There very well may be threads already in existence pursuing the train of thought I would like to present here. Feel free, anyone reading this, to direct me to the earlier efforts that another may have made to organize discussion along this line. But in the meantime, I thought it might be fun and/or edifying to establish a space whereby we can share random thoughts that the film or story engender in us, and even steer those thoughts along tangents that might not have readily occurred to us, but prove enlightening in surprising ways.
Here's an example of what I had in mind: In the original story, we read of a moment after Ennis's "high-time supper" with Jack at camp, when he is riding back to the sheep feeling so happy that "he could paw the white out of the moon." Now, this scene is set in the summer of 1963, and most of 1963 fell under the Chinese Year of the Rabbit (or Hare, depending on translation, or even Cat, according to the Vietnamese variation of this astrological system). There is a folklore tradition in some cultures, including, I believe, the Chinese, that a hare resides, and can be seen in the moon. I imagine a benign lunar rabbit totemically presiding over that happy nocturnal landscape, and Proulx's use of the word "paw" further connotes animal imagery (though admittedly in reference to Ennis). Furthermore, the Rabbit was the tutelary symbol for the very year which saw Ennis's first fateful meeting with Jack. That one passing reference to the moon evokes a stream of associations that might be far from the original author's concerns, but which are nonetheless evocative and rewarding for me to ponder.
I hope my argument and example are not too garbled, and that my theme is not redundant. I invite all who are interested to lend their own examples.
Note: The above quotes from Proulx's story are paraphrased from memory.
