Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
BBC World Service Book Club - Annie Proulx's Newest Revelations!
Phillip Dampier:
--- Quote from: optom3 on September 30, 2008, 10:58:17 pm ---So fan fiction may annoy her, but is she so coldhearted as to be, not even slightly moved by how many people's lives have been touched and in many ways vastly enhanced by BBM. I remember at the time of the press junkets, she was fullsome in her praise of the film, even saying Heath became Ennis.She seemed so genuinley pleased by the film and the reactions to it.
--- End quote ---
I recall similar praise she had for the film. Now I remember as well some friends who lived in Lander (not too far from Riverton) who moved back to Rochester who said the entire state of Wyoming was up in arms about Brokeback Mountain when it was published and released as a movie. So I also have to wonder if at least some of the problem Proulx has comes from the locals who have hassled her since the movie was released. A lot of anti-gay religious people have loudly protested her on a regular basis, and there have been some drive-by incidents by her home (and in many parts of Wyoming, the police simply don't respond to calls after 2am unless it is something very serious). So the wanting to left alone MAY have more to do with her notoriety with the locals.
One other thing I am dwelling on today is just how she is getting this supposed avalanche of BBM rewrites "gay men" are sending her. I presume the vast majority of her mail is coming in care of her agent or publisher, not being sent to her home. Any agent or publisher can easily filter out the annoying mail and forward things she would find relevant or pertinent. I am coming to question in my mind whether she is really spending her free time reading fan fiction stories sent to her. More plausible is if her agent or reps told her people were doing this, and she anecdotally trashed the idea, but how does one get forced to endure fan fiction? Is this something the warden of Gitmo needs to be told?
Frankly, I suspect most people are writing their stories and publishing them online, not purposefully trying to send them to her and her agent and publisher are the ones more up in arms about it.
When I started BetterMost, I found it frustrating that often people would dwell far more on the story instead of the message of the story and taking that energy felt from the impact and using it to provoke some positive changes in one's life. That is what I tried to do. But I've learned to relax about that because everyone's interpretation and "message" doesn't fit into my preconceived notion of what the story should mean. The very sense of community built on the story is a positive change.
Proulx doesn't like people changing the ending. I don't like people only dwelling on every teeny tiny factoid about the film and forgetting about what the story says and the impact it has. As soon as I realized why people do those kinds of things, and realized that positive change doesn't always come the way I might expect it to, I stopped getting bent out of shape about it. I hope she can do the same.
And I frankly wouldn't have read one thing she wrote had it not been for Brokeback Mountain. The Shipping News turned up here in one of the local movie art houses (where they show the obnoxiously dull independent Victorian love dramas set in the 19th century and impenetrable foreign films) and just from the previews, I dismissed it as boring and not worth my attention. To me, a western story of any kind would be an anathema. The very thought the first vacation I would take with John in 20 years of our relationship would be to fly to Calgary and spend 10 days in the Canadian Rockies would be the most ridiculous concept ever... until I spent time with BBM and got to meet so many people from here who shared my love for it. So she changed my life forever with a short story. That's near impossible for Mr. Cynical Me - so if she managed to have that kind of impact on me, it's no surprise she would stun a significant readership who saw her original story, and floor the entire world when that story became an amazingly successful film.
ifyoucantfixit:
Ms. Proulx could do well to take a page from J.K. Rowlings book and treat her dedicated followers and
fans with more respect and caring. After all she has to live or die by her future fans and readers. If she
allows her ego and attitude to alienate them, as this interview has shown, she will be at a difficult place in
her future to get people to care about her new stuff. I personally am not that thrilled by her stories in
general. I find them well executed and documented as to the surroundings. However they are such
a great and depressing group of tales, as to almost preclude anyone that has a great deal of compassion to find them very hard to get thru. I personally could not even finish her book of which BBM was one. It was such
a bummer.. I find she has a gigantic ego and self centered personality. Maybe she should as Marcia said,
just write for her own enjoyment and gratification. She finds it so easily done,that it would surely be a
good pastime, that would not interfere with her private life and cause her any undue fame.
I found her snide remarks and humorous reference to the pilot crashing his plane to be the most disturbing of all. I can understand the love of privacy, however to wish for someones death in order to achieve it is abhorrant to say the least.
Marge_Innavera:
--- Quote from: Phillip Dampier on October 01, 2008, 05:14:51 pm ---I recall similar praise she had for the film. Now I remember as well some friends who lived in Lander (not too far from Riverton) who moved back to Rochester who said the entire state of Wyoming was up in arms about Brokeback Mountain when it was published and released as a movie. So I also have to wonder if at least some of the problem Proulx has comes from the locals who have hassled her since the movie was released. A lot of anti-gay religious people have loudly protested her on a regular basis, and there have been some drive-by incidents by her home (and in many parts of Wyoming, the police simply don't respond to calls after 2am unless it is something very serious). So the wanting to left alone MAY have more to do with her notoriety with the locals.
--- End quote ---
But that raises a question as to why she would then take it out on her fans, most of whom (in terms of population patterns alone) don't even live in Wyoming.
