Author Topic: Annie Proulx's still pissed...  (Read 79915 times)

Marge_Innavera

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Re: Annie Proulx's still pissed...
« Reply #130 on: June 12, 2009, 12:15:48 pm »
Annie Proulx can be a cranky crabass.  We knew that already.  She wouldn't be her if she wasn't.  Remember the trashing and thrashing she gave the Academy Awards experience?  But she also said that Heath Ledger's name should be Heath Legend, so she has my support to be whatever the fuck she wants.

She's cantankerous, and it allows her the discipline to sit and write, all by herself.  I say let be let be.


"Cranky" and "cantankerous" in one post!

But what the hell does "let be" imply in this context? That we shouldn't be discussing it or commenting?  Let's have some perspective here.  And if she's commenting on the reaction of Brokeback fans, that's somewhat outside the realm of "sitting and writing by herself."

Offline Katie77

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Re: Annie Proulx's still pissed...
« Reply #131 on: June 12, 2009, 08:04:40 pm »
No, I understood you meant that was what Annie is telling people. It's none of my business either if anybody is stuck in his or her first emotional reaction to Brokeback Mountain. I took your comment to suggest that Annie doesn't understand how some people haven't been able to "move on," and I honestly don't understand it either. If I were close to somebody who was still as torn up as some of us were when we first saw the movie, I'd be concerned about that person's well-being.

I am sure Jeff, that most of us have "moved on" in some way, from the way we initially felt when we first saw the movie. That first breath taking, gut wrenching turmoil of emotion was something that we at first thought ripped our heart out, drove us crazy, left us walking around with it pounding in our thoughts. We awoke with it, and we slept with it.

And I guess, like when anyone goes through a life changing experience, we think we will never be the same again, and we will never get over that feeling. We even think that we are crazy, that there is something wrong with us, for a lot of us, we thought we were the only one feeling this way. We were even embarrassed to talk about it to family and friends and some of us bottled up our feelings, which in some cases only made it more intense.

Our "therapy" or "councelling" was to to come into sites like Bettermost, to talk to people who were reacting the same way, we at last realized that we were not alone, we read stories of how people were feeling, and it was exactly how we were feeling. So we new we were not going crazy, or rather, if we were, we were not going there alone. We were able to talk about it, we learnt to understand it, and we learnt to accept it.

If accepting it means we have "moved on" then most of us have, if enjoying the experience instead of fearing it means we have "moved on" then most of us have, if instead of it taking over our life completely, but now infiltrating it into the way we live day to day, is "moving on" then we have done that too, if we are better people now than we were before then we have "moved on".

"Moving on" is not something that can be measured or has a use by date, its as individual and private similar to how someone grieves. We all do it differently and should be allowed to do so, without someone thinking we need help or we need "to get a life".

I personally, have never been a fan of Annie Proulx, I have not read any of her other books, I do not like her "hollier than thou" approach to her ownership of BBM, I dont like her attitude towards the people like us, who she seems to belittle because of our obsession (for want of a better word) with the story and the film. SHE is not responsible for how I feel, I do not give her any credit whatsoever for the wonderful journey I have been on since seeing the movie. I AM who is responsible for that journey, it is MY life's experiences that caused me to grab hold of the words and the meanings in the story to make me feel this way, the only thing she did, was have the ability to put the words together to a story that was all ready MINE and YOURS and everyone else here. To her it was a story of fiction, to most of us it was actual fact. She didn't give me Ennis and Jack, I had an Ennis and Jack in my life all ready, they just had different names.She didn't give me Brokeback Mountain, it had been in my life long before she penned the words.

Being happy doesn't mean everything is perfect.

It means you've decided to see beyond the imperfection

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: Annie Proulx's still pissed...
« Reply #132 on: June 12, 2009, 08:55:24 pm »
Irrespective of my feelings for Annie Proulx, I dislike it when anyone tells me to "move on." I am not cattle. I also feel the same way when people tell me not to worry about something. I am the person who decides what I will worry about and what I will not worry about!

