(Pre 5-12-98)
I agree with Elana Zivinsky(whose interpretation can be found on the Ruiner Relations page. -me) that it is about child abuse but i think she missed a key elemant to the song. For most of the song he's addressing a single person. Saying you. Only in certain places is he really talking to the ruiner, the rest of the time he is talking to a 3rd party. I think this song is really about telling someone else about his child abuse but not having them listen to him.
"You had all of them on your side didnt you? You believed in all your lies didnt you?"
This part i think he is speaking to the ruiner. He's almost in disbelief that not only will no one listen to him, but that they think this Ruiner is a saint. So he's asking how the ruiner is doing this.
"The ruiners got alot to prove, he's got nothing to lose and now he made you believe the ruiners your only friend but he's the living end to the cattle he decieves."
Notice how this changes from talking to someone directly to talking to someone about someone else and then tying them in some how. This is why i believe so strongly about the fact that this is about someone who isnt listening. And the part about Trent calling a group (including himself) cattle is apparent that he thinks the ruiner doesnt think they have emotions. He also is practically pleading to this person to believe him that the ruiner is not a good person.
"The raping of the innocent, you know the ruiner ruins everything he sees"
I agree again with Elana, its self evidant that he's saying how the ruiner doesnt care who he's dealing with he is just going to try to destroy or rape it.
"Now the only pure thing left in my fucking world is wearing your disease"
Now, he's saying how he's given up hope that anyone will listen to him so he is saying how they are part of the problem. But he's not talking about the ruiner's disease, he's talking about the naiveness of the person he's confiding in.
"How'd you get so big? How'd you get so strong? How'd it get so hard? How'd it get so long?"
Well, this part is speaking to the ruiner again, and he's talking about how the ruiner has made him feel like less of a person, and how suddenly the ruiner is a huge figure in his life, and how the ruiner is such a negative one.
"You had to give them all a sign didnt you? You had to covet what was mine didnt you?"
The first part is about how the ruiner has made everyone believe that he is such a nice guy and couldnt possibly do the atrocities he did. Then the second line is about how the ruiner took away something, possibly his self confidence, or his ability to have intimate relationships or whatever, but something very close to trent, not his teddy bear or any other material posessions.
"The ruiners a collector, he's an infector, he's serving his shit to his flies"
This has two parts, the first part is Trent still pleading with this person that the ruiner is a bad person and that he is just using a stageshow and to do this he is making a attack on the ruiner, the collector part baffles me but i think he's talking how the ruiner keeps trying to make everything perfect and his victims are chosen and not random.
"Maybe there will come a day when those that you keep blind will suddenly realize"
This is still talking to the same person, about the ruiner, this is saying how this person is going to do nothing about the abuse he's suffering, therefore making the outside world "blind" to what is going on in Trent's life.
"Maybe its a part of me you took it to a place i hoped it would never go, and maybe that fucked me up much more than you'll ever know"
He's still talking to the person even though it seems like hes talking to the ruiner. He's saying how he's made his cry for help and that he never wanted to do it, and now he can't take it anymore, and he's never going to tell anyone again. And he's saying how the lack of closure in this case because this person wont listen is probably going to be more painful in the end than what the ruiner could ever do to him.
"What you gave to me, my perrfect ring of scars"
He's addressing the ruiner again, and he's telling him how badly he's hurt him, since the ruiner obviously doesnt realize how much its hurting him, and especially if its someone close to him, who may actually care.
"You know i can see what you really are"
Trent is saying, "Hey, i know what kind of a monster you are, even if no one will believe me i know what you are."
"You didnt hurt me, nothing can hurt me, you didnt hurt me, nothing can stop me now..."
This part he's saying to the ruiner again. He is saying how no matter what the ruiner did to him, this guy is not going to take him down. He's lying to both the ruiner, himself, and the world in doing this because Ruiner's take so much away from a person that they are haunted for life...

