Author Topic: Is Jack still alive?  (Read 25709 times)

Offline brokeplex

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Re: Is Jack still alive?
« Reply #20 on: January 28, 2008, 12:22:34 am »
Thanks brokenbackjack, thanks brokeplex!!

Brokenbackjack, may I ask you to note that my reply was done before Heath's passing was known by authorities in NYC!! I was not at my New York City art studio then nor before nor since!! I only saw news about Heath after supper (after 5 or near 6, if I remember correctly). Of course, we all are sad... then and now. I pray that we all are happy too that Ennis helped us all too!!

I appreciate your help.

I like brokeplex questions or comments too, and yours.

We are all in pain then and still, and we all need help... and we all can help too, may I suggest in many amiable ways!

We can all be kind to each other!! Even in such hard sad times, as Annie and BM movie tells us... in order to help each other and love which is grand like their acting and Heath as a person was!!

Hugs to you brokebackjack, hugs to you brokeplex!! We all LOVE you Heath!!

and hugs back to you too Artiste!

Offline brokebackjack

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Re: Is Jack still alive?
« Reply #21 on: January 28, 2008, 05:20:40 am »
 Brokeplex,

Injest as moderator was very right to contact me about my response  to you, very right to point out we are among friends here. Her statement about most of us being upset right now is the truth. Her suggestion that we need to take a deep breath and THINK before hitting the send button is totally on the mark...

I became irate at what was percieved ---wrongly--- to be nasty condescension on your part, mistook ordinary grumpiness for an attack and jumped all over you. No, Brokeplex, I'm not wiggling out of this one; what I said was wrong, nasty and against everything BetterMost stands for. It was an intentionally meant insult from me to you and I am mortified at having done it. Please accept my apology, it will not happen again. I would also like to apologise to anyone on the thread who may have read that post. We do not come here for crap like that. We come here because we all love Brokeback.

Just because I am upset is no reason to spread it around. You are probably just as upset. It will not happen again, and I think both of us have learned something here....

Attacking another poster is not acceptable. I don't like reading such things from others>>>> which makes doing them even MORE unacceptable.

Regarding your request that the 2 of us  "unzip to compare"?? Well, it would be counter-productive... since age 14 I have won that contest 9 x's out of 10  :o  roflmao. On the other hand.....at age 50, unzipping is inappropriate. so.....back to your request. Hopefully I can  answer what you asked like an adult and not some greying child.  ;D

Annie relies on an informed readership when she writes her work. She does not spell it all out, her readers often need to infer and extrapolate  a larger meaning from her allusions. She expects her readership 'to fill in the blanks.'

When it comes to the classical, ie, Helleno-Romanic  allusions within BBM there are many...she made Jack a Bull Rider [prehellenic/minoan] for example... and one is expected to grasp and extrapolate other things from those references.

But that is NOT what I was referring to, Brokeplex. And I have to go waaaay off topic to answer the question, so I hope it is worth it.

When I mentioned missing the forest for the trees, I was referring to Annie's actual construction of the story, the style used when she wrote Brokeback Mountain .

With Brokeback, Annie accomplished successfully what no other modern English language writer has managed to do>>>she successfully transmuted transmogrified and transformed the principles of  classical Athenian drama into modern short story format.

Aeschylos or Sophocles would recognise her technique instantly.  It is blatantly classical, blatant yet subtle. She wrote a drama using principles developed 2,500 years ago. She wrote a tragedy in prose, not verse. Yet the verse is there, poetry within prose. It was not a play. I don't even think she knows how to write a play.  She sat down and wrote it in a genre  she's comfortable with, the short story.

Ok, you wanted to know when and where she said these things.

There is a problem in answering that question. Unfortunately there are no 'major documented interviews' in which she said any of this. There are two exceptions to that statement, but neither was  in any major publication. They were questions answered for us, for brokies from BM and Cullen.

