-Jim Stark

(Pre 5-12-98)
Cette chanson signifie plusieurs choses, l'espoir, la souffrance, le manque de réalité dans une vie. c'est à propos d'un désespoir si profond, qu'il se défait de tous liens autour de lui et de soi-même(smahed up my sanity et bla, bla, bla). il voit devant lui un rêve qu'il n'atteindra jamais. un rêve qui torture le plus profond de notre être. un rêve présent, inséparable. ce rêve qui est illusion le guide dans son chemin, ce rêve est sa lumière(it took you to make me realize...). finalement, voyant que tout s'écroule malgré les faux espoir, il glisse dans un sable mouvant où personne ne peut le sauver(covered in hope and vaseline). tout est fini. il se regarde périr. par contre il a essayé mais malgré tout il lâcha(i tried, i gave up) il se déteste pour ça et il veut tout recommencer à neuf(throw it away) That's my interpretation. Sorry if I wrote in french, it's the only way I can express myself easily. NIN helped me in some difficult times. I want to thanx Trent to have create so great music. Trent helped me because he wrote songs similar to my feelings. Trent, thank you and also thank you to the one who create this site. c'ya!

-juro

(Pre 5-12-98)
No, no, no. You have it all wrong. (Refering to Jim Stark's interpretation). The song is about a mentally abusive relationship. Some of it being conciously done, and other parts subconciously done. "Perfect little dream" is not the all American Dream, it's the dream of pure immaculate love. The kind we are all searching for. "The kind that hurts the most" is still refering to that. It hurts the most because it can touch us like nothing else can. On an emotional, physical, mental, level. "Forgot how it feels", he's trying to forget. He's pretending, trying to convince himself that it's not happening that it's all in his head. "No one to blame, always the same" he's not doing it but he's bringing it upon himself in a way by not getting out of the relationship. He can't escape it, it's always there. "Open my eyes, wake up in flames" he now sees things for how they really are. This terrifies him. He is in his own hell because he can see what going on and what is happening, and he's trapped by it. He is shocked, stunned. "It took you to make me realize" is stating how he lived his life half asleep before this, almost in a dream world, unaware of things. As sooooo many people are. Very few wake up, and see the light. Capture the power of realization. He was used to things being sugar coated, as we all are. Because of this clearly intellectual, deep, strange, dangerous, controlling person he now sees the world for what it really is. He now sees life, and he sees himself, although this is not clearly mentioned. He has experienced the true power of realization. He's had his awakening (he saw the light). When he says "It took you to make me see the light" he doesn't mean he saw God, as many people seem to think. It has nothing at all to do with that. "Smashed up my sanity, smashed up integrity" is simply what is says. There's no hidden message. You took away my sanity. "I don't know what else to do" I'm going crazy being with you, yet I can't leave you even though I know it's sick. But part of the reason I love it is because it is sick, and I love you. It's a constant battle. "Smashed up what I believed in" everything I've known has changed. (This is a hard one to explain). You made me see things for what they really are, and everything I saw, and everything I believed in is nothing anymore. I was believing in something that had no depth, it wasn't real. It was only real in my eyes. You changed me. "Smashed up all that was true" all the things I believed in are now proven otherwise to me. All the truths I saw are now nothing, because they were small, and things I was just holding on to. "I want to smash myself to pieces" yet again means exactly what it says. He knows he's not ready for this relationship because of the person in it, and what she is doing to him. He wants to end it, but he knows he can't leave it because he will die without it. He wants to die, but he is afraid of that to. There's no way out!! He wants to be broken, immobilized mentally. "Covered in hope and vaseline" means you cover me in hope. You know I'm aware of these things. You know I know what your capable of. You realized I'm deeper than you thought. But you still try to change my mind about how I see you. You don't want me to see the real you, but subconciously you do because you've shown yourself to me. And you did this because you wanted to give me a chance to flee. Get out of this before it started, before you engulfed me. But I didn't see it before, and now it's too late, because I'm totally submersed in it. In you, in your passion, your love, your spell. Jim Stark, this is where you really went wrong!! "Watching the hole it used to be mine" does not represent someone close to him. Trent is talking about his mind!! His head, the contents inside. The endless void, that's what a hole is. Something with no real defineable end. "Just watching it burn in..." I used to be able to think clearly, now I can't. You've taken over me, over my mind. I used to have my mind, but now I let you in and you read me. Know all about me. "Of the trust I will betray" means what you want most from me is to trust you, but that will just let you in further, to the deepest level. If I do that then you have total control. "Give it to me, I'll throw it away" means give me your control, give me this trust issue that's so important to you, I'll get rid of it. It will no longer be an issue with us. "After everything I've done, I hate myself for what I've become" is self explanitory. Everything I thought I was no longer applies. I thought I was strong, I never dreamed of this. I hate myself for letting myself be abused by you (mentally abused). You play mind games with me. I hate myself for falling in love with someone so twisted and sick. Yet in a way Iove everything about it. Because it's the deepest form of love, and the only true love I've ever known. "I tried, gave up, throw it away" meaning, I tried to fight it, tried to push these thoughts from my mind. I don't want to think these horrible things about you. I don't want them to be true. I don't even really know if they are true, or just a figment of my imagination. I'm not trying anymore. Things are the way they are. "Throw it away" this part is slightly seperate from the other two phrases. This is his wish. He wishes he could just throw it away, and not think this way but he can't stop.