Since I am a journalist and that's how AP began her career, I might have some insight into her point of view. You see, journalists have deadlines, they turn in their stories, and that is it. Another day, another story. It can be upsetting to some people but to others, it seems natural. Not living with being gay, AP may not see why the story refuses to be put to bed. But, I sometimes think there's something else going on here. I think AP went out on a limb in writing this story. It's not just an anonymous guy at the Mint Bar; I think there was someone close to her that inspired her to write this story. And now she feels the need to protect him since attention to the story blew up way beyond what she expected.
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Offline tampatalon

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Re: Annie Proulx's still pissed...
« Reply #133 on: June 13, 2009, 01:32:20 am »
Irrespective of my feelings for Annie Proulx, I dislike it when anyone tells me to "move on." I am not cattle. I also feel the same way when people tell me not to worry about something. I am the person who decides what I will worry about and what I will not worry about!

Since I am a journalist and that's how AP began her career, I might have some insight into her point of view. You see, journalists have deadlines, they turn in their stories, and that is it. Another day, another story. It can be upsetting to some people but to others, it seems natural. Not living with being gay, AP may not see why the story refuses to be put to bed. But, I sometimes think there's something else going on here. I think AP went out on a limb in writing this story. It's not just an anonymous guy at the Mint Bar; I think there was someone close to her that inspired her to write this story. And now she feels the need to protect him since attention to the story blew up way beyond what she expected.

Lee, Well put. I have always believed what these lines express. My senses have always told me the same and my heart ached for these guys wondering if it really ended for them the way the story ended.

TampaTalon ^">
"Lean on me, Let our hearts beat in time, Feel strength from the hands that have held you so long. Who cares where we go on this rutted old road, In a world that may say that we're wrong."--EmmyLou Harris

Offline Ellemeno

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Re: Annie Proulx's still pissed...
« Reply #134 on: June 13, 2009, 05:30:20 am »
"Cranky" and "cantankerous" in one post!

But what the hell does "let be" imply in this context? That we shouldn't be discussing it or commenting?  Let's have some perspective here.  And if she's commenting on the reaction of Brokeback fans, that's somewhat outside the realm of "sitting and writing by herself."


By "let be let be" I meant that everything that makes her her led her to create what brought us together.  So she's unsupportive of us and kind of jerky.  Oh well.  I don't have to hang out with her.  If she misunderstands me or my motives, it's not surprising - she's never talked to me.  If she judges me for not having moved on and gotten a life, oh well, that's her problem.  She's not only cranky and cantankerous, she's even crochety.  Okay.  I don't have to visit her.

Offline LauraGigs

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Re: Annie Proulx's still pissed...
« Reply #135 on: June 13, 2009, 01:03:37 pm »
She's not only cranky and cantankerous, she's even crochety

And a crabass.  And a curmudgeon.    ;)

