TOTW 03/09: What Was the Attraction?

[bailey1205]

I think that line says exactly how Ennis was feeling.......to accept he was in love with Jack, was to him, admitting he was queer....he really did not want to think of himself as queer.

Even at the reunion, he is still reinforcing, that he "knows he aint".......was marrying Alma and being able to make love to a woman, his justification that he was not?

It seems he was more concerned about thinking himself queer, than anything else.

Yep !

I think his fear of thinking of himself as queer was bigger then his fear of the tire iron.

[SFEnnisSF]

He does it for me, I know it ain´t no fun up there. He´s doing it for me...why would anyone do something like that for me?

You know, after all this time, I never thought of this scene that way.  I always thought Ennis was just tired of hearin' Jack's bitchin' and complainin'.  This is a much nicer way to view the scene.  Thank you   

It's amazing after all these years we still can become enlightened...

[SFEnnisSF]

I think the only time that he (Jack) ever felt fulfilled and accepted for who he really was, was that distant summer on Brokeback Mountain and I think he spent the rest of his life trying to recreate it. But as you pointed out, in the end he ends up back home with his parents who doesn't even carry out his last wishes.

Like you I also wonder about the Jack we do not see,more so than Ennis. Does he as you say, go upstairs to his room and try to  breathe in the very essence of Ennis and BBM. Does he cry as he recalls the idyllic summer that was Brokeback.
I so often think of Jack as the being like a candle flickering in the breeze, close to being extinguished and yet somehow managing to burn for a little while longer. It would be glorious and much easier to imagine Jack as the eternal flame,clinging onto a vague yet ever dimming hope of some solace around the next bend. The words in the story, "let be, let be" seem to indicate that as he recalls and relishes the moment of the dozy embrace, he dare not allow himself to think more deeply.That to me seems to indicate that although outwardly optimistic, his inner self knows the reality and as such any exploration of the true situation is too much to even contemplate.

 

[Artiste]

Even to-day, gays do not think of themselves as queer! Gays are persons like everyone else who is not gay! We all are humans!

Being a gay man, I do not think that I am queer! But one thinks about that that (some) others do, and maybe gay bashing might be from them!

It was only spirit of being oneself that made Ennis and Jack attract to each other as a couple, a loving one!! I see that as that! Does anyone else do?

[Katie77]

Even to-day, gays do not think of themselves as queer! Gays are persons like everyone else who is not gay! We all are humans!

Being a gay man, I do not think that I am queer! But one thinks about that that (some) others do, and maybe gay bashing might be from them!

It was only spirit of being oneself that made Ennis and Jack attract to each other as a couple, a loving one!! I see that as that! Does anyone else do?

The term "queer" is only being used here, as it was in the context of the movie.

I do not call gay people "queer" in normal conversation, nor do I think that gays think of themselves as "queer".

We are talking about how Ennis felt, and in doing that we are quoting the word "queer" as he used it.

[Kerry]

I have no problem with the word "queer." I wear it as a badge of honour. I'm in good company.

[Katie77]

I have no problem with the word "queer." I wear it as a badge of honour. I'm in good company.

And I'm sure you use the word in an affectionate and sometimes humourous way Kerry, as it should be, when it is used.

But as you know, sometimes it can be used in a derogative way, which is how I think Ennis viewed it.

[optom3]

I have no problem with the word "queer." I wear it as a badge of honour. I'm in good company.

Queer is only derogatory if you allow it to be, so I agree with you.
In the north of England there is a very old phrase, there's nowt so queer as folk, normally muttered in conjunction with, there's more out than in. !! Iam definitely very queer/strange/odd, but it at least spares me from the grey cloak of mediocrity.
One good thing about moving to the states, is many of my quirks are perfectly acceptable and accepted as part of the perceived eccenticity of the British.

[Katie77]

Queer is only derogatory if you allow it to be, so I agree with you.
In the north of England there is a very old phrase, there's nowt so queer as folk, normally muttered in conjunction with, there's more out than in. !! Iam definitely very queer/strange/odd, but it at least spares me from the grey cloak of mediocrity.
One good thing about moving to the states, is many of my quirks are perfectly acceptable and accepted as part of the perceived eccenticity of the British.

Same out here in Oz, Fiona. We  brag about how strange and odd we are.....its our trademark.

And for us, who's ancestors were shipped out here for penance, we can always blame our British heritage...lol

[mariez]

I think his fear of thinking of himself as queer was bigger then his fear of the tire iron.

bailey, I totally agree with this.  Obviously, the thought of being so brutally beaten is horrifying, but I don't think Ennis's real torment was simply about any type of physical beating - it was a more internal torment  about being "queer" and what he had been taught by his father and society that that meant. 

As to the question of their attraction - I always think of that line from the ss that has been quoted a few times here already, at the end of the paragraph that begins:

They had a high-time supper by the fire....................................They were respectful of each other’s opinions, each glad to have a companion where none had been expected. Ennis, riding against the wind back to the sheep in the treacherous, drunken light, thought he’d never had such a good time, felt he could paw the white out of the moon.

We can see that neither of them had ever felt so comfortable with another person before.