Oh my God.
Aug. 29th, 2005 09:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
minxyFirst challenge ever: If you loved Willimakee, or For Each Ecstatic Instant or Rounded with a Sleep, you need to go find a copy of the short story Brokeback Mountain. It's Annie Proulx, and primarily in the collection Close Range, though ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nialla42 has several other anthologies she knows of that it will be in.
You don't have to go right now, as many of us work or go to school (or both) or have lives or whatnot... but sometime (and may I suggest today? At least before the movie based on this comes out in December) you should stop by the bookstore, the library or your best friends who has every book under the sun's house and get your hands on this story. I read it last night and it is HAUNTING me. So heartrendingly lovely.
The part that I am most impressed with at this moment, in a specific way, is how two rough, almost non-spoken men talk about the love affair they've begun and are clearly going to continue, though it will require walking away from each other more times than they can count, and loneliness for the rest of their lives. It's Jack who starts the talking by saying " Swear to god I didn't know we was goin a get into this again -- yeah, I did. Why I'm here. I fuckin knew it. Redlined all the way, couldn't get here fast enough."
And oh my GOD, she's drawn these characters so fully that you just know they've never been so honest with anyone their entire lives, they've never expressed so much emotion, probably never felt it, and yet they are lovers. They found love and they know they can't keep it (at least Ennis does, and did my soul weep when I realized how little of that Jack understood. Jack recognized love, knew it enough to want to keep it, but he didn't see the danger.) There is such desperation in them. And it's heartbreaking every time they walk away from each other.
In a general way, the vernacular wasn't prohibitive to me. I mean, they just don't speak that much. The writing was gorgeous and the scenery and men shown with such reverence. It never occurred to me that they would leave. Obviously occurred to Jack, but he's a romantic that way.
I'm torn with regard to the movie and the beautiful people in it. I would almost like to see openly gay actors in the roles, except that Jack and Ennis are so rough and closeted that it's okay with me to have men that you wouldn't expect to be gay playing them. There's also the slight problem with the *beauty* aspect, in that Jack and Ennis shouldn't be, but it's one of my favorite qualities of Jake Gyllenhall that he doesn't look perfect and can play everyday people. It's Heath Ledger who is just sexy as HELL in an otherworldly way, and while I want to be on a high horse about seeing someone else in those love scenes, I don't think I could say it believably.
So here I am looking forward to a heartachingly beautiful story of desperation and love told by one of my favorite directors and played by two fine actors. It's going to be a good month.
nialla42 has several other anthologies she knows of that it will be in.You don't have to go right now, as many of us work or go to school (or both) or have lives or whatnot... but sometime (and may I suggest today? At least before the movie based on this comes out in December) you should stop by the bookstore, the library or your best friends who has every book under the sun's house and get your hands on this story. I read it last night and it is HAUNTING me. So heartrendingly lovely.
The part that I am most impressed with at this moment, in a specific way, is how two rough, almost non-spoken men talk about the love affair they've begun and are clearly going to continue, though it will require walking away from each other more times than they can count, and loneliness for the rest of their lives. It's Jack who starts the talking by saying " Swear to god I didn't know we was goin a get into this again -- yeah, I did. Why I'm here. I fuckin knew it. Redlined all the way, couldn't get here fast enough."
And oh my GOD, she's drawn these characters so fully that you just know they've never been so honest with anyone their entire lives, they've never expressed so much emotion, probably never felt it, and yet they are lovers. They found love and they know they can't keep it (at least Ennis does, and did my soul weep when I realized how little of that Jack understood. Jack recognized love, knew it enough to want to keep it, but he didn't see the danger.) There is such desperation in them. And it's heartbreaking every time they walk away from each other.
In a general way, the vernacular wasn't prohibitive to me. I mean, they just don't speak that much. The writing was gorgeous and the scenery and men shown with such reverence. It never occurred to me that they would leave. Obviously occurred to Jack, but he's a romantic that way.
I'm torn with regard to the movie and the beautiful people in it. I would almost like to see openly gay actors in the roles, except that Jack and Ennis are so rough and closeted that it's okay with me to have men that you wouldn't expect to be gay playing them. There's also the slight problem with the *beauty* aspect, in that Jack and Ennis shouldn't be, but it's one of my favorite qualities of Jake Gyllenhall that he doesn't look perfect and can play everyday people. It's Heath Ledger who is just sexy as HELL in an otherworldly way, and while I want to be on a high horse about seeing someone else in those love scenes, I don't think I could say it believably.
So here I am looking forward to a heartachingly beautiful story of desperation and love told by one of my favorite directors and played by two fine actors. It's going to be a good month.
