LaVey conducting a mass
Anton LaVey
Big thanks to
Hachette Books and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of Doug
Brod’s book Born with a Tail: TheDevilish Life and Wicked Times of Anton Szandor LaVey, Founder of the Church ofSatan. Born with a Tail could
also be titled Born with a Tale, as Brod’s book about Anton LeVey, the founder
of the Church of Satan, chronicles many of LaVey’s stories and myths that have
been both part of his legend as well as typically debunked by his critics, his
family, and his followers. The tail in question is one that LaVey claims he had
up until his adolescence, when it became an irritation and needed to be
removed. This was also the time he supposedly joined the circus and became an
apprentice to a lion tamer, although there is no real record of his time in the
circus or as a lion tamer. However, as Brod’s in depth and colorful biography presents,
we learned that LaVey kept a lion at the Black House, the Church of Satan’s
longtime headquarters in San Francisco, for a number of years after the church’s
inception. Interestingly, LaVey’s lion, Togare, somehow ended up with Tipi
Hedren. While LaVey’s stories and legends are entertaining and serve mainly to
boost his black magic cred, it was also amazing to see how many different
people and celebrities LaVey crossed paths with as the head of the Church of
Satan.
I’ve always had an
interest in the Church, but my awareness of it came at a time when the focus
had really shifted, and I think I was more aware of the Satanic Temple, which Brod
differentiates from the Church of Satan towards the end of the book. I actually
had the Something Weird DVD for Satanis and had read a book about Satan in popular
culture—I thought it was from Feral House, but I can’t find it. In any event,
the book featured a lot of LaVey and some of the individuals he was involved
with towards the latter 1/3 of the Church’s period—the 80s and 90s. I had some
idea of about the original philosophy and some of the popular myths, but Brod’s
book really helps to establish a strong timeline and interrogate many of the myths
about the Church and LaVey’s life. For example, we find out that despite LaVey’s
insistence, he was not involved in Rosemary’s
Baby, and definitely did not play The
Devil in the dream sequence. Additionally, we learn that LaVey was probably not
a crime scene photographer for the San Francisco PD, in the same way that Weegee
was. I did find it interesting that LaVey recognized the power of personal
stories, media, and embellishment to further his cause and create a Church to
pretty much do what he wanted and have other people give him money. Brod’s
detailed interviews and stories show that LaVey didn’t live luxuriously off his
followers, especially towards the end of the book and LaVey’s life. However, he
seemed to maintain a public front as someone who advocated a “Satanic” life to receive
funding. Brod presents a critical view of LaVey, showing us both LaVey’s carefully
constructed life along with the reality and criticisms he faced; however, I did
find it sad that LaVey devolved into a kind of fascist lover and nazi apologist.
This is where I always was kind of confused about the Church and its
affiliations with musicians like Boyd Rice. Brod’s book helps to provide more
insight into this time period in the Church, and it helps to clarify, for me at
least, that LaVey was basically accepting of nazis. I also learned about LaVey’s
association with Marilyn Manson towards the end of LaVey’s life, and this also
makes sense since Manson was someone who flirted with nazi and fascistic
imagery. The strange part for me was learning that Greg Turkington shows up in
this book as someone who ended up releasing some of LaVey’s organ music, and
eventually compiling a posthumous collection of LaVey’s writing. Like I
mentioned previously, it’s so strange to think about all of these disparate
celebrities and artists who had some kind of connection with LaVey—from Sammy
Davis Jr and Jayne Mansfield to Greg Turkington and Marilyn Manson. Turkington
seems to really have bonded with LaVey over his older music and eccentric
stories, whether they were real or not, and mentioned that LaVey didn’t really
discuss fascism or anything. Through Brod’s presentation of these disparate individuals,
we learn how effective LaVey was at reading people—like a carny—he’s able to
size people up and see what would appeal to them. It also helped to see how
this kind of American interpretation of religion and religious freedom allows
for this kind of trickster or confidence man, who is ultimately looking to
exploit people for his own ends. As I was reading this book (which I also couldn’t
put down), I couldn’t help but think of how LaVey would thrive today on social
media, and how similar he is to influencers and others looking to create a
self, whether it is authentic or not, and to market themselves and their lifestyle
to others. It’s interesting to think about how much of this social media
economy is “satanic” in the sense that it is really based on the pleasure
principle and not being concerned with integrity or reality even, and being
more focused on style, creation of the self, and shaping one’s own reality. I
really recommend this book since it spans an incredibly interesting period of
popular American culture, and looks at a figure who may not be that well known,
but has been influential in shaping many different fields of entertainment. The
only thing that I would have liked to see more of in this book is pictures. I
am not sure if published editions had pictures, but I think that a subject as
interesting as LaVey that touched many different areas of popular culture would
have benefited from more pictures. Nevertheless, this was a fun and interesting
book.
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