Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
getting hit hard by offhand revelations (story discussion)
nakymaton:
So, jumping on Katherine's mention of an omniscient narrator.
I can understand why AP didn't use a 100% omniscient narrator. It's interesting, though, that the narrator is maybe a bit more omniscient that I would expect, given all the stuff I've been saying about how the story is essentially from Ennis's POV. I mean, there are a number of times where we learn things that Ennis wouldn't have known at the time -- Jack's memory of the dozy embrace is the most obvious one to me, but there are also some offhand references to things that Ennis wouldn't have known about Jack ("riding more than bulls," for one), or about Alma (her silent thought that what Ennis likes to do doesn't make too many babies), or Aguirre ("ranch stiffs aren't ever any good"). And the descriptions of the natural world, too, are in very erudite language ("somber slabs of malachite") -- they're quite a contrast from the language in the dialogue.
So why does Annie Proulx do this? Does it keep us a bit more distant from the characters? Is the story from the POV of an older Ennis, and we're hearing what old-Ennis thought people were thinking? Does the sophisticated language of the descriptions capture how Ennis feels about the natural world, even if he wouldn't use those words?
Am I thinking too much about this?
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: nakymaton on September 13, 2006, 04:14:50 pm ---So, jumping on Katherine's mention of an omniscient narrator.
I can understand why AP didn't use a 100% omniscient narrator. It's interesting, though, that the narrator is maybe a bit more omniscient that I would expect, given all the stuff I've been saying about how the story is essentially from Ennis's POV. I mean, there are a number of times where we learn things that Ennis wouldn't have known at the time -- Jack's memory of the dozy embrace is the most obvious one to me, but there are also some offhand references to things that Ennis wouldn't have known about Jack ("riding more than bulls," for one), or about Alma (her silent thought that what Ennis likes to do doesn't make too many babies), or Aguirre ("ranch stiffs aren't ever any good"). And the descriptions of the natural world, too, are in very erudite language ("somber slabs of malachite") -- they're quite a contrast from the language in the dialogue.
So why does Annie Proulx do this? Does it keep us a bit more distant from the characters? Is the story from the POV of an older Ennis, and we're hearing what old-Ennis thought people were thinking? Does the sophisticated language of the descriptions capture how Ennis feels about the natural world, even if he wouldn't use those words?
Am I thinking too much about this?
--- End quote ---
I wouldn't venture to answer for Annie, why she does this. This wouldn't have passed muster with my high school composition teacher, who insisted on maintaining one point of view. However, the affect on me of her doing this is to make me feel more like the story is being told to me, orally, by a story-teller, rather than something I'm reading on paper.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: nakymaton on September 13, 2006, 04:14:50 pm ---So why does Annie Proulx do this? Does it keep us a bit more distant from the characters? Is the story from the POV of an older Ennis, and we're hearing what old-Ennis thought people were thinking? Does the sophisticated language of the descriptions capture how Ennis feels about the natural world, even if he wouldn't use those words?
Am I thinking too much about this?
--- End quote ---
No. I've done a lot of reading about and taken a lot of classes in fiction writing (you might not know it from my clueless reading of this story, but it's true). And writers are supposed to think through these things as closely as you have and make very conscious choices. From what I gather, the thinking on POV has changed a bit since Jeff was in high school (which I believe was the same time I was in high school -- that is, only a few years ago ;D). Writers can do pretty much whatever they want now, as long as it works. And I think it does here. We're never unclear whose POV we're reading through. Going outside Ennis' head now and then probably does create a a bit of distance, but I think it helps balance the story. (I'll have to reread it before I can say anything more specific.)
To be brutally honest, what distances me from the characters isn't the erudite language -- phrases like "somber slabs of malachite" actually help me feel more connected. It's when the dialogue gets really colloquial or the narrator's voice goes very informal. To me, it sounds ... well, cartoonish in parts. It's too much. The "whip babies" is the most extreme example, but there are other milder ones. I was glad they toned that down for the movie -- there I have no problem at all with the dialect or grammar or anything. I love it, in fact. I really think it's one reason I immediately felt more empathy for the movie characters. (And one reason I couldn't finish The Shipping News, actually.)
Now, I hasten to add that it's undoubtedly just me: me being narrow-minded, me being unfamiliar with Western dialect, whatever. Go ahead and tell me that I'm narrow-minded and ignorant. I can take it.
Jeff Wrangler:
I wouldn't say it's narrow-minded of you, Katherine. It doesn't distance me, but it took some getting accustomed to. As a former editor who had very old-fashioned training, it drove me crazy to see going as goin without an apostrophe in place of the final g.
Probably the only reason I'm so comfortable with it now is that I read the story every day while I was visiting my dad over last Christmas--how I survived till I got back home to Philadelphia and could see the movie again!
Front-Ranger:
Have any of you read Cormac McCarthy's work? He not only has the colloquial spelling, syntax, etc. but also doesn't use any quote marks for his extensive dialogue. In contrast that makes AP easy goin'!!
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