I think of Gift Shop as the thoughts going through Gordie's mind as he is taking a flight somewhere - "the dangerous tug" being the plane as it takes off. When we travel away from home, "the rest of the world becomes a gift shop". Looking down at the world "from high up above" he ponders our shared human existence and the vastness of the world ("we get to feel small").
But he also affirms our existence with lines like "we're forced to bed / but we're free to dream" and "we get to feel small / but not out of place at all". And for all of the thoughts he is pondering (perhaps taking into account many of the seemingly petty issues of the times) he ultimately admits "I don't know what to believe / sometimes I even forget".
To me, the deeper genius of describing the world as a gift shop is also a pointed critique of consumerism, and how it affects our lives and world in so many ways (contributing to us feeling small). But hey, "if its a lie, terrorists made me say it".
I think of Gift Shop as the thoughts going through Gordie's mind as he is taking a flight somewhere - "the dangerous tug" being the plane as it takes off. When we travel away from home, "the rest of the world becomes a gift shop". Looking down at the world "from high up above" he ponders our shared human existence and the vastness of the world ("we get to feel small").
But he also affirms our existence with lines like "we're forced to bed / but we're free to dream" and "we get to feel small / but not out of place at all". And for all of the thoughts he is pondering (perhaps taking into account many of the seemingly petty issues of the times) he ultimately admits "I don't know what to believe / sometimes I even forget".
To me, the deeper genius of describing the world as a gift shop is also a pointed critique of consumerism, and how it affects our lives and world in so many ways (contributing to us feeling small). But hey, "if its a lie, terrorists made me say it".