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A quotation from Annie Proulx?

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moremojo:
"But here was this old shabby-looking guy…. watching the guys playing pool. He had a raw hunger in his eyes that made me wonder if he were country gay. I wondered, 'What would've he been like when he was younger?' Then he disappeared, and in his place appeared Ennis. And then Jack. You can't have Ennis without Jack."

I know we shouldn't necessarily see the old gentleman in that Wyoming bar as a stand-in for Ennis, but he certainly inspired Ennis for Annie, and indirectly even inspired Jack ("You can't have Ennis without Jack.") The old man eyeing the young men from across the room might suggest that Ennis, in his older years, bereft of Jack, might have hungered for male intimacy from someone other than Jack...not necessarily for who they were in themselves, but perhaps because he sought some glimmer of Jack's memory in their features. It's a melancholy thought, but a profoundly and recognizably human one, and endows our perception of Ennis with added compassion.

Jeff Wrangler:

--- Quote from: moremojo on September 14, 2006, 12:16:49 pm ---I know we shouldn't necessarily see the old gentleman in that Wyoming bar as a stand-in for Ennis, but he certainly inspired Ennis for Annie, and indirectly even inspired Jack ("You can't have Ennis without Jack.") The old man eyeing the young men from across the room might suggest that Ennis, in his older years, bereft of Jack, might have hungered for male intimacy from someone other than Jack...not necessarily for who they were in themselves, but perhaps because he sought some glimmer of Jack's memory in their features. It's a melancholy thought, but a profoundly and recognizably human one, and endows our perception of Ennis with added compassion.

--- End quote ---

Possibly mixed in with some mourning for his own lost youth, too (shit, that happens to me now. ...), as well as for his lost "Jack," whoever he may have been.

serious crayons:
Thanks for posting that, Natali. I had read parts of it elsewhere, I think, but not the whole thing. I thought this part was particularly interesting:


--- Quote ---"Put yourself in my place," the author says. "An elderly, white, straight female, trying to write about two 19-year-old gay kids in 1963. What kind of imaginative leap do you think was necessary? Profound, extreme, large. To get into those guys' heads and actions took a lot of 16-hour days, and never thinking about anything else and living a zombie life. That's what I had to do. I really needed an exorcist to get rid of those characters. And they roared back when I saw the film."
--- End quote ---

Whenever I think of writing something fictional involving characters who are very removed from me, in terms of demographics or background, I always figure it would be too hard to get into their heads. So I usually write first-person nonfiction stuff. But I guess I always assumed that for the authors who do write that way, it just comes kind of naturally; they're empathetic enough to understand that other foreign POV intuitively. It's fascinating to hear what a struggle it was for her to make that "imaginative leap." She's a better writer than I am, of course, but it gives me hope ...

Jeff Wrangler:
Now, I just need to find a quotation from Annie Proulx refusing to write a sequel. ...

moremojo:

--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on September 14, 2006, 12:32:16 pm ---Possibly mixed in with some mourning for his own lost youth, too
--- End quote ---
I feel this is very much the case in the film when Ennis regards his makeshift shrine, gingerly touching the postcard that embodies that lost, youthful summer. In a way, in his heart, I think he will always see Jack as that beautiful blue boy of 1963, who melted his heart and transfixed his spirit forever.

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