Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
BBM and Lonesome Dove
mariez:
Hey Amanda,
I'm glad to hear you're enjoying LD so much - it really is hard to put down once you start. I think your observations about those passages are really astute. It seems to me that both McMurtry and Proulx have a real respect and a real "feel" for the land. So much so that they treat it not simply as background, but as another character. I noticed some more passages (again around the time Gus is tracking Blue Duck) in LD that had the same tone to them:
"It struck him that he had forgotten emptiness such as existed in the country that stretched around him." ......
"But here there was no sound, not any. The coyotes were silent, the crickets, the locusts, the owls. There was only the sound of his own horse grazing. From him to the stars, in all directions, there was only silence and emptiness."
Yes, very evocative.
Marie
Front-Ranger:
This reminds me of the time when a friend and I were lying on some rocks just enjoying the sunshine in the desert of New Mexico. A bird flew by above us and I could clearly hear the rush of the wind under its wings. Now, that's quiet!!
I've been reading about 1/2 page a day and enjoying the banter between Call, Gus, Pea Eye, Newt, et al, but I'm nowhere near others. At this rate, I will finish the book sometime in 2010!!
Brown Eyes:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on January 24, 2009, 02:01:13 am ---This reminds me of the time when a friend and I were lying on some rocks just enjoying the sunshine in the desert of New Mexico. A bird flew by above us and I could clearly hear the rush of the wind under its wings. Now, that's quiet!!
--- End quote ---
I remember a similar kind of sort-of shocking quiet at certain moments when we would get out of the car on our drive through Wyoming last summer.
The thing that's interesting about both Proulx and McMurtry in their evocation of the largeness and the emptiness of plain-type landscape is that these observations go along with different forms of sadness and melancholy. There's a sense of peace, but also a sense of loss (Jack in the case of BBM, and the buffalo herds and Indian population in LD).
--- Quote ---I've been reading about 1/2 page a day and enjoying the banter between Call, Gus, Pea Eye, Newt, et al, but I'm nowhere near others. At this rate, I will finish the book sometime in 2010!!
--- End quote ---
LOL! Stick with it Bud! There are moments that become real page-turning moments as you go along, so I suspect your daily page-count will increase the more you get into it.
Brown Eyes:
Whenever I read about the character Jake Spoon, I can't help but think of Jake G. and Reese... or "Gyllenspoon". ::) :laugh:
It's not the greatest association to draw with Jake and Reese since, at least IMO, Jake Spoon is a very annoying character. But, the name Jake Spoon always kind of cracks me up when I read it. Lately I've been reading a section that focuses a lot on Spoon. Sometimes I want to reach into the pages of the book and just shake Jake Spoon.
LOL, but the more I think about it... if I was casting a new film version of LD, I could imagine Jake Gyllenhaal playing the role of Jake Spoon very well. He has the right look to me... or at least I imagine Jake Spoon to be very good looking, with big eyes that attract a lot of women, etc. And, of course, now I could easily imagine Jake Gyllenhaal playing a cowboy. Obviously.
Brown Eyes:
Reading more tonight... It occurs to me that Jake G. could probably also play July Johnson pretty well. I think the other thread here in OF about who we would cast in a sequel/remake of BBM has gone to my head regarding LD too. :)
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