‘Tender’ is not a word generally associated with the work of Annie Proulx. Second, nothing about “Brokeback Mountain” is ‘tender’, unless you forget the beating and murder of the gay man, or the almost-maybe-anal-rape of the wife. Once a story gets adapted for screen, kudos tends to transfer to the people who brought it to screen and the original author probably gets some extra visibility too, but compared to the self-congratulatory movie industry, writers are basically invisible. Ang Lee adapted it but bear in mind, Annie Proulx made something from nothing at all. First of all, for all a screenwriter/director brings to a story, the story ‘belongs’ to the person who created it.

I didn’t write the thing but even I have two problems with that. “The Influence of the Annales School”, The Geographical Imagination of Annie Proulx, Durrans What Kind Of Story Even Is This?Īustralia’s SBS social media team recently Facebooked a re-screening of the film Brokeback Mountain, describing it as, and I quote, ‘Ang Lee’s tender love story’. The name Brokeback Mountain, for instance, resonates with a multiplicity of echoes, from images of backbreaking labor and harsh conditions of life to the necessity of bending under the weight of submission to the so-called “norm” and the permanent threat of having one’s back “broken” by those who won’t put up with any deviation from this norm. Proulx has a definite talent for selecting those place names that are most likely to reveal the psychology of her characters or inventing others which have such a ring of truth in them that they could easily have been actual names for the places she describes. Outdoor Life October 1936 Hunting Sporting Fishing Cowboy Cover art by Edgar Franklin Wittmack The Title “Brokeback Mountain” was published in the New Yorker in 1997, but came to most people’s attention in 2005 when it was adapted for screen and won critical acclaim. People In Hell Just Want A Drink Of Water I’m reading this story in what is now called Brokeback Mountain and Other Stories. You can no longer buy a Brokeback Mountain collection without being reminded that there is also a film adaptation. Annie Proulx’s short stories have the wordcount of short stories but the emotional resonance of epics. Or at least the soundtrack, cinematography and expert acting of a film.

I mean, it’s so short, right? Normally you need the build-up of an entire novel to induce such strong reactions in readers. “Brokeback Mountain” is a heart-wrenching short story in part because of its density and one-sitting experience.

Broke back mountain short story