I have a couple of questions about this...why do you suppose the collection in which Brokeback Mountain appears is called Close Range? Also, is there a discussion of the prologue anywhere? Thanks for any insights.
Can't say anything as to why Annie chose
Close Range as the title for her short-story collection. Is it the title of a story in the collection? I think authors--or publishers--sometimes do that, take the title of one story in a collection and use it for the title of the entire collection. Or maybe it's because she's looking really closely at Wyoming people and their lives (think: "shot, or photographed, at close range")?
I don't remember a specific thread on the prologue, though I do remember a discussion about the story, as it appeared when it was first published in
The New Yorker, where it did not have the prologue. That discussion went all the way back to IMDb. Maybe it made it to the archives here at Bettermost? I haven't looked.
As for that discussion, I remember speculations that I think were not resolved about whether Annie had written the prologue when she wrote the story, and
The New Yorker cut it, or whether it was written later and added when the story was to be included in
Close Range. I have a memory of reading somewhere that the prologue was written and added later, but I cannot document it.
If the prologue was written and added later, then my take on it is that it actually represents Annie's "sequel" to the body of the story, and that a significant amount of time has passed between the end of the story and the morning described in the prologue, possibly ten years or more. Why do I think that?
My opinion is based on Annie's physical description of Ennis as he gets out of bed that morning. Remember that Ennis and Jack were essentially the same age when they met in 1963, so they were also essentially the same age when Jack died (in 1983 in the story)--39 or 40-ish. While it's true that everyone ages differently and at different rates, it seems to me that the Ennis of the prologue is significantly older than the Ennis of the conclusion of the story because--forgive me for being graphic here--Annie describes his belly and pubic hair as having turned gray. That suggests to me that Ennis-in-the-prologue is in his late 40s at the youngest, if not older.
And he's still alone, with the shirts, in that ratty trailer which, apparently, doesn't even have a bathroom (more like a travel-trailer camper than a "house trailer").
(Incidentally, and not meaning to change the subject, make trouble, or open a can of worms
, my take on the prologue is also why I do not personally consider fanfictions that feature Ennis finding another male lover to be "canon,"
(edit) or taking place within the "reality" or world of the story or film--because they do not comport with my understanding of Annie's take on Ennis's life after Jack.
Anyone curious about
Brokeback Mountain-inspired fanfiction, check out the Fanfiction forum here at Bettermost.)
