A quotation from Annie Proulx?

[nakymaton]

In a way, in his heart, I think he will always see Jack as that beautiful blue boy of 1963, who melted his heart and transfixed his spirit forever.

Around that time Jack began to appear in his dreams, Jack as he had first seen him, curly-headed and smiling and bucktoothed, talking about getting up off his pockets and into the control zone, but the can of beans with the spoon handle jutting out and balanced on the log was there as well, in a cartoon shape and lurid colors that gave the dreams a flavor of comic obscenity. The spoon handle was the kind that could be used as a tire iron. And he would wake sometimes in grief, sometimes with the old sense of joy and release; the pillow sometimes wet, sometimes the sheets.

Not quite so beautiful in the story, but still melting his heart and transfixing his soul.

Of course, it's the short story, so the pain has to be in there too, because that's just the way the story works.

[moremojo]

Of course, it's the short story, so the pain has to be in there too, because that's just the way the story works.

And horror, too...the image I am left with here of Ennis's life seems hellish. Without the softening factor introduced by the italicized prologue (absent from the original publication in The New Yorker), the story becomes a nightmare of almost unbearable sorrow.

[David]

 To get into those guys' heads and actions took a lot of 16-hour days, and never thinking about anything else and living a zombie life. That's what I had to do. I really needed an exorcist to get rid of those characters. And they roared back when I saw the film."

Hmmm,  don't we all know that feeling!!

[David]

Now, I just need to find a quotation from Annie Proulx refusing to write a sequel. ...

I recall reading the refusal, though I couldn't tell you where.   She again repeated how difficult it was to get the characters out of her head, and that she couldn't go back there again.  Or something to that effect.

[moremojo]

It was 1995 and Proulx, who lives in Wyoming, visited a crowded bar near the Montana border.

It just occurred to me that this nameless Wyoming bar has become sacred ground of no little significance. It was the scene of the first flash of divine inspiration, and saw the shades of Ennis and Jack gain refuge within Annie's mind and heart. If others knew the location, it would become a locus of pilgrimage as charged and meaningful as any other in Wyoming, or any of the Alberta sites associated with the film.

Our fellow member shakestheground plans on hearing Annie speak in North Carolina in the near future. He asked others to post or PM him if they had any particular questions they would like addressed to the author, assuming that he is able to meet and speak with her. I think I will submit this one, however trivial it might appear to some: What was the name and more precise location of that bar, and if possible, what was the exact date of that fateful 1995 visit?

[nakymaton]

I swear I've read the name of the bar somewhere before. (Maybe it was in the thread about the Casper "Equality State" conference?) I do remember that it's supposed to be in Sheridan, Wyoming.

Edit: Yes, the post was in the Casper viewing/talk thread. adrian.delmar said it was the "Mint" bar. So maybe we should ask Adrian where he heard that.

[moremojo]

I do remember that it's supposed to be in Sheridan, Wyoming.

Thanks, Mel! Just knowing that much makes a world of difference.

[Artiste]

Jack is NOT dead!

That is not the case....

since we are lead to believe that he is!!

Hugs!