Author Topic: Annie Proulx's still pissed...  (Read 79909 times)

Offline SFEnnisSF

  • BBM Radio Program Director
  • BetterMost Moderator
  • BetterMost 1000+ Posts Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 3,548
Annie Proulx's still pissed...
« on: May 04, 2009, 09:40:13 pm »
http://www.theparisreview.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5901


Annie Proulx in The Paris Review

 INTERVIEWER: You’ve said that the characters of Jack and Ennis from Brokeback Mountain were the first two characters that started to feel “very damn real” to you. Has it happened again since then?

PROULX: That was true of a number of the characters in Fine Just the Way It Is. But I think it happened with Brokeback Mountain because it took me so long to write that story. It took at least six weeks of steady work, which is not my usual pace. So yeah, they got a life of their own. And unfortunately, they got a life of their own for too many other people too.

INTERVIEWER: What do you mean?

PROULX: I wish I’d never written the story. It’s just been the cause of hassle and problems and irritation since the film came out. Before the film it was all right. 
 

 INTERVIEWER: Did people object to the fact that gay characters were in the center of a story about Wyoming?

PROULX: Oh, yeah. In Wyoming they won’t read it. A large section of the population is still outraged. But that’s not where the problem was. I’m used to that response from people here, who generally do not like the way I write. But the problem has come since the film. So many people have completely misunderstood the story. I think it’s important to leave spaces in a story for readers to fill in from their own experience, but unfortunately the audience that Brokeback reached most strongly have powerful fantasy lives. And one of the reasons we keep the gates locked here is that a lot of men have decided that the story should have had a happy ending. They can’t bear the way it ends—they just can’t stand it. So they rewrite the story, including all kinds of boyfriends and new lovers and so forth after Jack is killed. And it just drives me wild. They can’t understand that the story isn’t about Jack and Ennis. It’s about homophobia; it’s about a social situation; it’s about a place and a particular mindset and morality. They just don’t get it. I can’t tell you how many of these things have been sent to me as though they’re expecting me to say, oh great, if only I’d had the sense to write it that way. And they all begin the same way—I’m not gay, but . . . The implication is that because they’re men they understand much better than I how these people would have behaved. And maybe they do. But that’s not the story I wrote. Those are not their characters. The characters belong to me by law.

INTERVIEWER: Did you get the same sort of reaction to your characters when The Shipping News was made into a film?

PROULX: No, I haven’t had the same sort of problem with anything else I’ve ever written. Nothing else. People saw it as a story about two cowboys. It was never about two cowboys. You know you have to have characters to hang the story on but I guess they were too real. A lot of people have adopted them and put their names on their license plates. Sometimes the cart gets away from the horse—the characters outgrew the intent.



Offline SFEnnisSF

  • BBM Radio Program Director
  • BetterMost Moderator
  • BetterMost 1000+ Posts Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 3,548
Re: Annie Proulx's still pissed...
« Reply #1 on: May 04, 2009, 09:40:53 pm »
I personally think she's over-reacting a little bit.  When you write a story and leave it open ended like that, and you intend it to be "left open to interpretation", then that is what you get and that's what you should expect.  And that is what happened.  Some folks took their interpretation of it and expanded on it.  Nothing wrong with that.  In fact, I think she should feel honored that her characters touched and inspired so many people.

Offline louisev

  • BetterMost Supporter!
  • BetterMost Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 16,107
  • "My guns and amo!! Over my cold dead hands!!"
    • Fiction by Louise Van Hine
Re: Annie Proulx's still pissed...
« Reply #2 on: May 04, 2009, 09:58:29 pm »
It might be true to her character to be disgruntled about triggering the imaginations of a generation of gay readers, but it isn't very charitable.  It would seem she cares more about herself than she does about the issues she writes about.  Or something.  Her description that the story appealed to 'those with powerful fantasy lives' - maybe she doesn't appreciate that most closeted gay men have to have powerful fantasy lives since their civil rights are so fiercely curtailed and that they are helping themselves come out of isolation by interacting with the characters she has created.
“Mr. Coyote always gets me good, boy,”  Ellery said, winking.  “Almost forgot what life was like before I got me my own personal coyote.”


Offline CellarDweller

  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • ********
  • Posts: 38,256
  • A city boy's mentality, with a cowboy's soul.
Re: Annie Proulx's still pissed...
« Reply #3 on: May 04, 2009, 10:04:06 pm »
I don't think she's over-reacting at all.

I don't see her story as open ended.  It's pretty clear cut, Jack is dead.

I don't knock any slash authors or fans....but I've read so many different directions the story went under, and the characters are legally owned by Annie.

She has the right to say what she feels about her creation.

I can't believe that people would send her their versions of her characters......that's really odd to me.  And when you add to it that most people came to know the characters from the movie, not her story, I'm sure she's annoyed by that as well.


