Barthers describes this third meaning as penetrating and disturbing more obvious meanings.

这个句子的基本结构是：describe sth. as ...  把某物描述为......

as 后面是两个并列的 V-ing，一般不单独分析，而是把整个as...短语，分析为“宾语补足语”。describe 的用法：

describe 的宾语后，常接以 as 短语充当补足语的复合宾语, 意思是： “把......描述为”，“认为......”,  as 后面可接名词、形容词或现在分词、过去分词。

penetrating and disturbing more obvious meanings，是动宾结构，more obvious meanings 是 penetrating and disturbing 的宾语。