Arts
Lucie Blue Tremblay:
Folk Concert Benefits Pride
Queerly Pursuing the Wiccan Path
Rocking and Writing Against Depression
Navel Gazing Author Predicts the 'End of Gay'
Paul McComas Offers Young Queers Hope and Second Chances
Reviewed by Fran Moravcsik
| Unplugged by Paul McComas John Daniel & Co. |
Paul McComas was so devastated by the suicide of rock icon Kurt Cobain that he has dedicated the nine years since to educating young people to the seriousness of depression and the paths to recovery. A bass player and backup singer, he first founded a band called Lithium to play free concerts of Nirvana covers and talk about the fight against depression.
Continuing this effort, he has recently turned to his daytime job, writing, to create a novel, Unplugged, in which ‘Dayna Clay,’ a charismatic rock singer, survives a suicide attempt and disappears into the Badlands, where the environment helps her to face her demons, learn her tough lessons, and transform herself emotionally and spiritually. McComas credits his own battles with depression for moving him toward a more balanced and satisfying life, so he can make this journey plausible.
By no means has McComas left the performing life behind. When he came to Burlington’s Borders Books on June 13, he went far beyond the conventional reading and book signing. He and two women performed the songs with which ‘Dayna Clay’ defined the turning points in her life.
While actor/drummer Heather Mell accompanies the author throughout the tour, the singer for each performance is always chosen locally. For Burlington the vocalist was Heather’s sister Sarah Mell, a UVM graduate (master’s in English), an editor and sometime singer who lives in Barre. The similarity in appearance and the easy coordination between the siblings brought depth to the portrayal of a complex character (about whom Sarah Mell said, “The lyrics of the 3 songs we performed hit so close to home at times that I basically lost myself in the character. As a young woman who has struggled with depression, abuse, and coming out, and who dealt with these issues through the tool of music, I sometimes felt as though I had been Paul’s model for Dayna.”).
Meanwhile McComas acted out the scenes he was describing, using props, gymnastic agility, and the easygoing charm of a street performer. Soon the originally meager audience had more than tripled. I could well imagine that he has been quite successful in reaching his target audience of young adults, and opening them up to looking out for their friends or getting help themselves.
A volunteer from NAMI (the Nation's Voice on Mental Illness) was present to offer pamphlets, local contacts, and coupons dedicating a percentage of the price of any Border’s book bought that weekend to their mental health efforts.
As many of us are aware, young people who are outside the conventional heterosexual norm are particularly vulnerable to suicide, and possibly more reluctant to reach out for help. Perhaps this is the reason McComas made ‘Dayna Clay’ bisexual, in politics at least, though her thoughts and actions as portrayed in the book seemed thoroughly lesbian.
McComas did say specifically that the higher incidence of depression in females was the reason he made his hero a woman. He went on to say he did not want to write specifically about himself, or tell the story of Kurt Cobain with a happy ending. What really interested him was the experience of transcending depression, which he felt was not determined by gender, age, orientation, height, profession, celebrity, or any of the other ways in which he differed from his protagonist.
I must confess that the idea of a lesbian sex scene written by a straight man brought up an automatic gag reflex. But Paul McComas either avoided or was immune to the several flavors of weird that straight men can project onto lesbians, and the romantic parts of the story could well pass as woman-written.
I had at first pegged this book as a problem-of-the-week tract aimed at adolescents. But in fact it is a lesbian romance written by a straight man. The category of romances, whether lesbian, straight or teen – along with similar genres such as adventure and action stories – have in common a really cool protagonist who leads an exciting and ultimately successful life in a world which is, in imagination at least, more interesting and congenial than the rut we are stuck in.
Such a hero as Dayna Clay could well provide a role model for a troubled young woman, and Unplugged certainly beats The Well of Loneliness in that department. On the other hand, I would be concerned that someone overwhelmed by problems might feel even more inadequate compared with Clay, who goes from suicidal to unbelievable medication-free transcendence in a mere six weeks.
If, however, you are a lesbian who is neither particularly young nor particularly depressed, you can find in Unplugged some well-crafted summer reading, and leave the uplifting messages subliminal.
Paul McComas started out as a screenwriter with a master’s degree in film, and he would love to see Unplugged brought to the screen. If the producers don’t chicken out on the most interesting parts, it would sure be something to see.
Fran Moravcsik lives in South Burlington.