big man with a gun
i am a big man
(yes i am)
and i have a big gun
got me a big old dick and i
i like to have fun
held against your forehead
i'll make you suck it
maybe i'll put a hole in your head
you know, just for the fuck of it
i can reduce you if i want
i can devour
i'm hard as fucking steel, and i've got the power
i'm every inch a man, and i'll show you somehow
me and my fucking gun
nothing can stop me now
shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot
i'm going to come all over you
me and my fucking gun
me and my fucking gun
two recurring themes pop up here: power and sex. the anger he felt in i do not want this has consumed him completely. he wants
power and he wants sexual potency, because he's tricked himself into thinking these things will give his life some meaning. the things that have hurt him
are things that have held power over him... God, the ruiner. he wants to retaliate, to have the power to hurt them in return.
-alexa
Since Trent Reznor and Tori Amos are friends, it is possible that this song is parallel to a Tori Amos song called 'Me and
a Gun'. In the Tori Amos song, she sings about the experience of being raped. It is possible that Trent Reznor decided
to take the "raper's point of view" in the song 'big man with a gun'. It could be a song against rape...*shrug*.
-luna
Perhaps the most revealing NIN song about the anxieties and fears that plague trent reznor, it's difficult to limit any
interpretation of this song to a manageable size. From this song alone, and the song that follows it on the downward
spiral (a warm place), one could write an entire dissertation on the psychological and emotional conflicts of the writer.
Obviously, the basis of the song is pure misogyny -- the sheer hatered and desire to denigrate the female, and all things
feminie, which might remind tr of his own feminine longings (an all too cliche phrase, but a necessary one).
But how does this relate to tr and the big man with a gun? Simply because the song is almost a textbook case in its
descriptions and terminology for a man suffering such fears and hatreds. To demonstrate this, we shall have to
examine the song line by line:
"i am a big man (yes i am) and i have a big gun"
Here, everything is about size. To tr, size=strength=masculinity=signigance.
As I mentioned in my earlier interpretation of gave up, he is not
convinced of his own value as a human being and must repeatedly reassert this. (Anyone familiar with NIN will
recognize this theme in many songs -- "i used to be somebody" "i want to do something that matters," etc.) The
simplicity of these lyrics is almost childlike in quality, mainly because they are reflecting a child's perspective and attitude
towards importance and power.
This part of tr never grew up or developed into a healthy, happy and self-confident man.
This obsession with size reflects a child's fears of his own inadequacies and insignificance in relation to his all-powerful
and sexually potent parents. He desires to be a "big man" like his father, a grown up with all the powers and self-
assurance that goes with it. He does not see (or thinks he sees) his father's own insecurities and sexual ambiguities, but
thinks that once like his father, he will be able to squash all his fears and gender confusion. The gun is obviously a
phallic symbol (if you didn't get that already, then you probably shouldn't bother to read on); not a penis (a real,
anatomical part of the body), but a "phallus" -- a symbol of power that the perceiver endows with almost magical
properties, such as the ability to fix, to heal, to kill, etc.
"got me a big old dick and i, i like to have fun"
Again, the infatuation with size, and his language depicts a stereotypical male attitude toward the use of sex.
"held against your forehead, i'll make you suck it, maybe put a hole in your head, just for the fuck of it"
Here, we reach the point where he converts his own anxieties into a hatred for the female. Giving oral sex to a man puts
his partner in the most submissive of positions, and tr heightens his own excitement by fantasizing that he can force her
to perform the act, and that his powerful "gun" can fatally wound her at his whim. Knowing that he has this control over
her makes her and the femininity that she represents "safe" for him to engage.
"i can reduce you if i want, i can devour, i'm hard as fucking steel, and i've got the power"
Again, we witness that the whole sexual act for tr is about him, not about connecting with another human being in any
way. His partner is his victim and his tool. The act of sex is about his need to channel his fears and his hatreds into what
he sees as an open vessel for his use; it's about reenacting a scenario that renders the female (and thus the feminine
aspects of himself) harmless, and makes him feel like a man capable of this mighty sexual act. He asserts that he's a
powerful grown-up man like his father, that he can reduce this woman to the child that, inside, he still feels that
he is. In a reversal of roles, he is the greater entity; he can devour her.
