Favorite lines from Proulx's story- an Ode to TOB

[gattaca]

"There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe, but nothing could be done about it, and if you can't fix it you've got to stand it."
What are people's interpretations of this line?

I think the key to a possible interpretation lies a couple of pages earlier. In the story, John Twist tells Ennis that, "He's a goin a split up with his wife and come back here," (bringing Randall with him). "So he says. But like most a Jack's ideas it never come to pass."

So now he knows it had been the tire iron. Annie seems to confirm here that Jack did die violently, and not by Lureen's contrived story over the phone.

So, I think Ennis knows Jack was murdered, but wants to believe otherwise.

[gattaca]

I have another favorite line (I have quite a few, actually) - this is near the beginning of the story, where Annie gifts the reader with one of her sparse expositions describing Ennis's physical appearance:

"...balanced a small torso on long, caliper legs, possessed a muscular and supple body made for the horse and for fighting."

...and made for a few other things also, I don't doubt.

[alec716]

I think the key to a possible interpretation lies a couple of pages earlier. In the story, John Twist tells Ennis that, "He's a goin a split up with his wife and come back here," (bringing Randall with him). "So he says. But like most a Jack's ideas it never come to pass."

So now he knows it had been the tire iron. Annie seems to confirm here that Jack did die violently, and not by Lureen's contrived story over the phone.

So, I think Ennis knows Jack was murdered, but wants to believe otherwise.

Excellent idea.  I had not thought much about that angle.  Thanks for pulling the thoughts together. 

[Catglith]

I'll start with a line that always brings a tear for me...

"The huge sadness of the northern plains rolled down on him."
 

Every line towards the end of the book just crushes me, but this line haunted me, So simple, unsentimental, hones and ultimately devastating because of this.

[serious crayons]

So many of the lines people have quoted are sad ones.    Here's one that's sad but also hints of happiness, and I wish it were better dramatized in the movie:

One thing never changed: the brilliant charge of their infrequent couplings  was darkened by the sense of time flying, never enough time, never enough.

 

[Shakesthecoffecan]

"Ennis, riding against the wind back to the sheep in the treacherous, drunken light, thought he'd never had such a good time, felt he could paw the white out of the moon."

To see Ennis Del Mar happy, is to be happy.

[saucycobblers]

His shaking hand grazed Ennis's hand, and electrical current snapped between them.

That whole scene is amazing, even more so in the book than in the film I think. There are so many things going on at the same time - the mundane pleasantries, the two men almost on the point of losing control, Alma's confusion and rising panic, the baby crying in the background... OMG i just hold my breath every time i read it.

[twistedude]

All the posted lines are ...I haven't the words.

But "swung from the feck, and laid the miniestering angel out among the wild columbine, wings folded," is I guess my favorite...and oddly enough, it's the one place I laugh out loud in the movie, for a differenrt reason: it is SO Ennis.

[Jeff Wrangler]

So many wonderful lines, so little time. ...

Of course, the only one I can be sure to quote correctly without the text in front of me is:

"Gun's goin' off."

 

[serious crayons]

His shaking hand grazed Ennis's hand, and electrical current snapped between them.

I always feel like I can just about see that happening in the film. At least I certainly can feel it!