Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Life and this movie are messy
Front-Ranger:
I join you in applauding Annie Proulx for making us think about certain words in a different way. I truly never thought swear words would have the exalted place they have taken on in my lexicon. Large words like asphyxiate bring me so much pleasure that I go out of my way to use them. And stink is now a term of endearment. Yay Annie, and Ang, for messing up my life, or at least my vocabulary, something royally!! :)
Front-Ranger:
I'm still not done with smells, but I have to go back to spitting just for a moment. Recall how L.D. Newsome insists that his grandson is "the spitting image of his granddaddy?" Nice use of obscure regional sayings pressed into service to advance the metaphors!
moremojo:
--- Quote from: malina on September 25, 2006, 03:28:46 am ---In the short story, when Ennis finds the shirts and inhales their scent:
<<He pressed his face into the fabric and breathed in slowly through his mouth and nose, hoping for the faintest smoke and mountain sage and salty sweet stink of Jack>>
When I first read that I didn't like the use of the word 'stink', even qualified by 'salty sweet'. I guess I would've preferred something neutral and unchallenging like 'scent' or 'smell'.
I still have trouble with it. I guess I want to be able to imagine cozying up to Jack and I don't want him to be stinky.
BUT.. I wholeheartedly applaud Annie Proulx for phrasing it like this. It's real, not a polished and stylized representation of love. It doesn't matter that I have trouble with it. The visceral quality of the messiness and smelliness is part of what brings Jack and Ennis to life.
--- End quote ---
Note also how Ennis takes comfort in the rancid or earthy smells of his menage with Alma and the babies--a world of odor that reminds him of the fecund cycle of life. The motel scene is also described in terms of raunchy odor, and Ennis and Jack are seen to be very much at home here.
I don't it's very unusual for gay men to find the smells of men (even smells that veer into the fetid) appealing (I'm certainly one of them), and I think Annie was spot-on in intimating this element of Ennis's personality. It's also interesting how Jack is remembered in terms of smells of nature, as if he belonged, in both body and spirit, to the mountain that fed the boys' dreams.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: malina on September 25, 2006, 03:28:46 am ---<<He pressed his face into the fabric and breathed in slowly through his mouth and nose, hoping for the faintest smoke and mountain sage and salty sweet stink of Jack>>
When I first read that I didn't like the use of the word 'stink', even qualified by 'salty sweet'. I guess I would've preferred something neutral and unchallenging like 'scent' or 'smell'.
--- End quote ---
I also think it's another case of Annie inserting something jarring to undercut the sentimentality of an otherwise mushy moment.
Front-Ranger:
You're right, Katherine, and so well expressed!
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