Back in Oct 2006 I asked her questions about the technique and construction of Brokeback. Ellen put my interview and hers into the Daily Sheet over at Cullen. I'll look up which issue and send you a link. On that day she  also spoke to us about other matters which we did not write about in any detail, or even at all. It would have been both inappropriate and a breach of trust.

During the same day in Wyoming, FrontRanger asked Annie a marvelous question about the importance of classical references within the  Brokeback story. If you contact Lee she can probably link to the BM thread she put the answers in, although a much more detailed version was written by her in response to the rabid questions people had for her in one of the analysis threads over at Cullen. She or Miniangel may have a link to that post.   In February[?] 2007, after an awards ceremony in Boulder we asked her about other aspects of the story. I remember my question, asked while she signed my book,  was again about technique, although we also spoke about the 30 years it took THIS Ennis to say I Love You to my now wife [it was pretty funny lol].   

She was gracious enough to give long and  detailed answers to brokies at other times during the last what, 12-14 months or so, largely on the subject of the story's construction and  technique. Answers to questions we are meant to discover for ourselves, she NEVER gives, ever. She guards the legacy of Brokeback Mountain well. 

The thing is, virtually none of that has ever been in public, nor is any of it documented.

Nor should it be: they were not interviews; these were conversations.

Look this is just my opinion, but I firmly believe the key to a better understanding of Brokeback Mountain in all aspects not directly concerned with specific questions lies within Annie's construction of her story, within the way the tale was crafted. When you understand her technique, much--MUCH--falls into place. When you understand the construction, MUCH becomes clear.

Brokeback was concieved FROM ITS CONCEPTION within Annie Proulx's mind as a work which progressively unfolded within a series of flashbacks. This is paramount to understanding the story. The unfolding flashbacks have an importance which transcends  the linear chronology. The emotional build within the reader--rather then a linear chronology--is what was kept first and foremost  when she constructed Brokeback.

 The Prologue was concieved within her mind from the very beginning as the piece which sets the tone, sets the stage for her entire story. Over before it began, in more ways then one....The importance of the Prologue, while it might be sometimes OVERestimated, should under no circumstances be UNDERRATED.

It was left out of the initial publication in the New Yorker completely by mistake. That mistake was made by the 'typesetters', nobody really knows exactly how to this very day: in other words 'the classic screwup' lol. When she first saw it, she  almost had a coronary and felt her masterpiece had been mutilated, wrecked, rendered unintelligable. THAT is how important her prologue is to the story of Brokeback Mountain.

The technique of her story is circular rather then linear. In more ways then one, The End is the beginning, while the Prologue is The End. Again, the story is over when it begins....in a sad way, just like Jack and Ennis.

OK, circularity within a story is common enough. Attempts to recreate classical drama are common enough. Flashbacks are common enough. What is unique is her taking all of that, and combining the ingredients so successfully you don't even realise she's done it. That story as crafted is a stylistic tour de force. One which WORKS.

Understanding the technique as written will bring us no closer to answering those questions we want answered: "Is Jack Still Alive?", "Did Jack Quit Ennis?", "How Did Jack Really Die?".

Why?

As constructed--and as the author has said on MANY very well documented occasions--we, the readers, are MEANT TO ASK THOSE QUESTIONS. THE ANSWER TO ALL OF THEM LIES WITHIN OUR OWN EXPERIENCE AND HEART. There is no right or wrong answer. Every reader has his or her interpretation, his or her belief. That is what she WANTED when she wrote it!

The characters are destroyed by their own inner character flaws and defects, which is the hallmark of classical tragedy. Hence, the story bites deep, as classical tragedy bites deeply within our hearts to this very day.

In the classic Euripidean manner Brokeback Mountain leaves us with more questions then answers>>>>which is why we are HERE! Hell, Annie is the AUTHOR---and SHE wondered what happened to Ennis after Jack's death. Yes, she is their creator: yet she wrote herself a private short story about Ennis, wrote it to exorcise the ghosts of Jack Twist and Ennis DelMar, wrote it so she could SLEEP lol!!!

