the NachtKabarett
All Writing & Content © Nick Kushner Unless Noted Otherwise
"A pill to make you numb"The Mechanical Animals disc artwork which is designed as a 'Coma' pill.
EVEN MACHINES CAN SEE THAT WE ARE DEADHidden message contained within the album art of Mechanical Animals
Along with February 14th, Coma White is another recurring element in the Triptych which is a highly debated and largely misinterpreted aspect of it. In Mechanical Animals and The Triptych, Coma White is represented as a girl, the love interest of Manson. But though the representation is of a girl it's only a personification of the metaphor that Coma plays in the life of this story's protagonist. Manson himself has stated that Coma is not literally a woman but is a personification of an ideal of perfection, an unobtainable entity which we forever pine after and seek to make tangible but forever out of reach. It's a concept which the representation of which, though illustrated as a girl, is interchangeable with all that we use to numb and pleasure ourselves with: drugs, sex, religion, TV,etc. It's these very things which we use to attempt to bring us closer to this state of perfection to make us happy, these things that we believe bring us closer to "god", that liberates us but in reality does nothing but make us numb, inebriate us and make us more and more mechanical. Where in order to survive and function a "fuel" is needed: inject our veins or snort some powder; fuck to heighten our emotions; getting off voyeuristically in front of a screen at the misery of others; have the assurance that there's a higher power that makes you better than everyone else or at least being "one of the Beautiful People" to just look like you are, all to make life seemingly worth living. But this contentment instead makes us automatons in need of another "hit" in order to survive. Mystics claim that the orgasm felt during sex for a mere few seconds is a brief but dulled glimpse of the experience of being one with god, yet god is perpetually out of reach and "a number you cannot count to." So we use these methods and crutches to try to reach this perfect intangible state being but instead bring us further and further away from it because these things are a synthetic and induced happiness, as well as completely temporary, where the constant need for them makes us more like soulless machines.
These are who the Mechanical Animals are
and this state of intangible perfection is Coma White.
OmēgaLiterally meaning 'The End'. The last letter of the Greek alphabet which God proclaimed "I am the Alpha and the Omega" (Rev. 1.8), or "I am the beginning and the end". Manson's adoption of the Omēga symbol as his emblem and persona during the Mechanical Animals era was done so in signifying it to represent the final stage of his evolution; the climax of the transformation he had begun on the previous album, Antichrist Svperstar.
See also: Omēga in the Logos & Symbology section of The NACHTKABARETT.
A SUN WITH NO PLANETS BURNING IN CIRCLES.Hidden message contained within the album art of Mechanical Animals
In Mechanical Animals and the Triptych, Coma is Manson (or ADAM's) pursuit of love, his ideal who is fragile and beautiful, the one he needs in order to survive, the pursuit of which makes his life worth living. Everyone has that same ideal; finding that perfect person, getting married and everything will be magic and infinite bliss as opposed to the reality of growing bored with each other and divorcing after an indefinite period of time. Mechanical Animals acts as a dual-sided concept album. On one side is the innocent and sensitive aspect of ADAM or Manson and the other is his public persona, Omēga, the doped-out over-the-top rock star singing hollow anthems about drugs and sex. In this chronology, ADAM has become corrupted and impressionable born again as Omēga, turning into a Mechanical Animal himself where, "In the end I became them" (which Manson recites on the album's hidden track that can be heard when inserting the disc into a computer). The innocent and sensitive aspect chronicles and reveals another dimension to Omēga, his internal conflict and his search for his Coma White. It was in his quest for Coma which in part corrupted him and turned him into Omēga, taking the convenient and synthetic route, the substitutes for the real object. (For more on this storyline of Manson's Triptych refer to this article's sister writing of Valentine's Day / February 14th on The NACHTKABARETT). The album's artwork illustrates this point with the narcotic infused imagery to the hidden quotes which all appear predominantly in the Omēga aspect of the album to illustrate this internal conflict with himself.
