Annie Proulx - Interviews & Articles

[Front-Ranger]

What a great interview! A little of everything...except not enough about Brokeback Mountain!  I obtained Red Desert when I was in Laramie this spring. It's a beautiful and comprehensive book. I've set my sights on seeing the Flaming Gorge this summer or fall.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Yes, indeed, what a great interview! I feel now that I know Annie Proulx better than I ever knew her before.

I didn't realize there were still wild horses in Wyoming. How nice! 

[Front-Ranger]

Just finished reading an interview between AP and Michael Silverblatt, who anchors a radio book show in Santa Monica, CA. The interview was included in The Brokeback Book, by William Handley.

She was describing the experience of writing Brokeback Mountain, which took six months, double the time it usually takes her to write a novel. "...once I got started on it I was really compelled by something. Let's just say that a strange hand came from above and was guiding the pen part of the time. There was something in the story that was larger than I had thought it would be in the beginning--and I don't know what it is. THere's a universality there that--I don't know where it came from. It just came. It just happened."

This is a wonderful interview and I will post a few other quotes. Silverblatt is quite perceptive.

[Penthesilea]

Just finished reading an interview between AP and Michael Silverblatt, who anchors a radio book show in Santa Monica, CA. The interview was included in The Brokeback Book, by William Handley.

She was describing the experience of writing Brokeback Mountain, which took six months, double the time it usually takes her to write a novel. "...once I got started on it I was really compelled by something. Let's just say that a strange hand came from above and was guiding the pen part of the time. There was something in the story that was larger than I had thought it would be in the beginning--and I don't know what it is. THere's a universality there that--I don't know where it came from. It just came. It just happened."

This is a wonderful interview and I will post a few other quotes. Silverblatt is quite perceptive.

Oh, that sounds like Annie hasn't figured out the 60 000 dollar question either.
Why?
Why are we like this (there's a thread of the same name by Katherine)?
What is it in this story that grabbed hold of us?

After 5+ years, I haven't figured it out for myself, at least not completely. It just is.
At least the not-knowing doesn't drive me crazy anymore. I made peace with the "Why?" question and acceptance grew over the years.

[Front-Ranger]

Here's a little more from the interview, Chrissi, that might provide some insight to you.


During the interview, he talks about the differences between his reactions to the story and the movie, saying, "...there was kind of a movie-sadness sauce that somehow got ladled over the material, whereas the story is written in somewhat of the stoic way of these men." Because of her writing style his "emotions just leaked out through me unawares. It came as a real startlement to me." (I think his Ennis-like way of articulating this really must have endeared him to AP.)

Annie responded that she had hoped it would work this way so that "for the reader what's inside is necessary to complete the story and fill it out and put the meaning in it."

Here's a little about Michael Silverblatt.

[Shakesthecoffecan]

I think the hand from above is a good way to describe it. As I go through life dealing with questions about the existance of something greater than ourselves in the universe, Brokeback Mountain is one of my pieces of evidence there is something. I am not sure what it is. My mind makes up stories about the spirit moving to cause her to creat it. The muse being employed to whisper in her ear.

And then again it may be as simple as this: the story she told was the truth. It was a universal truth of love being stated eloquently and precise for the first time on such a level. The fact too that it was a classic form that is somewhat neglected in the modern world (being a tragedy) it effected is in a way that our souls were needing.

[Front-Ranger]

And then again it may be as simple as this: the story she told was the truth. It was a universal truth of love being stated eloquently and precise for the first time on such a level. The fact too that it was a classic form that is somewhat neglected in the modern world (being a tragedy) it effected is in a way that our souls were needing.

Sure enough, friend Tru. The story was a classic tragedy, and also a Western, which is the crucible by which we in America create our myths. And it reached out to us at just the right time when our collective souls hungered for this message. Thank you for your thoughts.

[Front-Ranger]

I think the hand from above is a good way to describe it.

Maybe you summoned the "hand from above" when you wrote that, and it shook the whole East Coast!!

[Front-Ranger]

Just one last quote from the interview:

Annie Proulx: "Brokeback Mountain itself, the idea of using the mountain as--what they call in science fiction a wormhole, where two characters go in and they come out differently--and this was a thing I wanted to play with from the beginning, and I think it worked."

...

"when I was working on the story... I was near tears myself many, many, many times--which I found a bit frightening. And yet I never could cry. And in eight years I haven't been able to., but I have been thinking that one day I will be able to. I'll get around to it. But I can't right now. The whole question of a large love that comes out of nowhere and just slams you to your knees--happens."

[Shakesthecoffecan]

Maybe you summoned the "hand from above" when you wrote that, and it shook the whole East Coast!!

Seriously, I clicked "Post" and the office started shaking!