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 Lynne

  • BetterMost Supporter
  • BetterMost Moderator
  • BetterMost 5000+ Posts Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 9,291
  • "The world's always ending." --Ianto Jones
    • Elizabeth Warren for Massachusetts
Re: Annie Proulx's still pissed...
« Reply #4 on: May 04, 2009, 10:14:57 pm »
I don't think she's over-reacting at all.

I don't see her story as open ended.  It's pretty clear cut, Jack is dead.

I don't knock any slash authors or fans....but I've read so many different directions the story went under, and the characters are legally owned by Annie.

She has the right to say what she feels about her creation.

I can't believe that people would send her their versions of her characters......that's really odd to me.  And when you add to it that most people came to know the characters from the movie, not her story, I'm sure she's annoyed by that as well.

I agree, Chuck.  And I would further say that I think there's somewhat more ambiguity in the film compared to the short story - that was McMurtry and Ossana and Ang Lee's vision.  It works, but I couldn't say whether it works better than the short story version.  They're hard to compare, and I read the short story first, so I'm partial to it.
"Laß sein. Laß sein."

injest

  • Guest
Re: Annie Proulx's still pissed...
« Reply #5 on: May 04, 2009, 10:20:19 pm »
it is interesting to me that she says it is MEN that are sending her stuff...it is my perception that the fan fic community has as many women as men if not more. Is Proulx assuming it is only men sending her stuff or is it in fact only men?

Offline Lynne

  • BetterMost Supporter
  • BetterMost Moderator
  • BetterMost 5000+ Posts Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 9,291
  • "The world's always ending." --Ianto Jones
    • Elizabeth Warren for Massachusetts
Re: Annie Proulx's still pissed...
« Reply #6 on: May 04, 2009, 10:25:03 pm »
it is interesting to me that she says it is MEN that are sending her stuff...it is my perception that the fan fic community has as many women as men if not more. Is Proulx assuming it is only men sending her stuff or is it in fact only men?

That is interesting, Jess...I would say our experience here has been that women write more fan fiction than men.  I don't know why men would disproportionately send her their stories?

For that matter, I don't know why anyone would send her much besides thank you notes and maybe birthday cards.
"Laß sein. Laß sein."

Offline Jeff Wrangler

  • BetterMost Supporter!
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,154
  • "He somebody you cowboy'd with?"
Re: Annie Proulx's still pissed...
« Reply #7 on: May 04, 2009, 10:30:04 pm »
I don't think she's over-reacting at all.

I don't see her story as open ended.  It's pretty clear cut, Jack is dead.

I don't knock any slash authors or fans....but I've read so many different directions the story went under, and the characters are legally owned by Annie.

She has the right to say what she feels about her creation.

I can't believe that people would send her their versions of her characters......that's really odd to me.  And when you add to it that most people came to know the characters from the movie, not her story, I'm sure she's annoyed by that as well.

I agree, Chuck. I don't think she's overreacting either. In the section Eric quoted, I think this is the heart of her complaint:

Quote
I think it’s important to leave spaces in a story for readers to fill in from their own experience, but unfortunately the audience that Brokeback reached most strongly have powerful fantasy lives. And one of the reasons we keep the gates locked here is that a lot of men have decided that the story should have had a happy ending. They can’t bear the way it ends—they just can’t stand it. So they rewrite the story, including all kinds of boyfriends and new lovers and so forth after Jack is killed. And it just drives me wild.

While Louise may have a point that Annie could be a little more charitable toward some of these people, that's not who she is. She's a plainspoken, forthright person who feels no call to be all Mary Poppinsy toward these people. So she isn't.

She's probably not costing herself any future readers, either. If I were a betting man, I'd bet these people haven't read anything else she's written, and probably wouldn't have read anything else she's written or will write--even if she didn't turn the dogs onto them.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline southendmd

  • Town Administration
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 18,934
  • well, I won't
Re: Annie Proulx's still pissed...
« Reply #8 on: May 04, 2009, 10:40:25 pm »
This interview is a rehash of her earlier "pornish rewrites" rant. 

Anyone who's read Annie knows she's not big on happy endings.  However, having written the story, with all its ambiguity, and the nerve she struck in so many people, she'll just have to get used to the fact that, although she "owns" the characters, Jack and Ennis now belong to the world. 

It's bigger than her.  Of course people get that it's about homophobia.  It just doesn't end there.  It's a springboard for all kinds of things. 

Offline David In Indy

  • BetterMost Supporter!
  • BetterMost Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 18,447
  • You've Got Male
Re: Annie Proulx's still pissed...
« Reply #9 on: May 04, 2009, 10:55:28 pm »
I don't think she's over-reacting at all.

I don't see her story as open ended.  It's pretty clear cut, Jack is dead.

I don't knock any slash authors or fans....but I've read so many different directions the story went under, and the characters are legally owned by Annie.

She has the right to say what she feels about her creation.

I can't believe that people would send her their versions of her characters......that's really odd to me.  And when you add to it that most people came to know the characters from the movie, not her story, I'm sure she's annoyed by that as well.

I totally agree with you Chuck. Well said! :D

Dogs have owners. Cats have staff.