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Old 11-23-2002, 11:48 AM   #1
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Abuse

The video is about physical/sexual abuse... (more sexual I believe)

The tell, thin...intimidating figure in the video is the abuser... and the other character is obviously the person being abused.

The legs.... the abuser takes away the legs... so the "child" can't get away from the abuse. You notice that when the "child" is with the "parent" in one instance of the video, the legs start "running" even though they're not attached to the child's body.... the frantic movement of the legs that are hanging on the wall in the "parent's" room represents the terror going through the mind of the child when with the parent.

The page being ripped out of the book... is like the saying... "he took a page out of the book" of so n so...
The parent (tall, black, intimidating figure) rips the page out of the book... suggesting to the viewer that this abuse is a learned "behavior." He's merely taking a page out of the book out of what's already been done to him.
Abuse is cyclical.

The eyes rolling back in the child is what gets to me the most... the child knows the abuse is ready to occur again... and his fear is overwhelming... to the point where he'd just rather give in to the parent, than resist.

I think the bee is arbitrary... it could be any thing in the jar. Any thing alive.
That part of the video is just a metaphor of how powerful manipulation/abuse can be....
It shows the bee in the jar... assume the bee represents the child in the video. After a period of this abuse and mental dominance/manipulation.... the abuser OWNS the bee/child.
The parent has such control (post-abuse) over the bee/child that it can simply toy with it ... passing the bee from finger to finger... and the bee won't fly away due to this manipulation and fear.
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Old 11-23-2002, 09:23 PM   #2
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the book is interesting....
i see the book as a bible...( ok it's easy to attach catholocism onto anything but it works) or maybe not "the" bible, a bible, the code of ethics and morality....tearing pages out....well it's pretty obvious what i mean...

or possibly a diary, or journal, a list of the black mannequin's childhood abitions and goals...a list of what he wanted to be and do, and how to act written during his childhood....tearing pages out in the frustrated manner could then symbolise the pain the black figure is going through in the way he is treating the child...in that he does not want to, but doesn't know any other way and thus is tearing apart his ambitions to be different, to be better than the one who abused himself as a child...

ok this is probably reading into it way too much....but it's still interesting to think about...
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Old 12-05-2002, 09:24 AM   #3
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possibly

Hey i have thought that the book is the bible. The black creature follows this book and makes the doll follow the book as well but then he must rip out the pages that might make the doll realize that what the black thing is doing is wrong. So kinda like the a "good Christian" person is foolowing the dogmatic codes but at the same time ignores a part of it so it better suits his needs or desires. does this make any sense at all?
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Old 12-25-2002, 01:06 AM   #4
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Those are all great ideas. I think I agree with Droel(?) about the book. The scariest part of this video in near the end, when the child (?) lifts his arm up to resist, and the big guy just calmly pushes it back down. It seems like he's saying something like 'We've been over this before, you can't stop me' but saying it really calmly. (We'll not SAYING it, but that's the felling I get from that bit). It sort of feels like the big guy still loves him, and it's scary to think that someone who loves you could do this to you (any similarity to othet tool songs?)
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Old 01-13-2003, 08:47 PM   #5
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When people are abused sometimes they leave their bodies and become numb to it. I think that's what the little wee dolly is doing.

Anyone have any idea about the little meat puppet that the black one steps on and crushes?
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Old 01-20-2003, 08:31 AM   #6
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meat thing.

I think the meat thing that the black creature steps on might be the child's will to get help, the power to break away from the abuse if you will. and the black thing stepping on it might just be his way of stopping the child from trying to fight back.
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Old 01-21-2003, 12:15 PM   #7
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Eye plate

Did anyone notice the part in the video where the abuser takes the "eye plate" from the "child" and looks through it?

I think this represents foreshadowing of what the "child" will grow up to be. It takes the idea that the one getting abused will grow up to be the abuser, so he will grow up to see through the eyes of the abuser since he will be the one abusing...get it?
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Old 01-27-2003, 12:49 PM   #8
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That picture....

Everytime I watch the Prison Sex movie I wonder about that picture of a kid. You know that picture of his head that spins around?
Who is that?
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Old 01-27-2003, 07:16 PM   #9
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I swear that kid is Maynard as a young boy!!!! Wouln't it all make sence? What significance is the little meat guy that gets stomped on? Why does the black guy smash him? Why does the little kid on wheels come to help him? Who is the litle kid on wheels? I just saying Maynard because that would be funny, but I have no clue as to who it is.
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Old 02-06-2003, 02:38 PM   #10
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Or he has been sexually abused himself? At the age 11 something obviously happened (Jimmy), and what about H that is about his son? Is he saying that he is trying not to "do unto you know what has been done to me"?

