He says something along those lines, but she completely twists it to make a point that fits her narrative rather than the actual facts. What Manson actually describes in his autobiography is that he went through a personal apocalypse. He writes: "When I first conceived of Antichrist Superstar , I set out to create an apocalypse. But I didn’t realize it was going to be a personal one. As a child, I had been a weakling, a worm, a follower, a small shadow trying to find a place in an infinite world of light. In the end, in order to find that place...
One of the noteworthy contributions of Marilyn Manson, especially in the first twenty years of his career, is helping to bring underground taboo exploration through transgressive controversial art into the mainstream. He did this at a time when there was a resurgence in transgressive taboo exploration, beginning around the late 1990's, but no one brought it to mainstream audiences like Marilyn Manson, which was part of the initial shock of his persona. One could say it was the foundation upon which his career was built and it was the means by which he would continually reinvent himself. The list is too long to explore this in detail, but we see it beginning with his very name, taking the first name of a woman and the last name of killer and bringing together opposites. We also see it in his first major hit with his cover of the 80's dance hit 'Sweet Dreams' by the Eurythmics, in which he explores its dark lyrics without changing a word and gives it a sleazy, creepy BDSM...