Annie Proulx's still pissed...

[louisev]

Just think how we would feel if Heath or Jake had said something similar about BBM.

That interview was more than about copyright, and Im sure if she could take legal action against fan fic writers, she would have done it by now.

she did.  Against several of us actually, which is why I went out of the fanfiction business and rewrote my stories - because her lawyer threatened a lawsuit.  There were three other authors of fan stories who got the same treatment.  I spent last winter rewriting all of mine so they wouldn't contain any Brokeback references.

The movie, in my opinion was a long way off the original story, with things added and things changed, and really, lets face it, the movie is far far bigger than her written story......we didn't see forums started like this one, about the story in the paper, how many of us would be Brokies because of the story alone? How many of us, only bought the book, because of the movie?

I think Annie Proloux has a higher opinion of herself than a lot of others do.

and I definitely agree here.

[louisev]

I wonder what her reaction would have been if she'd had let Gus Van Sant do Brokeback Mountain a la "My Own Private Idaho" style...  I bet her head would have spun around when she saw the finished product.     

Her head did spin around when she saw the finish product of "The Shipping News", she hated the movie and refused to have anything to do with its promotion.  And that was her Pulitzer winning book.

[louisev]

   

Imagine someone like Keanu Reeves as Ennis. ...     

Well, but "finishing the story" is one thing. Telling an author he or she should have written an entirely different story than he or she wrote is quite something else.

As Annie essentially says, she didn't set out to write a story about two gay cowboys in love. She set out to write a story about homophobia.

I think it's interesting that she seems in particular to single out the "moving-on Ennis" genre of fanfiction for her authorial indignation. 

Yes, she did.  There were four legal actions taken against fanfics in this fandom, and nobody I know ever sent them to her for her comment OR approval.  That isn't to say that somebody ELSE didn't send her my story, but I know I sure didn't.  Three of those four were about Ennis's life after Jack's death, which is why that particular fan fic plot is practically nonexistent in the fandom.

[Monika]

It´s hard to comment on the interview, because we don´t know exactly what have been sent to AP, or how insistent those men she mentions, have been. She seems pretty pissed, so maybe it has been pretty bad.

The comment about it being unfortunate that people have active fantasy lives is pretty funny coming from an author though, I must say


She doesn´t seem very eager to please her reader and she seems to have no trouble speaking her mind. I for one woulnd´t want to mess with AP!

[Mikaela]

Her head did spin around when she saw the finish product of "The Shipping News", she hated the movie and refused to have anything to do with its promotion.  And that was her Pulitzer winning book.

I can understand her concerning the Shipping News. 

That's a whole 'nother discussion, isn't it - how an adaption with top notch actors like Cate Blanchett, Judy Dench, Kevin Spacey and Julianne Moore, a very good director and such a tragic and salty original source could be so totally *blah*?     And then how another film based on another of her stories, with another good director and very handsome Hollywood stars could manage the complete opposite and keep us yacking year after year?

I guess part of the answer may be that for the Shipping News, the script had to cut down a lot on the story, reduce it and remove elements - while for Brokeback, Ossana and McMurtry had to include more that the original had on offer, and so somehow transmuted it and added to it. Plus, the Brokeback characters hit a zeitgeist nerve (even within the frames of the original story) that the Shipping News Characters don't do at all.  I mainly wanted to smack most of the SN characters silly. 

I don't know. It's a fascinating comparison anyway.

But the fact remains that despite the "Shipping News" fiasco AP did keep in contact with the Brokeback scriptwriters and she met up with various people seeking to make a movie out of BBM - Ang Lee was not the first BBM director wanna-be she talked to (and the previous meeting was a disaster, the way she retells it in "Getting movied"). So she *does*  want her characters to reach a wider audience of other mediums - and to see professional interpretations played out, at least.

[Fran]

I think Annie Proulx is a very private person who's worried about her losing her privacy.