I'm aware that what I have just layed before you is a lot to take in. I realize some won't get it. I just put it out there for the ones that will. The ones who can understand, relate. Go over it, re-read it. It's a lot to take in all at once. It's a very deep concept. don't rule it out right away. If you hear it, and not just listen you well see that the "mystery" has been uncovered right before your eyes. :) Enjoy!

This is one of my favourite NIN songs. I just hit me one day and I related to Trent in a very personal way.

Analyase these two things, take them in, become aware of them, they are VERY, VERY important!

1. Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.
2. Realization is THE most powerful, frightening thing of all!

-Daughter Of Darkness (Trish)

(Pre 5-12-98)
i don't think anyone is incorrect here. the fact is, depending on how you interpret it is what it means to you. much like christianity. trent just met some people he shouldn't have in his life. man, woman, thing.....just something that made hime think. i think that he saw through someone and had a revelation. he realized that people aren't what they seem. even himself.

-Morpheus

(Pre 5-12-98)
My interpretation of the song is basically to "smash up" everything around you. not literally but to emotionally reject everything. because it's the eazyest thing to do. i often listen to this song when i think of old relationships where i just got fucked over. i think thats trent whole think to kill everything and everyone around you until you have completely isolated yourself. i mean come on "mr. selfdestruct" "you can have my isolation" hes a great artist and i respect him alot for doing what is true to him.

-plot9

(Pre 5-12-98)
Within this song, there is a strong resentment to people as Trent is made to follow against his will. It is a introduction to Downward Spiral and sets the scene to the suicide-driven Trent. It start is quiet because after his outburst in Happiness in Slavery, Trent is sent into despair and suicide. It slowly loudens as Hope and Control fail against the rebel and at the end, Trent destroys himself to escape, evident in the screaming and lyric "Throw it away". This destruction leads on to the character being reborn in Downward Spiral. The song "Mr Self Destruct" is a flashback to GAVE UP and shows his views and death. The rebirth occurs in the child in Piggy.

-STRESSBALL

(Pre 5-12-98)
Enter comments herei agree with the first comment on this song but i also think about the situation he was in when he was writing the song and it kind of changes the thought a bit cause if you think about it he is almost describing his situation with his label at the time so he had all these confused feelings and the fact that his girlfriend fucked him over amongst other things came out this "hey im pissed and im gonna scream" song thats all .....

-laura aka the artist formerly known as queenie

(5-19-98)
This song is all about William Shakespeare's "Macbeth."
Macbeth is the classic example of a person going into a "downward spiral" (which coincidentally was the next full album) The lyrics are all about Macbeth's descent into self-hate, the loss of everything he held dear (Lady Macbeth) and horrifying self realization.

