Back when E. Annie Proulx's novelette, "Brokeback Mountain" --- a sad tale about the star-crossed romance between two cowboys in Wyoming --- was published in The New Yorker magazine in 1998, it did not become a world sensation. Magazine subscriptions and readership are too low --- even for a top-of-the-line publication like The New Yorker ---for a story to gain many watercooler talking points as it would have done in the 1930s, 1940s and even the 1940s, before television and shortened attention spans.
No, "Brokeback Mountain" did not become a part of the American literary psyche until it was adapted into what every mainstream film award group except the cowardly Oscar voters regards as the best American motion picture of 2005. It was when Hollywood turned its attention on "the gay cowboy story" that Proulx's story became seriously significant as a part of American literature.
A recent television broadcast of Ang Lee's film version of "Brokeback Mountain" caused me to dig out my copy of Proulx's story and reread it.
The first thing that I am struck by is the fact that Proulx, a woman, so accurately captures male emotions. That may be sexist on my part, but the fact is, it's not easy stepping outside the boundaries of your own life experience and totally immersing yourself in feelings and functions that are not natural for you, no matter what your gender or sexual orientation. And Proulx makes her two protagonists, Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, seem like very real and believable men.
The second thing I noticed is that the moviemakers, to their credit, stuck to Proulx's stark storyline, leaving everything in and only fleshing out little bits and pieces. At the same time, when reading Proulx's story, it is possible to set aside the pretty faces of the film version Ennis and Jack (Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal) and envision the less-than-handsome, more roughly drawn characters that Proulx created.
Ennis Del Mar, who is the surviving partner of the couple, is an inarticulate man who expresses his emotions mostly with angry outbursts. When I saw the film the first time and then read the story, I was part of what was then a new romance with a fine man and I expect I identified more with Jack Twist, the washed up rodeo cowboy in an unsatisfying middle class marriage who dreamed, unrealistically, throughout his life of going back to Brokeback Mountain and living, untouched by the outside world, with his first true love, Ennis, whom he met while both were still teenagers. Identifying with Jack was easier because Ennis' realistic view of their prospects was too painful for someone in love to handle --- Ennis' view of life is as stark as the Wyoming prairie on which he lives his life. And one can't identify with that when one is snuggling happily in the warmth of what seems like a secure and permanent relationship.
As I have written before, I am recently single again. I have nothing but good words for my ex, and wish him well, but I can't say that I am happy about my new status. When you live alone --- I do have a sweet but not too bright cat --- you have conversations with yourself, sometimes out loud and constantly in silence. And when Ennis turns to the closet where he keeps his few mementos of his brief times with Jack --- a shirt and a postcard --- and says, "Jack, I swear ---", well, I have tried to fill in the blank many times, and I can't do it any better than Ennis can. All you know is that you had a chance and you're alone again and hurting.
The difference between me and Ennis Del Mar right now is that I know I will heal and that I live in a mental and emotional world where there is hope for a better tomorrow. It keeps me going most days, although the pain of living completely on my own for the first time since about 1981 (in addition to the ex-partner, there have been ex-wives and children who grew up into their own adult lives) has its overwhelming moments.
But that's what is honest and true about Proulx's original creation, the story "Brokeback Mountain." Jack represents the part of us that relies on dreams and fantasies and is easily destroyed; Ennis shows the battered strength that keeps us going.
Gay men, for generations, have had to be as tough and hard on our insides as the external skins of Ennis and Jack, whether we're cowboys, government workers, drag queens, leather daddies, waiters or bankers. For the most part, I think we're tougher than our straight brothers because we have had to make our own ways and accept certain limitations in our lives. "Brokeback Mountain" accurately creates that emotional landscape for many of us, especially those of a certain age.
Greetings, Sir James.
ReplyDeleteIn your last paragraph you said, "For the most part, I think we're tougher than our straight brothers because we have had to make our own ways and accept certain limitations in our lives."
At face-value, that would seem debatable. There are many soul-wrenching issues that we humans face that require either a Herculean-fortitude to endure, or, an 'other-worldly' consciousness/vision that sees these "dark nights of the soul" as doorways we must pass through in order to fully appreciate Life:
Children born in impoverished or loveless situations...whose health, world-view, and self-esteem is all but decimated by malnutrition, hopelessness, and fear;
Targets of genocide...who live in fear for their lives because of their skin-color, ancestors, or accent;
Survivors of the most savage and cruel kinds of torture...who have had their very identity and sanity burnt, sliced, punctured, and raped to pieces;
Women...who through-out history have been treated as property--one notch lower than cattle--without either the capacity or self-assurance to dare to control their own destiny;
Ugly, disabled, or disfigured people...dealing with social and personal reproaches that talented, beautiful people could not fathom;
Even, short men with less-than-average appendages...go through Life feeling impotent, devalued and unwanted;
...are all tragedies of such porportions that, sometimes, they over-whelm our will and spirit to the point of convincing us we'd be better-off having never been born.
Again, at face-value, it seems that any one of these torments would far out-weigh the experience of hearing "We don't want no fags around here! Jebediah...let's learn this homo-sapien a lesson!"
However, face-value is often deceiving, and jumping to conclusions is about as senseless as hop-scotching through a minefield at night. That's why I try to walk a mile in the other person's shoes, and give the benefit of the doubt if I can't relate. And, then...it hit me--homosexuals have experienced the basic elements of ALL of these examples! Dismissed, insulted, condemned, avoided, abused, discarded, traumatized, stereo-typed, discriminated...murdered--all because of a core aspect of their humanity: who they are.
Although, as grievious as this is...I CAN relate. So, instead of claiming superior gonads (oops!) for your 'bravery under fire', focus more on appealing to the better nature of humanity by asking "If you cut me, do I not bleed?" We'll get it.
Maybe, someday, we'll get to live in a world where it's not about WHO you love, but THAT you love.