Vinay MenonColumnistFri

On Friday, the New York Post reported that Katy Perry , who was scheduled to perform as she did in 2010, was out after China imposed an “indefinite” ban on the singer. Darfur, Baghdad, Chernobyl, Damascus, the dark side of the moon: all of these locations might have proved less vexing than Shanghai.

The love affair between Justin and Selena, or “Jelena” to their millions of fans, is an immortal jellyfish, a planarian flatworm, a Xenon-136 isotope, the Reconquista, a bristlecone pine: it refuses to die. Admittedly, this hope is selfish: I don’t have the mental energy to spend the next few months keeping tabs on a relationship that has toggled between on-off-on-off-on-off-on-off more than a light switch in a bedroom of a child who is scared of the dark.

She writes songs about her experiences in this faraway land and, more importantly, about how those experiences are misconstrued back on Earth. This closed-circuit cosmos allows her fans to feel like they are getting the straight dope on the crooked trajectory upon which Swift is often superimposed by a treacherous media that built her up and is now allegedly trying to tear her down. Swift’s music is so personal, so self-referential, it’s as if nothing else exists.