Saturday, January 26, 2013

Has "Brokeback Mountain" become a Monolith?

The movie 2001: A Space Odyssey explores the mad world of Nietzsche and his 1880s offering Thus Spake Zarathustra where HAL is the "SuperMan" [Big Brother] who controls his/her people via the Monolith [today, the Presidential Auto Cue].

Now the very expression "Brokeback Mountain" or simply "Brokeback" is used by the characters in the movie to express much more than a geographical location.

For example Alma won't mention it by name but refers to events only, like the fishing tackle case.  Lureen says she don't know where it is as code for don't know what Jack did there, whereas Jack's dad says he knows all about it, meaning he knows Jack is queer, and Jack himself says all we got is Brokeback but referring to the memory of the events of the first summer.  And finally the word Brokeback refers to the movie itself and the meaning [which differs widely] it holds for different people.

As such we have a whole "Age" as I call it in my book [therefore a HAL] using Brokeback as its Monolith to its loyal admirers [pronked as "gay"] and detractors [pronked as "straight" and "homophobic"], all of that welded together by the all important American Closet [now having taken over from American Apple Pie].  Here is part of my Table of Contents:

Age 3.    
Affirmative Action Stage 2 - Women (circa 1970)
3.1.    Hell Hath No Fury …
3.2.    Could the Hell have been avoided?
3.3.    Song of the Sisterhood
3.4.    Support of Government
3.5.    The First Stone

Age 4.    
Affirmative Action Stage 3 - Homosexuals (circa 1980)
4.1.    The Sudden Turnaround
4.2.    A Win Win Situation
4.3.    Blame?
4.4.    The Manhattan Experiment

Doespeare, John (2012-02-16). Seven Ages of America (Kindle Locations 49-58).  . Kindle Edition.

Seems that either by purpose or accident, Ang Lee never gives us a "full frontal" view of Brokeback, which only serves to solidify it as an IMAGINARY vision to people's own perspective of the whole Monolith issue.

But E Annie P actually took Ang to the places in Wyoming where she imagined Brokeback might exist.  I did my own exhaustive search and came up with a place in front of Mt Moron in the Tetons, and while this was 50 miles from where Annie took Ang it is far more conducive to the story.

Now the eerie thing is just how similar this is to the Monolith that inspired Neitzsche a century before, as you can see:

This is Upper Engadine for Nietzsche

And here is the Tetons, with Mystic Isle adding to the whole aura of secret, hidden and closeting:

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