Author Topic: Bookends!  (Read 17374 times)

Offline Front-Ranger

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Bookends!
« on: September 22, 2006, 06:20:02 pm »
I didn't get to participate in this fun and insightful game on imdb, as described by Katherine:

Quote
I'd just been participating in an extremely long bookends thread on imdb. There are some incredibly subtle ones on there -- a few that I'll have to say seemed like kind of a stretch, but many that were pretty amazing.

I'll just throw one out, to whet your appetites, and also to brag that I guessed the correct answer to this bookend challenge that Casey Cornelius posed (the imdb thread is in the form of a game). :D

Some of what people called bookends were later deemed mirrors. When something happens in two different scenes -- such as Jack putting Ennis hand on his erection and then Alma putting Ennis' hand on her pregnant stomach -- they are mirrors, they decided, unless the second scene provides a sense of closure, as the truck and paper bags scenes do. But that's OK, people were throwing mirrors in there, too.

So, I'm assuming one person suggests the first bookend, and the respondent names the other bookend, while starting a new bookend. And we can also include "mirrors" (which I would be more likely, in my English-lit-ish style to call a recurring motif).

Here's my first bookend: Ennis comes upon a bear and is thrown from his horse.

"chewing gum and duct tape"

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: Bookends!
« Reply #1 on: September 23, 2006, 12:31:20 pm »
Is it that Jack really does "die after all?"

I have a hard time thinking straight about Uncle Hal, er Harold, because I've dreamed up such an elaborate story about him, which has no basis in the movie or story!

I'll wait to post another bookend until I find out if mine is right.
"chewing gum and duct tape"

Offline serious crayons

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Re: Bookends!
« Reply #2 on: September 23, 2006, 01:01:59 pm »
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Bookend: Uncle Harold has pneumonia.

I always think of the bookend of this scene as being the divorce scene, because there are similar elements: the contact from someone far away that leads to a journey, the "Here I am," the gaze to a distant person that Jack follows, gradually comprehending.

But Uncle Harold's pneumonia is such a mysterious and complex augury! So I'll look forward, Barbara, to seeing what you have in mind.

Meanwhile, I'm throwin one in that I noticed yesterday. It might be more of a mirror, though.

Mirror: Ennis packs up his horse for his first night on the mountain, Jack warns him he won't get any sleep.

Offline nakymaton

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Re: Bookends!
« Reply #3 on: September 23, 2006, 02:22:33 pm »
Mirror: Ennis packs up his horse for his first night on the mountain, Jack warns him he won't get any sleep.

Ennis stays in camp and doesn't get much sleep there either? ;D
Watch out. That poster has a low startle point.

Offline serious crayons

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Re: Bookends!
« Reply #4 on: September 23, 2006, 02:49:50 pm »
Ennis stays in camp and doesn't get much sleep there either? ;D

That's what I had in mind!  ;D (And in both, he packs up the horse and wordlessly rides away while Jack stands there.)

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Scene: In the bar, Jack asks Ennis, “Do you ever rodeo?” Ennis responds, “Once in a while.”

Is it, Scene: In the bar, the bartender asks Jack, "Ever try calf roping?" Jack responds, "Do I look like I could afford a f'in ropin horse?"

Offline nakymaton

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Re: Bookends!
« Reply #5 on: September 23, 2006, 04:08:18 pm »
That's what I had in mind!  ;D (And in both, he packs up the horse and wordlessly rides away while Jack stands there.)

Oh, you meant the dozy embrace! That's better than what I was referring to (which was TS1). Though presumably after they started sleeping together, they spent a lot of time, ummmm, not sleeping. ;D
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Offline serious crayons

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Re: Bookends!
« Reply #6 on: September 23, 2006, 06:01:33 pm »
Oh, you meant the dozy embrace! That's better than what I was referring to (which was TS1). Though presumably after they started sleeping together, they spent a lot of time, ummmm, not sleeping. ;D

No, I did mean TS1. Though in that case I actually meant the morning after he didn't get much sleep (because it's a mirror, events can happen in reverse order). But I guess Ennis is wordlessly riding away while Jack stands there in a lot of scenes. So it's a multiple mirror/bookend/recurring motif.
« Last Edit: September 24, 2006, 04:31:26 pm by latjoreme »

Offline twistedude

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Re: Bookends!
« Reply #7 on: September 24, 2006, 02:14:13 pm »
jeez you guys...the side-view mirror at the bneginning and end of the summer...WAKE UP! SUNDAY!
"We're each of us alone, to be sure. What can you do but hold your hand out in the dark?" --"Nine Lives," by Ursula K. Le Guin, from The Wind's Twelve Quarters

Offline serious crayons

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Re: Bookends!
« Reply #8 on: September 24, 2006, 05:21:49 pm »
jeez you guys...the side-view mirror at the bneginning and end of the summer...WAKE UP! SUNDAY!

Yes, Julie, I agree that the side-view mirror is a mirror (or actually a bookend).

How about this:

Ennis is spreading tar alongside a chatty coworker.


Offline serious crayons

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Re: Bookends!
« Reply #9 on: September 24, 2006, 05:40:29 pm »
That’s a tough one. Could it be Jack dancing with a chatty partner?

After Ennis describes other people looking at him, Jack says, “Well, maybe you ought to get out of there, y’know? Find yourself someplace different, maybe Texas.”

Wait, are both of those answers to my bookend, or is the second one the beginning of another bookend? Because actually those are both correct answers to my tar-spreading-scene bookend. One is Jack dancing with a chatty partner, the other is Ennis being out on the pavement where someone "knows" about his Brokeback life (i.e., refers obliquely to it).

But if yours is the beginning of a whole NEW bookend, hmmm ... that's a tough one! I'll keep thinking.