fffffffzzzzzzzzzzzzzap! (lightning and electricity references)

[Penthesilea]

More electricity:
Ennis refuses to apply for a job at the power company. In the story, it is only shortly mentioned. But in the movie, it is more broad.

From screenplay:

Alma reads the want ads

Alma: Ennis...they got a openin' over at the power company. Might be good pay.

Ennis: Clumsy as I am, I'd probably get electrocuted.

First, I don't think of Ennis as clumsy and doubt he sees himself like that. Probably only an excuse for not applying there and avoiding a discussion right then; in this scene he is hurriedly preparing for a trip (the one when he forgets the tackle box and Alma reminds him).

Second, on a symbolic level, Ennis doesn't want to get too near to sources of great amounts (high voltage) of electricity. But he sure likes the little sparks/electrical current snapping  between him and Jack.

Just like he wants to be with Jack, but not too near, meaning not permanent. And for the same reason: he is afraid to die from it. Being electrocuted while working for the power company respectively being beaten to death for living with Jack.

[Mikaela]

I'll admit I've sometimes thought the lightning on reunion night was a bit of overkill on Ms. Proulx's part. (I'm sorry, please don't hit me!    )  As in, somewhat unneccessary to get the point across concerning the impact of the reunion on the 3 people directly  involved. I've been thinking it's making a huge emotional impression anyway, without the use of the somewhat tried-and-true lightning/weather methapor. 

But reading your post Meryl, I've now seen the light, as it were. Seriously, it gave me a better understanding and appreciation of that specific weather imagery. Thank you. 

It just amazes me no end that there's still something new to discover here!

 

[Meryl]

Wow, thanks Mika, coming from you, that makes my day! 

[Dal]

oh yeah -- the brilliant charge of thier coupling, and the radio batteries that go dead.

[Mikaela]

Oh yes!

Responding to some things upthread:

I like the scene where Jack is sleeping up on the mountain, a blue heeler beside him, and lightning/thunder is seen/heard off in the distance.

I love that! Because the film also shows us exactly where that distant bad weather *is* - Ennis is getting the full benefit of it, whiling away his time in the tent whittling that little horse. That lightning in the distance seems a direct link between scenes of Ennis and Jack - an instance of Lee picking up on Proulx's methaphors?

BTW, why do you think he didn't include the lightning storm during the film reunion? Would it have seemed like visual overkill? Taken the impact away from the force of the acting? Made for too much thunder and lightning throughout the film? 

(about the electric carving knife) Well, you know my theory about that, right?

Well, I don't. Please enlighten me? 

[Dal]

Jack and Ennis set off sparks in each other.

Story:

...the vibrations of the humming like faint electricity... (dozy embrace scene)

His shaking hand grazed Ennis's hand, electrical current snapped between them. (reunion... and there's also a storm brewing in the background, which, ummmm... comes to a climax when it starts hailing on the Motel Siesta. Weather-as-sexual-tension metaphor?)

...the lightning storm that killed 42 sheep...

And in the movie, there are a number of thunder storms, aren't there? Not just the one where Ennis is washing the coffee pot and looking up the mountain toward Jack? There's thunder with the hail storm that scatters the sheep, I think.

At the reunion, Ennis's lighter-flicking kind of takes the place of lightning-flickering to build the tension.

Electricity, and charge, lightning, hail, AND love?  Forces of nature, same metaphor for AL as AP I think.  They're not always good for us either, are they?  but we don't exactly have much choice.

[Dal]

there's also a storm brewing in the background, which, ummmm... comes to a climax when it starts hailing on the Motel Siesta.

Yah -- with a slippery wind banging a door throughout the night!!   

[serious crayons]

(about the electric carving knife) Well, you know my theory about that, right?

Well, I don't. Please enlighten me? 

Sure! I've mentioned this before, and I can imagine other people rolling their eyes and thinking, "There she goes again ..." but I have always seen the electric carving knife as a vibrator. And it represents what Monroe is to Alma: a pale substitute for the "real thing."

It's something about the buzzing sound, I guess. I think this occurred to me the very first time I saw the movie! But, as others have pointed out, a carving knife would not make a good vibrator. Don't try this at home!

OK, here's one. In light of (sorry) what we've discussed about lightning so far, what do you make of Jack's first summer on the mountain, with the 42 sheep killed by lightning? And how might that fit with the idea that Jack, having already spent a summer on the mountain, is possibly not a virgin?

[LauraGigs]

Yeah, but didn't Jack spend his first summer on Brokeback alone?

And even if he were the most consciencious sheperd ever, would that have prevented the lightning strikes?

(Not to say that Jack was a virgin. I'm just saying he had the fall, winter and spring to get action too — Brokeback wasn't the only place an undie-wringer-outer like Jack could get some . . .)

[serious crayons]

Yeah, but didn't Jack spend his first summer on Brokeback alone?

Well, I don't know. Has that been estabilshed? I thought it was never specified one way or another, but wouldn't it be kind of dangerous for one sheep herder to go up there alone?

And even if he were the most consciencious sheperd ever, would that have prevented the lightning strikes?

No, of course not! I don't expect Jack to control the weather! 

(Not to say that Jack was a virgin. I'm just saying he had the fall, winter and spring to get action too — Brokeback wasn't the only place an undie-wringer-outer like Jack could get some . . .)

Absolutely. I'm just going by the idea that when Annie Proulx and the movie make a point of saying it's Jack's second summer on Brokeback and Ennis' first, they're talking about more than sheep herdin.