Read it again, read it as if you were reading one of the great Athenian dramatic works from the Golden age. Look at it from that standpoint. Your interpretation will...shift.

I hope this helps a bit.  And again, apologies for my previous nastiness. Somewhere in my files I have a few unpublished pieces, including a talk she gave us on 'Cowboy Myths and Realities' which partly discusses Jack and Ennis; if you would like to read any of it, let me know.
« Last Edit: January 28, 2008, 07:19:03 am by brokebackjack »
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Offline brokebackjack

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Re: Is Jack still alive?
« Reply #22 on: January 28, 2008, 05:41:03 am »
Thanks brokenbackjack, thanks brokeplex!!

Brokenbackjack, may I ask you to note that my reply was done before Heath's passing was known by authorities in NYC!! I was not at my New York City art studio then nor before nor since!! I only saw news about Heath after supper (after 5 or near 6, if I remember correctly). Of course, we all are sad... then and now. I pray that we all are happy too that Ennis helped us all too!!

I appreciate your help.

I like brokeplex questions or comments too, and yours.

We are all in pain then and still, and we all need help... and we all can help too, may I suggest in many amiable ways!

We can all be kind to each other!! Even in such hard sad times, as Annie and BM movie tells us... in order to help each other and love which is grand like their acting and Heath as a person was!!

Hugs to you brokebackjack, hugs to you brokeplex!! We all LOVE you Heath!!
Artiste, I didn't even know you had a studio in NY. It must have been awful to hear the news on television. I was 'lucky' in that FrontRanger called me to let us know. If she hadn't we would have heard watching television as well. What a shock you must have had. ....
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Offline Artiste

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Re: Is Jack still alive?
« Reply #23 on: January 28, 2008, 12:01:37 pm »
Thanks brokebackjack!

Yes, I could have heard about Heath's passing from any of my art studios either New York City, Los Angeles, Toronto, Montreal, Vermont, San Francisco... and believe me that I am still in shock and could not sleep for over five days!! Nor think!! Nor even do chores!! Some on Bettermost did help me cope... better and thanks to them and to you - and hopefully I mutually helped too!! WE still are very sad and in dire times with this; we, I feel, have to think and feel that Heath wants us to be happy, amiable and loveable above all, since he selected his role as Ennis and made it real for LOVE between all humans on Earth - that is what I see via Annie, the BM movie and others... like on Bettermost and by others even my Mother, my niece... and millions maybe billions of others on this Heavenly Planet for us to be BEAUTIFUL!! I have watched on TV daily on very numerous stations in the USA, Canada, France... and I think that Heath touched all (or nearly) countries in the world not only with his passing, also doing Ennis as he did for all men and all women, no matter what sexual orientations or anything else!! Be happy to see you in person in Montreal at my art gallery exhibition next end September 2008 and/or early Ocotber??!! - if you like. Divine... is Quebec, which is 400 years old + now!!


That being said, of course much more can be added, like Annie and the BM movie does: for mutual help... among other mysteries of life for LOVE!! Since the movie, I have had many communications from gay men who discover me, even some caught in countries where they will be murdered by their country or religion if anybody finds out; a few from soldier(s) in Iraq and if the USA Government finds out they will be in prison or court marshalled I guess, put out because they are gays; sad and I see that Annie is against that - so is the BM movie being pro-life and/or pro-gay... pro-for all humans!!

I have read what you write now to brokeplex and I admire your comment a great deal. Be assured that I will re-read it many many many times as I find it wondrous... wonderful!!

May I say that Annie is of French-Canadienne stock (for the lack of a better word) which is great as a culture. Did you know that... surely you do; you know that that helps her create such tour de force?? I think so. A suggestion... as among other great talents/cultures she has. You want to know how as to that culture?

Hugs!! Have a wonderful day!! I am happy awaiting your news Jack!!