As a child, he feared that if he did not quickly and decisively seperate himself from his mother, and assert his
individuality, especially as a male, then she would consume him, take him back into that scary black womb (which
at times, he actually longed to do, heightening this frightening time of his life). tr obviously never overcame this fear,
and he still sees women as monsters ready to consume his identity, and in particular, his masculinity.
That scary, soft and warm mysterious place is not only terrifying because it represents the unknown, but also because it
represents that which is feminine. The feminine is viewed as the internal, the soft, the warm, the dark, the wet; the
masculine is external, hard, dry and cold. tr wants to see himself "hard as fucking steel," as opposite from the feminine
as possible; by totally denying the feminine and associating himself with the masculine, he will be an all-powerful man,
like his father.
"i'm every inch a man, and i'll show you somehow, me and my fucking gun, nothing can stop me now"
He returns to the preoccupation with size, his big "gun," his phallus, his power, his weapon and his cure. Not only does
he have to reaffirm this power, but he must see that affirmation in the eyes of his partner. In his mind, he is still a child
who longs for the power and sexual potency of anadult; perhaps if he could only have satisfied his parents in this way,
they would not have abandoned him. He longs to return to that period of childhood bliss when he was the center of their
universe; he was the omnipotent tyrant around which their lives revolved. While every child must come to the
realization that his parents had a life together before him, and that they have sexual desires for each other that do not
include him, tr's crisis was exacerbated by the fact that his parents split apart. Perhaps if he was a
sexually powerful adult, he could have made his father stay, and if anything, replaced his father for his mother, once her
own partner was gone.
"shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot, i'm going to come all over you"
An act of hatred towards women, denigrating his partner and what she represents by soiling her with his ejaculate, he
establishes his dominance and superiority, by diminishing her to a helpless victim. In some cases, men actually defecate
and urinate on their partners, or ask that their partners do this to them. By degrading her, he is bringing her down to
what he feels is his level, the level of a powerless child. She is no longer imposing or intimidating. He has soiled her and
made her "safe" for him. It is significant that he comes on her and not in her; he does not allow her to consume him and
retains his dominance over her, even in this relatively vulnerable state of orgasm.
"me and my fucking gun, me and my fucking gun"
He is triumphant and elated. He has overcome his fears and feels powerful.
He has achieved orgasm and feels like a sexually potent grown-up, capable of the sexual act. He has faced his partner
and overcome her, established his dominance and superiority, and was not devoured himself. For tr, sex is almost of life
and death importance; each time he commits the sexual act and survives, it is a triumph.
-anomie
This song can by either two things seperated or as one. One can be anomie's interpretation which i think is very good
and scrutinizing which is very good . The other can be that with this song Trent is making a complete mockery of man
and their virility problably also derived from a inferiority problem not exactly his own but somebody's artis have the
ability to put themselves into someone elses position and express it with the same hate or love. This song is definetly
about the feeling of inferiority of a man and he is so afraid to find out that he is not the masculine over powering figure
that he is convinced he must be and instead of experience sex in a 'normal' way he goes beyond trying his hardest to
deminish his partner very probale to be a woman.
-abby
I think this song can be interpreted in several ways; however, after reading the very bold interpretation
by anomie (which is worthy of interpretation in itself), I would have to agree that this song is one of a woman
abuser/hater/rapist. Not knowing Trent Reznor's personal sexual preferences though, I think that the song is sung
from the viewpoint of the "rapist" (which I don't think Mr. Reznor has shown himself to be).
The man represented in this song has a very hostile and violent nature ("I can reduce you if I want") and needs
to prove to women that he is better than they are ("I'm hard as fucking steel, and i've got the power"). But,
his insecurities are expressed by the next lines when he states "i'm every inch a man, and i'll show you
somehow," "me and my fucking gun"--meaning that he has to prove he is more powerful because he has a big cock. he
wants the woman to succumb to his masculinity and domination.
This song is intended to show feelings of pure hatred and disgust toward the female species.
-crystal
