Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
BBC World Service Book Club - Annie Proulx's Newest Revelations!
Front-Ranger:
Hey, br. Patrick, thanks for reminding us about Daniel's book DreamFilm. I have it and have enjoyed reading it very much. I am not a poetry lover in general but I really like the poetry that is interspersed among the essays. And, Truman, thank you for mentioning Postcards. I happen to have it in my briefcase right now!! Postcards was actually the first work of Annie Proulx's that I ever read. I was laid up in the hospital at the time and if not, I might not have had the fortitude to finish it. Brutal as it is (the novel begins with a murder) there is something haunting about the book, and the characters have stayed with me for a long time. That book helped me understand my father whose character was molded during the Depression.
Truman is right about Annie's origins as a technical writer. If you look at the story as published in the New Yorker (11 years ago next Monday) there is a box on the second page with a sketch of Annie and a little information about her past. She started writing fiction for men's magazines (yes, really!) and adopted the pen name E. A. Proulx because she needed to disguise the fact that she is a woman. Brokeback Mountain and the book Close Range that it is a part of was her first work published as just "Annie Proulx." So, perhaps that has something to do with her irascibility on the occasion of her interview with the Wall Street Journal. She is required to do these interviews when her books are published and it is clear that it is not one of her favorite things to do. She had just received a particularly irritating letter and fan fiction manuscript from someone who wanted to correct things he thought she had gotten wrong in the story, because she is a woman.
Annie Proulx maintains correspondences with people and has been very gracious and nurturing. I have heard of several instances, and the few correspondences I've been involved in have always received very personal and thoughtful replies written in longhand. There are people who she corresponds with by letter and by phone, and when I have seen her in person, she has always been patient, friendly, and respectful, and she has never left an event I've attended until she has spoken with every person who wanted to talk with her.
One last thing, if you listen to her words, what really irritates her is the fan fiction writers demanding praise and feedback from her. Since she obviously does not need feedback herself it's really hard for her to be hounded by these needy people who feel like they deserve her undivided attention. Personally, I'd rather see her writing more stories!!
Front-Ranger:
--- Quote from: wyomen on October 04, 2008, 04:36:42 pm ---And I for one hope that she will share the other BBM stories with us. But that seems less and less likely.
--- End quote ---
What other BBM stories, friend?? Do tell more!!
Shakesthecoffecan:
I might need to go back and listen to it again, but I rmemebr in that interview there is a plane flying over and correct me if I am wrong, she seems to want it to crash?
Bothersome beyond words. Bury the dead horse. Bring on the next story.
magicmountain:
When you visit a good restaurant you enjoy the taste of the food and benefit from its nutrition. Why worry if the cook is having a hissy fit out back in the kitchen?
MountainMan:
--- Quote from: magicmountain on October 10, 2008, 08:26:09 pm ---When you visit a good restaurant you enjoy the taste of the food and benefit from its nutrition. Why worry if the cook is having a hissy fit out back in the kitchen?
--- End quote ---
;D
I've never thought that the fanfic "changes" the end of the story- that's kind of the point, right? that the fanfic is a kind of "alternate universe"? Anyway, that's kind of how I think about that sort of stuff.....I admit that when I first heard of it, especially slash, I thought it was kind of......disrespectful? (unintentionally of course) - either to the original actors/writers (be it Star Trek, HP, BBM, whatever). But, that ORIGINAL still exists; it's still out there in its original form and nothing else changes that. And honestly, I think of the fanfic as completely separate from - but perhaps also completely connected to??? :-\ - the "original."
At the same time, anything I've ever written (or thought about writing) would never"disrespect" (what I think Annie might say) the original story/characters/author/etc by "changing" the ending....but only because I've never really felt inspired to do so. I dunno....maybe I just kind of like the idea of fitting fanfic into the original plotline since it's like, "oh hey, this COULD have been part of the original." Then again, people who extend the story or "change" the ending are saying pretty much the same thing I guess.
So here's my two cents that I already said over in "Annie Annie Annie" where the interview was discussed:
--- Quote ---"Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar are my intellectual property"
--- End quote ---
...yawn.
--- Quote ---"beneath every mangled rewrite is the unspoken assumption that because they are men they can write this story better than a woman can"
--- End quote ---
Yawn, part II. I think that's an assumption on your part, Annie....
--- Quote from: louise van hine on September 18, 2008, 11:11:12 pm ---
I think Annie Proulx DOES have a problem with ownership, afer all, why would she have had her publisher send cease and desist orders to little old fanfic writers like me and threaten to get CBS's lawyers after me? Even though fan fiction falls in the large grey area of inellectual property law, I don't have the money to put where my mouth is so I obeyed the cease and desist order, and ultimately I am glad I wrote an original story instead of hanging it on Annie Proulx's coat rack.
--- End quote ---
...exactly. It seems like she's more concerned with preserving her characters (her story and ending) than anything else - I mean, surely it's not about the money one way or the other......either she doesn't need/want it or she could profit from "collaborative" fanfic. The interview excerpts make her sound....well, not good. Arrogant, I guess. Although I do sympathize with what appears to be her desire to preserve the integrity of her original story.....and (even tho I THINK this has prob been discussed to death elsewhere) I can understand her labeling certain attempts (ahem, slash) as "pornish".
(for the record, I'm not "anti-slash".)
I'm going to have to read some more of her work now (I can't remember how much of Close Range I read), because every interview I've come across makes her sound incredibly pretentious. I dunno; maybe we are (I am) just bouncing off the film too much.......I feel as if she gave us this beautiful story with these incredible characters but doesn't seem to give a damn about them. I wonder how she really feels about the movie, since she didn't do the screenplay.
From what I've come across, I can't figure out her background either; it's kind of a mystery. "Hard knocks" tho, I think not - more like upper class liberal arts major (but "be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle"). Some details are there, but those don't really reveal much about her as a person.....I feel like I might understand her work and her better if I knew more than the info from a few interview quotes and wikipedia.
Aside from info from good ol' wikipedia :) here's a couple old (1997, 1999) interviews:
http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/factfict/eapint.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/05/23/specials/proulx-home.html
and a biography - http://www.notablebiographies.com/Pe-Pu/Proulx-E-Annie.html
Cheers!
8)
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