SOURCE: "The Critic as Performance Artist: Susan Sontag's Writing and Gay Cultures," in Camp Grounds: Style and Homosexuality, edited by David Bergman, University of Massachusetts Press, 1993, pp. 173-84.

In the following essay, Frank explores the relationship between camp and gay culture in Sontag's writing.

—I think the main question people have is, creature, what is it you want?

—Fred, what we want, I think, what everyone wants, is what you and your viewers have—civilization.

—But what sort of civilization are you speaking of, creature?

—The niceties, the fine points, diplomacy, standards, tradition—that's what we're reaching toward. We may stumble along the way but, civilization, yes, the Geneva Convention, chamber music, Susan Sontag, yes, civilization. Everything your society has worked so hard to accomplish over the centuries—that's what we aspire to. We want to be civilized.

[In Gremlins 2: The New Batch (dir. Joe Dante, 1990), one of...