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| 'Tears' Photograph by Man Ray |
Coma White As featured in the Mechanical Animals album artwork. |
I NO LONGER KNEW IF COMA WHITE WAS REAL OR JUST A SIDE EFFECTHidden message contained within the album art of Mechanical Animals
In this search, the grand and final realization is: when ADAM/Omēga realizes what he's become, "one of them", a Mechanical Animal, "as hollow as the 'O' in god," an icon in the city that worships Dead Stars, selling out his revolution and "cutting off his fingers trading them in for dollar bills." But he also realizes that this state of perfection really is an unobtainable entity that doesn't exist in this world. Coma White is a "maniqueen of depression" like the Man Ray photo, 'Tears,' above which served as an influence for the photo of Coma. It isn't a real woman in the photo but a mannequin, an illusion made to look like reality, a grand lie and a tease.
This was never my worldComa Black
you took the angel away
I killed myself to make everybody pay
The above are lyrics to 'Coma Black' from Manson's following album, Holy Wood; the song which is the "counterpart", so to speak, of 'Coma White' within the story outlined within the Triptych albums. It is at this point when, with the realization that who he's become, the person he thought he always wanted to be with those he always wanted to be like, is a result of a lifelong search of a happiness and ideal that doesn't actually exist, is when he realizes that the only way to save himself is to destroy what he created, his lifetime of work based on a lie. Omēga's moment of realization of who he is and what he must now do: Coma Black.
See also COMAWHITE.com in the HIDDEN SITES section which the URL was hidden in the Mechanical Animals booklet. Note the pages containing images such as SEX, GOD, TV, etc are the same synthetic crutches as outlined above.
S e e a l s o o n T h e N A C H T K A B A R E T T :
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MARILYN MANSON HIDDEN & "SISTER" WEBSITES | 'Mechanical Animals' and 'Holy Wood' "sister sites" to MarilynManson.com which gave song and imagery previews of both albums and complimented the themes of each album. All archived in their original entirety exclusively by The NACHTKABARETT, and the meanings contained within each revealed.
Archived are ComaWhite.com, revealed within the 'Mechanical Animals' album artwork; TheLambOfGod.com, which revealed the influences of 'Holy Wood', originally linked from the (then) official MarilynManson.com messageboard; Celebritarian.com; ThisAsValentinesDay.com, which revealed Chapter 10 of Manson's 'Holy Wood' novel; and all song preview sites released throughout 'Holy Wood'.
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OMĒGA AND THE MECHANICAL ANIMALS | "All that glitters is cold", sung through a voice modulator within 'Posthuman'. During the 'Mechanical Animals' era, Manson personified Omēga, an exaggerated and hollow rockstar who sung empty anthems about sex, drugs and fame. The outwardly hollow Omēga was to act as a counterpart to the reverse and introspective side of the album. Manson in keeping with numerological significances, split both aspects of the album in half with 7 songs by the fictitious 'Omēga & the Mechanical Animals' and the inverse 7 songs being the sincere, melancholic and introspective side of the album.
A famous allusion to Shakespeare, and dually to the Rock 'n' Roll gods of the past, were made with these lyrics Manson inverted to illustrate the concepts of the album...
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FIFTEEN - MAR1LYN MAN5ON & NUMEROLOGY | Manson's first predominant evocation of numerology first reared its head throughout 1996's 'Antichrist Svperstar' album and era but it wasn't until 1998's 'Mechanical Animals' in which Manson became overtly open and forthright with numerological correspondences within his works. Namely, the number 15, which can be found consistently throughout Manson's works ever since.
The significance of the number 15 can be found throughout the Bible, numerology and the occult. Even further personalized for Manson, his birthday is January 5, 1969 ; 1/5 = 15 and (19)69 combined as 6 + 9 = 15. Additionally, Manson's birth sign, Capricorn, is associated with the 15th card of the Tarot, uncoincidentally The Devil card.
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HOLY WOOD, MERCURY & THE ANDROGYNE | The identity which Manson adopted during 'Holy Wood', as well as the Triptych containing its predecessors 'Mechanical Animals' and 'Antichrist Svperstar'. Mercury is the key element in alchemy which is said to yield the fabled Philosopher's Stone and is the planetary element which bears the influence of artistic and poet flair. Its equivalent in Greek mythology is the God Hermes who is known as 'The Messenger of the Gods'. The Androgyne is a symbol of alchemical balance, Male & Female; Black & White; Marilyn & Manson, and thus a symbol of the transformation and evolution which The Triptych represents.