-Fox

(Pre 5-12-98)
I don't see where anyone is getting "child abuse" The "perfect ring of scars" is an emotional reference. The Ruiner is a past friend or connection to Trent who betrayed Trent or in someway worked against Trent. I would guess it was Trent's best friend who ran off with Trent's girlfriend ("The only pure thing left in my fucking world is wearing your disease"). Most of NIN is about past girlfriends. Look carefully. The answer is never that intricate, and I doubt Trent was sexually abused as a child.

-Death (JH)

(Pre 5-12-98)
I think that all of your interpretations of the song is a bunch of crap. You are all wrong and you all know it. Trent wasn't sexually molested. I think that he was being used and abused by someone and no one believed him. someone probablly accused him of something and people being that they are afraid of things that they do not understand, believed that he did it.

-ninfan

What ninfan fails to understand is that different songs mean different things to different people. It was very careless of him/her to dismiss others' feelings on this song. The next two subissions contradict ninfan's comments...

(Pre 5-12-98)
I completely agree with the first two interpretations about this song being about child abuse and the fact that he's talking to the "Ruiner" and a 3rd party that just isn't listening to him. Except when he says "you didn't hurt me, nothing can hurt me, you didn't hurt me, nothing can stop me now" I believe it's almost as if he's in denial about what the "Ruiner" has done to him ,and he's saying to himself that he can overcome the pain and it doesn't affect him in anyway.

-TreznorNIN

(Pre 5-12-98)
"you had all of them on your side, didn't you?
you believed in all your lies, didn't you?"
I think from the start, he's talking to himself.
"the ruiner's got a lot to prove he's got nothing to lose and now he made you believe
the ruiner's your only friend well he's the living end to the cattle he deceives
the raping of the innocent you know the ruiner ruins everything he sees
now the only pure thing left in my fucking world is wearing your disease"
Maybe I'm obsessed...but now that Trent has admitted to getting fucked up on occasion, I'm thinking drugs are represented by the ruiner. The disease could be addiction.
"how did you get so big?
how did you get so strong?
how did you get so hard?
how did it get so long?"
Besides the obvious male genitalia reference here...I think he's asking the addiction how it took hold of him like this. (next verse represents the same damn thing to me so why type it out?)
"what you gave to me
my perfect ring of scars
you know i can see what you really are"
Another junkie reference. What makes scars like that? Needles. He talks to the heroin like it's a living entity...which in fact it is.
"you didn't hurt me nothing can hurt me
you didn't hurt me nothing can stop me now"
Renouncing the addiction...or a declaration of a small will to live still inside him through all the pain he feels. Maybe. Or maybe just another cool thing to whisper.

-jim stark

(Pre 5-12-98)
Regarding the drug reference. Trent has - according to himself - never experimented with a "heavy" drug such as heroin. (Listen to the interview disc "disturbed", but disregard the interviewers' questions about the songs on TDS. It seems like Trent just agrees, to avoid answering.) However, I can't understand why no one agrees fully with Jim Stark's interpretation. I actually agree with all interpretations, and Stark's is very likely, since Trent speaks a lot about drugs on The Downward Spiral. The album in itself is about a person getting more and more depressed, getting into drugs (Hurt; "the needle tears a hole") and getting caught in a downward spiral, until he/she can't feel anything at all.

-Joaquim Gāndara

(Pre 5-12-98)
Okay, I agree with the abuse reference in all the prior interpretations. However I can't fathom the "Ruiner" being anyone else but Trent. Even though Jim Stark's comments were cursory and somewhat superficial, I do agree with them. Not to demean the other opinions, but Trent never gives the illusion in any interview that I have read to have been physically abused. Actually, I can only call to mind the repeated statements made saying he was never abused as a child, or that he lived anything other than a "normal" childhood with his grandparents in Pennsylvania.
In the CMJ New Music Monthly, issue No.50, October '97 he states, "...there's a point where the individual has to check in on themselves and realize enough is enough. I realized I was an asshole. I was shitty to people, shitty to old friends and new people I met...So at one point I sat back and looked at myself and went: 'You're a fucking asshole. You've become what you never thought you'd be.'..." His comments leave me with the rationale that the "Ruiner" is himself. He must have been going through a difficult emotional period of self-realization. Another factor could have been the drug abuse. He has admitted to experimentation of marijuana, mushrooms, etc. Trent's reference in the chorus of the song may mean one is unaware of the dangers drugs carry. They have the ability to suffocate and engulf one into a false sense of reality as well as security, not to mention death. The lyrics could be a discussion of Trent's reality and the drugs he took. Perhaps a reflection as if to say, 'How did this happen? How could I have allowed the destructive events to consume me? Thus becoming, Mr. Self Destruct'...