Offline optom3

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Re: Annie Proulx's still pissed...
« Reply #136 on: June 13, 2009, 04:04:55 pm »
What I don't understand is why Annie P. gets so annoyed when people take her story so much to heart. Is it not every author's dream to feel they have connected with their reader on such a deeply fundamental level?
 Maybe she thought that the story would only affect gay men, but it spread way beyond those narrow perimeters.
Personally, if I felt that my words had so deeply impacted on my fellow human's lives I would be ecstatic. Don't we all deep down wish that along life's rocky road, we made a difference, that our existence made someone else's life better.
That is certainly my deepest wish.I don't want fame or fortune, I want to feel that however many years amounts to my lifespan, I have made someone feel better, happier, more at ease. etc.
My 1st encounter with BBM was the story not the film. I sobbed until my eyes were red raw after that first reading. I became like a woman possessed, I could not read it often enough. I was like an addict craving my next fix. I read it in bed, in the bath, whenever I had the chance.If I missed a day without reading it, I felt deprived. So much so, that I delayed seeing the film, no way could it do justice to Proulx's words. I dithered and prevaricated, a million reasons I would not see the film. I could not bear  for actors to come in and invade the space in my head where Jack and Ennis existed, it was sacrosanct.  I guarded those two as if they were my own flesh and blood.  The story had taken on a momentum all its own and I truly felt that to trust it to anyone to make Jack and Ennis real, would be like trusting a stranger with my children.
It was the man who has had my heart for 13 years now, who finally persuaded me. It was his gay brother who had originally introduced the S.S to us both. My lover had fallen as badly as I for the story, he went to see it first with his brother and after that he was insistant that I saw the film.I have never admitted this before but I went to see the film with him. I was left in pieces and knew instantly why my love had wanted me to see it. To see Ennis come to life was to face up to the fact that I was Ennis in all bit gender.
My solution to all of this was to move thousands of miles away, to America and so deny where my heart really was. It was the actions of an insane woman, love is not inversely proportional to distance.Quite the reverse, so now I and all my family live with the consequences of my actions and reactions. I am just happy that for everyone bar me, the move has been a blessing. Nigel has come to realise through many bends in the road who he is and is all the better for that. The kids, even James are settled and as content if not more so, than they were in England.
I still struggle daily with my Ennis type actions. So to Annie I would say, to have impacted so very deeply on just one person's life is incredible, to multiply that by a factor I can only guess at, surely has to be a writer's dream, not nightmare.
All I want now, is to never have my husband feel less than because of me, and to pray with every cell in my body that my children find love wherever and hold it so tightly that they will never feel how I do.
O.K I have wandered slightly off topic, but I feel so deeply that Proulx has achieved an author's dream. Certainly  some of the attention is not what she would wish, but there you are, it is what it is. George Michael once sang, " turn a different corner and we never would have met"  I certainly would never met some of the wonderful people here, had I not read, "Ennis Del Mar wakes before five", and carried on until, "and if you can't fix it you've got to stand it"

Offline loneleeb3

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Re: Annie Proulx's still pissed...
« Reply #137 on: June 13, 2009, 08:16:23 pm »
Awwwwww Fi, your words bring me to tears!
I can so relate to everything you have said.
Ain't no reigns on this friend!
"The biggest obstacle to most of us achieving our dreams isn't reality, it's our own fear"

"Saint Paul had his Epiphany on the road to Damascus, Mine was on Brokeback Mountain"

Offline Shuggy

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Re: Annie Proulx's still pissed...
« Reply #138 on: February 20, 2010, 03:00:53 am »
She's a plainspoken, forthright person who feels no call to be all Mary Poppinsy toward these people.
That's ironic - I assume you mean Julie-Andrews-as-Mary-Poppins-in-the-filmy towards them. Mary Poppins in the book - I nearly wrote "the real Mary Poppins" was very like the real Annie Proulx.

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: Annie Proulx's still pissed...
« Reply #139 on: March 05, 2010, 10:39:43 am »
What I don't understand is why Annie P. gets so annoyed when people take her story so much to heart. Is it not every author's dream to feel they have connected with their reader on such a deeply fundamental level?
Actually AP DOES appreciate the critical acclaim for the story and the way it has changed lives. Many people have written to her about their reactions after reading the story and she has answered many letters (she has very tiny handwriting). What she doesn't appreciate is right-wing Christian fundamentalists stalking her and buzzing her house with their planes; people who write with demands, weird requests, or sending manuscripts for her to read and critique; and fanfiction writers who steal her intellectual property.

... I delayed seeing the film, no way could it do justice to Proulx's words. I dithered and prevaricated, a million reasons I would not see the film. I could not bear  for actors to come in and invade the space in my head where Jack and Ennis existed, it was sacrosanct.  I guarded those two as if they were my own flesh and blood.  The story had taken on a momentum all its own and I truly felt that to trust it to anyone to make Jack and Ennis real, would be like trusting a stranger with my children.
That was me as well. I didn't see the film until January of 2006, when my daughter dragged me to it.

George Michael once sang, " turn a different corner and we never would have met"  I certainly would never met some of the wonderful people here, had I not read, "Ennis Del Mar wakes before five", and carried on until, "and if you can't fix it you've got to stand it"
That is sure the truth!
"chewing gum and duct tape"