PDA

View Full Version : holy interpretation


malfeasance
11-19-2002, 10:59 AM
this song is about buttf*cking. plain and simple. really though, it's just a reference to the cultural need now for immediacy. the metaphor of the object going farther up the rectum is a great expression of our gradual desensitization. so there you have it. isn't learning fun? -eric

Chris_Brightwell
11-19-2002, 11:17 AM
this song is about buttf*cking. plain and simple.


On a purely literal level, you're exactly right. :)


really though, it's just a reference to the cultural need now for immediacy. the metaphor of the object going farther up the rectum is a great expression of our gradual desensitization. so there you have it.

I really tend to think of Stinkfist as some sort of trust-based desensitization. "Relax, turn around and take my hand," is more of a, "this is something that you have to do, but I'm here to help you do it," kind of idea. IMHO, anyway.

Obviously, however, there are approximating 6.3 billion interpretations for any given Tool song.

Great post. Thanks.

grtrthnone
11-19-2002, 11:17 AM
i think the interpretation can be taken much further even if out of context it can be related to the song for instance advertisers going to further and further extremes once it was just tv and radio ads then before a movie then sponsoring a concert (michael jackson, brittany spears, etc.) (corporate scum haha) then actually paying to have a product placed obviously in a scene in a movie and even more recently paying to have your name in a vidoe game (for instance a particular cell phone companies name placed prominantly in THPS 4) once again this is a very off hand example however it can be related to the song, due to the way we live today we have desensitized to most anything be it an advertisement, violence, or even *gasp* sex, then need for more intense stimulation has climbed and people as a whole are no longer suprised at the sight of a shapely ankle, no longer stimulated to buy a product by anything less than a virtual barrage of advertising from this company.

tieske74
11-19-2002, 12:48 PM
Well, I always thought the lines:
"Something kinda sad about
the way that things have come to be.
Desensitized to everything.
What became of subtlety?"
say it all. Need i say more?

megadan
11-19-2002, 01:22 PM
To me, this song is about just that, becoming desenstivized, but more important, become so so slowy that we don't even notice. The fact that MTV censored the title of the video for htis song is exacly the point that the song is trying to make, i think - that you need to shock people in order to make then notice what's going, which is shock, but in a slow manner. So something extreme must happen in order to make people sit up and notice that it's been happening the whole time, rihgt under their noses.
If i may inlcude a real world example, and hopefully not be flamed as i've been on many other forums (i have faith in a Tool msg board), television shows like jackass are exacly this.... they slowly crept onto TV, desensitiving people without their noticing it. Now people are no longer shocked by real live wars on CNN. Even that isn't enough to make people sit up and notice, and so the question is, what will? what's strong enough? maybe this song was back in '96, but that was almost 7 years ago. What's needed now?

Christopher
11-19-2002, 01:46 PM
Originally posted by malfeasance
this song is about buttf*cking. plain and simple. really though, it's just a reference to the cultural need now for immediacy. the metaphor of the object going farther up the rectum is a great expression of our gradual desensitization. so there you have it. isn't learning fun? -eric


way to read the faq ::thumbs up::

OGT
11-19-2002, 03:15 PM
meh....and i always thought it was about fisting......considering the references to the hand and arm and whatnot....which is considered worse than anal sex..............

ClockworkPmpkin
11-19-2002, 06:14 PM
I think that it is not only about desensitation in the sense that it is usually used (regarding violence,sex etc.) , but also being desensitized to life and the beauties and pleasures buried within it. I have this opinion mainly beacause of the song AND the video. Who knows though...

black dot man
11-19-2002, 09:55 PM
I always thought that the whole stinkfisting/desensitization refrence was to how we (as a race) have become more and more dependant on technology, and this has taken away from the natural beauty of the lives we once lead. We now need someone of a stronger will power to tell us to 'relax' and take our hands to help us recover from the withdrawl that one would suffer after becoming free from the technology. The lyrics "I'll keep digging, till I feel something" would seem to indicate a third person (someone other that the listener or the person crippled by technology) who is intent on diggin through the shell that the subject has become, desperate to find a person, some kind of human compassion deep within the core of the technology. this idea of course could be used as a metaphor for a number of things like religion or politics of whatever. but thats what it means to me.

