What does Great Big White World mean?

Marilyn Manson: Great Big White World Meaning

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Album cover for Great Big White World album cover

Great Big White World Lyrics

In space the stars are no nearer
Just glitters like a morgue
And I dreamed I was a spaceman
Burned like a moth in a flame
And our world was so fucking gone

I'm not attached to your world
Nothing heals, nothing grows

I'm not attached to...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    ozzland2
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    May 29th 2006 !⃝

    This is my favorite Manson song, and I hope other Manson fans will post what they think. In this song, Rev. Manson pretty much takes the trip of a lifetime. He goes everywhere, he goes to heaven, hell, outerspace, you name it. Basically, he expected that he would go out and see a real white, real plain, real sad world, and he runs in to very few surprises. In the song, he offers very vague details, but he mentions the things thad did surprise him, like when he went to outer space, and the stars appeared as far away from there as they do from earth. The most shocking part of Rev. Manson's journey was when he arrived in hell. EVERYTHING about hell shocked him. First of all, it was freezing cold when he got there (the opposite of what most of us expect), and there were broken vases and roses all over the place. He does not specify what this symbolizes, so I think that perhaps he does not know. And then, he runs in to Jesus Christ's mother in hell, probably the last person you would expect to see there. When he talks to Mother Mary, he learns that she has had a miscarriage, and that is why she is in hell, she miscarried god's son. This is probably Manson's way of saying that people who are praying are wasting their effort, because he now knows for a fact that god never existed. His chorus "All my stitches itch, my prescriptions low, I wish you were queen just for today," implies that people get so caught up in their own, insignificant personal problems, that they never even stop to look, and see how bad their world is.

  2. anonymous
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    Sep 10th 2017 !⃝

    Marilyn Manson: an all American unisex creation of M and M and Manson as a ''symbolic form of Them'' that rose above good and evil in this world with Him to use as Metaphors and become the Unique Artist that He became to experience The Experience of the ''Great Big White World'' that went into this song. When He and His sub-conscious mind separated ''the veil'' when rising on ''the high drug trip'' to see and feel the Higher Realm of Earth from space. When being on ''the trip'', the conscious mind becomes dissociated from the body to the point that on ''very rare occasions'' looks down on the Earth. While searching for ''the truth'' He's also having sympathy for Jesus Christ who was crucified, feeling that He was misled according to him by Mother Mary as a man-god that had to die and go to Hell first, before rising up there in Heaven. Where MM ''thinks'' He might have gone, when ''tripping'' in the ''Great Big White World'' where He feels That He's been all stitched up down there in the cold of Hell, like somekind of a Frankenstein creation that finally rose up towards the heavens by ''the space trip'' drug experience He was on.

  3. scurvychef
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    Jan 4th 2012 !⃝

    The entire Mechanical Animals album I believe was a satirical representation of a particular Era that Manson was trying to superimpose on the 90's. As always, Manson is trying to tell us our culture is at its worst by personifying himself in a dramatic representation of our ugliest features.

    The Era that Mechanical Animals depicts is post the assassination of Kennedy. The conspiracies behind his death, the death of Marilyn and the conspiracies of this as well. The rise of the media and the information age as prophesied by Marshall McLuhan. The increasing popularity of cocaine as a way of coping with the fact the our media traumatises us more so than actual life experiences.

    Following Great Big White World, Manson continues to explain the the dissociative identity that he has created in order to cope with the trauma inflicted on him by the media.

  4. anonymous
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    Apr 12th 2009 !⃝

    In the context of the triptych, I believe it is "Alpha's" first experience with drug usage, or perhaps what he see's afterwards. He tries some cocaine, and afterwards, he thinks "Man, these people are slaving away for THAT?" Then he looks at the big picture, and it isn't just drugs; everything has become meaningless and mechanical; WHITE. The song is an expression of how hollow people have become, like a cold, white, drug-addled Hell, where everything is backwards, despite pretending to be perfect and clean.

  5. anonymous
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    Apr 22nd 2008 !⃝

    I think it's about Adam finally realizing what a blank world the earth has become.

    Being in space watching the world die, or the world watching him he is finally getting out and not attaching himself to the common feelings of humans because he realizes that nothing will ever change. And that our world is hell, and its so cold here, how we turned beautiful things that no one cares for hurts us now. Like music, art things like that, god. And were so small like insects and praying to someone who is inferior to us, so whats the point?

    We used to value ourselves, have pride. Today everyone is the same, no real emotion. We took the black from black and white and made it into one a white.

  6. delyla_blue
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    Aug 3rd 2007 !⃝

    Ok I think it's about a couple things. The first interpretation is definitely on track, but I think loses it somewhere. at the part about roses. think it's about Rose McGowan. she probably hurt him greatly. ya know, tore his hands all open. I think he felt he never fit into her idea of Hollywood, since she wants to be the cute goth girl next door and all and he wants to be...himself. Hence the part about he star not being any nearer. oh and the part about his prescription running low makes me think about how he just can't heal himself from this hurt and he has just grown numb to it-be it with coke/vicodin or whatever.

  7. anonymous
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    Feb 24th 2007 !⃝

    Yeah, he said something about a beach made of cocaine where he waked up. That was his "story" before the song "I don't like the drugs [but the drugs like me]" on the "Last Tour On Earth"-Album, so I don't think that it has anything to do with Great Big White World.

  8. ShallowJester
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    Nov 1st 2006 !⃝

    The cocaine use, but I believe this is also a charles manson refrence. I can't recall, but I know c. Manson said something about, "the great big white world". Also, also at some concerts, mm would start this song with something like, "I had a dream, that I was on a beach made of cocaine.."

  9. miss_manson
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    Jul 27th 2006 !⃝

    This song is about how the world became meaningless. And white. Manson is trying to say that he doesn't like the world the way it is. But he can't escape from it.

  10. anonymous
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    Jun 22nd 2006 !⃝

    Marilyn Manson stated that this song is about the use of cocaine publicly. This was due to rumours of the song being racially motivated and decided to set things straight.


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