Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
getting hit hard by offhand revelations (story discussion)
welliwont:
--- Quote from: nakymaton on November 28, 2006, 01:10:10 am ---
In the end, I don't think it matters whether they kissed on the mountain in the story or not. It's a detail that's important for fanfic writers and for people who demand exact translations of a story to a movie, but as far as artistic and emotional impact goes... I think you can believe what you want to believe.
(Edit to fix a typo.)
--- End quote ---
Well here I will deposit my two cents: I have bolded part of your quote there Mel, that is the part I am addressing.... To say that is does not matter whether they kissed on the mountain or not during their summer together, I can't agree with that. I think it is the kissing that expresses the love. without the kissing, the unspoken love that Jack has for Ennis is not expressed. :o
I'm not saying that story Jack and Ennis did kiss that summer, I am just saying that whether they did or not does matter very much.
In fact, the rationale that story Jack and Ennis did not kiss until the Reunion is quite believable, as the story is written. Interesting..... ;)
J
welliwont:
Hello mlewisusc,
Maybe you know this, or maybe you don't, but there is an archive of a lot of old IMDb threads, and here is the link to it:
http://www.geocities.com/bbmarchive/
This is quite a treasure trove of old posts, hope you like! :D
J
nakymaton:
--- Quote from: Penthesilea on November 28, 2006, 06:59:06 pm ---Exactly *that* expression of the right key turning the lock tumblers gives me the impression it was not their first kiss: they came together easily, naturally, like (and because) they had done many times before, like it had always been between them, despite the four years of being apart.
--- End quote ---
But there are a lot of other possible metaphors for things that fit together both naturally and as the result of long familiarity. The way an old glove slides onto a hand. The way a well-worn pair of boots fits your feet. The way a hat shapes itself to your head. The way an old pair of jeans feels on your legs.
(And there are other metaphors that don't have to do with clothes, and even ones that don't involve leather and denim. Puzzle pieces, for instance.)
But let me tell you about my keys, since we're all interpreting this through our own experiences. I don't know about the rest of you, but I have an awful lot of keys. Some of them are on various key chains, some of them sit in a drawer, some of them are lying around on countertops in my house. And out of all those keys, I only know what five or so of them open. The others are mysteries. And when I find something locked, I have to try half of my darn keys to open it. So much trial and error.
A key will open its lock the thousandth time it's used, but it will also open it the first time. But it will only open the lock that it's made for. So the metaphor says two things to me. 1) Ennis and Jack are gay, not bi, not straight but in love with another man. They can put their keys into as many other locks as they want, but they just don't fit right; they grate and rasp and wear at both the keys and the locks. And 2) Ennis and Jack are made for one another. True Love, to be a bit sappy about it.
And when Jack's gone, Ennis is left like a key left in a drawer, its padlock long lost.
The shirts are a better lasting image, though.
mlewisusc:
Thanks for the link, Jane.
And Mel, dammit, stop making me cry at work!
Jeff Wrangler:
Welcome "home," Mark. ;)
I clicked on this thread when your post showed up as "most recent," and the PC actually landed me on your post #210. Gosh, reading that post brought back memories. You and I agreed on so much in the past, about the story and the movie. I still agree with you that the "story boys" kissed for the first time outside the apartment in Riverton.
It's funny, but I've been reminiscing with myself lately over the arguments that used to go on as to whether Ennis and Jack were "really" gay, and remembering how, from the first time I read the story in its first publication in The New Yorker, it never occurred to me to doubt that both of them were "really" gay--probably because I have known a number of "really" gay men who at one time in their lives married women, became parents--and then, later, came to terms with their sexual orientation. And undoubtedly, in the time and place where Ennis and Jack were raised, gay consciousness just wasn't what it is today--even in Wyoming.
OK, it's ill-advised to post on a thread without reading a lot of what came before, but there you have it.
Welcome "home," bud!
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