CHINA: HOW TORI AMOS GLUES THE CRACKS TOGETHER

by Joe Tennis

Reading, righting :), and rythmatic
Or, Joe's Extrapolation and Interpretation of the Text

By including my interpretation of the text, I am throwing another reading of this popular song into the dialogue that surrounds it. This is not meant to be an authoritative assassination of the lyrics. I offer, rather, that this garden of pseudo-fixed meaning should be an "if you see something you like, take it with you" experience--nothing more. It should be just another interpretation that is an act of play--not a reiteration of Derridean thought, but a personalized implementation of it.

The Title

How does the word "China" conjure up feelings of romance or intimacy? It doesn't. That's the point. She chose to illustrate the removed quality of this relationship by using the broad and unrelated concepts of the word "China." She then plays with the word--twisting it.

Tori at Play

The word "China" refers to a country as well as to a set of fine plates used for dining. They are two contrasting ideas with the same name. She juxtaposes them. She paints a living landscape and a still life at the same time. They can be further interpreted as places or fixed scenarios. By doing so she illustrates the size of her feelings (the entire country of China and the associations with it) and the frailty of the relationship (the delicate treatment of the dishes and an almost stuffy air behind fine dining).

These are just some ways to look at the words and their larger implications. This is especially pertinent, since by using the words that she does, Tori relies on a set of fixed associations with those words. I detailed a few above, but there are more, and they are what allow her to play with the "china" as a metaphor for the personal relationship she is talking about.

Distance also figures into the equation of play in China. Distance is the opposite of the aforementioned places or fixed scenarios. In order to construct fixed places--to construct the idea of a place--you must also have the opposite of that: no place or distance between established places. Therefore distance is in direct opposition of the title metaphor. So now we have two meanings of "China" and the idea of "distance" opposing each other, attempting to illustrate the details of the relationship Tori is depicting.

Now I can show you, more concretely, my reading of "China."