FEBRUARY 14TH ; VALENTINE'S DAY | February 14th, Valentine's Day, is undoubtedly the most significant and recurring day within the art of Marilyn Manson. Manson gave the fans a gift virtually each Valentine's Day since 2000. On February 14th, 2000 a cover version of the Charles Manson song 'Sick City' was released via MarilynManson.com. February 14th, 2001 the website ThisAsValentinesDay.com which revealed Chapter 10 of Manson's 'Holy Wood' novel.
Valentine's Day is the day of "love" and a Hallmark capitalist favourite. The particular day was chosen to be celebrated because, like all Christian holidays, it was to coincide as an adaptation to the dates of pagan celebratory rites in order to subversively convert and spread Christianity throughout the world. The holiday itself was named for a martyr, St. Valentine, again like all Christian holidays, who was brutally eviscerated and as such illustrates the morbid foundations of the religion itself and mankind's predisposition to violence.
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ADAM KADMON, 'THE FALL' & 'OF RED EARTH' | As can be seen within the artwork of Holy Wood, one aspect of the story Manson set out to illustrate with the parable of Holy Wood was told by his personification of 'Adam Kadmon' who, in Kabbalistic tradition, is the Adam of the Garden of Eden, the first and iconic man.
The four sections of the album are delineated each with letters which spell out 'ADAM', likewise was seen within the menu design of MarilynManson.com during this era as well as subtle references within the lyrics.
HOLY WOOD CHAPTER 10 | A secret Marilyn Manson website, ThisAsValentinesDay.com, was launched on February 14th, 2001 as Manson's gift to the MarilynManson.com official messageboard. The site was revealed on Valentine's Day in a post to the messageboard Manson made while on the European leg of the Guns, God & Government tour with the headline of "They'd Remember 'This As Valentine's Day'". The central image is the cover of Time magazine, dated February 14th, 1964. By clicking on Marina Oswald's broach, widow of the late Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused lone gunman in Kennedy's assassination, reveals Manson's true intended Valentine's Day gift, the text of Chapter 10 of Manson's (still unreleased novel) novel Holy Wood. A plain text transcription can be viewed here.
THE LAMB OF GOD | The sister site of MarilynManson.com launched in the Summer of 2000. The site went through five transformations/additions all to illustrate Manson's own transformation and to illustrate the five pillars and themes most prevalent throughout Holy Wood; Christianity/Martyrdom and mankind's morbid fascination with it, Alchemy, Death Valley, JFK as the second Christ in the eyes of America and the Occult.
The first image added to the MarilynManson.com sister site of which it takes its name. In the New Testament Christ is referred to as The Lamb Of God, the sacrificial offering which God sent down to Earth to take away the sins of the world. It illustrates the most prominent theme within Holy Wood of celebrity and martyrdom, and most specifically celebrity through death and martyrdom as is illustrated through Christ, JFK, and John Lennon, the theme that Holy Wood consistently revolves around as well as to illustrate the morbid fascination mankind has inherently felt towards the theme.
KENNEDY ; MARILYN MANSON, JFK, KING KILL 33º | First referenced in 1998 in Mechanical Animals on the song 'Posthuman', JFK and the impact of his death upon America has been a theme which Manson has subsequently and continually referenced in his work ever since. Most noteworthy of these references have been the songs "President Dead", King Kill 33°, as well as many off-handed allusion throughout the album Holy Wood and very prominently in the video for Coma White in which Manson actually reenacts Kennedy's assassination. To those unfamiliar with Manson this seemingly unrelated juxtaposed imagery may seem as a whole something of mere sensationalism but in reality has been a theme which Manson has always played upon even long before he used Kennedy as an example of this; Celebritarianism, which mankind's inherent violent nature and morbid fascination of such.
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CELEBRITARIANISM | Celebritarian.com was the first step and public display of the concept of Manson's Celebritarianism. The site was hinted at in the lyrics to Holy Wood in the song The Fall Of Adam in which the term was used which Manson coined. And what brought specific attention towards it was in the liner notes which reads "Celebritarian™ used by permission". The is the meaning behind Celebritarianism being that religion is based on death; echoed by the precepts and rituals of Christianity where we drink the blood in the form of wine and whose body we feed upon in the form of a communion wafer; the devouring of celebrity as set by precedent of the first celebrity, Jesus Christ.
It is a theme which Manson has been evoking since his inception. The original Celebritarian.com and more are archived here and firstly by The NACHTKABARETT.