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Annie Annie Annie
southendmd:
"There are countless people out there who think the story is open range to explore their fantasies and to correct what they see as an unbearably disappointing story. They constantly send ghastly manuscripts and pornish rewrites of the story to me, expecting me to reply with praise and applause for 'fixing' the story. They certainly don't get the message that if you can't fix it, you've got to stand it."
Quite a slam of (some) fanfic!
It's interesting to contrast this with her quotation on our home page:
"It is my feeling that a story is not finished until it is read, and that the reader finishes it through his or her life experience, prejudices, world view and thoughts." - Annie Proulx
Ellemeno:
--- Quote from: southendmd on September 17, 2008, 04:39:13 pm ---"There are countless people out there who think the story is open range to explore their fantasies and to correct what they see as an unbearably disappointing story. They constantly send ghastly manuscripts and pornish rewrites of the story to me, expecting me to reply with praise and applause for 'fixing' the story. They certainly don't get the message that if you can't fix it, you've got to stand it."
Quite a slam of (some) fanfic!
It's interesting to contrast this with her quotation on our home page:
"It is my feeling that a story is not finished until it is read, and that the reader finishes it through his or her life experience, prejudices, world view and thoughts." - Annie Proulx
--- End quote ---
What an excellent contrast to notice, Paul.
MaineWriter:
--- Quote from: Love on September 17, 2008, 02:39:10 pm --- 2:53 PM - ’Brokeback’ author says says film is source of ’constant irritation’
By Arifa Akbar, Arts Correspondent
Wednesday, 17 September 2008
When the story was published in 1999, it was praised for its delicate handling of homophobia in the ranching country of Wyoming. But her fans feel she could have gone further in her descriptions of the love shared by the two central characters.
--- End quote ---
Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't the story published in 1997?
It's things like that that make me discount the whole article. If the author can't get this very basic fact right, it makes me wonder how much s/he misinterpreted about Annie's comments and so on.
Maybe Annie Proulx really is a pill but frankly, I find it hard to believe that she would be so dismissive of the story and movie that have brought her a whole new legion of readers--and fans. Readers are an author's bread and butter, after all, and to be so openly derisive of them just strikes me as wrong. I am going to do some research and see if I can find the original WSJ quote.
LHN
MaineWriter:
Okay, so I did find the original WSJ interview and frankly, that comment in the context of the rest of the interview seems a little less harsh--which I suspected. Of course, those two sentences are being plastered all over the Internet. Oh well. The actual interview was done by email (since she doesn't have a landline phone at her home in Wyoming). Here's a link to the interview....
http://www.zimbio.com/pilot?ZURL=%2FBrokeback%2BMountain%2Farticles%2F26%2FStop%2BSending%2BAnnie%2BProulx%2BExtended%2BGyllenhaal&URL=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB122065020058105139.html
and here is the question:
WSJ: What effect did the success of "Brokeback Mountain" have on your writing life, if any?
Ms. Proulx: "Brokeback Mountain" has had little effect on my writing life, but is the source of constant irritation in my private life. There are countless people out there who think the story is open range to explore their fantasies and to correct what they see as an unbearably disappointing story. They constantly send ghastly manuscripts and pornish rewrites of the story to me, expecting me to reply with praise and applause for "fixing" the story. They certainly don't get the message that if you can't fix it you've got to stand it. Most of these "fix-it" tales have the character Ennis finding a husky boyfriend and living happily ever after, or discovering the character Jack is not really dead after all, or having the two men's children meet and marry, etc., etc. Nearly all of these remedial writers are men, and most of them begin, "I'm not gay but…." They do not understand the original story, they know nothing of copyright infringement—i.e., that the characters Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar are my intellectual property—and, beneath every mangled rewrite is the unspoken assumption that because they are men they can write this story better than a woman can. They have not a clue that the original "Brokeback Mountain" was part of a collection of stories about Wyoming exploring mores and myths. The general impression I get is that they are bouncing off the film, not the story. There's more, but that is enough, ok?
~~~
Interesting. I wonder who all these non-gay male fanfic writers are? I certainly haven't come across m/any.
L
Shakesthecoffecan:
Wow, this thread is like oxygen.
Interesting excerpt from the article. I will go back and read it later. It is interesting in that Proulx acknowledges and addresses some of the world we have know for going on three years now. I can certainly see where she is coming from. Her story should and does stand on its on as a complete entity. What I think she is not seeing is something that is endenic to good story telling, that the characters take on a life of their own, for better or worse.
Take the tale of Paul Bunyan and Babe, his Blue Ox. They were at their time such compelling characters they were called upon by the people to populate and convey a whole range of stories. John Henry is another example. In more recent times, the Ingalls family morphed passed the written memories of Laura Ingalls Wilder to convey meanings to us.
And I still maintain that for many of us, we fell in love with those guys the first time we met them and it is hard to let them go. I think in my way I have, but I won't ever forget them.
I wish too, that Postcards would get the attention it deserves. Loyal Blood is a character that will haunt me all my days.
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