Holy Wood (book)

infobox Book |
name = Holy Wood


image_caption = The supposed cover art; posted on the internet by Manson in 2000.
author = Marilyn Manson
illustrator =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Novel, Satire
publisher = "Unpublished"
release_date = "Unreleased"
media_type =
pages =
isbn =
oclc =
preceded_by = The Long Hard Road Out of Hell
(1998)
followed_by = -

"Holy Wood" is an unpublished fictional novel by Marilyn Manson, written between 1999 and 2000 (although Manson has claimed to have been writing selections since 1995). Initially envisioned as a companion piece to the album "Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)", it remained unreleased after a series of delays, alleged by Manson to have been caused by a "publishing war"Fact|date=July 2007.

Plot

Describing the plot of the novel itself Manson said: "The whole story, if you take it from the beginning, is parallel to my own, but just told in metaphors and different symbols that I thought other people could draw from. It's about being innocent and naive, much like Adam was in Paradise before they fall from grace. And seeing something like Hollywood, which I used as a metaphor to represent what people think is the perfect world, and it's about wanting — your whole life — to fit into this world that doesn't think you belong, that doesn't like you, that beats you down every step of the way, fighting and fighting and fighting, and finally getting there, everyone around you are the same people who kept you down in the first place. So you automatically hate everyone around you. You resent them for making you become part of this game you don't realize you were buying into. You trade one prison cell for another in some ways. That becomes the revolution, to be idealistic enough that you think you can change the world, and what you find is you can't change anything but yourself."Fact|date=July 2007

Background information

Early talk of the book and film project

In early June 1999 Manson stated at the MTV Movie Awards that he was writing a film script but refused to be drawn into discussion over its contents. By the next month however it became knownFact|date=October 2007 that New Line Cinema had approved "Holy Wood"Fact|date=July 2007 and that Manson was writing the script (which had derived from the novel he wrote during a three month absence from public life after Columbine) with the help of writer Robert Pargi. Central to the idea was a starring role for Manson's then-fiancée Rose McGowan.

By early 2000 however the project was postponed as Manson feared the film had been tweaked in ways that would have ruined his artistic vision of the movie. Plans were made to first release the album in the autumn and to follow it in 2001 with the novel which Manson called 'graphic' and 'phantasmagoric’, stemming back to an idea he first began to draft in 1995. The third and final part of the plan was a coffee table book of images related to the novel and the album by Manson and longtime art collaborator P.R. Brown.

Cover Art and Chapter 10

During the promotion of the album Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) mid 2000, several secret sister websites were launched containing audio from the album with accompanying images. [http://www.nachtkabarett.com/hidden/thelovesong.html TheLoveSong.com] was one of the first sites to be found and contained a clip of the song 'The Love Song' with an image of what looked like the cover of the book. On February 14, 2001, Manson posted a message on his official BBS called "They'd Remember 'This As Valentine's Day'". It contained a [http://www.nachtkabarett.com/hidden/thisasvalentinesday.html link] which led to an image of Time Magazine dated February 14, 1964; it featured a picture of Marina Oswald on the cover. In the image, a hyperlink on her broach led to Chapter 10 of the book. This was the only extract of the book released.

However, when Holy Wood the album was finally released it was, although praised by critics, met with disappointing sales (it had taken almost a year for album to reach gold in the US) and talk of the fomentation film and novel had slowly died down in the press.

After Holy Wood

In spring 2002 Manson began to again mention the novel in various online journal posts; a release date had been set and that the delay was allegedly due to a certain religion's "way". Many assumed this to be about Christianity but in an interview with "The Official PlayStation Magazine" to promote his appearance as Edgar in "Area 51", and other later statements, it became clear the objection most likely originated from the Church of Scientology as Manson, who previously attended meetings but was unimpressed, had drawn upon the story of Jack Parsons and the novel "Sex and Rockets" for the book.

Manson last commented on the novel in November 2005 saying that he would like to release it as either a graphic novel or narrative video game. Chuck Palahniuk has partially read the novel and describes it as "a magical, surreal, poetic story, crammed with detail and cut loose from traditional boring fiction," in his book "Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories".

External links

* [http://www.mansonusa.com/bibliography/holy_wood/ The Heirophant on Holy Wood]
* [http://www.mansonwiki.com/wiki/index.php/Holy_Wood_(novel) Holy Wood's page on the Mansonwiki] (including the excerpt from Chapter 10)