In This Twilight

I like what everyone was going on about with the last day on earth and the nuke thing, but I think everyone's failing right after that.

Everyone assumes that the narrator actually accepts what he's saying. I think he's giving false hope to someone else.

I'd say otherwise if it weren't for the defeating sound of the song. By this I mean the way the music just slowly and sadly breathes along.

Great song. I hope that the rest of the album will be as good as this... wasn't so sure about Survivalism.

As for what it means.... god, who knows :P Someone else work it out...

The song is the person witnessing a nuclear explosion in my opinion.

"watch the sun, as it crawls across a final time"

"and the world we set on fire" Burning from a nuclear fallout maybe.

Nuclear winter possibly, the dust clouds cover the earth blocking out the sun light.

"all the sky is filled with light" The flash from the explosion

"dust to dust, ashes in your hair remind me"

Dust and ashes from the explosion.

These sites were released with the song, only further proving it's likely about some sort of bomb or nuclear explosion.

http://www.hollywoodinmemoriam.org/ http://www.hollywoodinmemoriam.org/memoriam.htm

The song is incredible in my opinion the best off Year Zero so far. It sounds more like a song to end the album, but its 15/16, which makes me very interested to see how the album ends.

This song has a great 'the elevator is going down' sound and feel. Makes me wonder what I'll be feeling at the end of my life.

After listening to this song for the past few days, I think I've come up with a reasonable meaning. I believe the bomb speculations as far as the mention of dust and ashes go could be correct, but that is just surface message. I think when he is saying "and the sky is filled with light, can you see it? all the black is really white, if you believe it" he is saying that the black sky is filled with light if you believe it is. He is saying "you can find a better place" in your own mind, even with everything (bombs, "ashes") bad around you. I think the sun "crawling over a final time" is an obvious reference to this being the final day(s) of Earth.

I think Trent was playing a lot of the newest Legend of Zelda title while recording this. lol

The world has been bombed to bits, tyrants control everything, and society is sedated by drugs...and we are all to blame.

But we could all change it if we really wanted to.

The idea that the twilight represents an actual twilight over some infamous scene of destruction is quite interesting. Let me define what twilight is for you all: the time at sunrise or sunset where the sun rays are scattered through particles in the Van Allen belt and other atmospheric entities. Sunset commonly symbolizes an end while sunrise symbolizes a new beginning. Trent's diction in this song may elude to that we have a choice in the matter.

The twilight can be the end or a new beginning.

Another interesting view is that the twilight is a serene area in which someone is viewing the destruction. Imagine sitting on a large hill overlooking the city hundreds of miles away. You see an atomic bomb go off way in the distance. (ignore nuclear fallout for a second- it's just a metaphor). For now you are safe. 100 miles wont kill you- yet.

Now, for a second, lets imagine the song has nothing to do with war or a bombing. What else could it be? Hmm. Perhaps viewing each day as cleaning the slate so to speak? Remember, twilight can be dawn or dusk.

There are infinitely many interpretations. Until I buy Year Zero and hear the rest of the tracks, this will be a puzzler. I hope someone reads this and provides me with feedback.

Hey Everyone,

Sorry to join so late, but Trant hit this one on the head.

Trent Reznor has definitely been studying Global Warming/Climate Change, or listening to someone that knows a lot about it.

"In This Twilight" he is not describing a nuclear bomb, or war etc, he is describing the aftermath of "The Tipping Point".

Nobody knows when, where, or what event will tip the balance, but here goes my attempt at a play by play:

1.) We continue to pollute, put miore CO2 in the air, temperature keeps going up, land dries out.

2.) Then massive forest fires occur, releasing more Co2 in the air making it hotter and hotter. Then more fires, more heat and this cycle continues on and on until ther is nothing left to burn.

3.) But when that happens there is so much "White Smoke" in the air, that it actually reflects the sunlight back into space like a giant mirror. So he is right, it really is white, but becuase the sun can't penetrate through, we are in total darkness.

This riddle of his is almost like the end of Dark Side of the Moon - the songs "Brain Damage and A Eclipse": The crazy people that exist on the "Dark Side Of the Moon" are the ones that actualy "Shine" or light up when the "Sun is Eclipsed By the Moon" BRILLIANT METAPHOR AND PARADOX these guys have the ability to come with!

This phenoenon is already occuring with air pollution, its called Global Dimming - 30% less sunlight reaches the ground that 30 years ago, so uif this continues we could have food shortages, can't grow crops. - go google the term, check it out - scary stuff.

Anyways, it will be our twilight becuase in about 1 year after the total darkness, we have no plants, then other animals die, so we have no food, and then we get smoked by a winter that will last about 10,000 years.

So yes, this wasn't really a fictional scenario he described, it is WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF WE DON'T SMARTEN UP!

You guys take care, and like you, I just love the last two songs, as sad as it they are, they at least let me face the future, and acknowledge what the end will look like.

Take Care - Get a gas mask and a swaeter!

John C.

Victoria, BC, Canada

I think it's the soldier narrating the final two songs personally. being the whole story within this, the comment about the hair reminds me of the lock of hair the good soldier was given.