Author Topic: Report your use of Brokieisms in so-called "real life"  (Read 1017101 times)

Offline serious crayons

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Re: Report your use of Brokieisms in so-called "real life"
« Reply #1310 on: December 17, 2017, 10:34:58 am »
I also wanted to ask you something. As I'm unremittingly learning English, I was surprised to hear some expressions, not necessarily brokeisms though. What I can recall right away is Alma's [...] we can still smarten up and head on over to the church social and Jack's I guess I'll head up on to Lightning Flat. What struck me as odd is these prepositions piled up perhaps to add emphasis (?). Is this an ordinary thing to say, or rather unusual? What I mean is would you go for such a lengthened expression in spoken language instead of, simply, 'go'?

Good question. It's a pretty ordinary phrase, even among "city people" -- not just "country people" like Alma and Jack. I'm trying to think why people say it. I guess it's when they want to be more casual, gentler, friendlier. The differences between "head on over/up/out to ..." and simply "go to" are pretty subtle, and "go to" usually works perfectly fine (as it would be in the examples you cited). But "go to" may sound a little harsh or abrupt in some situations.

For example, my brother has very few flaws but one of them is that he sometimes hangs around in a no-hurry, leisurely kind of way instead of getting going to do something. So if we had decided to go out for breakfast but were still lingering in his kitchen drinking coffee (we're not from Texas), I might say, "Well, shall we head on out to breakfast?" rather than "Well, shall we go to breakfast?" because the latter seems a little sharper-toned.

So maybe Alma used the phrase because she knew Ennis would be resistant to the suggestion so wanted to ease into it gently. And maybe Jack used it because he wanted to leave room for Ennis to say, "No, don't go! Stay with me and we can pursue the sweet life." (Well, Ennis wouldn't say "pursue," but you know what I mean.)



Offline CellarDweller

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Re: Report your use of Brokieisms in so-called "real life"
« Reply #1311 on: December 17, 2017, 03:14:21 pm »
Those are some good uses, Wojtek!


Tell him when l come up to him and ask to play the record, l'm gonna say: ''Voulez-vous jouer ce disque?''
'Voulez-vous, will you kiss my dick?'
Will you play my record? One-track mind!

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: Report your use of Brokieisms in so-called "real life"
« Reply #1312 on: December 17, 2017, 06:17:49 pm »
Sometimes, Proulx uses what we have come to lovingly call "Brokeisms" to telegraph little messages to further her story. For instance, Aguirre thinks, "Pair of deuces going nowhere" and it emphasizes the theme of duality--twice!--in five words!

"chewing gum and duct tape"

Offline serious crayons

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Re: Report your use of Brokieisms in so-called "real life"
« Reply #1313 on: December 17, 2017, 07:46:53 pm »
Sometimes, Proulx uses what we have come to lovingly call "Brokeisms" to telegraph little messages to further her story. For instance, Aguirre thinks, "Pair of deuces going nowhere" and it emphasizes the theme of duality--twice!--in five words!

Proulx is one of those writers where you can tell nearly every word was very carefully chosen for a specific reason.

And fortunately, Dianna Ossana and Larry McMurtry followed suit! And so did Ang Lee! And so did the set designers and so did the prop designers and so did the costume designers and so did ...

Literally, every line, every scene, ever object in the movie including knives and pots and shirt colors and bears and beans ... everything is significant. I'm sure there are other works of literature that do that, but I'm not aware of many movies that do.


 

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Re: Report your use of Brokieisms in so-called "real life"
« Reply #1314 on: December 17, 2017, 08:06:10 pm »
You bet, friend. Two others that I love are when Jack says he is "pretty good with a coat hanger" and how the situation was like straightening a coat hanger to open a locked car and then bending it back to its original shape. Both refer to unlocking/opening a person's soul and deeply hidden nature.
"chewing gum and duct tape"

Offline CellarDweller

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Re: Report your use of Brokieisms in so-called "real life"
« Reply #1315 on: December 18, 2017, 10:57:05 pm »
Proulx is one of those writers where you can tell nearly every word was very carefully chosen for a specific reason.

And fortunately, Dianna Ossana and Larry McMurtry followed suit! And so did Ang Lee! And so did the set designers and so did the prop designers and so did the costume designers and so did ...

Literally, every line, every scene, ever object in the movie including knives and pots and shirt colors and bears and beans ... everything is significant. I'm sure there are other works of literature that do that, but I'm not aware of many movies that do.


You're correct about that!  I'm sure I've missed a lot with this movie.  I'm someone who goes to films and watches on an emotional level, so on a film like Brokeback, I'm sure there are a lot of cues I miss, as I'm involved with the emotional journey.


Tell him when l come up to him and ask to play the record, l'm gonna say: ''Voulez-vous jouer ce disque?''
'Voulez-vous, will you kiss my dick?'
Will you play my record? One-track mind!

Offline serious crayons

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Re: Report your use of Brokieisms in so-called "real life"
« Reply #1316 on: December 20, 2017, 11:58:11 am »

You're correct about that!  I'm sure I've missed a lot with this movie.  I'm someone who goes to films and watches on an emotional level, so on a film like Brokeback, I'm sure there are a lot of cues I miss, as I'm involved with the emotional journey.

I was too, the first times I saw it. But when I started discussing it on IMDb and BetterMost and seeing some really astute observations about subtexts and metaphors and the like that until then I'd never noticed because I didn't think movies contained things like that, I was really impressed. As a writer and English major, I get excited about that stuff, so it gave me more to love about the movie.




