Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
The short story
Lynne:
--- Quote from: Ellemeno on December 05, 2006, 03:34:28 pm ---So it doesn't matter (much) if he has very little, or that he's about to be uprooted to his married daughter's, because his valuables are completely portable and ever-present.
--- End quote ---
Excellent point, Clarissa: "Don't got nothin', don't need nothin'" materialistically speaking.
nakymaton:
--- Quote from: Ellemeno on December 05, 2006, 03:34:28 pm ---So it doesn't matter (much) if he has very little, or that he's about to be uprooted to his married daughter's, because his valuables are completely portable and ever-present.
--- End quote ---
But what if he loses a place to park his trailer?
I have this sad image of Ennis shuffled off into an apartment complex in some small suburb. No horse trailer in the wind, because there isn't a place for the horses, and he can't afford to board them.
Yeah, he doesn't need or want much from life. But what if the new landowners put in development with a covenant that bans run-down trailers?
See: Jackson Hole.
I'm interested in the same themes that get Annie Proulx and Larry McMurtry going. But I think that Ennis is a particularly interesting character, because he's so appealing compared to Proulx's other characters. (Though I've only read a page of Postcards.) And there's this really sad irony, that there's this liberalization that comes to mountain towns with development. (Guess which towns in Colorado voted "no" on the anti-gay-marriage amendment? Guess which communities in Wyoming vote Democrat? And guess what the relative costs of housing are in those places compared to more conservative communities?) And it ought to benefit Ennis... but would it?
Would Ennis's daughters have taken him to see BBM?
Shakesthecoffecan:
When I think about the wind blowing down the curved length of the trailer, I have a vision of the type of trailers below. I imagine on a ranch they would have a few old trailers like these in leiu of a bunkhouse or something else.
I wonder if Ennis's daughters themselves would have gone to see the movie.
moremojo:
--- Quote from: shakestheground on December 05, 2006, 04:16:39 pm ---When I think about the wind blowing down the curved length of the trailer, I have a vision of the type of trailers below. I imagine on a ranch they would have a few old trailers like these in leiu of a bunkhouse or something else.
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My God, those trailers are so tiny; the movie trailer looks downright palatial in comparison. It's really painfully sad to imagine Ennis (or anyone, for that matter) having to call such small quarters home. We know that Ennis is a man of simple tastes, but one still wishes some comfort for that time-weathered ranch hand.
I really liked Clarissa's suggestion that Ennis's treasures have no need of material accoutrements; that does soften the sense of grief I feel for the poor guy. He has known a richness of the heart that even princes do not acquire.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: Lynne on December 05, 2006, 03:44:23 pm ---Excellent point, Clarissa: "Don't got nothin', don't need nothin'" materialistically speaking.
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I know it's beside the point, but, tell you what, at times there is a part of me that envies Ennis living life with the minimum, unencumbered with a lot of cr*p. :-\
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