"perfect little dream"--attaining the throne from Duncan
"the kind that hurts the most"--well, he HAS TO KILL Duncan (regicide)
"forgot how it feels"--Macbeth kills indiscriminantly later on. quote Macbeth "...from this moment the very firstlings of my heart shall be the firstlings of my hand"
"well almost"--Macbeth doesn't want to fight Macduff in the end. quote Macbeth "But get thee back, my soul is too much charg'd with blood of thine already"
"no one to blame"--Macbeth has no one to blame but himself for the collapse of his life due to his "overbearing ambition" and murders he carried out to achieve and maintain his place on the throne of Scotland.
"always the same, open my eyes, wake up in flames"-- Macbeth stayed the same-evil- when his eyes are finally opened at the end of the play, his world is in flames. MacDuff kills Macbeth.
It took you to make me realize, it took you to make me see the light"-- definite references to the Witches and there equivical prophecies which eventually destroyed him when he realizes there meaning to late in the play. After finding out about Macduff's C-section birth (not being born of woman) quote Macbeth: "Accursed the tongue that tells me so; For it hath it cow'd the better part of man!"
#ENTIRE CHORUS#--everything that made up the old, "honourable" Macbeth was smashed up by his ambition, and in the end was his undoing. After hearing of Lady Macbeth's death Macbeth quotes:"She should have died hereafter...signifying nothing" andupon hearing abot Birnam Wood approaching Dunsinane "At least we'll die with harness on our back"--smash myself to pieces.(knows he's going to lose or die.)
"still cannot fix this broken machine"--Macbeth's mind is a broken machine along with his soul and his entire being. He broke it when he murdered Duncan, and now its too late and he still can't fix it.
"Covered in hope and vaseline"---Macbeth has some hope that he can keep the murders he committed a secret.
"watching the hole, it used to be mine"--since Macbeth was a killing "machine" (he was a Military hero)one could debate as to if anyone who can kill on the battlefield, even has a soul, but, he could control his violence and apply it on the battlefield, and not use his desensitized nature to attain his goals of becoming KING.
"just watching it burn in my steady systematic decline"-- The entire plotline of Macbeth summed up in one line.
"of the trust, I will betray, give it to me I throw it away"-- People trusted Macbeth that he didn't kill Duncan and that he would be a good King.They were wrong
"after everything I've done I hate myself for what I've become"-- Macbeth killed his best friend Banquo, Macduff's family and babies and basically everyone, and now he has nothing now that Lady Macbeth is dead. No kids, nothing. The throne means nothing. At one point in the play he wishes he had never murdered Duncan.
"I tried, I gave up, throw it away"--Tried to attain the crown, got it, killed innocent people, gave up to his ambition and murderous intent and now it has all been thrown away. Himself included. Macbeth is killed by Macduff.

Well that's my NINterpretation. If you read I hope I didn't bore you, I personally feel it makes sense for Trent to like Macbeth since about 90% of his music can be interpreted in that way. I swear, try it, it's easy. The whole Downward Spiral,Pretty Hate Machine, maybe EVEN FRAGILE!!! Alot of other works of Shakespeare can be interpreted by this way. I think I've uncovered Trent's secret to writing music and maybe it shouldn't be that Onofrio guy suing him but in fact Shakespeare.

So feel free to e-mail me and tell me what you think about my interpretation.

-jesus Anti-christ

(6-1-98)
what i think..which may sound fucked up..is that he's losing his hope, he made a little dream world..a hope of something new..that someone by doing something or saying something made him realize that it was just a naive little fantasy..and i think its slowly killing his hope, and he doesn't care anymore, because his dream was what he was living for..he blames himself..and the fact that what he believed in isnt true is really working on his mind..it hurts him so much..hes just going to let his hope all burn away until theres nothing left, he's going to destroy himself instead of letting it be taken away again..he hates what hes doing, what hes become, but..he tried..and now hes giving up..hes just saying "fuck it all"..i also think he's pretending to be just fine to people around him..getting them to trust him that hell be ok, when in reality he's just going to let himself be destroyed..anyways, i'm probably wrong..its just what i feel..

-Nameless