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...
A little over a week ago I wrote about a significant partial dismissal granted to Marilyn Manson on July 2nd in the lawsuit issued by Bianca Allaine Kyne. First, it stated that Manson's motion to dismiss all allegations in Kyne's complaint referencing sexual abuse as a minor in 1995 when she was 16 years old was granted. Second, any reference to Kyne's own personal drawings of Manson from when she was 16 are to be removed. Third, Kyne is therefore ordered to make a Second Amended Complaint within 30 days removing all of the above. Despite this significant victory of Marilyn Manson in managing to get a partial dismissal in this case, on July 15th Bianca Allaine Kyne and her lawyer Jeff Anderson decided to issue statements spinning their loss into a victory. They argue that since Manson was not granted a full dismissal (which he was not seeking), then he lost and they won in this particular ruling. What Was the Ruling on July 2nd? When you read the ruling issued on July ...