some errands in San Bernardino. But at 6:45 p.m. that Saturday, December 10, around the time that she was driving up the mountain, he called.
Upper Crestline seemed so dismal that night. A liquor store, a pizza parlor. A single row of woodframe facaded storefronts from the â50s, Depression-era recollections of the West, half boarded up. Wendy and Michael Tolkin had visited last month with their two daughters. Michaelâs film The New Age had just come out, following his other great films, The Rapture and The Player. He was a Hollywood intellectual and Wendy was the wittiest and nicest psychotherapist Sylvère and Chris had ever met. After expressing their delight in Crestlineâs quaint-ness, Wendy remarked: It must be very lonely living in a place you donât belong. Chris and Sylvère had no children, three abortions, and theyâd been shuttling between low-rent rural slums on both coasts for the past two years in order to put money into Chrisâ film. And of course Michael, who was Sylvèreâs friend, really, because Sylvère was someone in LA who knew more than he about French theory, couldnât, wouldnât, do anything to help her with the film.
When Chris got home and Sylvère told her heâd talked to Dick, she nearly swooned. âI donât want to know!â she cried. And then she wanted to know everything. âI have a little present, a surprise,â he said, showing her the audiotape. Chris looked at Sylvère as if seeing him for the first time. Taping their phone call was such a violation. It gave her a kind of creepy feeling, like the time the writer Walter Abishâd discovered the tape recorder Sylvère had hidden underneath the table when they were having drinks. Sylvère laughed it off, calling himself a Foreign Agent. But to be a spy is being no one. Still, Chris had to hear it now.
EXHIBIT C: Â Â TRANSCRIPT OF A PHONE CONVERSATION BETWEEN DICK ââAND SYLVÃRE LOTRINGER
December 10, 1994: 6:45 p.m.
D: So, could we talk about the possibility of your coming out in the next semesterâ
S: Yeah. I guess the easiest for me would be between March 10 and 20. Do you want me to do something about cultural anthropology? Is that what youâre doing now?
D: If itâs not something youâre interested in, we can maybe, uh, forget about it butâ(inaudible).
S: Yeah?
D: (inaudible)âI donât know if youâd be enthusiastic about you know summarizing James Clifford and other discourses around anthropology, but if you want to do something more original, more, uh, primary, itâs up to you.
S: Okay. And the fee would be 2500 dollars for two lectures and one seminar?
D: Two lectures and a seminar and maybe some studio visits.
S: Oh. Marvin said the crits paid extraâ¦500 dollars more?
D: Uh, look, Iâll see what I can do. I hope coming here is worth your while.
S: (inaudible) Well, I want it to be worth your while too.
D: Weâll get a clearer picture of whatâs coming up in the semester in the next couple of weeks, and well, I can phone you in New York. (Inaudible)
S: Well, thatâs what I wanted to talk to you about. WeâI want to sound you about a project thatâs a little weird, but I know you donât mind things that are weirdâ(laughs)â(silence) Right?
D: I donât think so, it depends. Thereâs weird and weird. Thereâs weird, and thereâs impossible weird. Impossible weird is more interesting.
S: Well okay, I might have something youâre looking for then. (Laughs) Well, let meâitâs a, uh, itâs a collaborative project we were thinking of possibly doing before we leave on Wednesday, otherwise weâd have to postpone it to the end of January. And, uh, it started really with our visit to your place. And how we didnât reconnect in the morningâ
D: (Inaudible)
S: Yeah, it was very odd. And then youâ
D: I got back
Upper Crestline seemed so dismal that night. A liquor store, a pizza parlor. A single row of woodframe facaded storefronts from the â50s, Depression-era recollections of the West, half boarded up. Wendy and Michael Tolkin had visited last month with their two daughters. Michaelâs film The New Age had just come out, following his other great films, The Rapture and The Player. He was a Hollywood intellectual and Wendy was the wittiest and nicest psychotherapist Sylvère and Chris had ever met. After expressing their delight in Crestlineâs quaint-ness, Wendy remarked: It must be very lonely living in a place you donât belong. Chris and Sylvère had no children, three abortions, and theyâd been shuttling between low-rent rural slums on both coasts for the past two years in order to put money into Chrisâ film. And of course Michael, who was Sylvèreâs friend, really, because Sylvère was someone in LA who knew more than he about French theory, couldnât, wouldnât, do anything to help her with the film.
When Chris got home and Sylvère told her heâd talked to Dick, she nearly swooned. âI donât want to know!â she cried. And then she wanted to know everything. âI have a little present, a surprise,â he said, showing her the audiotape. Chris looked at Sylvère as if seeing him for the first time. Taping their phone call was such a violation. It gave her a kind of creepy feeling, like the time the writer Walter Abishâd discovered the tape recorder Sylvère had hidden underneath the table when they were having drinks. Sylvère laughed it off, calling himself a Foreign Agent. But to be a spy is being no one. Still, Chris had to hear it now.
EXHIBIT C: Â Â TRANSCRIPT OF A PHONE CONVERSATION BETWEEN DICK ââAND SYLVÃRE LOTRINGER
December 10, 1994: 6:45 p.m.
D: So, could we talk about the possibility of your coming out in the next semesterâ
S: Yeah. I guess the easiest for me would be between March 10 and 20. Do you want me to do something about cultural anthropology? Is that what youâre doing now?
D: If itâs not something youâre interested in, we can maybe, uh, forget about it butâ(inaudible).
S: Yeah?
D: (inaudible)âI donât know if youâd be enthusiastic about you know summarizing James Clifford and other discourses around anthropology, but if you want to do something more original, more, uh, primary, itâs up to you.
S: Okay. And the fee would be 2500 dollars for two lectures and one seminar?
D: Two lectures and a seminar and maybe some studio visits.
S: Oh. Marvin said the crits paid extraâ¦500 dollars more?
D: Uh, look, Iâll see what I can do. I hope coming here is worth your while.
S: (inaudible) Well, I want it to be worth your while too.
D: Weâll get a clearer picture of whatâs coming up in the semester in the next couple of weeks, and well, I can phone you in New York. (Inaudible)
S: Well, thatâs what I wanted to talk to you about. WeâI want to sound you about a project thatâs a little weird, but I know you donât mind things that are weirdâ(laughs)â(silence) Right?
D: I donât think so, it depends. Thereâs weird and weird. Thereâs weird, and thereâs impossible weird. Impossible weird is more interesting.
S: Well okay, I might have something youâre looking for then. (Laughs) Well, let meâitâs a, uh, itâs a collaborative project we were thinking of possibly doing before we leave on Wednesday, otherwise weâd have to postpone it to the end of January. And, uh, it started really with our visit to your place. And how we didnât reconnect in the morningâ
D: (Inaudible)
S: Yeah, it was very odd. And then youâ
D: I got back