Whooh...this is a really sensitive subject. I hope I don't upset many people with what that may just be bullshit.
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Old 03-10-2003, 04:18 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally posted by 987
Or he has been sexually abused himself? At the age 11 something obviously happened (Jimmy), and what about H that is about his son? Is he saying that he is trying not to "do unto you know what has been done to me"?

Whooh...this is a really sensitive subject. I hope I don't upset many people with what that may just be bullshit.
Well, this may be a rather literal interpretation, but the "...touching me, changing me" line in H always struck me as fairly telling.
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Old 03-11-2003, 04:32 AM   #12
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So true

Dam I wish that I looked into this post earlier

I totaly agree with ThreeDeviations and also what Jebus was saying about the scariest part of the movie ..... I was sooooo telling the same thing to one of my friends who likes Tool a few weeks ago. But I dont aggree with what you (Jebus) are saying totaly. I think that the "child" is finaly gotten used to it and is accepting it and trying to involve its self in what the adult is doing to it but the adult is saying (showing) that it prefers it when the child does not respond which I find very scary, also suppported when he starts rubbing himself with the paint brush as if comming to acceptance with what is being done to him. I know that this is a lot to read into a hand gesture but i thought this the first time I saw it. Also read the lirics on this site and it has some that are sometimes added in in concert which add a lot more impact I think.

Last edited by Mickey Sanchez; 03-11-2003 at 04:37 AM..
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Old 06-21-2005, 11:45 PM   #13
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Re: Abuse

Want to understand the prison sex video... read this thread.
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Old 08-05-2005, 04:47 PM   #14
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Re: So true

Bump.


On the cycle of abuse-The child capturing the bee in the jar actually would represent the cycle of abuse between the adult and the child. Its the same situation as when the adult keeps the child locked in that cell (its a physical cell but its used metaphorically). The same power. The same abuse and same confinement. This is what the first post here was getting at I think.
Then, if one person has power over another, that first person has even more power over whatever the controlled other has control over, am I right?
Maynard empties his inner feelings and philosophies on what happened to him after all these years...
In that case, I feel that a younger Maynard may just be the character with no legs, and the rapist step-father the black figure. The intimidation and grotesqueness of the father's character shows Maynard's resentment towards his real father for what he had done.
Then the classic bit:
"Do onto others, what has been done to you"
Maynard's character finds other less powerful creatures to perform the same offense to in order to cope. Maybe the bee represents his own child and how he ends up making sure he doesn't make the mistakes his father did.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mickey Sanchez
Dam I wish that I looked into this post earlier

I totaly agree with ThreeDeviations and also what Jebus was saying about the scariest part of the movie ..... I was sooooo telling the same thing to one of my friends who likes Tool a few weeks ago. But I dont aggree with what you (Jebus) are saying totaly. I think that the "child" is finaly gotten used to it and is accepting it and trying to involve its self in what the adult is doing to it but the adult is saying (showing) that it prefers it when the child does not respond which I find very scary, also suppported when he starts rubbing himself with the paint brush as if comming to acceptance with what is being done to him. I know that this is a lot to read into a hand gesture but i thought this the first time I saw it. Also read the lirics on this site and it has some that are sometimes added in in concert which add a lot more impact I think.
The paint brush is childhood rebellion on a repressed, irrevelant scale; the only one the character can manage. The black marks are always swept away by the father, as if to clean the son...

Maynard had to have came up with these ideas, or at least told Adam of his inspiration for the song. Adam probably took it and distorted everything into metaphor galore as his style never fails.

The whole video is quite surreal, actually. Probably my favorite Tool video, if not my favorite of all time.
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Old 08-31-2005, 12:06 AM   #15
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Re: Abuse

As the video starts, we see threads...or umm..wires of some sort...what do u think all that is about? O.o
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Old 08-31-2005, 05:17 PM   #16
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Re: Abuse

The "string" being cut is basically the child's leg(s).

That string is what attaches the child's leg to his midsection. The parent cut it to limit his mobility... to make him much easier to manipulate.

In a scene shortly thereafter, you see the parent threading or weaving the string so the leg(s) can be hung up where the child cannot reach them...
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Old 09-02-2005, 04:36 AM   #17
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Re: Abuse

No...i am not talking about that...I was talking about the stretched vibrating wires in the VERY beginning of the video...
another try :P
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Old 09-02-2005, 05:42 PM   #18
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Re: Abuse

:P

I was talking about that too... watch the stretching vibrating wires.... they are what the parent snips and causes the child to fall. As I said before, it's the thing that connected his legs to his midsection. Watch it again. Watch the parent snip the chord.
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Old 10-05-2006, 12:52 PM   #19
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Re: Abuse

Glad i read this thread.Three Deviations thoughts on the meaning of the video really made me see the video in a new light. Thank you.
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Old 10-06-2006, 01:51 PM   #20
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Re: Abuse

Quote:
Originally Posted by Red Yehti View Post
Glad i read this thread.Three Deviations thoughts on the meaning of the video really made me see the video in a new light. Thank you.
Cool deal Red.
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Old 10-23-2006, 04:28 PM   #21
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Re: Abuse

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Originally Posted by testure View Post
Well, this may be a rather literal interpretation, but the "...touching me, changing me" line in H always struck me as fairly telling.
I agree very much and also lines like
"I am too connected to you to
Slip away, to fade away.
Days away I still feel you
Touching me, changing me,
And considerately killing me."
Meaning that the victim/MJK is to connected to cry out for help
"My fear begins to fade
Recalling all of those times.

