– The Reflecting God Analysis Essay, Research Paper
Marilyn Manson Antichrist Superstar The Reflecting God
Your world is an ashtray
We burn and coil like cigarettes
The more you cry your ashes turn to mud
It’s the nature of the leeches, the virgin’s
Feeling cheated
You’ve only spent a second of your life
My world is unaffected, there is an exit here
I say it is and then it’s true,
There is a dream inside a dream,
I’m wide awake the more I sleep
You’ll understand when I’m dead
I went to god just to see, and I was looking at me
Saw heaven and hell were lies
When I’m god everybody dies
Scar/can you feel my power?
Shoot here and the world gets smaller
Scar/scar/can you feel my power?
One shot and the world gets smaller
Let’s jump upon the sharp swords
And cut away our smiles
Without the threat of death
There’s no reason to live at all
My world is unaffected, there is an exit here
I say it is and then it’s true,
There is a dream inside a dream,
I’m wide awake the more I sleep
You’ll understand when I’m dead
(bridge)
(chorus)
“Each thing i show you is a piece of my death”
Shoot shoot shoot motherfucker
No salvation, no forgiveness
“This is beyond your experience”
Forgiveness…
In The Reflecting God by Marilyn Manson, he is saying that he looked to god for answers, and then he realized that he was looking in a mirror; he is his own god. The song comes from the point of view of someone that has become their own god and sees the lie that he has lived; this is the ideology, basis of ideas throughout the song.
The Reflecting God is the most philosophical song on the album. It is a seething mass of hidden contradictions, apathy and fanaticism, redemption and damnation. It incorporates references to Nietzsche, a misunderstood and maligned philosopher, clearly showing the Overman to be the artistic template for the Antichrist Superstar. The line, “You’ll understand when I’m dead,” is a direct reference to Nietzsche’s claim that no one alive could ever understand his brilliance and his doctrine of,”be your own god,” is referenced in the lines, “I went to god just to see, and I was looking at me” and “I say it is and it’s true”. Even his dismissal of heaven and hell show up when Manson says he “saw heaven and hell were lies”.
The lyrics to the song are raw and powerful, showing us the antichrist at his most terrifying level. Manson lashes out against everyone and everything in The Reflecting God. Painting a bleak picture of an uncaring world is the aim of the song’s opening lines: “Your world is an ashtray . By using the word ashtray to describe the world, Manson is able to liken it to a place filled with the leftovers of the evil of mankind and human nature, as an ashtray is filled with the remnants of a decaying cigarette. “We burn and coil like cigarettes,” saying our time here is very limited, like the life of a cigarette burning and decaying; and in the end our lives can be quite meaningless if we throw them away. “The more you cry your ashes turn to mud,” meaning the more we complain and dwell on the problems of this world, the worse it will get or seem. We should do something, not sit and cry.
“It’s the nature of the leeches, the virgin’s feeling cheated,” human nature is to care for our own needs and ignore the needs of others when it comes to survival, and the ones that have not fed feel cheated out of what they do not need,
“You’ve only spent a second of your life,” shaping you to realise that this is a fraction of nothing compared to eternal life, so do not let your decisions reflect upon only this time in this world. They have more impact than you know.
“My world is unaffected, there is an exit here” Simplicities of our world do not affect the actions of his world, only ours, and evil has no effect in his realm, because he has an exit; Jesus Christ.
“I say it is and it’s true,” there is no doubt in his mind that what he says if perfectly true; about the exit.
“There is a dream inside a dream, I m wide awake the more I sleep, you’ll understand when I’m dead,” saying that dreams reveal hidden ideas in our minds that we may not realize consciously, and sleep and wake are unreal in some, but this we cannot understand fully until we enter this other world or until our world changes.
“I went to God just to see, and I was looking at me,” curious about god, he looked and realized that god was inside himself, and in all of us, realising that fate was an illusion to protect us from the reality in which we live in.
“Saw heaven and hell were lies, when I’m god everybody dies,” he realizes that there is no distinct heaven and hell, only control and powerlessness in different worlds; but that we all must move on to some form of another world. If he were god of all, everyone would die because he is not perfect and therefore only the god of himself, with the spirit of good in him. “Scar scar can you feel my power, shoot here and the world gets smaller, one shot and the world gets smaller.” Being scarred makes one stronger, gives them power over what they know and experience, but wrongful death dictated by the wrong forces may impact the world more than expected. “Lets jump upon the sharp swords, and cut away our smiles,”: in another view lets waste ourselves with our habits, and have no happiness. “Without the threat of death there’s no reason to live at all,” saying our purpose on this world is a test, a short test before death. If we had no hell and did not have to fight its power, we would have no purpose for this life, for we would all move on without needing a test.
“Each thing I show you is a piece of my death” Everything he shows us is one more thing that drags him down, for he is being the scapegoat, and holding up a mirror to us, but still ruining himself. “Shoot motherfucker,” It will not affect him if you hate him, like he said, he has his exit
The threats of Satan, of evil, defying the truth and interfering with the purpose are shown in the quote “No salvation, No forgiveness”. “This is beyond your experience,” saying you have never felt what it is like to have an exit in such an entanglement.
The song uses rhyming, I went to god just to see, and I was looking at me, in the chorus and bridge leading into the chorus to make it easy to remember and distinguish from the rest of the song. The Reflecting God also uses metaphors, exit .
Manson uses irony; he contradicts himself , I’m wide awake the more I sleep
The song also incorporates similes, we burn and coil like cigarettes and uses repetition frequently throughout the song, world , no salvation, no forgiveness.
The Reader or person listening to the song is positioned to agree with Manson, in feeling that there is no god and that he is a myth brought up to use like a scapegoat, to blame things on and rely on , even though it s a lie. The ideas of hell and heaven are from single lies turning into major chains of lies leading into what is believed now. There is no solid evidence that jesus christ, god or anything along those lines exists or ever did exist. Probably just a huge lie that generated over time.
ADD SUICIDE AND DRUGS