Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Fan Fiction & Poetry
General Discussion and Recs
louisev:
I dont know how much help this is, but I do know that Minch closed her LJ.
MadLori:
Yes, unfortunately Minch deleted her journal and all her stories; they're no longer available.
ENEN:
I’ve noticed that a lot of stories I read in the fanfiction world of BBM are what I call Jackcentric. That is all the positive traits of Jack are played up or focused on while it is just the opposite for Ennis. Usually Jack is seen as suffering the most between the two and is almost written like a Christ like figure. In the AU world when he and Ennis live together it is always Jack who is able to coach Ennis to share a life. I wonder, if the fiction is AU and not canon, why no one writes of Ennis finding his own way to Jack. Also in these scenarios of living together Jack is always the one in charge, the one more accepting of his sexuality. I really do not think Jack Twist would have been the poster child for Gay Pride. Although he was willing to make a life with Ennis I don’t see where he wanted him and Ennis to be out and proud. In a lot of these jackcentric fictions you see Jack telling people about his relationship with Ennis. But in the story and the film Jack Twist lived a closeted life just like Ennis. Even after Ennis’s wife divorced him Jack never divorced his wife to move closer to Ennis. And when he chose to find some comfort closer to home it was with another closeted man. And his dream of living with Ennis was to move to the isolated little ranch in Lightning Flat where they could live a quiet and unassuming life.
Also, Jack is written as the most capable financially in these fictions. But the four years they were apart it was Ennis who married and was supporting a family. Jack could not support himself until he married a rich woman. On another forum someone pointed out that Jack was the type of personality that always had to be coupled to accomplish things. I think this is true and that Jack was very dependant on others. Ennis on the other hand was very capable and also very stubborn. One who always called the shots on the important issues. And we know that Jack Twist let Ennis calls the shots for 20 years.
I’m reminded of the scene in the film where Ennis drops the girls off at Alma’s job because he has to get to work. And Alma tries to argue with him and Ennis gives her that look and she backs down. I have never seen that Ennis in AU fanfic. And I have no doubt that Jack would back down as Alma did. We see a lot of “strong Jack” stories but is that really who he was? Would a strong Jack be so drawn to a man as strong willed as Ennis?
I don’t claim to have the definitive view on Jack Twist. I’m just curious as to why so many see Jack as the strong, capable, self-sacrificing type. Do others feel that most stories are Jackcentric? Or am I seeing something that is not there?
louisev:
I don't know how much credence one can put in the 'fan' characterizations of Jack, but there has certainly been a tendency to frame Jack as the 'injured party' because he urged Ennis to come with him and have a life together and Ennis didn't.
I think that all of the rest of the characterization of Jack as more saintly stems from that single fact - that Ennis refused him a more open relationship. Whether or not Jack was willing to be more open about it, we would never know since he was not given the choice. Did his pursuing a traditional life stem from that first refusal, or would he have done so anyway? We may never know, but it is clear what fan writers want to think, since so many of them rewrote the ending to put them together at Jack's instigation.
RouxB:
ENEN I am pretty much 100% with you on your assessment. I read fan fic-I love fan fic- but sometimes the angel jackdevil ennis just wears we down. In some cases Ennis is portrayed as such a horrible person the whole story becomes ridiculous for me because why the hell would anyone be attracted to him?! And, or course, the auther never does quite an adequate job of developing the attraction.
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