I KNOW and have known real life people who have/had lives and personalities similar to those of the fictional Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar.
Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain short story is like the stories, aka parables, Jesus told. His parables were not true stories but stories with a moral lesson to them.
With the greatest respect, tiawahcowboy, some of us (who shall ..... ahem .... remain nameless) have backgrounds in the real thing, ie, psychiatry. They might say that a hobby or interest is only problematic when it impacts negatively on relationships and ability to function long term. They might also, in a completely off the record, casual sort of way, diagnose the vast majority of Brokies with a galloping case of sanity. It's blazingly apparent to me that (I'll use the quantifier again) the vast majority have clearly demonstrated significant POSITIVE change in their lives as a result of being touched by Brokeback Mountain.
Now, I'd like to ask you if you'd have us sit at home and wait to die, American Idol notwithstanding. Whether it's the hand of God at work, or simply a unique piece of art released into an unsuspecting world, I can't say, but either way it's all GOOD. Who gives a flying f*#ck about our Brokespeak, and our collectables, and our repeated viewings, and our foruming late into the night. None of those things, alone or together, amount to anything remotely approaching psychosis or even mild dysfunction.
Tell you what, the truth is, it could be like this, just like this, always. It'd be a sweet life, for what it's worth. For how long? Long as we can ride it. I'm posting four hours a day (don't want no game and fish catching me on no forum) and I'm gettin' tired of this dumbass missing. We can get together, way the hell out in the middle of the thread, but seeing eye to eye on this, no way.
W