Our BetterMost Community > Chez Tremblay
Am I the only person...
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: silkncense on May 09, 2006, 09:49:55 am ---As we have seen from the various boards, there are gay and straight, male and female that are on differing sides of many questions, issues and opinions expressed regarding this film.
I for one find that only part of it's beauty.
--- End quote ---
Right, silk. What I particularly like is that our opinions rarely, if ever, correlate with our genders and/or orientations.
TJ:
--- Quote from: silkncense on May 09, 2006, 09:49:55 am ---RouxB - I think that's why I love Annie's quote & philosophy so much. She wrote the story & is not adamant that people believe or interpret every line in a specific way. If she'd wanted that, she would have written the story specifically.
As we have seen from the various boards, there are gay and straight, male and female that are on differing sides of many questions, issues and opinions expressed regarding this film.
I for one find that only part of it's beauty.
--- End quote ---
--- Quote from: latjoreme on May 09, 2006, 09:54:34 am ---Right, silk. What I particularly like is that our opinions rarely, if ever, correlate with our genders and/or orientations.
--- End quote ---
Well, a lot of my opinions in these discussion forums (and Yahoo Groups) are related to my gender, male, and my sexual orientation, which is exclusively homosexual. My opinions/observations are also based on my own world view of simlar situations which all of the characters of the Short Story and Movie experienced. I have known many people who were/are just like the Brokeback Mountain characters.
I do say that if a person who was male and exclusively homosexual in his sexual orientation had written the story from his own experiences and world view, he might have given the reader the answers to some of the unanswered questions which we are asked or read in Annie Proulx's original short story.
But, while Annie Proulx was a resident of Wyoming when she wrote Brokeback Mountain and has even admitted that she is a heterosexual woman in her own writings and interviews related to the original story, she wrote the story as though she were an observer and did not understand everything which she saw. Her gender and sexual orientation were important to the purpose of her story, too.
George Catlin was a famous artist who travelled the West and visited lots of tribes in the North American Continent. Much of his sketches, small painting and even larger works of art were done like a tourist with a camera. While his works do show exactly what he saw happening, he did not always understand what was going on in the activity of the scene. I had read that in more than one book discussing Catlin and his work.
Tulsa, Oklahoma has Gilcrease Museum. It has lots of Catlin's original works and only displays selections from the Catlin collection due to limited space. One day I was at the museum doing my own tour of the museum and I overheard a tour guide say almost the same things I wrote in the above paragraph.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: TJ on May 09, 2006, 12:29:01 pm ---Well, a lot of my opinions in these discussion forums (and Yahoo Groups) are related to my gender, male, and my sexual orientation, which is exclusively homosexual.
--- End quote ---
To clarify, TJ, I don't mean our opinions aren't INFLUENCED by our demographic characteristics and other aspects of our backgrounds. I mean people's opinions aren't usually PREDICTABLE based on those characteristics.
two_bloody_shirts:
--- Quote from: silkncense on May 09, 2006, 09:49:55 am ---RouxB - I think that's why I love Annie's quote & philosophy so much. She wrote the story & is not adamant that people believe or interpret every line in a specific way. If she'd wanted that, she would have written the story specifically.
All that I require is thoughtful consideration. That does not mean I will agree with it.
As we have seen from the various boards, there are gay and straight, male and female that are on differing sides of many questions, issues and opinions expressed regarding this film.
I for one find that only part of it's beauty.
--- End quote ---
This is absolutely true and I completely agree with it. I like the idea that we can all come together and discuss themes and enhance ideas and theorize.
The thing that irks me is that if there is a "yes" or "no" issue - meaning there is no gray areas whatsoever - and there are people who are on one side or the other. Yes, I can see where a discussion would come about regarding whether Ennis was gay or bisexual, or even if we should label him at all. It's just that if there is actually something in the film or not when I become quite frustrated. ;)
TJ:
--- Quote ---Quote from: TJ on Today at 11:29:01 am
"Well, a lot of my opinions in these discussion forums (and Yahoo Groups) are related to my gender, male, and my sexual orientation, which is exclusively homosexual."
--- End quote ---
--- Quote from: latjoreme on May 09, 2006, 01:44:04 pm ---To clarify, TJ, I don't mean our opinions aren't INFLUENCED by our demographic characteristics and other aspects of our backgrounds. I mean people's opinions aren't usually PREDICTABLE based on those characteristics.
--- End quote ---
Well, that's a better explanation of the situation. As far as being predictable in real life, I have had friends who thought they knew me well enough to predict that I would do certain things. When two of those friends happened to be with me at the same time and I did or said something that one of them was familiar with, the other one would say, "I did not know that about you, Joe. I'm surprised that you did (or said) that."
Ennis was hetrosexually married; his relationship with Jack added into the mix made him to be bisexual; but, in reality, a person like Ennis could have just been married to a member of the opposite sex, while at the same time, his sexual orientation was exclusively homosexual.
I have known a number of men who had been married to women; but, their sexual orientation was always exclusively homosexual. One of those men was the Rev. Mr. Mel White, who wrote Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christain in America. When I first met Mel in the 1980s, he was in partnership with a man and I only knew him at church in North Hollywood. It was not until I read his book that I realized that I had met him. The real truth in what one knew here was that in after I had moved back to Tulsa and had gone to a PFLAG Conference banquet and Mel was the after dinner speaker, I found out that he actually knew more about me than I knew about him when I lived in LA.
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