Taking Chances, by E. L. Van Hine and L.H. Nicoll

[ifyoucantfixit]

The Laramie Saga: confronting some painful truths about Jack and Ennis

Now we are nearing the end of the Saga I realize there has been quite a revolution in my thinking about Jack and Ennis revealing some painful truths. I also realize this has only been possible through the journey this story has taken me on.

For a long time I thought the core of my pain was Jack’s death. If only Jack hadn’t died. I then realized that dead or not Jack and Ennis’ relationship was tearing them both apart and going absolutely nowhere in the process. Towards the end the shadow was threatening to swallow up the “brilliant charge”. That was the real hurt I felt within. After that terrible argument, Annie wrote that they put back the pieces together again. But Ennis’ worst suspicions had been confirmed and Jack’s mighty discontent and frustration was out in the open. Trust and acceptance had gone out the window. The glue holding together any consensus between them must have been pretty fragile.

The whole situation would have had to be renegotiated but would they have been able to do that? The dynamics between them seemed set in concrete over 20 years. In the meantime Jack was hitting the booze and alcoholism was round the corner. It wouldn’t surprise me if Ennis would have begun to hit the bottle as well if things had continued. Wouldn’t he be constantly nagging at Jack with jealous accusations every time they met up? And then AIDS was on the horizon…. The core of their love would always remain – as we see in the Saga, it survived Jack’s death in no uncertain terms – but it just wasn’t going to work out in this lifetime in this place.

Even so, having come to this conclusion, I still relapsed into mourning Jack again and wishing him back. (Old habits die hard!) Now I think wishing him back to what – more suffering and frustration? For those who think it is unrealistic that Ennis moves on from Jack to another relationship but instead perpetually mourns the old one, I ask – don’t you think Ennis would come to realize the impossibility of things the way they were as well? It’s not a question of him saying to himself – I wish I had agreed to live with Jack. In living through the challenges of learning to live with Ellery even under much more favourable circumstances, he would come to realise that the old Ennis would never have been able to do that and at some point he would come to accept that. He would also realize that he could only have continued to be a source of pain to Jack as Jack would also always have been a source of pain for him. Why wish that back and make longing for it the basis of your life?

Once you understand this and come to terms with it, once you stop idealizing the old relationship, you can no longer resent Ennis finding a new life and a new love. If Ennis had been the one to die then Jack would have been freed to find a man less fearful than Ennis and more emotionally well adjusted. Only by seeing Ennis’ armour peeled away layer by layer over the course of the Laramie Saga not only through Jack's death and the intervention of Ellery, but through the events he experiences and his interactions with others, do we understand how far Ennis was imprisoned in his personality and fear. Only through this story have we been able to understand the great distance he had to travel which only reinforces the impossibility of Ennis changing in the old relationship. In understanding this you also can no longer feel such anger at his inability to shift.

Having said all that, I find I am no longer really interested in going over all the old ground of analyzing Jack and Ennis’ relationship or wishing Jack back. I now think about that relationship not with wistfulness but with relief that they were both finally freed.

Those who take no joy in Ennis freeing himself and finding life with a new person and refuse to face uncomfortable facts about Ennis and Jack’s relationship, or even the fact that Jack died, have attacked this story. Whatever their rationalisations, I wonder if they do this because it confronts some painful truths about life and death and relationships they prefer to deny or wish away.

  who could tell or predict, the way it might have changed after the big train wreck...they may have been exposed enough by that age and time, to make a new start..they both clearly loved each other still....it may have made a new beginning and more mature place for them to be...now that both of them had a peek through the curtain, at what they could lose for good and all.....that is where to me the great sorry we all felt in the end of the story came from......it was never to be explored...just like their summer was aborted , by joe aguirres...bring em down...the rest of the story was aborted by jacks untimely death....it will always be the  maybe if factor.........................janice

[louisev]

Update to "The Red Stallion"

http://louisev.livejournal.com/140830.html   "Chapter 60:  Getting Mothered"

[Kazza]

Was about to head to bed - glad I didn't.

SPOILER


Just gotta love Wes and Edna, they are like parents to Ellery (and increasingly Ennis too). Can't believe that auld hag Julia could be so malicious. It's one thing to disapprove of someones lifestyle, quite another to sabotage their career. Yeah - she needs to bugger off to that nursing home.

So, Ellery might be in line for a commendation. That's great news! It's great that his dedication to his work is being recognised, but I also think that this will have a positive knock effect for Ennis. For him to see his openly gay partner receive such an accolade may further put his mind at rest with regards to the intentions of ordinary decent people towards them.