Offline brokebackjack

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Re: Is Jack still alive?
« Reply #24 on: January 28, 2008, 04:43:28 pm »
http://www.davecullen.com/forum/index.php?topic=17094.msg552102#msg552102

this is a link to the Annie Proulx article at cullen's TDS, with contributions from   brokies like Tellyouwhat, FrontRanger, me  and AdrianDelmar. It's the Oct27, 2006 issue at Casper, Wyoming. It has a great deal of information within it, of benefit to anyone who likes discussing the story. If it wasn't for this thread I'd have lost it myself>> had to hunt for it---and now I've saved the page.



again OT, but I don't know where to put it.
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Offline Artiste

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Re: Is Jack still alive?
« Reply #25 on: January 28, 2008, 11:20:46 pm »
Thanks brokenbackjack!

Since we have to be a member to see that, maybe you can re-find it and place it here for all to see?

Please.

Hugs!

Offline brokebackjack

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Re: Is Jack still alive?
« Reply #26 on: January 29, 2008, 06:41:47 am »
Below is the text of articles regarding Annie Proulx from TDS at the DCF 10/27/06. Edited by tellyouwhat/Ellen Raff If this thread is not appropriate, please move it to the best spot. Thanks


Annie Proulx Participates in Panel at Equality State Book Fair in Wyoming


Forum members who traveled to Wyoming last week hoped to gain new insights into our understanding of Brokeback Mountain, Annie Proulx’s work, and of Ms. Proulx herself.  We got all that and more.  We took as many notes and pictures as we could so we could share this experience with you.  Thanks to Brokeback_1, Horsewrangler (adrian.delmar), and Front-Ranger for contributing to this report.

The session (held at the Nicolaysen Art Museum in Casper) started on time at 2:15.  The other authors waited in the wings, and allowed Annie to pick her seat first.  Those of us who camped in the front row all day could not believe our luck when she sat directly in front of us.  We can testify that her photos convey only a fraction of her presence and style in person.    

   

Annie Proulx / photo by Katrina Morris-Schilling

Cowboy Myths, Cowboy Realities

Each member of the panel was asked to speak for ten minutes about the topic Cowboy Myths/Cowboy Realities  The moderator, Wyoming Poet Laureate David Romtvedt, asked the authors to speak in alphabetical order, but if “Proulx” had not been conveniently last, it would have been hard on whoever followed her.  Award-winning poet Linda Hasselstrom owns a working ranch and commented that, for her, “cowboy” is a verb.  Abe Morris, retired rodeo star turned author (got out of rodeo – too busted up), spoke of growing up in New Jersey and following his dream of becoming a “cowboy” until he ultimately embodied the myth.  John Nesbitt, a writer of western-themed short stories and novels, and instructor at Eastern Wyoming College, talked about how cowboy mythology fuels his stories.



Abe Morris, former rodeo professional who wrote the
memoir My Cowboy Hat Still Fits / photo by Horsewrangler

When it was Annie’s turn, she read prepared comments, saying that she is not an “off the cuff” speaker.  She said the image of the cowboy is one of the most complex in American history, and mentioned a long list of cowboy types:

   “…we have historic cowboy, the trail driver, the outlaw, the rodeo rider, the wanna-be, singing cowboy, revolutionary.  Cowboy artist, Hollywood stencil, license plate cowboy, sexual icon, poet, fashion model, virtuoso, horseman and gun handler.”

These “types,” she said, only emerged after the real work of cowboys, trail-driving, herding and ranching had become less important.  The original cowboys, she said, had been “uneducated ill-paid rowdy Texas teenagers …(who) were single as it was a general prejudice against hiring married cowhands.”  Due to their natures, they became known for going on youthful “sprees” in trail towns, which contributed to the myth of the cowboy as a symbol of independent men who could do “what they wanted without interference.”   

BetterMost participant Front-Ranger summed up one of Annie Proulx’s answers to an audience question:  “She reminisced in an answer to a question about driving along a highway in the middle of the state, coming over a ridge, and seeing three waddies (cows) plastered with snow, just like a Remington painting. She referred several times in her talk to the artists Remington, Charles Russell, and Will James, as well as Jackson Pollock, who was born in Wyoming but moved away before he was a year old. The Western artists, she said, created the myth of the cowboy as much or more than the writers did.”

