True, the men begin their doomed affair in a time and place where homosexuality was viciously suppressed, and so they suffer from social constrictions that make it difficult to master their own fates. But it is also true that both men are overgrown boys who waste their lives searching for something they\u2019ve lost, and which might be irrecoverable. They are boys who refuse to become men, or to be more precise, do not, for various reasons, have the wherewithal to understand how to become men in their bleak situation.
\nIt is impossible to watch this movie and think that all would be well with Jack and Ennis if only we\u2019d legalize gay marriage. It is also impossible to watch this movie and not grieve for them in their suffering, even while raging over the suffering that these poor country kids who grew up unloved cause for their families. As the film grapples with Ennis\u2019 pain, confusion and cruelty, different levels of meaning unspool \u2013 social, moral, spiritual and erotic. In the end, Brokeback Mountain is not about the need to normalize homosexuality, or \u201cabout\u201d anything other than the tragic human condition.<\/p>\n
Ms. O\u2019Connor once wrote that you don\u2019t have to have an educated mind to understand good fiction, but you do have to have \u201cat all times the kind of mind that is willing to have its sense of mystery deepened by contact with reality, and its sense of reality deepened by contact with mystery.\u201d The mystery of the humanpersonality can never be fully plumbed, only explored. To the frustration of ideologues, artists like Annie Proulx and Ang Lee undertake a journey to those depths and return to tell the truth about what they\u2019ve seen \u2013 which is not necessarily what any of us wants to hear.<\/p>\n
As Ms. O\u2019Connor taught, \u201cFiction is about everything human and we are made out of dust, and if you scorn getting yourself dusty, then you shouldn\u2019t try to write fiction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Or read it. Or watch it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Yes. I agree completely. Nicely done, Mr. Dreher.<\/p>\n
(via Mark Shea<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rod Dreher on \u201cBrokeback Mountain\u201d True, the men begin their doomed affair in a time and place where homosexuality was viciously suppressed, and so they suffer from social constrictions that make it difficult to master their own fates. But it is also true that both men are overgrown boys who waste their lives searching for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1051,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1779,510],"class_list":["post-13392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-brokeback-mountain","tag-rod-dreher"],"yoast_head":"\n
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