Never Go Pop

Leaving San Francisco, “Over My Dead Body” in Santa Cruz

Stupendous and unheard-of splendors await me below, and I shall seek them soon.

—H.P. Lovecraft

When I came back to the States from Languedoc, I got an interesting offer.

My old faculty advisor from U.C. Santa Cruz, Carter Wilson, called me up and said, “We’re so proud of you, Susie. The department wants to know if you’d like to come teach a class, for summer session. What would you like to do?”

Wow. I thought about it. I loved the road show I’d been touring, “How to Read a Dirty Movie,” which was inspired by Vito Russo’s Celluloid Closet. I’d like to create an extended seminar of erotic forensics.

“Ten weeks is a session, right?” I asked. “I want to do something like… ‘The Politics of Sexual Representation.’ Yeah! I don’t want to use cheap code words anymore, like ‘erotic’ or ‘pornographic.’ I want to make students figure out what we’re really saying when we look at sex.”

Carter loved the idea. The department loved it. I called my lover Jon and started talking up Santa Cruz in glowing ter…