--- Quote ---One other thing I am dwelling on today is just how she is getting this supposed avalanche of BBM rewrites "gay men" are sending her. I presume the vast majority of her mail is coming in care of her agent or publisher, not being sent to her home. Any agent or publisher can easily filter out the annoying mail and forward things she would find relevant or pertinent. I am coming to question in my mind whether she is really spending her free time reading fan fiction stories sent to her. More plausible is if her agent or reps told her people were doing this, and she anecdotally trashed the idea, but how does one get forced to endure fan fiction? Is this something the warden of Gitmo needs to be told?
--- End quote ---
LOL, this statement is in the "why didn't I think of that?" category, and I don't recall seeing it posted in other discussions about this, but it raises a legit question. How was she getting these pesky fanfics? It's probably possible that some skillful hackers found it on the Internet but that then raises the question of why these fanfic authors/hackers were all gay men. And where are all these gay male fanfic writers? There are some whose stories I've read but from what little I knew of the authors they didn't seem likely to do that. On the other hand, it would make sense if these supposedly offensive fanfics have just been taken off a website -- the screen names of authors don't always give any hint as to gender or sexual orientation.
--- Quote --- Second, I am always surprised by the lack of graciousness some people have in accepting the praise and attention they receive from people whose lives were literally shaken, if not permanently changed, by their work. Of course, I'm not in a position to really understand and relate to the attention Ms. Proulx has gotten, and maybe it has been far more than I can imagine, but why is she surprised as a published author and willing participant in the adaptation of her stories to the big screen that she has gotten lavish praise and attention for her work? I can understand her frustration by the use and misuse of her Brokeback Mountain story by various players in the American culture war, where political posturing crashes headfirst into artistic venues, but this should not be a surprise. Proulx has consistently been offended by the "gay cowboy" pop culture reference to her story, and she has made it a point to correct the record at every opportunity, which is valuable. But Proulx also will have to understand that pop culture always boils down concepts and trashes nuance. On some things, you just have to understand the reality and not get too bent out of shape about it.
--- End quote ---
It is a fact, though, that few people enjoy fame; most of us would far rather be rich than famous. Of course, the ideal thing would be to be fabulously rich during your lifetime, and world-famous about two days after you pass on. ;D
Brown Eyes:
--- Quote from: ifyoucantfixit on October 01, 2008, 09:03:52 pm --- Ms. Proulx could do well to take a page from J.K. Rowlings book and treat her dedicated followers and
fans with more respect and caring. After all she has to live or die by her future fas and readers. If she
allows her ego and attitude to alienate them, as this interview has shown, she will be at a difficult place in
her future to get people to care about her new stuff. I personally am not that thrilled by her stories in
general. I find them well executed and documented as to the surroundings. However they are such
a great and depressing group of tales, as to almost preclude anyone that has a great deal of compassion to find them very hard to get thru. I personally could not even finish her book of which BBM was one. It was such
a bummer.. I find she has a gigantic ego and self centered personality. Maybe she should as Marcia said,
just write for her own enjoyment and gratification. She finds it so easily done,that it would surely be a
good pastime, that would not interfere with her private life and cause her any undue fame.
I found her snide remarks and humorous reference to the pilot crashing his plane to be the most disturbing of all. I can understand the love of privacy, however to wish for someones death in order to achieve it is abhorrant to say the least.
--- End quote ---
Janice, I agree with a lof of your sentiment here. I often find myself unable to finish her stories and/or I find them amazingly bleak. She's obviously a tremendously gifted writer. And, BBM is brilliant not only for its characters and plot, etc., but also for her wonderful talent for description, dialogue and unique turns-of-phrase. I certainly don't mean to imply that I don't recognize her gift for writing. Basically, a lot of it is simply not to my personal taste (which is clearly very subjective).
I've read the Shipping News (a long time ago) and I recall I liked it. But, like you, I still haven't even read all the stories in Close Range. I bought Bad Dirt and Postcards sort of as a nod towards building a collection of relevant Brokie things, but I haven't read either of those yet either.
For me BBM is a unique circumstance in the context of almost anything (and also in the context of Proulx's other writing).
It saddens me that she feels this way about her story and about fans of BBM. But, it really is true that a story/film with such huge popularity inevitably will take on a life of its own. While surely she's entitled to her own opinions and reactions, her unhappiness with Brokies doesn't at all lessen my love for BBM (the film or story) and it obviously doesn't make me second guess the Brokie community either.
tamarack:
I'm going to try this once more. I just lost my whole post. (I hate it when that happens.) This one will be a lot shorter, to your benefit!
Thanks for posting this here, Phillip. I've been waiting for the weekend to listen to it.
I'm not hearing the same thing here that some of you are. If someone had written a letter or sent an email about the life-changing effect of the story I think we would have heard a different Annie, but that wasn't the point of the interview. Her "I wish I never wrote it" comment was a bit harsh (LOL) but the comment about the "cowboys" probably set her off a little bit.
She lives out in the middle of nowhere for a reason; it isn't an act. This is who she is (at certain times on certain days). I'm not sure why she even does the interviews, to be honest.
At any rate, I'm not taking this as a personal affront to my affection for Jack and Ennis.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version