Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Jack Circles the Earth
Brown Eyes:
--- Quote from: LauraGigs on January 11, 2009, 02:26:03 pm ---This sparks a thought: Ennis and Jack are in their element camping together, where everything centers around the circular fire area (sun).
Jack is boldest and puts all his big "moves" on Ennis — propositioning him, proposing the cow+calf operation — on the full moon.
;) (Incidentally in American slang, "mooning" means showing someone your bare ass!)
--- End quote ---
It's interesting to think of Jack's activity of driving so much as instantly leading us to many different major nature symbols.
I really like the suggestion that the fire circle is like the sun.
On a more pragmatic/human level, how healthy does Jack's willingness to go to these extremes seem? If he way-more than cirlced the Earth in the amount of miles he drove, in order to be with Ennis... what does that say about his level of desparation. It's very romantic to think driving around the Earth in a quest for love, but at the same time it seems to indicate something really rather bleak. To me, it really does shed new light on his attitude during the lake side argument.
Ennis undoubtedly made sacrifices for the relationship too. Continually quiting jobs for Jack seems to be the closest equivalent in terms of personal decision-making to Jack's constant driving.
Penthesilea:
--- Quote from: atz75 on January 13, 2009, 03:07:57 pm ---On a more pragmatic/human level, how healthy does Jack's willingness to go to these extremes seem? If he way-more than cirlced the Earth in the amount of miles he drove, in order to be with Ennis... what does that say about his level of desparation. It's very romantic to think driving around the Earth in a quest for love, but at the same time it seems to indicate something really rather bleak. To me, it really does shed new light on his attitude during the lake side argument.
--- End quote ---
You know, Bud, to me this somehow sounds dramatic. But I happen to see the many, many miles Jack traveled not so dramatic, or even "extreme", as you called it. Given that circling the earth twice to see your lover sounds pretty dramatic on first sight, but you have to see it in context:
- Jack had multiple benefits from doing all the travelling, being with Ennis the most important of course
- But he also got away from a marriage he could do over the phone, from his daily chores (LD) in Texas, from a life he didn't want. Clearly the times they had together were vacation times for both.
- And I bet in general Jack enjoyed their being outdoors (riding, fishing?, camping, etc), minus the friggin cold of course ;D.
- He used to visit his folks up in Wyoming after his trip with Ennis. We don't know whether he went to LF every time he was in WY, but I'd say most times.
- In his life Jack drove many miles on trips NOT in connection with Ennis: living on the the rodeo circuit for years, his buying trips (where he found ways to spend his money), his trips to Mexico.
- Jack circling the earth almost twice was done in 16 years. That's a long time. Put it yearly (based on your estimated two trips a year) and you get 3680 miles per year. For the kilometer people: that approx. 5600km. Put this in relation to Jack's overall mileage per year (which we don't know, but have reason to think it was pretty high). I think at the end of his too short life, Jack had a huge deal of mileage on his personal odometer. And a good part of it for Ennis, but Ennis WAS an important part of his life, so ... it seems not out of proportion.
- An aside thought: theoretically, do you think Jack would have wanted Ennis to come down to Texas for a fair share of their trips? I don't think so, I think it was in Jack's interest to keep his two worlds apart. Lureen would surely have been curious about Ennis, it would have been hard to explain to her why she never can meet Ennis.
(I hear people saying: but Jack suggested Ennis to move to Texas. - Totally different situation)
Sooo, finally my conclusion:
Yes, Jack drove lots and lots of miles for Ennis. And yes, it was a big effort and a sacrifice he made. To me personally, it got more palpable after making two trips from Denver to WY and around WY, and in the process thinkin more than once 'Oh my, Denver is only half the way from Childress'. It's different to read about it, and to experience it first hand.
But I don't find it "extreme". And it wouldn't cross my mind to ask whether it was "healthy".
Brown Eyes:
Bump! 8)
mariez:
Oh, thanks for bumping this, Amanda :) I'd missed it. I enjoyed reading all the thoughtful observations. Chrissi saved me a lot of time and thought, though - I agree with everthing she's said. It's not that I don't appreciate and understand his efforts and his sacrifices, but I really don't find Jack's actions all that extreme or unhealthy. I do think they both ended up sacrificing a lot, in different ways, that neither of them really understood about the other.
miniangel:
I just noticed this thread. Funny, I wondered the same thing myself when I was writing a bit of slash a year or so ago:
From The Outland, Ch. 1 --- "The road to Lightning Flat: how many times had Jack driven that road after one of their fishing trips? Had Ennis even thought about it? Seems as though he was always too wrapped up in his own journey, getting his mind back on the job, trying to sweep away all thoughts of Jack until the next time. Tried not to think to hard on Jack barrelling through this lonesome landscape after saying goodbye, then taking the long road back to Texas, alone. And how many times over those sixteen years had Jack red-lined it to him? At least thirty, have to be, maybe more. Twelve hundred miles there, twelve hundred miles back. A figure from Ennis's schooldays drifted into his brain: the circumference of the earth is twenty-four thousand miles. So every ten trips - fuck, how many times had Jack circled the world just to be with him? How many times? And how many times had Ennis thought Jack might continue doing it? And where would it all have ended?
But it had already ended, and Jack was lying up at Lightning Flat, helpless and unconscious, and for once it was Ennis doing the miles."
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