Marilyn Manson: The Art And Philosophy Of The Grotesque Burlesque
View Marilyn Manson's Version Of "TAINTED LOVE" On Youtube.
“When you're taught to love everyone, to love your enemies, then what value does that place on love?” Marilyn Manson
- love and hate
- beauty and ugliness
- good and evil
- faith and disbelief
- fear and acceptance
That is, the band's video clips surgically tear open societal expectations, culture, and superstitions to the light of skeptical enquiry. Here they can be examined, and critically analysed.
The videos are an exploration of the beautiful INHERENT IN the ugly; the exposition of the concepts of flawed beauty; and an investigation into the controversial and confronting attractiveness of "evil".
Can idealised beauty remain beautiful? Or does it become a parody of itself; a weak and ineffectual doppleganger of the concept that was originally sought to be visually encapsulated?
In Marilyn Manson's version of "Tainted Love," it is the investigation into what LOVE really is. Is it still love if it is flawed/tainted? What does it mean logically for something which is supposedly pure to be tainted?
(Shameless segue into Shakespeare: "Love is not love which alters when its alteration finds, or bends with its remover to remove "... etc etc. Sorry, back to the topic minus shameless segue so I could mention Shakespeare.)
So, the major questions posed as a result of this particular video clip are:~
- Are our concepts of love flawed?
- Does religion encourage/exacerbate these flawed love concepts?
The juxtaposition of the stereotypical, cheerleader character with the macabre, socially unacceptable, politically incorrect Marilyn Manson is confronting and controversial. It becomes an exploration of the fascination with the macabre; a fascination with the "Grotesque Burlesque."
By the time I got to the end of the clip, I was unsure as to which leading character (the cheerleader or Marilyn), was the less macabre. Which just might have been the point. :)
Marilyn Manson's philosphical/artistic comments mimic George Orwell's political comments on the totalitarian state in "1984" where:~
- "War is peace."
- " Freedom is slavery."
- "Ignorance is strength."
In other words, the ability to hold two "two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them" which Orwell coined as "Doublethink."
(By the way, George Orwell wasn't HIS name either. It was Eric Arthur Blair.)
I would suggest that it is a case of Doublethink, to accept that the concept of "Tainted Love" is a logical proposition.
~
Marilyn Manson should have the last words:~
- “The burden of originality is one that most people don't want to accept. They'd rather sit in front of the TV and let that tell them what they're supposed to like, what they're supposed to buy, and what they're supposed to laugh at.”
- “I view my job as being someone who is supposed to piss people off. I don't want to be just one-of-the-guys. I don't want to be just a smiling face you see on television presenting some vapid kind of easily-digestible garbage.”
- “I feel like someone who I wouldn't let my own daughter fuck, and I also feel like someone who, if I was that daughter, would want to fuck more that anyone else.”
- “In the end we're all Jerry Springer Show guests, really, we just haven't been on the show.”
LINKS:
posted by beepbeepitsme | 5:55 pm
17 Comments:
I'm glad there are others who've noticed that Marilyn is actually a very intelligent, perceptive chap, and not just a tops musician.
It's interesting.
Even though Marilyn is a very interesting bloke, I've never warmed to him cause I've always viewed him as a musician who tended to let the "art" overshadow the music.
But then again, I do prefer to take my music aurally.
So, you're all just a tad bit saturated by the media and the general law of the conscient mind. Morals and humanism be damned. Push the envelope further. Yet further.
RE Jeff: "So, you're all just a tad bit saturated by the media and the general law of the conscient mind. Morals and humanism be damned. Push the envelope further. Yet further."
<< Does any of that make a lick of sense? Or do only believers understand each other's gobbledygook."
"Conscient?" Oh, is Jeff french? (That might explain a lot of things.)
"jeff hun I have pushed the envelope if didnt notice I am a bisexual, transsexual, atheist, goth, punk,and danm proud of it"
My point is to question WHY you have felt the need to push the envelope this far? What has made you feel that you needed to do this and have you pushed the envelope far enough. Or will it ever be far enough?
Jeff: people are what they are. All your protestations and beatings of your pre-pubescent chest, will not alter one aspect of it.
People are what they are.
Wonderful observation, beepbeep. Have you stopped to ask what has made them this way or does anything go in your worldview. Some might consider that a form of anarchy....
Oh!!! I LOVE Marilyn Manson!! I actually just had the "Tainted Love" video on my Myspace page recently. I think I may put it back up. He's so strange and wonderful. LOL!! I watched that video about 1000 times.
I was totally digging it except for the teeth. A bit too Flava Flav for my tastes.
You should never be able to say Manson and Flav in the same sentence >:
RE Jeff: I have my own ideas about why people are as they are.
I am supposing that your ideas about why people are as they are, have more to do with your religious beliefs than with rational, factual, logical, verifiable information.
RE jeff: "Some might consider that a form of anarchy.... "
Consider WHAT a form of anarchy?
You don't seem very logical to me jeff. Please try to stay on topic instead of making up stuff and frightening yourself.
Allowing people to be whatever they want to be without any limit. Pushing the envelope, in other words. This could be considered anarchy, in some circles.
I didn't know Marilyn Manson. And visiting your blog, I must say.
He is really very interesting.
Dualism is very important to our lives, to increase the knowledgement. Opposed ideas to get de truth.
Interesting.
Jeff: There you go again, assuming something. In just the same way as you assume a god when you don't understand something.
Your words: "Allowing people to be whatever they want to be without any limit. Pushing the envelope, in other words. This could be considered anarchy, in some circles."
Your life appears to be a life based on assumptions. Have I suggested anywhere that all human behaviour would be or could be acceptable in any or all social circumstances?
Please stop assuming gods and making up emotional descriptors for them, and please stop creating strawman arguments.
I don't have the time to reply to an assumption made by you, where you claim I am making a certain argument, that you don't agree with! lol
"Have I suggested anywhere that all human behaviour would be or could be acceptable in any or all social circumstances?"
Well, you did say: "Jeff: people are what they are."....and the context which you said it in was indicative of someone who condones all human behaviour, thus, logic dictates.......
Jeff: You specialise in attempting to read between the lines.
How you get from this>> " people are what they are" to "beep says it is ok to do whatever you want", is a total mystery to me and certainly IS not the workings of a logical mind.
Don't try and interpret what people say. I am quite specific in the language I use. The message is in specifically what I say, not what you dream it says.
Folks push the limit to see two things happen, how others react and how they themselves react.
If I were you Jeff, I would accept that folks are going to just keep pushing that limit you think is the 'ultimate limit' because it's fun to see folks like you rise up and whine, and it also gives the individual in question a sounding board to what in his/herself sees as right. You can't always infer all values from deduction without a little induction to who you are a person.
-- Bridget
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