Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
"Versimmilitude"
fontaine:
I read an article by a noted cognitive psychologist that talked about two kinds of thinking and rhetoric. In the first, one tries to convince another through logic and in the second, (characterized by narratives), one tries to convince through versimmilitude--creating realistic characters in realistic settings.
It occured to me that there aren't too many opportunities in life to fully explore the lives of people (particularly inner lives). Good fiction provides that opportunity because while characters can be very life-like and realistic, they're not real. Thus, Ennis's and Jack's feelings are not going to be hurt (nor will we get sued!) by being analyzed and discussed because they're characters, not real people. By better understanding them, we're able to better understand ourselves.
Maybe one of the true achievements of this story was rendering such life-like characters and creating such a high degree of versimmilitude. What do you think?
Front-Ranger:
I think your observation is ver' good, fontaine! Proulx' forte is a kind of hyper-realism about rural lives and characters, people who are in most of our backgrounds. Those characters ring true--their dialogue, their actions, and most of all what they do not do that would be out of character. That's what grabs us like no logical treatise ever could! Compare Brokeback Mountain and the Kinsey Report. The former brings the latter to life!
serious crayons:
In her essay "Getting Movied," Annie addresses this very subject. She lists a bunch of realistic details from the movie: Ennis dirty fingernails in a love scene, the old ENTERING WYOMING highway sign, the splotch of nail polish on Lureen's finger, Mrs Newsome's Texas hair, the speckled enamel coffee pot ... then says,
" ... all accumulate and convince us of the truth of the story. People may doubt that young men fall in love up on the snowy heights, but no one disbelieves the speckled coffeepot, and if the coffeepot is true, so is the other."
(Thanks to F-R for her generous loan of "Story to Screenplay"!)
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: latjoreme on June 26, 2006, 01:05:18 pm ---In her essay "Getting Movied," Annie addresses this very subject. She lists a bunch of realistic details from the movie: Ennis dirty fingernails in a love scene, the old ENTERING WYOMING highway sign, the splotch of nail polish on Lureen's finger, Mrs Newsome's Texas hair, the speckled enamel coffee pot ... then says,
" ... all accumulate and convince us of the truth of the story. People may doubt that young men fall in love up on the snowy heights, but no one disbelieves the speckled coffeepot, and if the coffeepot is true, so is the other."
(Thanks to F-R for her generous loan of "Story to Screenplay"!)
--- End quote ---
Dang, I love that sentence about no one disbelieves the speckled coffeepot! ;D Thanks for quoting it, Katherine, little darlin'! Just brightened up an otherwise excessively gloomy Monday!
serious crayons:
My pleasure! :-*
When I met Front-Ranger a few weeks ago, she graciously allowed me to borrow her copy of "Story to Screenplay" and now, just like you, I keep it right by my computer for quick reference! How did I get along without it for so long?
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