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...
The Confession of Ann Putnam How many of you know who Ann Putnam was? It is a name we should all know. Ann Putnam was born in Salem, Massachusetts on October 18, 1679, the eldest of twelve children. Most famously, she was one of the prime accusers at the Salem Witch Trials. Though a primary accuser, Ann wasn't one of the original accusers. She was friends with some of the girls who claimed to be afflicted by witchcraft and, in March 1692, proclaimed to be afflicted herself, along with Elizabeth Hubbard, Mary Walcott, Mercy Lewis, Abigail Williams, and Mary Warren. Putnam is responsible for the accusations of 62 people, which, along with the accusations of others, resulted in the executions of twenty people, as well as the deaths of several others in prison. Fellow accuser Mercy Lewis was a servant in the Putnam household, and Mary Walcott was, perhaps, Ann's best friend. These three girls would become the first afflicted girls outside of the Parris household. Multiple accusers,...