The Long Hard Road Out of Hell Author: Marilyn Manson | Language: English | ISBN:
B007XIC1GI | Format: PDF
The Long Hard Road Out of Hell Description
When this best-selling autobiography was originally released, readers were shocked: The Long Hard Road Out of Hell was the darkest, funniest, most controversial, and best-selling rock book of its time—and it became the template, both visually and narratively, for almost every rock book since. Marilyn Manson is not just a music icon, it turned out, but one of the best storytellers of his generation. Written with bestselling author Neil Strauss, beautifully designed with dozens of exclusive photographs, and modeled on Dante's Inferno, this edition of The Long Hard Road Out of Hell features a bonus chapter not in the hardcover. In the shocking and candid memoir, Manson takes readers from backstage to emergency rooms to jail cells, from the pit of despair to the top of the charts, and recounts his metamorphosis from a frightened Christian schoolboy into the most feared and revered music superstar in the country. Along the way, you'll hear what happens to fans—and celebrities—who dare to venture backstage with the one of the world's most dangerous rock stars. In the words of Elle magazine, the book "makes Madonna's infamous Sex seem downright wholesome in comparison."
- File Size: 4293 KB
- Print Length: 288 pages
- Publisher: It Books; 1st edition (May 8, 2012)
- Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
- Language: English
- ASIN: B007XIC1GI
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #42,098 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #4
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Arts & Photography > Music > Musical Genres > Heavy Metal - #13
in Books > Arts & Photography > Music > Musical Genres > Heavy Metal - #43
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Composers & Musicians
- #4
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Arts & Photography > Music > Musical Genres > Heavy Metal - #13
in Books > Arts & Photography > Music > Musical Genres > Heavy Metal - #43
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Composers & Musicians
You wouldn't think a middle aged Southern conservative housewife like me would be caught dead reading something like this. The cover alone should scare me away. And the first word of the first chapter is one I wasn't allowed to say as a child. But with that first word Manson reveals immediately what his entire book portrays - Hell. The story mates his life with Dante's Inferno; even the chapters are structured as the divisions and circles of Dante's hell. This was a stroke of genius and makes for a fascinating read. Manson's life parallels Dante's journey through hell, and, like in the Inferno, it begins with pain and steadily becomes much worse. In the Inferno however, the protagonist with whom we identify is Dante, who is not one of the punished. We must guess at the psychic torment of the damned through Dante's conversations with them. Manson takes us on the same journey but as one of the condemned. He takes us inside his head to see firsthand the progressive blackening and relentless decay of his soul.
But that is only one of the many levels on which this book operates. It is also the story of a man's struggle to come to terms with his own nature when that nature is something the world perceives as evil and he suspects they may be right. He has amazing self awareness, and the rare ability to articulate his inner battles in powerful, captivating ways. The book is riveting, for he is laying bare his soul for all to see, and he knows it is ugly.
But by the end of the book, after he has sunk to the dark bottom of the pit, there is a glimmer of hope. He gains the sense that there may be some beauty hidden under all the self-loathing and screw ups that are his existence. Like Dante, Manson finally confronts Satan himself, and discovers the exit from hell.
"The less people understand you the more intelligent they think you are" muses Marilyn. In a catch 22 kind of way the understanding of Brian Warner I've gained from this book supports his claim.
I at least think he's less compassionate than I previously did, if not less intelligent. He talks seriously about planning to murder an unstable girl who was harassing him after he led her on then dumped her and kicked her out of the band, plans he was only scared off completing because a homeless man started following him and his accomplice while they were on their way to do the deed and after failing to lose him a cop car happened to pass by.
Learning about some of the experiences that inspired his lyrics and performance I can look at them and say yeah that's a good way of expressing that, but previously it was hard to see much meaning in anything he wrote or did. Yet he claims that conservatives were trying to silence him because of what he was saying. Dude, people liked you or disliked you based on image, no one knew you were saying anything.
His comraderie with Anton Lavey, who is portrayed (presumably unintentionally) as a fortune-telling conman, illuminates Manson's worst trait, his willingness to see only the worst in his conservative christian detractors, seeking to villify rather than enlighten them, denying their humanity in the same way they do his.
He also subscribes to a "contempt for the weak" ideology typically expressed by white supremecists, involving disgust for sluts and drug addicts, and advocates the death penalty for shoplifters "because if you're stupid enough to get caught you deserve to die.
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