Always so cold :/
Jan. 9th, 2006 11:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
petroniaFinally got around to reading Brokeback Mountain, the short story. Hmm... I prefer the movie, actually, and not just because the overall effect of the short story is (to me) a lot bleaker. The film has a sense of spaciousness about it, a sort of quiet naturalistic observation (maybe I appreciate the fact that it's shot like a Western?) and willingness to flesh out the human surroundings as well as the natural scenery. It actually took me a few passes over the first paragraphs to get into the story because I didn't expect it to be told in that voice, coming off the film. Proulx's prose is dense and full of adjectives and switches back and forth between far omniscient-third tell-not-show and long character speeches - accented at that. And descriptions of weather and vegetation. Reminds me of nothing so much as an old Scottish ballad.
...Actually, you could write a perfectly good ballad with the story of Brokeback Mountain. ^^;
I do see how reading the short story first would inform a viewing of the film re: what the intended message must be. The short story is much more of a tragic arc, where Ennis is presented as the hero who chooses wrongly and must live with the consequences. But perhaps this demonstrates all the more that one shouldn't judge a film before one sees it.
***
So I can tag this entry as "movies": last night I watched The Notebook with mother and sis. Could not stop thinking of the desire vs. self-realisation essay over at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
worldserpent's, because it was the veritable template of a desire-based romance storyline if I ever saw one. XD I think my sister was fairly annoyed by it, but that is because she has Norrington Syndrome**. I thought the parts with the old couple were sweet, but the dry-eyed pragmatist would be better served by renting Iris.
** In every story where the heroine is forced to choose between the rich, capable, respectable and caring fiancé and the penniless boy she just happens to Love!, my sister roots for the fiancé and does not understand why the girl would go for someone who is not rich, capable, etc. not to mention a general dorkass who as often as not behaves badly toward the heroine (but this is supposed to be a sign of his internal conflict due to Love!, whereas the fiancé's understanding generosity merely connotes his relative lack of passionate impulse). In recent years she has become bitter and mostly expresses the opinion that the fiancé should go off and find himself a worthier woman.
...Actually, you could write a perfectly good ballad with the story of Brokeback Mountain. ^^;
I do see how reading the short story first would inform a viewing of the film re: what the intended message must be. The short story is much more of a tragic arc, where Ennis is presented as the hero who chooses wrongly and must live with the consequences. But perhaps this demonstrates all the more that one shouldn't judge a film before one sees it.
***
So I can tag this entry as "movies": last night I watched The Notebook with mother and sis. Could not stop thinking of the desire vs. self-realisation essay over at
worldserpent's, because it was the veritable template of a desire-based romance storyline if I ever saw one. XD I think my sister was fairly annoyed by it, but that is because she has Norrington Syndrome**. I thought the parts with the old couple were sweet, but the dry-eyed pragmatist would be better served by renting Iris.** In every story where the heroine is forced to choose between the rich, capable, respectable and caring fiancé and the penniless boy she just happens to Love!, my sister roots for the fiancé and does not understand why the girl would go for someone who is not rich, capable, etc. not to mention a general dorkass who as often as not behaves badly toward the heroine (but this is supposed to be a sign of his internal conflict due to Love!, whereas the fiancé's understanding generosity merely connotes his relative lack of passionate impulse). In recent years she has become bitter and mostly expresses the opinion that the fiancé should go off and find himself a worthier woman.