Front-Ranger also asked an important question about the mythical nature of cows in many cultures.

   “As soon as I said, ‘you made Jack a bullrider,’ I saw Annie reaching for the microphone and my heart started beating wildly! She said that yes, the parallels are many, not only to ancient Greece, but also to Biblical times, that the New Testament describes Christ riding into Jerusalem twice ‘on an unbroken colt’ and that the Old Testament mentions bulls several times. ‘If I make a character, I depend on the reader to bring his or her experiences like this to the story, because I can't spell it out,’ she said. She knows that certain words, phrases, and situations have resonance in the culture that can be implied, and these are invisible parts of the story that only the informed reader can access. She chose the words carefully in order to ‘set up echoes in people's minds.’"   



Close Range

Annie Proulx - “Eleven years ago I wrote that short story Brokeback Mountain as part of a collection of stories revolving around an ironic conflict between belief and reality.  The epigraph was a quotation from a Wyoming rancher, ‘Reality’s never been much use out here.’  There was an element of denial and fantasy in all of these stories.”




William Matthews watercolor illustration from Close Range

tfmisc has posted all the illustrations from Close Range in our Close Range thread, where forum members have just finished discussing "The Half-Skinned Steer," and are about to move on to the three short works, "Fifty-five Miles to the Gas Pump," "Job History," and "The Blood Bay."



Brokeback Mountain

Annie Proulx: “Brokeback was about Wyoming homophobia told through the lives of two nineteen year old boys in 1963, cut off from their ranch families, who could only find summer jobs herding sheep and who fell tragically in love.  They were not cowboys, although both wanted to be.  The self-hating character Ennis making due with occasional ranch work.  Jack Twist trying his marginal skills at rodeo.”

When the film came out, Ms. Proulx said, she was distressed that it was referred to in press and ads as the “gay cowboy movie.”

She said, “Had I wanted to write a story about cowboys, I would not have put them to work herding sheep!” (Much laughter)

She thought at first that eastern media had mis-labeled the story, since to them “all men in boots and hats were cowboys.”  Later she realized that the “savvy producers of the film understood the power of the cowboy image extremely well, knew the film would shock, disturb and attract many viewers and make money.  I think I was the last one to figure this out.”

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Offline brokebackjack

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Re: Is Jack still alive?
« Reply #27 on: January 29, 2008, 06:56:16 am »
Two other Annie Proulx articles from the same issue of TDS at the DCF, October 27, 2006. Edited by tellyouwhat/EllenRaff  *Notice how comfortable FrontRanger is in Ennis' truck!! * I wrote the Brokeback_1 article



MORE Brokeback Mountain Answers:  The Chance of a Lifetime

by brokeback_1

Nowhere but Wyoming could we have attended such an intimate literary function with so many outstanding authors.

Two weeks earlier I had sent an email to the most active members of several theme threads here on the forum: If you could ask AP one question --in person--about Brokeback Mountain, what would it be? They came up with the same question I would have asked myself. It concerned the genesis and meaning of the prologue, its effect upon the story as a whole. Why did she use it? What had made her decide to start with the end? It was a technique she had never to my knowledge used in any of her other works.

As we all walked towards the book signing at the front of the museum my mind was a jumble. I had no idea how to ask a woman who was arguably the English speaking world's greatest living author ANY sort of question privately, and the more I thought about it, the more nervous I became..so I decided to wait until it got a bit quieter  and just ask.

I saw my chance. Rather then talk myself out of it, I walked over and asked AP to sign my copy of Brokeback Mountain. She looked both gracious and tired.  Eager to go home.

BB1:  Ma'am, thank you for signing my book. So far as I am concerned Brokeback Mountain changed the nature of the short story in the English language. That book changes lives. It changed MINE. I proposed to my fiance after 30 years when I read your book.

AP:  Thirty years?

BB1 (nods):  Ma'am, can I ask you a question? A question about the technique you used when you wrote Brokeback Mountain? When did you decide to use a prologue with BBM?