Offline CellarDweller

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Re: Report your use of Brokieisms in so-called "real life"
« Reply #1317 on: December 20, 2017, 07:39:46 pm »
I am there was a time where I was noticing  things I never noticed before, just by reading what people had posted on here and on DCF.


Tell him when l come up to him and ask to play the record, l'm gonna say: ''Voulez-vous jouer ce disque?''
'Voulez-vous, will you kiss my dick?'
Will you play my record? One-track mind!

Offline Kananaskis

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Re: Report your use of Brokieisms in so-called "real life"
« Reply #1318 on: December 22, 2017, 02:37:40 pm »
A little something that may seem off-topic, but is partly related to the subject matter.

I would rarely derive much pleasure from reading. I guess I've fallen victim to the unsettling condition some young people suffer from these days. As a child I used to read Harry Potter and fantasies alike. Still, I cannot truthfully say I've ever been an avid fan of books.

To my mind, what deters young people from literature is (for example) the overwhelming amount of mandatory reading, which they are being swamped with in every year of secondary education. I'm chalking this judgment up predominantly to my experience, although I've observed a similar sort of attitude among my friends. Don't get me wrong. This whole chastisement doesn't pertain to fiction itself, quite the contrary, I perceive works included in the curriculum by both Polish and foreign writers as intrinsically really good. Still, the method of teaching somehow shifts the emphasis from freedom of interpretation and quiet reflection to cramming vast amounts of material into every class. This would bug me to the point where I decided to take part in a national literature competition last year with the sole purpose of dodging the necessity being one of the compulsory final exams (in Polish language and literature—you are exempt from taking it once you become a finalist). I hate those classes where we are told to analyze a poem inside out by probing arbitrarily for meaning behind virtually every single word in a verse. And whenever someone comes up with an interpretation which strays from the example set in the curriculum (and followed by teachers accordingly), their point of view gets dismissed, because it fails to fit the pattern. You're doing  a bang-up job, education system!

Having said that, I'd like to stress the role of Brokeback Mountain in letting me gain a new insight into this matter. And I'm talking here both about the movie and the short story. Never have I come across a film/book which would leave me devastated, but at the same time so engrossed that I'd be longing to watch/read it again. The film is spellbinding (I know I'm preaching to the converted here), and I love uncovering new subtle nuances upon every viewing (various mannerisms of J&E up on Brokeback, struggling to finally fully "decipher" Ennis, to no avail, Jack's storyline subsequent to the final parting, to name a few). However, it also has a big advantage over the novella, take the score, astounding acting, beautiful cinematography, and finally your favorite scene (be it the reunion scene, if you are fond of romances, the dozy embrace scene, whenever a nostalgic mood kicks in, or the ending, no remark needed). I wouldn't diminish the significance of the short story, though. My digression above proves that my reading experience is fairly poor, certainly nowhere near yours, so it all depends on your frame of reference. Nonetheless, I regard the writing style of the short story as artful and original. I'm reluctant to praise it unconditionally though, as some parts of the narrative seem gratuitous (for instance, Jack's father sloshing the little boy around in the toilet, or the "baby-whipping"—what does that one even mean?), therefore they got bypassed in the movie.

Every reading of Brokeback brings along breaking new ground. This led me to reflect upon the joy of interpreting literature I hadn't experienced earlier on. I figured that apparently to some extent those literature classes make sense. I love the emotional punch delivered in the prologue, lurking beneath a graphic description of a middle-aged man's morning routine. I love how the story is brimming with a gritty realism, which is painfully true-to-life. And yet, we are mesmerized by the more tender moments, such as Ennis's thoughts while he was riding back to the sheep, the dozy embrace, or the discovery of the shirts. They do not upset this somber balance—Annie Proulx doesn't over-romanticize her prose. Instead of being bombarded with sweet images and big words, we are happy to see that the characters managed to find a way to retreat from the cruel reality. I love the descriptions of nature. They are short, but extremely meaningful and exquisite. They won't draw your attention away from the action, they will reel you in. I think it's a sign of an accomplished writer, when they can mix colloquial speech along with sophisticated language, so that one doesn't chip away at the other.

I know I barely touched on the subject, but that's just something I wanted to share. The story's strength lies in its ability to elicit different feelings in different people, thanks to its universal theme, which, sadly, many people are unable or unwilling to grasp.

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: Report your use of Brokieisms in so-called "real life"
« Reply #1319 on: December 22, 2017, 07:10:07 pm »

...I love the emotional punch delivered in the prologue, lurking beneath a graphic description of a middle-aged man's morning routine. I love how the story is brimming with a gritty realism, which is painfully true-to-life. And yet, we are mesmerized by the more tender moments, such as Ennis's thoughts while he was riding back to the sheep, the dozy embrace, or the discovery of the shirts. They do not upset this somber balance—Annie Proulx doesn't over-romanticize her prose. Instead of being bombarded with sweet images and big words, we are happy to see that the characters managed to find a way to retreat from the cruel reality. I love the descriptions of nature. They are short, but extremely meaningful and exquisite. They won't draw your attention away from the action, they will reel you in. I think it's a sign of an accomplished writer, when they can mix colloquial speech along with sophisticated language, so that one doesn't chip away at the other.

Wow, Wojtek, I hadn't realized some of those high points in the writing. Thank you for pointing them out! You really see the tricky balancing act that Proulx performed! Yes, I love the "paw the white out of the moon" tender moment. Very insightful, friend!
"chewing gum and duct tape"