Annie Proulx's still pissed...

[Katie77]

Well, I have never been an admirer of Annie Proulx.........in fact I would never have ever heard of her if it wasn't for BBM.

I agree that she has written one of the most poignant stories ever written, which in turn was transformed into one of the most fascinating and mind renching films ever produced.

She underestimates the feelings and intelligence of the people who are still mesmerised by her story. She underestimates people have changed their lives because of it.

Sure.....she wrote the words of BBM, but she did not write the words of all the stories of the people affected by it.

I wonder if she has ever looked past her own ego or her own publicity, to really take a look at what that story has done for people.

Whether she likes it or not, Jack and Ennis have become real people to some of us. Its a bit like Santa Clause, it makes us feel good to believe in them.

Whether she likes it or not, she is always going to be questioned and asked about BBM.

Whether she likes it or not, she is always going to be known more for BBM than any other book she writes.



I have no doubt she must get sick of fan fiction being sent to her, but she must have a rubbish bin,she should use it.
Expressing her views about it publicly will do nothing for her career or her popularity.

Her interview is initially about the shit that is sent to her, but it also seems to be condemning all of us who have taken the characters into our hearts.

She says she "owns those characters".....I think she lost that right of ownership when she gave it to Ang Lee, McMurtry,Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal who put the face and emotions to the characters.

To say that "people think it is about two cowboys", also shows her lack of knowledge of those of us who obsess over the movie, or even write fan fiction about the story.....I am sure we are all fully aware of what the story is about.

Somebody should tell her not to bite the hand that feeds her, and if she is gonna do it, do it privately.

[Brown Eyes]

Katie, I agree.  Thanks for that good post.  I'm sitting her almost shaking in anger at this interview.

She says she "owns those characters".....I think she lost that right of ownership when she gave it to Ang Lee, McMurtry,Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal who put the face and emotions to the characters.

This is exactly what I meant earlier when I posted that the film is a form of "fanfic"... written by two other writers and embellished in all kinds of ways with new characters, details, etc. 

And, yes, everyone who worked on the film contributed to creating the interpretation of BBM that we see in the movie.  I mean, Ennis is one of the primary features of Heath Ledger's legacy... I can't understand why she could be so bitter about the film regardless of what some fanfic writers might have done to annoy her.  There will always be overly excited fans about anything that becomes popular in the culture at large.

I completely agree with Amanda...

Thank you Eric.  

[SFEnnisSF]

Sure.....she wrote the words of BBM, but she did not write the words of all the stories of the people affected by it.

I wonder if she has ever looked past her own ego or her own publicity, to really take a look at what that story has done for people.

BRAVO!!  WELL SAID!!

[Front-Ranger]

I suspect that some of this interview was taken out of context, edited, and/or misinterpreted by people who may not have English as their first language. Some of the things they have AP saying do not ring true for me, such as when she says she wishes she had never written the story, and then that there was no problem until the movie came out.

I also theorize that Annie may have a bit of a chip on her shoulder. A sidebar in the New Yorker version of the story says that she started her fiction writing career by writing for men's magazines like Argosy, etc., under   the pseudonym E. A. Proulx. She didn't "come out" as a woman in her writings until Close Range. She endured editors and readers who were misogynistic.

I've seen letters AP has written to men who have started up a correspondence with her and they have all been extremely gracious. THere are those who revere her and look to her for motherly guidance. The female fans probably don't write her as often, aren't as needy, and don't have the same desire to "correct" her vision of Ennis and Jack.

She could very easily instruct her publisher, agent and lawyers not to forward these letters, and she could very easily ignore them or at the very least not answer them. Why she doesn't do that puzzles me. There must be at least a few that are compelling. Maybe she should have them forwarded to the Matthew Shepard Foundation.

[injest]

so nice to see the gratitude and love...

how dare this woman not be a perfect saint!! How dare she not get on her knees and appreciate the largesse bestowed upon her! The ungrateful wretch!

I for one appreciate her sharing her gift with us, and if she wishes to be left alone about it, then that is enough for me. She owes me nothing.

I on the other hand owe her gratitude for giving me Jack and Ennis.

[southendmd]

I believe The Paris Review is based in New York.  And, the original interview with similar themes about "pornish rewrites" was in the Wall Street Journal.  

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122065020058105139.html

[brokeplex]

so nice to see the gratitude and love...

how dare this woman not be a perfect saint!! How dare she not get on her knees and appreciate the largesse bestowed upon her! The ungrateful wretch!

I for one appreciate her sharing her gift with us, and if she wishes to be left alone about it, then that is enough for me. She owes me nothing.

I on the other hand owe her gratitude for giving me Jack and Ennis.

agreed, and I am amazed that Proulx has had the forebearance to NOT pursue copyright infringments on FanFic writers who are using her copyrighted characters.

maybe its time to leave AP alone, wish her well,  and hope that her creativity will produce more works of brilliiant fiction.

[Brown Eyes]

This is about more than just fanfic.  It seems to be about Proulx disavowing BBM as a movie and even as a story too.  I think that trying to all of a sudden rigidly define what BBM is about almost ruins the poetry of the open-endedness of BBM.

Everyone understands that she holds the copyright.  But, I'll ask again, if she didn't want her story to be manipulated why did she allow it to be turned into a movie..  writen by other people, with new characters invented, details invented, things happening that never happened in the story?  She let it happen to The Shipping News too.  And, I'll also just re-iterate that Larry McMurtry's voice as a writer is there loud and clear in the screenplay... so again, she wasn't always so upset with the idea of other writers co-opting and re-working her story.

What she says in the interview quoted in the first post seems amazingly short-sighted.  It's hard for me to believe that she could say some of the things she said in the interview.  I always thought of her as more nuanced than that.  I hope Lee's right that the interview is somehow taken out of context.
 



 

 

[SFEnnisSF]

I don't think it was taken out of context at all.  I truly believe she said what she's quoted as saying.  It sounds exactly like her "pornish rewrites" rant...

[brokeplex]

This is about more than just fanfic.  It seems to be about Proulx disavowing BBM as a movie and even as a story too.  I think that trying to all of a sudden rigidly define what BBM is about almost ruins the poetry of the open-endedness of BBM.

Everyone understands that she holds the copyright.  But, I'll ask again, if she didn't want her story to be manipulated why did she allow it to be turned into a movie..  writen by other people, with new characters invented, details invented, things happening that never happened in the story?  She let it happen to The Shipping News too.  And, I'll also just re-iterate that Larry McMurtry's voice as a writer is there loud and clear in the screenplay... so again, she wasn't always so upset with the idea of other writers co-opting and re-working her story.

What she says in the interview quoted in the first post seems amazingly short-sighted.  It's hard for me to believe that she could say some of the things she said in the interview.  I always thought of her as more nuanced than that.  I hope Lee's right that the interview is somehow taken out of context.
 

I am not privy to her agreement with McMurtry / Ossana, but I assume their were restrictions and conditions on what they could and couldn't do with her intellectual property. The "Violence to Property" clauses found in many such agreements between authors and screenwriters or production companies comes to mind.

I am not aware that she is specifically complaining about the departures from her SS by the screenplay or the film, but by the seemingly open ended quest by fandom to continue to alter her story. Frankly, I am sympathetic to her, some of the FanFic I have read goes way beyond staying within the spirit of Brokeback Mountain.

Ennis and Jack as murdering vampires? When I saw that story posted on Bettermost, I felt that was reached way over the limit.

I can only imagine the constant letters, emails, communications she receives from, shall we say, obsessive fans.