AP:  Oh, it wasn't an addition, I had always included the prologue. The prologue was left out by mistake when the story was first published.

BB1:  I know that. I mean, what made you decide to use a prologue in the first place? So far as I know you didn't use it in any of your other works, and I've read them all...Did you use a prologue in BBM to ease to the placement of scenes and unify the temporal juxtaposition of events separated by years within the body of the story? It seems to me that without the prologue, Brokeback would not be Brokeback, so I would like to know what made you decide to use the Prologue.

AP: AH. From the moment I decided to write the story I knew I would use a prologue. Brokeback Mountain was designed as a series of unfolding flashbacks where the impact continually built within and upon the reader. The story proceeds from the end and moves backwards.

(Knowing how important this would be to Forum members, I want to say that I have checked and double checked this quote for accuracy against my memory, my notes and my fiance's memory. And hers goes back to the birth canal.  As near as we know, the above is absolutely correct.)

BB1:  So then the  placement of the various scenes -- such as the urination (referring to the hard scene with Jack’s father) do not matter so much chronologically as emotionally.

AP: Yes.

I thanked her, said that her answer had made it much easier to understand the structure of the story. Then I managed to walk away without tripping over my own feet.



Breaking New Ground, and the Religious Right

In my (tellyouwhat's) short time speaking with Annie Proulx, I thanked her for her ground-breaking writing and told her that she was an inspiration not only to all writers, but to all women and everyone who strives to do their best at whatever their life task may be.  She was surprised to learn I had come from Dallas and that several of us had traveled.  She was very gracious but I could also sense a reticence, which I thought must come from not being used to her new-found fame.



Annie Proulx signing tellyouwhat's hard-won illustrated copy of Close Range

In further discussions with Brokeback_1, Ms. Proulx revealed that her fame has, unfortunately, a dark side.  Too much of the wrong kind of attention from the Religious Right has forced her to become more reclusive, even to the point of scaling back her own website.  This is unfortunate indeed, as it means they have succeeded in reducing our access to Annie Proulx' unique insights.




Jack (brokeback_1) talking to Annie Proulx after the book signing

BB1:  That wonderful speech you gave (during the panel), will it be published, or posted on your website? Is there a video of it anywhere?

AP:  OH NO, I'm done with the website, every time I added or posted to it the right wing Christians harassed me. Well I'm glad you enjoyed it (the comments) so much, but it was just for the moment, for now in Casper at the Expo. It’s just for today.



After the Panel and Book Signing

Forum Members and BetterMost participants shared our jubilation out in E Del Mar's aqua truck.



Front-Ranger, ptannen, tellyouwhat, Brokeback_1, E Delmar
and Horsewrangler (Adrian.delmar) / photo from Horsewrangler


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Offline Artiste

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Re: Is Jack still alive?
« Reply #28 on: January 29, 2008, 11:45:22 am »
Thanks very, very much brokenbackjack!

I love it!!

Read quickly and be assured that I will re-read often.

Seems to me that Annie says a lot, even though I though it simple. More later. Got to rush... (go to the Post Office to see if Jack or Ennis or others send me a postcard)??

Any other words by Annie?? I am puzzled by her words.

Hugs!

Offline brokeplex

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Re: Is Jack still alive?
« Reply #29 on: January 30, 2008, 11:18:47 pm »
Brokeplex,

Injest as moderator was very right to contact me about my response  to you, very right to point out we are among friends here. Her statement about most of us being upset right now is the truth. Her suggestion that we need to take a deep breath and THINK before hitting the send button is totally on the mark...

I became irate at what was percieved ---wrongly--- to be nasty condescension on your part, mistook ordinary grumpiness for an attack and jumped all over you. No, Brokeplex, I'm not wiggling out of this one; what I said was wrong, nasty and against everything BetterMost stands for. It was an intentionally meant insult from me to you and I am mortified at having done it. Please accept my apology, it will not happen again. I would also like to apologise to anyone on the thread who may have read that post. We do not come here for crap like that. We come here because we all love Brokeback.

