Elevation and Beyond

Elevation and Beyond is the true story of the birth of unreasonable devotion to a rock band. It is one fan's voyage through life within the context of that devotion. The narrative follows an arcing, sometimes looping, process from self-centered isolation to connection and integration. The process begins within the context of an Irish Catholic family upbringing in the eighties, where the author as a child is exposed to and impressed upon by the music of U2 through the vinyl records of her older siblings. Upon arrival into adolescence, she sustains a traumatic brain injury; the subsequent blanket of post-concussive depression and isolated misery is infiltrated only by the lighted images of Bono singing and smoking alone at a darkened bar in the video for "e;One"e; in 1992. From there, the chase begins. Movement out of fear and alienation is spurred by the fire of her passion for U2 and U2 music. From a lonely teenage bedroom wall-papered with pictures of Bono and U2, she makes her debut at college with a drive to see U2 live in concert again, and again, and again.