We have seen the publicity and attention paid to AIDS, and well-deserved too, but MS seems to have been lost in shuffle of American society to find a disease worthy of support. In particular, the needs of gay men with MS may be at the bottom of the list of support groups, recognition within the gay community, and understanding of the public.
There is no cure for MS, and the mystery has not yet been solved. This tale will have no happy ending, no fairy tale cure. For those who can stay with its compelling narrative, the end can only provide two options: despair or hope.^
As author Bill Cate tells us, the experience is debilitating in its emotional toll as well as physical. Unlike AIDS, suffered with thousands of gay men, MS appears to have few gay support groups: it is an illness faced in isolation. Neither family, nor friends, can share the exhaustion, fatigue, and unnerving moments that signal another attack. The gay community likely has seldom heard of this disease. Its attention for a decade or more has been with the terrible and looming prospect of AIDS. Few of us, gay or straight, has thought about the dangerous and unexpected world of MS.
This book is an eye-opener. It reveals the turmoil associated with the most misidentified and misunderstood ailment of the twentieth century.
Bill Cate has presented this book in a format easy to read for those who suffer from optic neuritis--a constantly worsening side-effect of MS, which makes reading difficult. It cannot be helped by eyeglasses, contact lenses, or any therapy. What might seem an irksome style of printing to normal readers is the experience MS victims have when they read. It is just another means of helping the non-sufferer to know what MS does. This work is dedicated to the truth: it presents the unvarnished life of coping with MS.
Bill Cate would scoff at being characterized as heroic, but his brave struggle remains the cornerstone of a great story about the philosophy and meaning of life. This narrative resembles the epiphanies found in DAVID COPPERFIELD by Charles Dickens or DEMIAN by Herman Hesse.^
Over the course of time, the protagonist finds conflicts in his metaphoric journey. He finds odd characters, some who thrive and flourish, some who exhibit the worst foibles. It is a tale of sexual awakening. It is a tale of painful self-knowledge. Cate's world is presented in the same fashion--with one exception:
This story is different because it is completely true.
A twenty-two year old drummer in a band in the 1990s, William Cate is a careful gay man: aware of the epidemic of AIDS, aware of the hedonistic impulses of the club scene, but unaware that at any time, a bomb in his body can explode.
This horrible realization may terrify any and all of us: for who among us can say it will not happen to us. What Cate presents is the blueprint for learning about this shocking disease, its unexpected appearance, its terrifying symptoms, and how a man can rise above any condition to thrive, be creative, and find hope. From its initial morbidity and depression, the work rises in crescendo to raise all our respect for those who live each day facing catastrophe with their dignity and goodwill.
BODY HATE is an important book. It deserves to be read by all gay and lesbian people to see what a compatriot has suffered. It deserves to be read by all family and friends of those who suffer MS because it is the most honest account of the victim's world. It deserves to be read by all those who prize great tales of human transcendance because this young man has continued to be the epitome of a creative artist.
Let me give praise where it is due: William Cate is a musician, a film-maker, a painter, an artist involved in multi-media presentations. He has had exhibitions of work; he has shown his experimental movies at festivals, and now he has turned his attention to the most solitary of all arts. writing. And, he has produced a singular tale about survival.
As you read this book, like a young man with MS, you will go down a yellow brick road to hell. All the best intentions of friends and family cannot save you. At your destination, there is no Emerald City, no magic shoes, no wizard with a cure. You must follow the road, trod the same bumpy path as a victim of MS, and you will become a better person for the experience. (Dr. William Russo Curry College 2000)
