Brokeback Mountain

"Yes, and it was also published as its own book in 2005. In many ways, Brokeback Mountain is not a new story, but instead reminds us that the Western from its very beginnings engaged with themes of same-sex desire. If we look at early Westerns, like Owen Wister’s The Virginian from 1902, for instance, the main narrator of that story engages in scopophilia in an important scene where he looks through a peephole at the cowboy hero, whom he clearly admires. The narrator also, at one point, imagines out loud what it would be like to be a woman, and how he would no doubt be very much attracted to the Virginian. Later, in the 1949 Western novel Shane , by Jack Schaefer, everybody is in love with the hero, including the young boy, his father, and his mother. So I’m interested in how Annie Proulx restores to memory these concerns of same-sex desire. She, along with other scholars, also helped recover The Power of the Dog , by Montana author Thomas Savage, that was made into a film recently directed by Jane Campion. Proulx’s story builds on the Western books about gender and violence that I mentioned previously by indicating how certain forms of masculinity have become absolutely brutal. In this case, it’s in the form of homophobic fathers and employers. Her Western takes place in the early 1960s. The main characters, Jack and Ennis, are sheepherders instead of cowboys. The two men fall in love while working in Wyoming. They end up in unhappy and tortured marriages but manage to meet up and reunite for the next several years. Their relationship ends when Jack is brutally killed. Brokeback Mountain had a tremendous impact, and no doubt opened up new possibilities for storytelling in the genre. More recently, the filmic Western Strange Way of Life , by the Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, tells the story of an outlaw and a sheriff who have a relationship but are on different sides of the law. Toward the end of the film, the director cuts to the chase; one of the characters, asks—I paraphrase—’What if we lived together? Grew old together? Took care of each other?’ Almodóvar puts it out there as a matter-of-fact possibility. In his film, two men love each other. What keeps them apart or separates them is their relationship to the law. It’s a short film, but in a way it offers another path for the Western to develop that is different from Brokeback Mountain and The Power of the Dog. Absolutely. I think what we see in these more modern Westerns is how the Western novel is a flexible form that can address a variety of plots, conflicts, characters, and political beliefs that still fascinate us in the present era. I think the genre continues to develop precisely because it is able to tell so many different stories about belonging, community, loneliness, and connection to the land… These are all things that still speak to us today."

"It’s a beautiful, beautiful book, and it was also turned into an Oscar-winning film. Brokeback Mountain is important to me because it’s the first time I’ve heard ordinary people in the street comment on a story focused on homosexual love—without distinguishing between it and heterosexual love. The film helped bring gay sex into the mainstream. The way the sex is described is not feminine sex. Annie Proulx is excellent at not saying: ‘Well, it’s gay sex, but it’s acceptable because it’s gentle and sensitive and soft focus and pink.’ No. In the book there is blood. They hit each other. There is loving force and strong passion. She’s saying that passion can be aggressive and it can be very masculine. The other thing that is important about the book is that it makes a very strong statement about the way some sorts of sexuality are still not accepted in our world, and people can get killed for it. Taboos are being handled openly now and we are protesting them, rather than just accepting them. Today, even just ten years on, it’s inconceivable that Brokeback Mountain should have caused such a furore. It’s even more inconceivable that Lady Chatterley’s Lover —even though it has some really dirty bits in it—should have caused such a furore. In the same way it is inconceivable that we would ostracize somebody for fantasizing, which is the subject of another book we’ve talked about in the past, Nancy Friday’s My Secret Garden . So I think they’re all signs of progress. I think we’ve broken the S&M taboo with Fifty Shades of Grey. So we’re getting through that. We’re certainly getting through gender reassignment. There’s still something around ageism—in particular, that it’s fine for a man to go with a younger woman, but not for an older woman to go with a younger man. It’s a lot better than it used to be, but there’s still something there. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . When we launched The New Joy of Sex , I talked about the new hedonism and the new Puritanism. In some ways, because sex is so open, we tend to be more wary of it, more boundaried. I’m not saying we should take this taboo away, but I think there is still a lot of wariness about the freedom that sexuality gives us to have lots and lots and lots of different relationships. So, if you asked somebody, ‘Is it OK to fantasize?’ The answer is yes. ‘Is it okay to be gay?’ Yes. But if you ask ‘Is it okay to be polyamorous?’ the answer is ‘no.’ I’m not saying that polyamory is either a good or a bad idea. That’s a personal choice. I don’t think it’s for society to judge, but I think that’s still one that might make people flinch a little. Yes. It’s interesting that if you’d had this conversation with Alex Comfort in 1972, he would have said that within ten years polyamory would be par for the course. I remember in 1972 us all saying to each other, ‘We’re not in sexual communes, but we know this is coming. We’re not actually doing it, but that’s because we’re behind the times.’ No, it hasn’t. The sexual communes have largely died and people are a lot more defended simply because it is possible to have more than one partner. It’s not that it’s a hanging offense, but I think it’s something that would make people flinch a lot more than masturbation, anal sex, or fantasy. The aspiration is ‘till death do us part’ with one partner, because psychologically that gives us what I call ‘womb love.’ What we’re looking for in a love relationship—and therefore in a sexual relationship—is to get back to the total safety, the total validity, the total connection that we had in the womb. Monogamy offers that. This is sacrosanct, nobody is going to break this and therefore we are safe for the rest of our lives. Actually, we’re not. Now that we have divorce, now that we have more sexual freedom, that essential safety in a relationship has gone. Some people are taking that forward by being polyamorous, but because that’s now possible, it’s almost more threatening to society than it was in the past. But let’s not end this interview on a negative. Ten years on from when we first spoke, I still believe that sex is wonderful, powerful, and a hugely important part of life for anyone, if they want it to be. We are so privileged to live in an age where—despite the continuing risks and dangers—sexuality—in most societies is not only permitted but also appreciated, valued, and supported. We are very fortunate indeed."