A Playlist for a Blue Valentine

Roland Barthes and I are here for you, in the lovers’ disco

© HL Cottrell, Susie at Land’s End

I was fortunate in the depths of my greatest erotic humiliation, some years ago, to seek solace in a cavernous bookstore. I spied a book, spine out, with a price sticker that said: “Lover’s Disco, $9.99.”

I snorted; pulled it out of its hidey-hole. The real title was Lover’s Discourse, by Roland Barthes, the greatest boo…