Our BetterMost Community > Chez Tremblay
Annie Proulx's still pissed...
Marina:
I have read these accounts about Ms. Proulx and I have mixed feelings about it - I understand her points completely. She also many have encouraged a few new writers! But they are her characters and her story, and what a story it is. Certainly, people should not presume to improve on it, or try to profit from it, or make a pornfest out of it! Her story is her own - her own thoughts, experiences, and views that lead her to write it.
But then, I also feel that writing about Ennis and Jack, for some, is a way to work out complicated feelings the story and film brought out. And of course Heath and Jake bringing them to life, the wonderful adaption by Diana Osana and Larry McMurtry who we also love, Ang Lee's fine direction, and an incredible soundtrack just make it unforgettable.
My husband and I picked up the book at a bookstore namely because we love the West (he spent a brief part of his life in Idaho). I didn't read it until during Brokeback promotion the author's name was mentioned - and from then on I was gone - hook, line and sinker.
I feel I have moved on from my initial overwhelmed feelings about why couldn't society accept two people who just wanted to be together (I literally couldn't get up from my theater seat, couldn't even cry until my second viewing) - but I have been permanently changed by seeing the film and reading the story. There's a little piece of my heart and mind where Ennis and Jack reside forever in happiness.
I'm so happy there are places like Bettermost where we can still talk about Brokeback from time to time.
I love AP's writing and so does my husband. I was so intrigued by the passages someone above posted about "Archie and Rose", that I had to look it up and found that it was from her latest short story collection Fine Just The Way It Is. I'm off to read it immediately!
:)
Marge_Innavera:
Once you create characters, you don't always have the control over them you might like. That's life.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: marina on March 05, 2010, 12:09:37 pm ---Writing about Ennis and Jack, for some, is a way to work out complicated feelings the story and film brought out.
--- End quote ---
This was the case for me. :)
Brown Eyes:
--- Quote from: Marge_Innavera on March 05, 2010, 12:20:22 pm ---Once you create characters, you don't always have the control over them you might like. That's life.
--- End quote ---
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on March 05, 2010, 12:34:08 pm ---This was the case for me. :)
--- End quote ---
I agree with these sentiments and with Marina's comment that Jeff quoted. I've never written fanfic, but I've read a ton of it.
I feel like I've said this a lot before, but I guess it is worth repeating. Things that are equivalents to fanfic happen in culture all the time. Artists and writers borrow ideas, tweek compositions and quote one another all the time in all kinds of different ways. Parody (both very serious and lighthearted) have been a part of literature, theater, art, etc. for ages.
When you think about it, the movie of Brokeback Mountain is already a kind of "fanfic". this echos some of the ideas brought up by Marina in her post. The movie includes many elements and embellishments that do not exist in the short story. For instance the SNIT is something invented beyond the control of Proulx... as with the details about the female characters, a million elements of dialogue, etc. The screenplay was written by two other authors... and it's filled with ideas from McMurtry and Ossana... separate, again, from Proulx's control. I don't think many folks here have much of a problem with the idea that McMurtry and Ossana (and Ang Lee, the actors, etc.) altered BBM in order to make it into a movie.
People have been writing novels based on Jane Austen's novels and characters for years. And, people have made alternate versions of Shakespeare's plays (sometimes radically altered) for years too. And, then there are things like Wicked... which, seems to be a very high-level example of a type of "fanfic." Issues of appropriation are basic aspects of a lot of English courses these days. And, a lot of high level literary theory deals with issues of appropriation because it's fundamental to how ideas in art circulate.
What Annie may not understand, because I doubt she's probably actually read a lot of the very good and thoughtful fanfic.... is that many of the good fanfic stories are very respectful, introspective, etc. And many are so different from the original BBM that they really can be said to be only tangentially inspired by BBM. There is definitely a lot of bad and/or silly fanfic out there, but there's a lot of very smart writing out there too.
Front-Ranger:
The big difference with the movie is that Ang Lee and James Shamus licensed the rights from Annie Proulx and paid her as well as obtaining her permission. She okayed changes in the story and was even on the set occasionally. There's a world of difference between James McMurtry and a fanfic writer, I think you would agree.
These fanfic writers actually had the nerve to send their pieces to Annie Proulx and tell her that she got the story wrong and it should have gone their way!!
I have no problem with people who want to write about Jack and Ennis for their own benefit and entertainment, but publishing it is a different matter.
I agree with you that appropriation, imitation, etc. are used by artists to good effect, but appropriation is not the right word for what fanfiction writers are doing. Stealing is the right word.
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