Our BetterMost Community > Chez Tremblay
Annie Proulx's still pissed...
Front-Ranger:
What if...there were a relative or a friend who is closeted whose privacy she is trying to protect? Would you feel differently about her in that case??
optom3:
The phrase that really jars for me, is when she says, I guess they just became too real.I would have thought that was one of the highest accolades an author could receive. Is not the whole purpose of writing a fictional work, to build up characters which resonate with the reader and produce a response, any response.
When she openly admits that Jack and Ennis became very real for her, as she as writing, why would she be upset that they became real for so many of us.
I read the story first and sobbed for days as I fervently read and re read it. I felt the pain of both Jack and Ennis and it resonated deep inside, touching a wound and reopening it, long after I thought it had healed. I was very wary of going to see the film and prevaricated for some time. I had my own very fixed images of Jack and Ennis by then and was wary of walking away from the film, bitter and angry as I have on many occasions when I have read a book first and then seen a film.
It is a testament to the genius of Ang, script writers, Heath and Jake, that I absorbed the film and took something new from it. The film was of course filled with more detail than the sparsely penned S.S. but that enhanced, rather than is often the case detracting from my experience.Ennis and Jack were reborn and again I started into another downward spiral of regret, chances handed to me so freely, yet like Ennis, rejected as I lacked the courage to move forward with what intuitively I knew would make me happy.
So Proulx rather than bemoaning the fact that maybe the characters became too real, should rejoice that they were given life by Heath and Jake, and from that rebirth emerged a film which stopped those affected in their tracks.Not just for a day, but for a lifetime, giving courage, where previously none had existed, to go out and grab life by the balls !!
If that was my only success in life I would die a happy lady.She is undoubtedly fed up with, as she sees it, inferior works of fiction, my advice on that subject would be, buy a bigger bin. It is like the people who bewail the mind numbing fodder we are fed via our T.V. if you do not like it, use the off button.It is not rocket science.
As for the lady herself, if I go to my grave feeling I have made just one persons life richer emotionally, if I changed the opinion of only one bigot, or gave courage to someone to pursue the life they want, I would die a happy lady. For Annie, I think she should be happy that her epitaph could easily and honestly be, I made a difference and opened a few eyes. Not a particularly shabby way to be remembered.
Front-Ranger:
I don't know much about fanfiction, but it seems like the quality of the writing is in inverse proportion to the need of the author to be praised for his/her work. That's the thing that alarms me about the genre, so I stopped reading any and all fanfiction because, once some of the authors knew I had read part of their work, they pestered me for feedback, and only the most positive and gushing feedback would do. I'm a professional writer, so giving honest feedback was impossible. I imagine AP got caught in the same, or similar boat.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: optom3 on May 07, 2009, 10:37:20 am ---The phrase that really jars for me, is when she says, I guess they just became too real.I would have thought that was one of the highest accolades an author could receive. Is not the whole purpose of writing a fictional work, to build up characters which resonate with the reader and produce a response, any response.
When she openly admits that Jack and Ennis became very real for her, as she as writing, why would she be upset that they became real for so many of us?
--- End quote ---
I don't think she is. As quoted in Eric's post that began this thread, she said:
--- Quote ---"So yeah, they got a life of their own. And unfortunately, they got a life of their own for too many other people too."
--- End quote ---
Annie certainly doesn't use words casually. I believe there is a distinction between characters become "real," both for an author and a reader, and taking on "a life of their own," and I bet Annie does, too. It seems to me her beef is not with readers for whom Ennis and Jack became "real" but with readers unable to accept the life--the fate--that their creater--Annie--gave them, so they have to go on and rewrite her story to show her how her own story should have been written.
--- Quote ---So Proulx rather than bemoaning the fact that maybe the characters became too real, should rejoice that they were given life by Heath and Jake, and from that rebirth emerged a film which stopped those affected in their tracks.
--- End quote ---
I think she does. She spoke very highly of both of them in her essay, "Getting Movied," in Story to Screenplay.
loneleeb3:
This is a great thread that I have enjoyed reading.
--- Quote ---a film which stopped those affected in their tracks.Not just for a day, but for a lifetime, giving courage, where previously none had existed, to go out and grab life by the balls !!
--- End quote ---
What a great quote! That happened for me and describes my reaction to a tee!
I can understands Annies frustration though. It would be like someone coming up to me and telling me that the way i was parenting Elizabeth is all wrong and I should do it like this. I would be pissed.
But, thats what happens when you put your stuff out there in the public arena!
I have written fan fic. Not because I thought AP did a substandard job or i thought more should be added to the story, I did it cause i was inspired.'
The story (movie and short story) affected me so much I had to find some way to get the emotion it caused out.
For me thats how I did it.
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