Author Topic: Favorite lines from Proulx's story- an Ode to TOB  (Read 12745 times)

Offline Brown Eyes

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Favorite lines from Proulx's story- an Ode to TOB
« on: June 06, 2006, 12:21:47 am »
I'll start with a line that always brings a tear for me...

"The huge sadness of the northern plains rolled down on him."
 :'(
the world was asleep to our latent fuss - bowie

Offline belbbmfan

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Re: Favorite lines from Proulx's story- an Ode to TOB
« Reply #1 on: June 06, 2006, 03:29:38 pm »
I'll start with a line that always brings a tear for me...

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

Sad, indeed. Maybe I can balance that with... euhh my signature line: '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'
The sheer happiness of his time with Jack, how powerful he feels. Their love really is a force of nature. What a difference to the Ennis before he met Jack 'stoic, a boy with no prospects, brought up to hard work and privation'.
'We're supposed to guard the sheep, not eat 'em'

Offline nakymaton

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Re: Favorite lines from Proulx's story- an Ode to TOB
« Reply #2 on: June 06, 2006, 03:39:13 pm »
During the day Ennis looked across a great gulf and sometimes saw Jack, a small dot moving across a high meadow as an insect moves across a tablecloth; Jack, in his dark camp, saw Ennis as a night fire, a red spark on the huge mass of black mountain.

The loneliness and longing before the connection...
« Last Edit: June 06, 2006, 05:11:47 pm by nakymaton »
Watch out. That poster has a low startle point.

gattaca

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Re: Favorite lines from Proulx's story- an Ode to TOB
« Reply #3 on: June 06, 2006, 05:08:39 pm »
It's fair to say that I have more than one favorite - but that which comes to my mind right away are those lines which evoke some private, personal sadness (to me):

Later, that dozy embrace solidified in his memory as the single moment of artless, charmed happiness in their separate and difficult lives.

Offline JennyC

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Re: Favorite lines from Proulx's story- an Ode to TOB
« Reply #4 on: June 06, 2006, 05:19:00 pm »
I'll start with a line that always brings a tear for me...

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

Amanda,

That line has the same effect on me  :'(.  It's one of my favorites.  And I always wonder why "northern plains".  Is it because the cold and wildness of the northerm plains?  There used to be a thread on IMDB PT discussing the meanings of some lines in the short story. I loved that thread.

As to my favorite, I have many.  You have covered some of them so far.  I will start with:
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.
 

Offline Mikaela

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Re: Favorite lines from Proulx's story- an Ode to TOB
« Reply #5 on: June 06, 2006, 05:35:17 pm »
All the ones mentioned belong to my favourites - I was pondering which one to choose but I better get a move on here! I'll go with this one, more down-to-earth, less lyrical than the previous ones, but the only one that I really, really miss in the otherwise perfect movie:

That's one of the two things I need right now.


Offline brokeback-fan

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Re: Favorite lines from Proulx's story- an Ode to TOB
« Reply #6 on: June 06, 2006, 07:17:44 pm »
Yes, there are so many wonderful lines in this story.  One of my favorites and one that has so many meanings including religious iconography:

"...because Ennis had suddenly swung from the deck and laid the ministering angel out in the wild columbine, wings folded."


Annie Proulx is a literary genius!!  :) Read her books.  They are treasures.

Thank you, Annie.

Offline fernly

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Re: Favorite lines from Proulx's story- an Ode to TOB
« Reply #7 on: June 06, 2006, 07:28:34 pm »
All of the ones you've chosen already,
and this one -
(I always love juxtaposed adjectives that you'd never think of together, until an author like Annie Proulx writes them that way)

"There were only the two of them on the mountain flying in the euphoric, bitter air"
« Last Edit: June 06, 2006, 10:40:20 pm by fernly »
on the mountain flying in the euphoric, bitter air

Offline Brown Eyes

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Re: Favorite lines from Proulx's story- an Ode to TOB
« Reply #8 on: June 06, 2006, 08:46:46 pm »
I always wonder why "northern plains".  Is it because the cold and wildness of the northerm plains?  There used to be a thread on IMDB PT discussing the meanings of some lines in the short story. I loved that thread.

Well, for me the idea of the "northern plains" just suggests vast loneliness.  It seems to me to be characterized by large expanses of open space where a person could feel very tiny and isolated.  Also plains are the opposite of mountains... so Ennis here is feeling oppressed by plains (flat land) as opposed to his ideal place, a mountain (i.e. Brokeback mountain, to which he can never return... not even to return Jack's ashes). Since this line comes following Jack's death, well, it just makes me weep for Ennis.

OK, this is more than a "line" but it always blows me away.  Talk about the power of nature as an active component/ symbol in the relationship. 

"The next week Joe Aguirre sent word to bring them down - another, bigger storm was moving in from the Pacific - and they packed in the game and moved off the mountain with the sheep, stones rolling at their heels, purple clouds crowding in from the west and the metal smell of coming snow pressing them on.  The mountain boiled with demonic energy, glazed with flickering broken-cloud light, the wind combed the grass and drew from the damaged krummholz and silt rock a bestial drone.  As they descended the slope Ennis felt he was in a slow-motion, but headlong irreversible fall."


I love that the wind (the symbol many of us see as Jack) and earth/ stone (the symbol many of us think of as Ennis) are so significant here... and that the wind makes the stones sing!
the world was asleep to our latent fuss - bowie

Offline serious crayons

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Re: Favorite lines from Proulx's story- an Ode to TOB
« Reply #9 on: June 07, 2006, 01:10:32 pm »
" As they descended the slope Ennis felt he was in a slow-motion, but headlong irreversible fall."

Amanda, you took the words right out of my fingers. This line is a good description of the way Ennis must have felt -- and you can really see it in that scene in the movie!