-Sabrina Lynn

(Pre 5-12-98)
I believe that Ruiner was originally written in reference to sex. But while everyone seems to believe that the Ruiner is someone else, I believe he's talking about a part of himself. He's talking about his own sexuallity and how it overtook him. How he lied to himself, how society built it up to all seem like the right way to be. So what's the Ruiner? It is, in my belief, his penis. This sounds sophmoric, but I think it's true. And when he's screaming to all of us he's warning us off from our "Ruiner".
Yeah, I'm reaching, but that's what I got.

-Ruined

(Pre 5-12-98)
In general, this song to me is about overcoming lies. Lies told to other people, and lies told to yourself. It could be about sexual or drug abuse, or about sexuality, or whatever. To me, this song is about realizing the truth once and for all. It's about that moment when the abused person realizes that what happened to them was bad and it wasn't their fault. It's about that moment when the junkie looks back on their life and sees how it wasn't as great as it sounded like it would be. It's about all the lies we ever tell ourselves, or are told by others.
Specifically, the only person who actually knows what this song is about is Trent Reznor. But I would say that physical or sexual abuse is a definite candidate.

-rhlannon

(Pre 5-12-98)
A friend of mine has decided that ruiner is a song written about the person Trent Reznor feel's like after stealing songs from Mark Nick Onofrio. Of course that person is completely stupid and wrong- though it would fit the lyrics adaquetly.
If you play ruiner backwards and concentrate on his voice you will hear him say two things in reverse. Within the song played backwards he says -" I know you wanted me" and "I'm so lonely". This is not what the song is about- but is a clue because reverse speach contains the emotions present while speaking or singing. This would probably make it so the drug interpretations are less likely than others. Under this study tool I have also found very interesting things in march of the pigs, i do not want this, down in it, and reptile. Note- this is not backwards masking and is an uncouncious function of the speaker. Reverse speach is a relitivly new psycological/linguistic discovery, but has proven 100% accuracy. Any questions are welcome if my name is put in the subject. (Note- the reverse-speech homepage can be found at http://www.reversespeech.com   -me).
Ruiner is my favorite nin song, because I belive it contains the only torment out of all of Trent's works I have not personally suffered.
but
I will keep myself, I will find a way

-Arian

(Pre 5-12-98)
Ruiner is about two seperate themes-
1) Someone important to you has done a lot to hurt you and
2) It doesn't matter because you no longer care enough about said person to let them do it again.
"you had all them on your side..." Both pre-verses address the person- how they hurt you; "how'd you get so big..." the chorus asks 'how could you hurt me?'
"the ruiner's a collector.../the ruiner's got a lot to prove..." addresses yourself, or a part of yourself, that just doesn't give a fuck anymore. it's easy to control and manipulate someone when they think they're the one that's in control and manipulating you.
"what you gave to me, my perfect ring of scars" is like saying 'thank you for letting me realize what you are, because now i'm gonna make YOU burn.
"you didn't hurt me... nothing can stop me now" addresses yourself once more- i don't care, you can't hurt me, i'm gonna fuck your world.
At any rate, i feel that the song is really speaking on a personal level, dealing with internal struggle- like most nin songs...
the ruiner is me.

-acid angel

(Pre 5-12-98)
I definitely say that Ruiner is about drugs or something. For example the lyrics "maybe it's a part of me you took it to a place I hoped it would never go and maybe that fucked me up much more than you'll ever know", could be saying that the drug made him go on a bad trip and it messed him up bad. And maybe there will come a day when those that you keep blind will suddenly realize" means that the people that think the drug does no harm will suddenly see the truth.