Just because I am upset is no reason to spread it around. You are probably just as upset. It will not happen again, and I think both of us have learned something here....

Attacking another poster is not acceptable. I don't like reading such things from others>>>> which makes doing them even MORE unacceptable.

Regarding your request that the 2 of us  "unzip to compare"?? Well, it would be counter-productive... since age 14 I have won that contest 9 x's out of 10  :o  roflmao. On the other hand.....at age 50, unzipping is inappropriate. so.....back to your request. Hopefully I can  answer what you asked like an adult and not some greying child.  ;D

Annie relies on an informed readership when she writes her work. She does not spell it all out, her readers often need to infer and extrapolate  a larger meaning from her allusions. She expects her readership 'to fill in the blanks.'

When it comes to the classical, ie, Helleno-Romanic  allusions within BBM there are many...she made Jack a Bull Rider [prehellenic/minoan] for example... and one is expected to grasp and extrapolate other things from those references.

But that is NOT what I was referring to, Brokeplex. And I have to go waaaay off topic to answer the question, so I hope it is worth it.

When I mentioned missing the forest for the trees, I was referring to Annie's actual construction of the story, the style used when she wrote Brokeback Mountain .

With Brokeback, Annie accomplished successfully what no other modern English language writer has managed to do>>>she successfully transmuted transmogrified and transformed the principles of  classical Athenian drama into modern short story format.

Aeschylos or Sophocles would recognise her technique instantly.  It is blatantly classical, blatant yet subtle. She wrote a drama using principles developed 2,500 years ago. She wrote a tragedy in prose, not verse. Yet the verse is there, poetry within prose. It was not a play. I don't even think she knows how to write a play.  She sat down and wrote it in a genre  she's comfortable with, the short story.

Ok, you wanted to know when and where she said these things.

There is a problem in answering that question. Unfortunately there are no 'major documented interviews' in which she said any of this. There are two exceptions to that statement, but neither was  in any major publication. They were questions answered for us, for brokies from BM and Cullen.

Back in Oct 2006 I asked her questions about the technique and construction of Brokeback. Ellen put my interview and hers into the Daily Sheet over at Cullen. I'll look up which issue and send you a link. On that day she  also spoke to us about other matters which we did not write about in any detail, or even at all. It would have been both inappropriate and a breach of trust.

During the same day in Wyoming, FrontRanger asked Annie a marvelous question about the importance of classical references within the  Brokeback story. If you contact Lee she can probably link to the BM thread she put the answers in, although a much more detailed version was written by her in response to the rabid questions people had for her in one of the analysis threads over at Cullen. She or Miniangel may have a link to that post.   In February[?] 2007, after an awards ceremony in Boulder we asked her about other aspects of the story. I remember my question, asked while she signed my book,  was again about technique, although we also spoke about the 30 years it took THIS Ennis to say I Love You to my now wife [it was pretty funny lol].   

She was gracious enough to give long and  detailed answers to brokies at other times during the last what, 12-14 months or so, largely on the subject of the story's construction and  technique. Answers to questions we are meant to discover for ourselves, she NEVER gives, ever. She guards the legacy of Brokeback Mountain well. 

The thing is, virtually none of that has ever been in public, nor is any of it documented.

Nor should it be: they were not interviews; these were conversations.

Look this is just my opinion, but I firmly believe the key to a better understanding of Brokeback Mountain in all aspects not directly concerned with specific questions lies within Annie's construction of her story, within the way the tale was crafted. When you understand her technique, much--MUCH--falls into place. When you understand the construction, MUCH becomes clear.

Brokeback was concieved FROM ITS CONCEPTION within Annie Proulx's mind as a work which progressively unfolded within a series of flashbacks. This is paramount to understanding the story. The unfolding flashbacks have an importance which transcends  the linear chronology. The emotional build within the reader--rather then a linear chronology--is what was kept first and foremost  when she constructed Brokeback.

