Author Topic: On earth and stones  (Read 7817 times)

Offline Front-Ranger

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On earth and stones
« on: April 21, 2009, 11:59:27 am »
I was just thinking about stones today...maybe it's because I live in the Rocky Mountains.

On Jack and stones...early in the story, Jack comes back to camp after a hard day of sheep wrangling, and eats two cans of peaches and some of Ennis' stone biscuits.

And late in the movie/story, Lureen tells Ennis that they "put a stone up" when he asks her about funeral services for Jack.

That seems like an odd statement. What do you think it means?
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Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: On earth and stones
« Reply #1 on: April 21, 2009, 12:22:36 pm »
And late in the movie/story, Lureen tells Ennis that they "put a stone up" when he asks her about funeral services for Jack.

That seems like an odd statement. What do you think it means?

You haven't heard that use before? It means they erected a grave marker--a headstone--where she buried the portion of Jack's ashes that she didn't send up to his folks in Lightning Flat.

I guess that's an aspect I don't recall seeing discussed before. Lureen didn't send all of Jack's ashes to his parents in Wyoming. She had some of them buried in Texas. She probably had to pay extra to the undertaker to have the ashes divided into two parcels.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline LauraGigs

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Re: On earth and stones
« Reply #2 on: April 21, 2009, 02:42:35 pm »
"They put a stone up..." 

To me Lureen's wording makes Jack's Texas funeral sound so ... empty.  Not that I blame the character of Lureen herself.  It's just that I think it was written to indicate that Jack's postmortem services were so incomplete at that point.  A fitting, subtle setup for the emotional resolution and healing of Ennis and Ma Twist's ritual with the shirts.

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: On earth and stones
« Reply #3 on: April 21, 2009, 02:57:24 pm »
Yes, I agree with you, friend. To me it also reminds me of the stony face Ennis adopted sometimes when talking of his dad, his early life, etc.

And, now that I think about it, the stony face of Jack as he watched Ennis drive away...
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Offline Penthesilea

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Re: On earth and stones
« Reply #4 on: April 22, 2009, 02:38:26 am »
Some comments off the cuff: when I think "stones" I think of Ennis, not Jack. And I think of poor, stony, brownish soil I saw in some places in Wyoming, with beautiful little flowers blooming there nonetheless.

*goes searching for a pic*

*back*

They're beautiful, aren't they?



And this is where they grow:



It's the same pic twice, the first is a detail from the second. I think the place is just brown, dusty and stony almost all year round - but it has the capacitiy to breed such beautiful flowers for some weeks. Reminds me of Ennis. He's linked with bronish tones and with earth. And just like this place, he may appear dusty, poor and stony but has the capacity to fourish a few weeks a year, when he's with Jack. He has the capacitiy of beauty and tenderness in him, just like this seemingly poor and stony soil.


(BTW, the pic was taken on the short, two day Wyoming trip at the BBQ 2007; on the dirt road between Kaycee and Ten Sleep, where the plains come to an end and the first snow-capped mountains come in sight)

Offline Penthesilea

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Re: On earth and stones
« Reply #5 on: April 22, 2009, 02:48:36 am »
Another picture that comes to my mind thinking stones, is Ennis putting up the rocks for the fireplace on their first campsite.


And by pure chance and on a slightly silly note, I just came across this old photo caption yesterday:



"Bring a couple more buckets a water, tonight I'm making a specialty I learned from my grandma, rock soup."



Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: On earth and stones
« Reply #6 on: April 22, 2009, 09:36:08 am »
Very funny, friend! Your wildflower pictures are great! That flower is called chickweed, latin name Cerastium arvense. It makes a delicious tea.
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Offline ifyoucantfixit

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Re: On earth and stones
« Reply #7 on: April 22, 2009, 01:34:10 pm »



      I think that put a stone up.  Is the southern vernacular for headstone.  My family was from Texas.  They often
used that term.  "Putting up a headstone,"  or we got them a "headstone."  The term "stone," is simply a shortened version of that, and an understanding that you would understand that was the inference.



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Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: On earth and stones
« Reply #8 on: April 22, 2009, 09:53:59 pm »
This is interesting. Thank you, everyone. Now I am wondering why AP had Jack eat two bowls of stew, two bottles of beer, four of Ennis's stone biscuits, and a can of peaches one evening early in their Brokeback Mountain adventure. It is interesting to me that all these things except the peaches were even numbered things. Did he eat stew because he was stewing about things? the stone biscuits, that means they were made by flour ground on a stone, correct? And peaches have stones.
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Offline Ellemeno

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Re: On earth and stones
« Reply #9 on: April 23, 2009, 12:52:04 am »
Very funny, friend! Your wildflower pictures are great! That flower is called chickweed, latin name Cerastium arvense. It makes a delicious tea.


Hi Lee, I respectfully disagree.  I don't think that's chickweed (Stellaria media) OR Cerastium arvense.  To me it looks like a kind of phlox.