Pazix
11-20-2002, 01:20 AM
Originally posted by OGT
meh....and i always thought it was about fisting......considering the references to the hand and arm and whatnot....which is considered worse than anal sex..............

I think anal fisting would make a lot more sense. The womb is much more shallow then the eventual path of an anally inserted object. "Relax, turn around and take my..." I would assume the next word is hand.. in which case it could be referring to his fully extended arm being shaken through the open mouth of the person he's anally fisting.

Unh0ly
11-20-2002, 02:31 AM
At a tool concert in auckland (new zealand) i was at, maynard stopped and said....this song is not about anal sex...... then the noisy feedback started and stinkfist followed. so maybe, its not about butf*cking at all.

ShackledEidolon
11-20-2002, 10:06 AM
Blue Dot Man -
Great post I tend to agree with this idea as well. The video seems to fit very well with this idea. The whole seperation of the male and female characters by a wall...dust upon everything around them...and the masks (drug/oxygen/something) hint that our innerself is being forgotten and left to atrophy. Most of the other characters in the video seem to have forgotten completely about their true selves and allowed them to fall apart wither. Only after we shed our dependence on material things can we begin to dig through and find what is within...shed the skin...I like it

blaine
11-20-2002, 02:18 PM
i went to a few shows this last tour and some of the added lyrics are... "Why cant you see what your doing to me, Alttho it doesnt even matter..." i think that the story teller might even be hurt by the fact that this person is becoming desentized to (something) be it anal rape or something on a society level. I think this song is based on a relationship level.

ry.
11-21-2002, 06:51 PM
the last tool shows i went to maynard included the lyrics from "suspicious minds"
caught in a trap........,those ones,which adds to the arguement that the song is not about sex

Silversunset
11-21-2002, 07:15 PM
i think you're wrong.
well, not wrong wrong, but mostly wrong. it's not meant to be taken literally, just like everything else. the song is made to make you think, and if you take the literal meaning of it (which is fisting by the way, not buttf*cking as you put it.) then you're not thinking.
it's mainly about desensitization of the human race.
read the lyrics. they spell it out. "it's not enough, i need more, nothing seems to satisfy. i don't want it, i just need it, to breathe, to feel to know i'm alive" isn't talking about shoving anything up anyone's butt. it's talking about how people need feeling and emotion, not this desensitized and bubbled bullshit we get fed. then it says "this may hurt a little but it's somehting you'll get used to". this doesn't mean anythign sexual, it's about having to get used to feeling and having emotions again. it's like living life in a cocoon, you feel nothing, you have a hard shell, and you're blind. you have to shed your skin and be willing to take risks to be able to feel it and then youll be ok. of course, you're free to kep your buttf*cking interpretation if you want. but often times the simplest answer is not the best, it's just the easiest (which seems to be the basis for much of TOOLs music.)

fibonacci
11-22-2002, 04:42 PM
Originally posted by Silversunset
i think you're wrong.
well, not wrong wrong, but mostly wrong. it's not meant to be taken literally, just like everything else. the song is made to make you think, and if you take the literal meaning of it (which is fisting by the way, not buttf*cking as you put it.) then you're not thinking.
it's mainly about desensitization of the human race.
read the lyrics. they spell it out. "it's not enough, i need more, nothing seems to satisfy. i don't want it, i just need it, to breathe, to feel to know i'm alive" isn't talking about shoving anything up anyone's butt. it's talking about how people need feeling and emotion, not this desensitized and bubbled bullshit we get fed. then it says "this may hurt a little but it's somehting you'll get used to". this doesn't mean anythign sexual, it's about having to get used to feeling and having emotions again. it's like living life in a cocoon, you feel nothing, you have a hard shell, and you're blind. you have to shed your skin and be willing to take risks to be able to feel it and then youll be ok. of course, you're free to kep your buttf*cking interpretation if you want. but often times the simplest answer is not the best, it's just the easiest (which seems to be the basis for much of TOOLs music.)

thanks for posting the interpretation we've all seen 109203 times

The Fugue
11-24-2002, 02:43 AM
It's the firts time i hear about this fisting interpretation of the song.I find it quite stupid!This is Tool we 're talking about after all.Their lyrics are much deeper than that,we all know that!Why not talk about what they say to us and not waste our time with things like how far up an ass can a fist go?

