If the most memorable moment from Jaws the movie is that of the shark's head rearing up out of a fresh chum slick, one of the novel's unforgettable images appears on page 150 as Ellen Brody - seated opposite Matt Hooper in a dark restaurant - begins to get hot and bothered:
"She felt hot, flushed, and sensed that her mind was floating somewhere apart from her body. She was a third person listening to the conversation. She had to fight to keep from shifting on the Leatherette bench. She wanted to squirm back and forth, to move her thighs up and down. But she was afraid of leaving a stain on the seat."
Once inside your head, this kind of detail is difficult to dislodge, and it gets caught up with all the other threads of trivia that are snagged in the memory. Years ago I read an article in The New Yorker - ironically, I forget by whom - lamenting the fact that Shakespeare, Tolstoy and Emily Dickinson get tangled up with advertising jingles, catchphrases and movie dialogue. She (and I seem to remember the author was female) quoted the very passage above, despairing that it lived in her memory alongside an image of sunlight glinting on a jar of honey from a picnic in Anna Karenina.
It's not difficult to sympathise with her. My own head is full of useless trivia that takes precedent over useful information. I can't tell you what the speed of light is, but I do know that the Millennium Falcon made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs. I can't speak German or Spanish, but I can recognise Klingon, Romulan and Na'vi. I can't perform CPR, but I would be willing to administer an adrenalin shot to the heart if I had a Magic Marker pen.
I also know a thing or two about Leatherette. A form of artificial leather, it is made by covering a natural or synthetic fabric base with polyvinyl chloride (PVC). It can be used as a book binding, as upholstery inside a BMW, as a finish on an SLR camera, as clothing (both conventional and kinky), and, of course, as seat covers.
Unlike real leather, Leatherette is not naturally porous and does not allow air to pass through it, which is why a car seat can often feel hot and sticky on a summer's day. Hence Ellen's fear that the natural process of female sexual arousal might stain the seat.
