I'm in rambling mood once again.
(What else is new?)
Please allow me...
I dislike the implication of the word: restrictive.
I agree completely with Janjo's comment about the verbal acuidity of nineteen
year old boys in the first throes of sex and love. How MUCH talking would they
ACTUALLY indulge in? How DEEPLY are they INTERESTED in UNDERSTANDING
what is going on between them? I'm willing to bet that much of what goes on,
at least in the beginning, is ruled by hormones and testosterone and not much else.
The sap flows freely.
I can accommodate this idea quite easily.
IF the boys had been fully-formed men in the first throes of love, then we could
have a different discussion.
That's why I see the '...not a goddamned word...'
spoken by a third party as sheer annoyance AND impatience with Jack and Ennis.
AP's annoyance, since SHE is the one who knows what comes next for
these two. And by the way, here's a thought:
WHAT could Jack and Ennis have SAID during, after, OR ABOUT the sex that would have
changed ANYTHING. Given who they were.
I mean, even when they attempt to speak we get:
I'm not queer.
Me neither.
Lies, or at the very least, denial of fact.
So what do words do for them?
For that matter, what have words EVER done for them?
It is only later, as they age and the situation becomes more and
more untenable that words gain importance.
Or so I see it.
As he ages, Jack becomes starved for words.
Ennis never does.
AP, creating this story, is a woman of a certain age who does not, is not, willing
to suffer the 'foolishness' of Jack and Ennis NOT speaking. And yet, I can't
help but think that she is wise enough to know that boys will be boys.
I mean, WHAT COULD THEY HAVE SAID?
This is strictly a personal aside from me.
We can wonder about all this, but it remains ambiguous enough
in INTENT to make for various and sundry interpretations.
The 'face-to-face' thing is a non-starter,
so, for me, it is moot.
But, I gotta' tell ya',
I could do without the over-precise and often, 'clinical' parsing of every single
word that seems to make the rounds here and on other threads every now
and again. Parsing meant always, I think, to force an interpretation on
perceived 'non-believers'.
If there's ANY problem with English, it is that words can
and often do have SEVERAL meanings. Not to mention that tone itself
can alter that meaning. AND not to mention that we're dealing with a story
in which everyone speaks out of the corner of their mouths and RARELY
say what they ACTUALLY mean. And this might even include the
narrator, who, for reasons of her own stays detached except for when
she doesn't. (I see the narrator making two entries into the mix:
the 'goddamned' word comment and the comments at the DE.)
Needless to say: "When they owned the world and nothing seemed wrong."
is about as unambiguous a statement as we're going to get. I mean, what
part of 'nothing' don't we understand? It is also, one of the more
'unrestrictive' comments made by Ennis, or ANYONE else, for that matter.
And yet:
Did they REALLY own the world?
No.
Did they FEEL AS IF they owned the world?
Yes.
Was EVERYTHING that happened right?
No.
Was EVERYTHING that happened wrong?
No.
(Otherwise Jack and Ennis would have run off together and lived
happily ever after and that would have been that.)
Did they FEEL AS IF NOTHING WAS WRONG?
Yes.
DID they NEED to feel this (most especially Ennis) in order to
proceed as they did up on BBM?
Yes.
To me, this is self-evident.
In the film, the 'nothing seemed wrong' seems to be missing from the mix.
And this is, perhaps, because more is made of Ennis's self-loathing.
Fine.
Although the fact that Ennis VERY OBVIOUSLY DOES NOT WANT TO COME
DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAIN tells us that he does NOT want to face the
reality that he sees rushing towards him. A reality he knows will SPOIL
EVERYTHING.
On the mountain they OWN the world.
Off the mountain, they don't.
Everything comes crashing down then.
EVERYTHING will seem wrong.
On the mountain he and Jack are EVERYTHING.
Off the mountain, they are NOTHING.
Later in the film, we the get hints of the 'nothing seemed wrong' in the
wild rush down the stairs by Ennis in the reunion scene.
There's NOTHING wrong with 'Jack Fuckin' Twist' or the memory which
sprang during those moments of anticipation. In fact, "Nothing" seemed wrong
from the moment the postcard arrives. OR Ennis would NOT have returned
the damn card so quickly and with such a knee-jerk reply meant to bring
Jack running.
Though, of course, AGAIN Ennis cannot carry the emotion
to its fullest realization. He cannot give them the happy ending
that Jack so desperately craves.
I guess we're meant to see that once the wildness of the
long-anticipated sex is over AND despite the fact
that their feelings HAVE NOT changed, have even DEEPENED,
Ennis allows the barrier of 'wrongness' to interfere once again.
(Yes, we KNOW he can't help himself.)
Once again he ALLOWS choice to be taken away.
He allows fear to rule the day.
As he did at the BOTTOM of the mountain.
When reality brought him to his senses.
Or so Ennis would have us think.
Notice: He ALWAYS blames reality.
I don't need ADDITIONAL motivation or heaped-on meaning to make me
like or understand BBM more. This is what I feel some posters are
saying: well, yeah, but look if you would only see it THIS
way, it would mean MORE to you.
No.
It is quite fine enough for me as is.
Literary interpretation (or film interpretation, for that matter)
is not a sacred cow.
More, it is like a pinata.
And we can knock ourselves out trying to mine the 'good' stuff inside.
Or not.
As the inclination warrants.
If we knock BBM around long enough and often enough, I suppose eventually
ALL of its meaning will lie scattered in bits and pieces on the ground.
THEN we can pick and choose the words and phrasing we like best and the hell
with the rest of 'em.