48&2
11-24-2002, 02:55 AM
OK when I listen to this song the act of 'fisting' does never cross my mind, I always think of it as meaning 'to cross a borderline' to 'go out of your comfort zone' etc.....tool use a lot of deep metaphors in their songs...its finding and relating to them which is the hardest thing to do....

the count
11-26-2002, 09:04 PM
i feel that the literal meaning of the song- the fisting- and the fist going deeper, and deeper even , is a metaphor for how we as a human race constantly need more to satiate our needs and desires. for instance, think of neanderthal people. they needed only food and water, shelter and warmth to survive. the basics. as we have progressed, so have our needs, and we as humans have developed wants. now lets move to the middle ages. more was needed in order to live, people wanted more, for instance, shelter was no longer caves, but houses, etc. also the advent of money! and material wealth. now, in our present age, we need so much more in order to stimulate our desires, needs and to satisfy us as people. i think the song is talking about the present age and about how that desire is so far developed that we take it for granted. in other words, 'its not enough, i need more, nothing seems to satisfy, i dont want it , i just need it, to feel, to breathe, to know im alive.' also, boredom as a burden. again, the notion of having enough material wealth to entertain us, and to satiate our needs.

ShackledEidolon
12-04-2002, 10:16 AM
It seems as if there is a vaccuum of spirituality in current life. Not in the sense of church or religion but in actual spirituality, that questing, and that desire to discover. Anymore life seems to be all about the processes towards money...we go to school and our motivation is to do well at doing what we are told and are sent onto higher education where our reward will be a high paying job and then once we are in a high paying job (sometimes) we find ourself wanting something else to distract ourselves and give us a moment of meaning and so we get married and have children. Though some of these things are more pure then others (children for example) the point im making is that we are always replacing that time in which we could be self reflecting and realizing that there are some serious questions that need answered with objects or desire for power and status. These things are like some kind of addictive drug that consumes a persons life. More and more people are becoming bored and depressed with life. These desires for the most part are hollow and meaningless in the long run...if there truly is an afterlife then what difference does it make that we have a nice car or a mansion...and on the other hand if there isnt an afterlife then whats the point. Because these things are meaningless they are never enough to satisfy that need for something more meaningful. That desire for some kind of objective that is worthy of time. Any small glimpse of spirituality, be it stimulating conversation, classes, enlightenment, drugs, moving philosophy, or even religion its never enough to really satisfy that need because we reject it or have filled our plate with other less important things. We are unable to part with those desires to pursue this greater cause.

Something has to change...well of course in life we are rarely satisfied with what we have...be it living conditions, place in life, or even level of enlightenment.

undeniable dilemma...either get by with what we have or lose it all in hopes of finding something that might not be there

boredom's not a burden anyone should bare...there isnt any reason that we should in fact be bored of our current state unless we arent doing something right. So we need to grab something more meaningful because it will stop the boredom.

The constant over stimulation that he is talking about is the other objects like cars cell phones tv mansions and other things that pacify our urges but really only numb his real desire by distracting him...but of course its not enough

Scorpio94952
12-04-2002, 10:35 AM
I loved your thoughts on Stinkfist. I have had simliar thoughts but perhaps not as eloquentas you have stated. My favorite song is Pushit. This is probably a selfish love of mine since it mostly is my favorite because it came to symbolize my setniments at one time regarding a relationship I felt stuck in. This ambivalent feeling of sado massachisstic emotions coupled with an inablity to get out of a relationship I saw drowning me. I think when he Maynard resonates the lyrics "saw the gap again today....managed to push myself away and you as well my dear" he echoed this sorrow of a doomed relationship in which he felt trapped and yet distant from at the same time. Pushing himself away to me meant that he had distanced himself from someone (maybe Tori) in order to keep some sanity and justification in keeping that relationship. But is this all me? Interpretations often are, but I wanted to throw this out there to ShackledEidolon in case you have any input about this song.

ShackledEidolon
12-04-2002, 10:58 AM
Should probably take that over to the Pushit section...or have you contact me via email or AIM