Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum

Topic of the Week 2/07: Did Ennis and Jack kiss at all up on Brokeback?

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brokebackjack:
Crissi---how did they let it happen.... That's a question with as many answers as there are people on this forum. I picture them greeting, talking, joking around; Jack complaining about this or that; having a drink next to each other and just touching. A touch leading to maybe a hug, a hug leading to a kiss. I picture it as a normal evolution and progression aided and abetted by their being alone on the mounain with not a single solitary soul within many milkes of their encampment. I picture shyness at first, and then sheep be damned, those boys went at it like hogs in the mud.

In regards to deepened intimacy, in English it's pretty clear what AP meant but the meaning may be quite obscure if one's  native language is not English. I remember a passage in Chateaubriand which baffled me, years ago; a friend from the Aquitaine said it was crystal clear to a Frenchman yet  he could see how it might baffle an American: there are cultural connotations which simply do not translate. I am certain it is the same in Germanic literature as well!

There is an 'archness', a sly and dry wit to that phrase which always gets a knowing smile when a Yankee reads it. Or hears it. But I do not think it translates into other languages. It means that they deepened their intimacy considerably, and sexually---no instruction manual needed lol.

And how are you my friend? I think if you often...

Penthesilea:
Lol, there's at least one opinion less than people on this board  ;D, because I absolutely agree with you. I picture the scenario just like you. And I like your use of the "sheep be damned". It is another example of a senctence with more than one meaning. Not only the sheep be damned, but Aguirre, their job/responibilities (to a certain degree), and even societies rules.
That's one of the reasons why I think they did kiss.


Regarding the deepened intimacy: what you wrote is how I understood this phrase intuitively when I read it. But seeing another version in the movie and having the "no kissing/few intimacy" POV in mind I wasn't sure.


I'm fine, thanks for asking. We just had a very relaxing family vacation and I'm optimistic reagarding next June. I PMed you.

miniangel:
Although the week's well and truly up, I guess it's still okay to post here. I put up a page on LiveJournal with most of the "No Kiss" arguments laid out, if anyone's interested. It's at


http://brokebackkiss.livejournal.com

belbbmfan:
Wow, miniangel, that was very impressive. I wish I was as eloquent as you. I've been struggling with this question for a while. It started while I was in Alberta, reading the story again and then i discovered this thread.


I think they did kiss on Brokeback Mountain. As in kissing being an 'intimate act'. How could they not have kissed, if they had embraced like that? To me the act of that embrace and Ennis humming a lullaby to Jack, is an even more intimate thing to do than kissing. In giving something to Jack that his mama had given him (the comfort of cuddling and humming a lullaby, feeling totally safe and protected), I think Ennis is in effect showing Jack just how much he loves him. The fact that it's Ennis who initiates the embrace makes the whole scene even more powerful and moving to me. That 'pawing the white out of the moon' thing, you know.

And 'that' line in the short story (Ennis wouldn't hold him face to face because he didn't want to see it was Jack he held) has always bugged me. I almost feel as if 'it's not right', it's out of place. I'm not sure if it's Annie Proulx talking here or if this is the way Jack remembers it. If it's the latter, i guess it would make more sense because by the time Jack remember the dozy embrace, he feels very let down by Ennis who not only said no to that cow and calf operation but once again said no to August. This way, i could understand that Jack assumed that that was the reason why Ennis wouldn't hold him face to face.

If it's Annie Proulx stating the situation as it is, i almost feel like it doesn't make sense. (Wow, am I really saying this? I mean, i love the story!!) Thinking about how the whole embrace scene develops, how could Ennis not have held Jack from behind? Jack was dozing off, standing in front of the fire, very still and quiet. Ennis wanted to join him in that quiet moment, he could not have turned Jack around, that would have disturbed him. So the most natural way to hug Jack was from behind, keeping the atmosphere quiet and intimate. How could Ennis not have acknowledged the fact that it was Jack he held? Jack was the only person Ennis would ever hold like this, rocking him like a baby, humming a lullaby.

I understand the reasons behind the statement that Ennis didn’t want to see it was a man that he held. Ennis’ self denial is very real. But not in that scene. The fact that he was able to embrace Jack in this way demonstrates how he really felt, at ease and comfortable… well on Brokeback Mountain anyway. Never enough time, never enough. 

Just my two cents...

miniangel:
I understand everything you say here. It all seems to make sense, doesn't it. Yet a question remains - if the fact that Ennis wouldn't embrace face to face had the later potential to mar Jack's memory, why didn't he turn into Ennis's embrace? And for me, the answer is that he knew it would not be acceptable to Ennis, that it would break the spell.

It is indeed a most intimate moment and we'd like to think there were many more, yet that one stood out in Jack's memory as the single moment of artless charmed happiness. Twenty years down the track Jack still recalls that Ennis wouldn't embrace him face to face - not that he didn't but that he wouldn't. IOW his best memory had a potential flaw. There had never been a better, unflawed memory to supplant it.

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