 The Prologue was concieved within her mind from the very beginning as the piece which sets the tone, sets the stage for her entire story. Over before it began, in more ways then one....The importance of the Prologue, while it might be sometimes OVERestimated, should under no circumstances be UNDERRATED.

It was left out of the initial publication in the New Yorker completely by mistake. That mistake was made by the 'typesetters', nobody really knows exactly how to this very day: in other words 'the classic screwup' lol. When she first saw it, she  almost had a coronary and felt her masterpiece had been mutilated, wrecked, rendered unintelligable. THAT is how important her prologue is to the story of Brokeback Mountain.

The technique of her story is circular rather then linear. In more ways then one, The End is the beginning, while the Prologue is The End. Again, the story is over when it begins....in a sad way, just like Jack and Ennis.

OK, circularity within a story is common enough. Attempts to recreate classical drama are common enough. Flashbacks are common enough. What is unique is her taking all of that, and combining the ingredients so successfully you don't even realise she's done it. That story as crafted is a stylistic tour de force. One which WORKS.

Understanding the technique as written will bring us no closer to answering those questions we want answered: "Is Jack Still Alive?", "Did Jack Quit Ennis?", "How Did Jack Really Die?".

Why?

As constructed--and as the author has said on MANY very well documented occasions--we, the readers, are MEANT TO ASK THOSE QUESTIONS. THE ANSWER TO ALL OF THEM LIES WITHIN OUR OWN EXPERIENCE AND HEART. There is no right or wrong answer. Every reader has his or her interpretation, his or her belief. That is what she WANTED when she wrote it!

The characters are destroyed by their own inner character flaws and defects, which is the hallmark of classical tragedy. Hence, the story bites deep, as classical tragedy bites deeply within our hearts to this very day.

In the classic Euripidean manner Brokeback Mountain leaves us with more questions then answers>>>>which is why we are HERE! Hell, Annie is the AUTHOR---and SHE wondered what happened to Ennis after Jack's death. Yes, she is their creator: yet she wrote herself a private short story about Ennis, wrote it to exorcise the ghosts of Jack Twist and Ennis DelMar, wrote it so she could SLEEP lol!!!

Read it again, read it as if you were reading one of the great Athenian dramatic works from the Golden age. Look at it from that standpoint. Your interpretation will...shift.

I hope this helps a bit.  And again, apologies for my previous nastiness. Somewhere in my files I have a few unpublished pieces, including a talk she gave us on 'Cowboy Myths and Realities' which partly discusses Jack and Ennis; if you would like to read any of it, let me know.

Greetings brother Brokebackjack!

My daddy and my uncle both raised me to believe that when a man sees that he is in the wrong, he should acknowledge his mistake and apologise. Jack you have gained my respect by doing just that. After cooling down, I looked back at my posts to you on this thread and also on another, and realize that those posts were not among my finest moments. I think that both of us were singing out of tune that night and we made the choir sound a bit sour. I regret that and hope that you will accept my apology as well.

I started to delete my own posts to you that were, shall we say,over the top sarcastic. I am rather embarrassed by them now. I changed my mind because I would like them to stand as an exemplar of how not to write a post.If the sneer demon speaks to me again, I will just look at the copy of that post that I printed out, and the embarrassment I remember will cause me to cool down.

I want to thank 3 people who counseled me and guided me into a new perspective.

1) Injest - for a very good job of moderating on that rambunctious night. Injest's quick and insightful moderating prevented a bad situation from becoming worse. I also thank Injest for her wise counsel in her emails. Because of gay friendly straights such as Injest, one day we will no longer be strangers in our own lands.

2) Artiste - for his wisdom and compassion which disarmed me. Artiste either was or should have been a very good elementary school teacher in his younger years, as he showed great skill in talking to a 51 year old who was acting like a 10 year old.

3) Finally D.L., the love of my life - he read my post to Brokebackjack and just frowned at me and shook his head. Non verbally he communicated volumes that he was disappointed in me. 

take care,
Bill