She says, "And one of the reasons we keep the gates locked here is that a lot of men have decided that the story should have a happy ending.  They can't bear the way it ends...."  Maybe some people have shown up in her town looking for her.  Maybe some have even learned her exact address and shown up on her doorstep or left things for her, and she's found that too close for comfort.  Most likely, these people's intentions are good and they just want to compliment her for her story and tell her how much it moved them and how they wish it could have had a happier ending and that they wish they could know that Ennis did find happiness after Jack's death, but to her, these people are still intruding on her privacy and, let's face it, her time.  Maybe (because of what happened to the character in Stephen King's Misery) she's worried about her personal safety. Maybe she's crabby and just wants to be left alone.

While she does come off as a little mean and hurtful in this interview and in the "pornish rewrites" one, I think she's shown us that she's not one to sugar-coat her words to spare anyone's feelings, whoever they are, even at the risk of disappointing some of her devoted fans.  While we can wish she'd be more respectful to Brokies, that's not how it's going to be.  She's obviously moved on and doesn't want to keep revisiting Brokeback Mountain.  But she does have the right to make that choice, as disappointing as it is.

[pnwDUDE]

Brokeback Mountain wasn't overly popular with most gay men. All one needs to do is read some early reviews in gay-based media. The first time I saw the movie, the theater was filled with faux cowboys all a twitter. Some cackled and carried on during the movie, and went away because it had, in their opinion, a bad ending (the boys didn't live happily ever after) and their wasn't enough sex and nudity shots. Many of these guys let her know about it. Kinda like, "how dare you", "why do gay characters always end up unhappy.....", blah blah. I heard some of these comments from gay guys. Like she stated repeatedly, her story isn't about gays or cowboys for that matter. It is about homophobia in Wyoming in the 1960's.

I went to theater showings weekly until it closed. A months after BBM opened nationwide, the audiences transformed from the faux and cackle to a predominately hetro and female audience. After the movie saturation post Oscar announcements and Golden Globes, there were times when the theaters were filled with mainly straight couples and women couples. I don't reckon these later folks sent her the nastiness she received initially. These people with all the nastiness and finger pointing didn't get BBM. She is absolutely correct. IMO, that coupled with the later fan fic that had J & E as vampires, pedophiles, etc. put her over the top.

There were positive interactions between Proulx and gay fans. One of which was an early member at DCF. He sent her a letter thanking her for the book, and detailed how it impacted he and his partner of 25 years--a couple of guys who happened to live in Wyoming and were close to what J & E would have been had they found their happy little cow and calf operation. He sent me a copy of her response. She was gracious and proud of them. She even invited them to her place, which they didn't jump on as to leave her with her privacy.  

Yeah, she did threaten legal action against fanfic writers, and for good reason. To want to  "bitch slap" her is childish and immature.

Brad

edited so as not to have to read some definition from wikipedia  

[louisev]

I haven't read any messages referring to Annie Proulx as a bitch, Brad.

[pnwDUDE]

I haven't read any messages referring to Annie Proulx as a bitch, Brad.

  I used to have respect for her, but now I think I just wanna bitch slap her...  OMG lady, let it go...

Bitch slap = slapping a bitch. Perhaps you see it differently. Either way, to slap her? Grow up. No wonder she lives behind a closed gate, worried..........

Brad

[serious crayons]

But the fact remains that despite the "Shipping News" fiasco AP did keep in contact with the Brokeback scriptwriters and she met up with various people seeking to make a movie out of BBM - Ang Lee was not the first BBM director wanna-be she talked to (and the previous meeting was a disaster, the way she retells it in "Getting movied"). So she *does*  want her characters to reach a wider audience of other mediums - and to see professional interpretations played out, at least.

Money's a point, I would guess. Literary writers, even some good and well-known ones, often aren't rich. Unless they're Stephen King or his ilk, they generally have day jobs, teaching or whatever. As far as I know (and I may be wrong), Proulx doesn't teach. Her work is loved by her fans, but it's not to everybody's taste (including mine, to be honest). So it's possible that despite misgivings, she's willing to let her work get movied for the sake of the film rights and increased sales.