-donutk

(Pre 5-12-98)
This is one of Trent's better songs, it has many deep personal and obvious interpretations. I agree with most of the above interpretations, yet I do disagree with some points. I have read books on Trent and I have read many articles published about him and nowhere in any thing that I have read did he or the author say anything about him being molested as a child, that seems to be made up. Trent has also stated he did have an addiction to crack he has even written a song about it. I also believe his 'perfect ring of scars' are emotional. The ruiner seems to me to be a person that Ternt knew and thought was a friend but he (the ruiner) turned on Trent and shoved him down. So Trent is wondering how he did that. Trent wants to think he would have seen indications or any reason but dumbfoundedly Trent asks 'How?'. I also feel the collector is the ruiner, the collection is all the hurt people he has f*ucked over and destroyed. He obviously has no remorse or regrets he likes to see the people cry and ask 'how? why?' The ruiner loves and lives off of their pain.
Trent seems to have ben ruined by him/her and still wonders why.

-Amber C.O. Gregbob1

(Pre 5-12-98)
This song is about Trents blindness to god. On the chorus "how'd you get so big how'd ya get so strong how'd you it so hard and how did it get so long". In this song he's asking himself "How come you've got so much power yet you fuck over everyone who believes in you ?".

-Seth B.

(Pre 5-12-98)
I've always thought the "ruiner" in this song is money...read the lyrics with that in mind and I think it makes a lot of sense...the greed and insensitivity and lack of feeling for others that money can bring and how it truly makes people forget their feelings even for human lives...politicians and pepole in general have been ruined in millions of ways-lying and treating people horribly.....I think the refrain "how did you get so big"...etc....it expresses confusion and wonder at how big and strong money has become in society. "how did it go so wrong"...money infects people and makes them slaves to it...all many people care about is making more and more money and buying more and more no matter what it does to them or others....check out the lyrics using this interpretation....it's really a poweful message if not the only one you can get from this complex song...

-rob

(6-1-98)
While all of the interpretations make sense, I'd have to say I agree with Ruined - he's talking about his penis. Especially the line " . . . you know the ruiner ruins everything he sees" This is going to sound like one of those abstainance programs, but for the most part, it is true. Sex ruins relationships. I've witnessed it many times, people have a really good relationship then they start to have sex and they no longer have a relationship (girlfriend/boyfriend), just a sex partner. I'm not saying that sex ruins all relationships, because on occasion I have seen it help the relationship grow. Anyways, (sorry, I got off the subject) "you didn't hurt me," he didn't get emotionally attached to the people he "ruined," therefore, he wasn't hurt my them. At first he was yelling at (repremanding) his penis for ruining him and others but by the end he decides to give in to its desires and just go out and fuck anyone and everyone because as he says "nothing can stop me now" Sort of gives you a taste of I Do Not Want This - I want to fuck everyone in the world . . .

-the emerald muse

(7-20-98)
The Ruiner can be parraled to William Shakesphere's HAMLET. :

The Ruiner is King Cladius, Hamlet's uncle who decided he wanted a piece of Hamlets mom, after he killed Hamlets dad. Hamlet screams the song while he ponders "to be or not to be". "you believed in all your lies-- King Claud didn't tell anyone he murdered hamlet's dad. You had all of them on your side--how else could Claud become king? How did you get so big, etc-- King Claud is damned to sleep in 'incestuous sheets' goddammit he is with his sister(is it?) you had to covet what was mine--his mom. serving his shit to his flies- note the tone of authority Hamlet gives to the ruiner, also note that the ruiner is King Claudius. Maybe you fucked me up- Hamlet went mad. you didn't hurt me nothing-- this apperas thet hamlet is going nuts, and infact Hamlet does go nuts and swears revenge for his father. There will come a day when those that you keep blind-- The ending scenes of Hamlet adress this issue.
Well there it is, once again Trent shows us that he truely does enjoy the classic works of William Shakesphere.

-jen