Two things are worrying me though - Firstly, just who was sneaking around the house? Teenage vandals wouldn't do that, they do what they do then run off. Secondly, Ennis' hearing problem is a bit of a concern. I'm wondering if this is left over from the serious punch that Bill gave him, or perhaps something that happened during his kidnap and escape.

Hopefully I'm wrong on both counts. Perhaps the vandals are just teenage thugs and Ennis merely needs his ears waxed. 

Karen

[MaineWriter]

I believe that we did have a recipe for Edna's chocolate cake posted by Lucise.

I need to start hunting for apple tarts and raspberry tarts...

L

[magicmountain]

You're welcome Fabienne. 


Okay..chocolate cake.  I don't think we have this in the gallery yet!


EDNA'S RICH CHOCALATE CAKE:




275g (10oz) Soft Brown Sugar
225g (8oz) Plain Flour
225ml (8 floz) Milk
135g (5oz) Butter
3 Eggs
50g (2oz) Plain Chocolate (70% Cocoa Solids)
1 tbsp Black Treacle
2 level tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
½ level tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
¼ tsp Salt

Icing
450g (1lb) Sugar
150ml (¼ pint) Milk
110g (4oz) Butter
50g (2oz) Plain Chocolate (70% Cocoa Solids)
1 heaped tbsp Cocoa
1 tbsp Golden Syrup

Preheat oven to 180°C: 350°F: Gas 4.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
Place the chocolate and milk into a bowl over a saucepan that is over a very low heat and allow to slowly melt, then allow to cool.
Mix the butter and sugar together until creamy.
Beat the eggs and gradually add to the butter and sugar mixture, adding a little of the flour.
Stir in the treacle and vanilla essence, mixing well.
Fold in the remaining flour.
Gradually add the chocolate mixture to form a thick batter.
Divide the mixture between two 18cm (7 inch) sandwich tins.
Bake for 30 - 35 minutes.
Turn out on to a wire rack and allow to cool.

To make the icing
Place the all of the ingredients into a heavy based saucepan, heat gently until the sugar is fully dissolved.
Bring to the boil, stirring constantly.
Allow to cool for about 10 minutes, then beat until think enough to spread.
Use half of the mixture to spread between the two layers of cake.
Use the remainder to spread on top and sides of the cake.
Work quickly using a knife dipped into warm water.

Here it is TH

[magicmountain]

I know what it means to meet your beloved three-four  times per year in the middle of nowhere

Me too. It wasn't in the wilderness but it felt like the wilderness inside.

  who could tell or predict, the way it might have changed after the big train wreck...

There was always that slim hope the boys would get their act together if Jack hadn't died. I just came to the conclusion that the odds were stacked against it. If Jack had been severely beaten or was in an accident where he barely survived that could have put a bomb under Ennis' backside!

Jack seriously proposed suicide for both of them or for himself alone .  To my mind, this was a powerful catalyst to get Ennis to change, and it worked!  The two went on to own the Lazy L Farm in Quanah, Texas.

Other stories showed other motives.  So I don't think Jack's death was necessary to set the process in motion, and I think Jack's love could have been as supportive as Ellery's.

Scudder I agree that something dramatic like Jack proposing suicide or actually stating he was leaving Ennis might have done the trick. But was it in Jack to do either of those things?

Brokeback Mountain was about Ennis finding Jack.  LS is about Ennis finding himself...  ... and others... 

Thanks for your insightful comments TH. It is has been said that we "love what we lack". Maybe in a way Ennis' journey of self discovery began we he fell in love with Jack - he saw in Jack what he lacked in himself.

[magicmountain]

   "And there came the time when the pain of remaining in the bud was greater then the pain of blossoming." 

   Would that we would all receive the grace to find our own especial way to blossom.

Amen to that and to everything you said TH.

[souxi]

Hi everyone I,m back from my hols, but I,m not very happy. Louise what is the matter wiht LJ? Every time I try and forward onto the next chapter it says either "no such entry" or "no parameters given". I,ve been looking forward to my updates and now I cant read em!!
Hi June btw.

[scudder]

MagicMountain:  "But was it in Jack to do either of those things?"

That is the question.  We have seen the fantastic development of Ennis in the LS.  I don't recall seeing a similar investigation of Jack's development in any stories leading up to the meeting after the divorce or after the last confrontation by the lake.  Most of the stories concentrate on Ennis.  How about a story of Jack's growth while working in Childress and coming to grips with Ennis' "If you can't fix it, you gotta stand it."?

[louisev]

Hi everyone I,m back from my hols, but I,m not very happy. Louise what is the matter wiht LJ? Every time I try and forward onto the next chapter it says either "no such entry" or "no parameters given". I,ve been looking forward to my updates and now I cant read em!!
Hi June btw.

can you click directly to the links?  Some folks have had problems over the past couple of days in accessing LJ.