The long hard road out of hell

    How negative psychological influences shaped the character's ultimate view of hell on earth

    Marilyn Manson, AKA Brian Warner

    1998

    The Long Hard Road out of Hell, illustrates Marilyn Manson's youth, his first attempts at fame, and the spoils of receiving that fame. His theme closely follows Dante's Inferno, taking you up the many levels of hell personified by his life. At certain points starting from his childhood (Limbo) to his life as an adult (Enlightenment), he titles bold lines to illustrate which level of hell or purgatory he is going through at that time. During his youth, Brian Warner was exposed to several negative psychological events that show evidence as to where his views and ideas came from.  His grandfather was a sexual deviant, hiding in his cellar which Warner considered hell.  Brian broke into that cellar more out of childish curiosity than malicious intent, but learned a vulgar truth. His grandfather's cellar was a haven of perversity, with pornographic material hanging on the walls, books in drawers, and as Brian found out later, several old and frequently used "tools" in his workbench. In one instance, Brian was caught inside the cellar, and had to witness his grandfather masturbating, wiping his trachea tube with a dirty rag, then using said rag to clean up his ejaculate.  This depravity Brian later revealed to his parents, but instead of action we see the family already knew.  Secrets that further show Brian the moral examples of his family.  Later the hypocrisies of private Christian schooling further strengthen his budding views of morality, and right/wrong.  He begins to rebel, by selling candy to other students in a form of dealing illicit material. After being reprimanded, his rebel intensifies, the dealing escalating to selling Rock albums.  The very same albums his school told students were evil.  Using the power of suggestion, the institution held an assembly to showcase the evils of subliminal messages. One such song chosen was Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" was suggested as having the phrase, My sweet Satan. Once suggested, the message was always readily apparent to the children.  This is perhaps the biggest hypocrisy, one that proves to Brian Warner that organized religion, and moreover institutionalism is wrong.  He continues rebelling, and the seeds of Marilyn Manson begin to germinate.  Later in his life, Manson exposes himself to base immoral acts in his stage concerts, inciting the wrath of concerned parents everywhere.  They begin to classify him as evil, an Anti-Christ, a cue which Manson identifies with, as illustrated by this quote he opens his book with:

    But someday, in a stronger age than this decaying, self-doubting present, he must yet come to us, the redeeming man, of great love and contempt, the creative spirit whose compelling strength will not let him rest in any aloofness or any beyond, whose isolation is misunderstood by the people as if it were flight from reality-while it is only his absorption, immersion, penetration in reality, so that, when he one day emerges again into the light, he may bring home the redemption of this reality; its redemption from the curse that the hitherto reigning ideal has laid upon it. The man of the future, who will redeem us not only from the hitherto reigning ideal but also from that which was bound to grow out of it, the great nausea, the will to nothingness, Nihilism; this bell-stroke of noon and the great decision that liberates the will again and restores its goal to the earth and his hope to man; This Antichrist and Antinihilist; this victor over god and nothingness-He must come one day.

- Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals

It is in this quote we learn of Manson's underlying statement.  He views America, or more specifically, human society as a decadent sham.  He believes that society is too reliant on fear, using it as a motivant, and a negative reinforcement.  He offers a few different rule-sets for various topics including a "Gay Indicator", and a cheating system for illusively cheating on your partner. Although he states these are his own made up ideas for his life, all these do is serve to show that although Manson is intelligent, he has not taken the time to analyze his own beliefs as critically as he analyzes religious or government credo.  This is perhaps the biggest flaw of Manson's book.  He often fills up many pages with intelligent but superfluous commentary.  You are left reading of his escapades with drugs, sex, and the occult.  He readily admits he seeks to shock, and this motivant has replaced the analytical mind he had as a youth.

    Admittedly the book is engrossing at its black and white look at the psychological effects of exposure to sexual deviance at an early age, manifested in a rock star made into an Antichrist by the very society that raised him.  The ultimate hypocrisy is that he's attacked verbally ( curses, death threats, etc), professionally (Banning his concerts and even him from entering city limits), and placed as a convenient scapegoat for families who do not understand how to properly raise their children.