Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Book Discussion: Brokeback Mountain
Front-Ranger:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on August 26, 2008, 11:51:20 am ---I think there is a poll in here somewhere, and I'm gonna go over to David's forum and start one!
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Okay, I have created a poll...please go over to "Is it better to have loved..." and vote!!
Front-Ranger:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on October 10, 2007, 09:54:08 am ---I can't believe how often I use the phrase "rusty but still usable." In the story, this described another phrase "Time to hit the hay." And to tie it all together, LaShawn used the phrase "chewing gum and baling wire." But that last one wasn't in the book, in fact LaShawn wasn't in the book at all!!
But baling wire is used to bind hay in the process of harvesting it.
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Let's revive this thread in honor of the 11th anniversary of the story publication on October 13!
Front-Ranger:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on August 26, 2008, 11:51:20 am ---I was talking to my friend Vermont Sunset yesterday who was finishing up reading an Annie Proulx novel. In all the AP works he's read, he has never come across a story such as Brokeback Mountain. Anybody else know of one? Why would such a bleak writer suddenly write such a story, do you think?
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In the most recent interview with AP done by the BBC, she stated that The Shipping News had a happy ending of sorts...if happiness could be described as an absence of pain.
I still think that Annie Proulx delved into the realm of romance in writing Brokeback Mountain. But I don't mean that in terms of a bodice ripper type Gothic novel. I see the story as being an enhancement on the romance of the West. Your thoughts?
Front-Ranger:
Another interesting anecdote. In the version of the story published in The New Yorker, Ennis asks Jack, "You do it with other guys, Jack?" And Jack says, "Shit no." But in the book version, AP changed it to "You do it with other guys? Jack?" THe change in punctuation shows that Jack didn't answer, at least not right away, thus communicating that he had been riding other bulls, not rolling his own.
This reminds me about the mystery of the placement of commas in Hamlet, since we do not know whether Shakespere wrote, "To be or not to be, that is the question" or "To be or not, to be, that is the question" which can be interpreted a different way.
Front-Ranger:
Just randomly open the story to any page and start reading any sentence. You'll find words that will fascinate and bedevil you for days...for instance, I just noticed this passage:
"He didn't ask if Ennis had a watch but took a cheap round ticker on a braided cord from a box on a high shelf, wound and set it, tossed it to him as if he weren't worth the reach. 'Tomorrow mornin we'll truck you up the jump-off.' Pair of deuces going nowhere."
It is so poignant that Aguirre concludes this ceremony with the giving of a heart to Ennis. For that is what it is, a cheap round ticker on a braided cord. From a high shelf, no less. And another thing that strikes me is the italization of the words tomorrow mornin. Just like Jack's last words, 'See you in the morning.' Aguirre calls Jack and Ennis a pair a deuces, two twos, accentuating the duality that permeates this story.
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