Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum

The dark side of the mountain

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serious crayons:

--- Quote from: nakymaton on June 07, 2006, 05:12:44 pm ---Good point about why their second sheep pasture was on limestone with thin soil and not enough grass, though -- comparison with Ennis's flashback. (It's the limestone that makes it so bleak-looking.)

--- End quote ---

Mel, thanks for the geologist's perspective!

Their campsite is certainly a lot more Edenic for them than it would be for me. (What, no heated pool? No minibar? No extended cable?!  :o) One detail that really makes this vivid to me is when Ennis stretches out to sleep with his head on a LOG. Me, I bring my own pillow when traveling because hotel ones are usually too hard.
:P

But sometimes they do acknowledge the dangerousness -- as when Ennis looks up with concern at Jack riding up the mountain and the threatening clouds coming up over the top.
 :-\

alec716:
This thread it a great idea!  Much thought to be mined.  OK, maybe I am not remembering some details, and maybe I am having an uncharacteristically naive day.  Nonetheless, it seems to me that a possible lesson to be drawn here is: it was ultimately the dangers posed by the human species, not by nature, which kept our heros physically separated for all that time (including eternity, if one subscribes -- as I do -- to the theory that Jack was murdered).  Some of their travails in nature brought them closer together: Jack's nurturing of Ennis after Ennis' fall from the horse thanks to the bear in the stream, the intensity of the time spent segregating out the storm-mingled sheep flocks, the simple beauty of campfire chats under glorious skies, the skinny-dipping dive, and, critically, the cold which drove Ennis into Jack's bedroll on their first fateful night of physical love.  Nauture certainly handed them some challenges (such as by truncating that first summer with early snow), but it was human bigotry (and Ennis' internalization of it) which kept our boys from having that little cow and calf operation.  People definitely tore asunder what nature brought together.  Maybe I am wrong -- just my thoughts at the moment.

starboardlight:

--- Quote from: nakymaton on June 07, 2006, 05:12:44 pm ---It's a pretty realistic view of living in the wilderness for a summer, though. I've been kind of annoyed with reviewers who focus only on the Edenic qualities of the mountain, in contrast with the drudgery of the small towns. Lightning, hail, bears, coyotes, cold, running out of food... I've worried about almost all those things during my summers living in tents. Seems believable to me. Neither safe nor unusually threatening.

Good point about why their second sheep pasture was on limestone with thin soil and not enough grass, though -- comparison with Ennis's flashback. (It's the limestone that makes it so bleak-looking.)

--- End quote ---

from a guy's point of view. growing up, those things (weather, wild animals, food concerns) are exactly the romance of camping out. it's the test of masculinity. so yes, while they are real dangers, for the boys, I think they might actually be thrilling to have those elements. After all both Jack and Ennis at that age aspire to cowboy heroism.


--- Quote from: alec716 on June 07, 2006, 08:21:24 pm ---This thread it a great idea!  Much thought to be mined.  OK, maybe I am not remembering some details, and maybe I am having an uncharacteristically naive day.  Nonetheless, it seems to me that a possible lesson to be drawn here is: it was ultimately the dangers posed by the human species, not by nature, which kept our heros physically separated for all that time (including eternity, if one subscribes -- as I do -- to the theory that Jack was murdered).  Some of their travails in nature brought them closer together: Jack's nurturing of Ennis after Ennis' fall from the horse thanks to the bear in the stream, the intensity of the time spent segregating out the storm-mingled sheep flocks, the simple beauty of campfire chats under glorious skies, the skinny-dipping dive, and, critically, the cold which drove Ennis into Jack's bedroll on their first fateful night of physical love.  Nauture certainly handed them some challenges (such as by truncating that first summer with early snow), but it was human bigotry (and Ennis' internalization of it) which kept our boys from having that little cow and calf operation.  People definitely tore asunder what nature brought together.  Maybe I am wrong -- just my thoughts at the moment.

--- End quote ---

come to think of it, now, the boys overcame these "tests of masculinity" by coming together. so, somehow, by being together they became men.

bbm_stitchbuffyfan:

--- Quote ---come to think of it, now, the boys overcame these "tests of masculinity" by coming together. so, somehow, by being together they became men.
--- End quote ---

Ooh, I really like this...

You know, I've always felt a sort of "loss of innocence" sense to their hillside talk after their first sexual encounter.

serious crayons:
Well, and maybe this is kind of obvious, or perhaps implicit in previous posts, but the fact that their lifestyle is rugged and uncomfortable and hard-working also serves to underscore their "masculinity," in a traditional sense. Which nicely contradicts stereotypes.

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