"Naked Eyes" #8 (cont.)
The moments before Stephen’s unveiling linger with expectant hopes and fears. As the gathering eagerly awaits Stephen Clay’s first public appearance, Ian, at the hospital, nervously hesitates before opening the sealed envelope containing the results of Tess’ DNA tests, results, which Chris, blessed by Tess’ healing touch, has warned him not to examine. “Maybe,” Chris advises, there are some things “we shouldn’t know,” secrets which, once unraveled, can disrupt our sense of sanity and security, revelations, which, once glimpsed, may never again be completely suppressed. Nevertheless, the quest for knowledge, the creative impulse, like the “imp of the perverse” in Poe’s story, compels us to explore either in imagination or in action the unknown, the forbidden. Tempted by its sealed secrets, Ian opens the envelope and learns that Tess lacks human DNA; tempted by the enigma of Stephen Clay, the residents of Port Charles assemble to see his mystery unshrouded; tempted by the thrill of danger his exposure can bring, Stephen prepares to reveal himself.
The rock star, like a striptease performer or erotic dancer, manipulates the spectators’ desire. Part of the allure lies in the concealment and the unobtainable. By creating the mystique of a seductive yet indifferent, godlike being, the rock star intensifies our lust and adoration. We hunger for him but can never really have him. He is our Dionysus, the divine-made-flesh, tempting our devouring devotion.
Stephen Clay’s performance emphasizes this Dionysian impulse, the lustful hunger inherent in rock music. In preparing for the concert, he advises Reese to play up her sexual allure. “I want every guy’s tongue dragging on the ground when you hit the stage,” he tells her. He wants the Experience to stir the raging desire of his audience, male and female. They are the worshipped, the craved, the invokers of primal frenzy. “The time’s finally come for the people of Port Charles to see the real Stephen Clay Experience,” he smirks, anticipating the riotous discord he will unleash as soon as he sets foot on stage.
As if seized by an uncanny, instinctual force, Livvie and Tess are both drawn towards the stage, two halves of a shattered self, two opposing forces converging at a point of union. They are compelled towards the source of their division, the man who fragmented them. Although Tess had been wandering alone in the woods, forlornly begging for Jack to find her, when Jack does rescue her and begins leading her towards the home they now share, she starts straying from him, summoned by something seemingly stronger than her love for Jack.
She is drawn again towards her wilderness beginnings, and away from her helpless dependency on Jack. She, who was once perfectly at home in the forest but grew afraid of it and her wild self after her domestication by Jack, is now drawn towards the uncivilized urgings deep within her. She resists Jack’s worried pleas for her to come back with him to their safe, sheltered existence and crowds up by the stage, swaying to the sinuous music that precedes Stephen’s entrance. |