I could have cried then.
I should have cried then. "
Talking about when he should of asked for help.
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Old 10-23-2006, 04:50 PM   #22
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Re: Abuse

and what does that have to do with the Prison Sex video?
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Old 10-24-2006, 10:20 PM   #23
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Re: Abuse

i hate the very last moment of the video, when the little puppet tries to push the alien creature away, but the alien easily forces the puppet's arm back down. that scene is very effective.
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Old 02-16-2007, 02:28 PM   #24
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Re: Abuse

Quote:
Originally Posted by JE Mack View Post
i hate the very last moment of the video, when the little puppet tries to push the alien creature away, but the alien easily forces the puppet's arm back down. that scene is very effective.
Agreed.
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Old 02-17-2007, 10:33 AM   #25
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See, I had kind of seen the book as the doll's diary - something private, with his fear and hate and hope in it, and the figure takes it, and shreds it, and uses the knowledge in it to hurt him worse.

I do have to agree with the rest of you, though - the end is the most unnerving. The fluttering resistance, pathetic, knowing that there's no chance of success, but lifting the hand anyway - and it's gently, tenderly pushed back down. It creeps me out.

Somebody mentioned that the child tries to help, but is denied - somehow that's even worse. The last bit of control he tries to gain, and no. He might be reaching out to reciprocate, to make it something other than abuse, but it doesn't work that way. (I think resistance is the most likely meaning, but it's probably got dozens of levels of meaning, so.)

I think the paintbrush is (obviously a euphemism) a representation of how he was marked, but invisibly so - the scars don't show. But when he tries to do it to himself, he is painted - this is his acceptance, his continuation of the cycle. He perpetuates the act, and marks himself.

Oh, and also - I kind of think that the song is being sung from the point of view of the monster. He's had this done to him, and now he does it to the doll - hence the you're so precious now. It could go either way, I think.

I saw the eye-plate thing, and thought it was a mix of things - the abuser wishing for his innocence back, trying to see through the eyes of the young, as well as a foreshadowing of 'you will become what I am'.

I think the thing with the spinning head - from one picture to another - I think the child represents him, and the other picture represents his abuser, but they're clockwork demons, interchangeable.

What's with the doll being spun around in a circle, there at the end? Is it to show the spinning madness of the cycle? (I have come full circle) Is it a representation of him being so addled that he gives in? Him going around so many times that he finally accepts it? A symbol of him turning to hurt another as he's been hurt? Him changing to participate, as seen with the paintbrush, or in some interpretations the hand?

I saw the bee and thought, "This is his control. His world is hell, but this is how he keeps himself sane. He keeps it trapped, like he is trapped, and feels stronger." To me, very obviously a perpetuation of the cycle. But the jar could also be the glass wall between himself and his victim - I can see, but I will not do unto you what has been done to me.

At the beginning there's too many cables to just be his legs - those are the doll's connections to others. His safety net. The monster cuts them all, but we only see the one. Just like an abuser keeps his victim sheltered from everyone else, so too does the monster keep him locked up in the box, without his legs. They kick in manic protest and I can almost hear the screaming.


I thought there was a lot of symbolism when the monster tore the page from the book, and we see the nail being driven into the doll's cracked hip (or is it the nail where his leg was attached being removed?) but I think that ties into the book theories.

Also, wtf is up with the caterpillar thing? Is it him seeing himself and saying, "I can enter a cocoon and hide, and grow beyond this"? It smiles at him like an evil thing, though.

I love the part where the doll tries to open the drawer, but he can't quite see inside, so he just gropes around in the dark, where we can see it's empty. He tries but there's nothing.

Also, the part where the monster waves his hands around and is almost dancing - the hands. You always remember their hands. Look at the abuse depicted - holding the doll down at the hips. Hands moving over the legs, which tremble; over the face, the chest.

Even the lyrics show that he knows it's wrong, that he hates himself for doing to another what broke him - "This will be over soon". He can feel the pain he causes, and can't stop, even knowing what it will do to his victim.

I think that's enough for now.

Not a bad first post, though, if I do say so myself.
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Old 02-17-2007, 11:21 PM   #26
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Re: Abuse

yes, great 1st post.. great post, period.

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