The World Beyond BetterMost > Anything Goes
Snakes Alive!
moremojo:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on December 08, 2006, 01:03:49 pm ---I wonder if the lasso could be considered an extension of the snake imagery in the movie and book??
--- End quote ---
I saw the lassoing scene of Jack snaring Ennis as a literal metaphor of how he captures the lad's heart and doesn't let go. The circular nature of the lasso might be redolent of the eternity aspect of the snake eating its own tail: this is a love that will never die.
Front-Ranger:
Yes that is the happy interpretation of it, and the sadder one is where Ennis says, "I'm caught in my own loop." :(
Front-Ranger:
There is an oblique reference to snakes in the very first sentence of the story, Brokeback Mountain:
Ennis del Mar wakes before five, wind rocking the trailer, hissing in around the aluminum door and window frames. The shirts hanging on a nail shudder slightly in the draft.
Did you catch it? It's the word hissing.
moremojo:
Off-topic, as far as BBM is concerned, but serpentine nonetheless in its allusions: I read recently of Franz Liszt's Sonate in B minor (written in about 1852-1853, and publicly premiered in 1857), in one movement, being described as "snake-like"--making me all the more keen to hear it someday. This, reputedly one of Liszt's masterpieces, was dedicated by him to Robert Schumann.
Front-Ranger:
That's interesting, Scott! And don't worry about it being off-topic--that's why I put this in Anything Goes!
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version