Is it my imagination, or does the New Yorker have some sort of strategy to mention Brokeback in every issue? This week it was in a story about research on gay sheep.
Happy 15th anniversary!
I found “Brokeback Mountain” short story in my "The Complete New Yorker" DVDs. Thought you may want to look at the images of the short story in the original publication. (Click to enlarge)
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I have an (excellent!) copy of a copy of that New Yorker. besides the first two italcized paragraphs, the only difference I could find was---when she's listing the things they discussed on the "paw the white out of the moon" night, in the New Yorker, it says "military service," which she later changed to "draft."
I remember so clearly coming home from work after a stressful day and seeing that issue of the magazine lying on the kitchen counter. It is always a bit of a lift when the week's new issue arrives! I read the front matter before dinner and it wasn't until bedtime when I began reading the story. I often skip the fiction in the New Yorker but something drew me in on this one. Perhaps it was the almost mythical tone, "They were raised on small, poor ranches in opposite parts of the state..." who wouldn't want to read more? Although I read the first two pages very attentively, I was not ready at all for the "no instruction manual needed" part. I thought to myself, "I didn't know the story was going to go in this direction" and I actually thought twice about continuing to read. And then I thought, "Why not?" and I'm so glad I did. It is one of the small handful of artistic works that have actually changed my life.
Did anyone else around here read the story when it first came out?
I like to celebrate the day quietly. It was like a smooth stone dropped into a pond with hardly a sound, but the waves that emanated eventually reached the entire world!