As some of the folks around here know, I was away visiting my dad for the weekend, and out of computer touch, but, of course,
Brokeback and Bettermost are never far from my mind.
And on the train out to my dad's I was thinking about this thread and the whole question of the time from TS1 to the "I ain't queer" conversation, and from the conversation to TS2. And another perspective popped into my head.
I think it's logical, when you watch the film, to assume that TS1 happened one night, late the next day they had the conversation, and that same night--the night after TS1--TS2 occurred.
But what happened was, I started thinking of Ennis as someone just "coming out," even if that just means just beginning to have male-male sex. Clearly the foundations of his world have been rocked by TS1. He is dealing with a lot of earth-shattering emotional issues. He's always thought of himself--assumed himself--to be an ordinary straight guy, and now, omigod
, he's just had sex with another guy.
I remembered, too, the look on Ennis's face in TS2. And then the thought occurred to me: With all the issues Ennis is dealing with, maybe--just maybe--it took a couple of days after TS1 and the "I ain't queer" conversation, for Ennis's need to overcome his fear?
A passage of a couple of days would at least, perhaps, allow for the apparent change in weather between the "I ain't queer" conversation and TS2 that has always troubled me.
Along with this, I got to wondering whether Ennis's closed eyes in TS2 is the film's equivalent of the line in the story, in Jack's dozy embrace reminiscence, about Ennis not then being willing to admit it was Jack he embraced.