get out of my house

[jon drukman <jsd@gorn.santa-cruz.ca.us>]

OK, so maybe the rape interpretation is a little over your heads.
Take a course in literary symbolism and extreme pretension, it will
help.
Someone said that the lines "this house is full of my mess" etc didn't
make sense in this context.  Well, if you take the house of the song
to metaphorically represent the heroine's body, it will make a lot
more sense.  And you'll get an unexpected payoff because the lines
"I wash the panes/I clean the stains" now have multiple meanings.

And anyway, how do you make sense of "My home, my joy/ ***I'M*** barred
and bolted" otherwise?

Besides, "this house is as old as I am, this house knows all I have
done..."  What does this suggest if the house isn't equivalent
(metaphorically) to the heroine?  They just happened to build the house
on the same day she was born?

Of course the rape thing just amplifies most of the song, it doesn't
take away from the 'primary' reading.  I personally think it adds an
extra little frisson (on top of the already exquisite sensations produced
by listening to this song at full blast in a dark room).  If you don't
like it, tough!  And remember: just cos Kate hasn't said explicitly "this
song is about rape" doesn't mean it ain't true.  Look at all the untouched
imagery in "Under The Ivy"!  White roses, indeed!

/j/
PS to Jenn Turney: you're entirely welcome, of course!