Annie Proulx lost her freaking mind

they are early 1960's RANCHHANDS

they aint cowboys !

[QUOTE=Jeremy Knox]
So whatcha all think?[/QUOTE]
I think this thread is useless without a link.

I think I am on her side because she used the word "heffalumps."

[QUOTE=jane s.]I think I am on her side because she used the word "heffalumps."[/QUOTE]
dr suess says heffalump too dont mean he knows what hes talking about

I haven't seen Brokeback - but Crash was the most hand-wringingly wet and derivative film and did not deserve an Oscar. But then how often is the Best Film really that?

Anyway - writing an essay about it does smack of sour grapes. Would be nice to read it. You got a link?

[URL=http://books.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1727309,00.html]Annie Proulx Essay[/URL]

What a poor loser.

A lot of Hollywood does suck, figuratively and literally. But a short, whining essay isn't going to fix anything.

Annie Proulx should nail herself up in her stone tower and begin work on a movie so good that it will [b]destroy them all[/b]. Thankfully, I know a place where you can get a good deal on labcoats, and would be willing to point her in that direction.

I agree that she looks like a clown while throwing this fit, but I also agree with her that people are celebrating crash like it's something new. if it had come out in, say, 1960, then it might be a worthwhile movie, but that was 45 years ago and hollywood should be progressing and celebrating films that are trying to shine light on other subjects that need addressing. okay, yeah, racism sucks and it's still prevalent and it's not just a black vs. white issue, but how many times in your life are you going to be able to see a gay cowboy movie with jake gyllenhaal and heath ledger making out?*

*the answer is three. waiting for the sequels....

I just hope the Brokeback Mountain sequels don't go the way of the Neverending Story sequels. I think most people will be able to tell if they replace Heath Ledger with a sock puppet.

now i would go see a gay sock puppet movie

[QUOTE=nathaniel parker]now i would go see a gay sock puppet movie[/QUOTE]

Yoink!

See you at Cannes!

[QUOTE=alex cassun]I agree that she looks like a clown while throwing this fit, but I also agree with her that people are celebrating crash like it's something new. if it had come out in, say, 1960, then it might be a worthwhile movie, but that was 45 years ago and hollywood should be progressing and celebrating films that are trying to shine light on other subjects that need addressing. okay, yeah, racism sucks and it's still prevalent and it's not just a black vs. white issue, but how many times in your life are you going to be able to see a gay cowboy movie with jake gyllenhaal and heath ledger making out?*

*the answer is three. waiting for the sequels....[/QUOTE]

Crash isn't very new agreed, but it does take an old topic and infuse it with freshness by having to guts to point out that the blame for the problem itself lies far beyond the whipping boy of old white rednecks.

Actually, I find it rather odd that Proulx attacks Crash because to me racism really isn't about race, it's about having an irrational need for an enemy. Especially one that is "okay" to kick around, who is seen as a faceless mob without individuality, a danger to your way of life and alien to your worldview. Sort of what the Religious Zealots have done with gays yanno? So in my opinion, if you deconstruct the themes of Crash, you basically come around to the gay bashing issue. It's inescapable. Which is why I'm so taken aback by Proulx's reaction.

Then again, people's ability to see nothing but what they want to see is a powerful one; and I don't need no Hollywood movie to tell me THAT.

Oh poo-poo on both of them tired old movies...

Transamerica got SHAFTED!!

Fucking oscars!

[QUOTE=succotash moon]Oh poo-poo on both of them tired old movies...

Transamerica got SHAFTED!!

Fucking oscars![/QUOTE]
Interesting choice of words.
I don't remember the short story being that impressive...haven't seen the movie yet though.

what about movies dealing with post 9/11 racism against middle easterners, is there a movie about that yet? That would be gutsier than Crash by far.

She just sealed never winning an Oscar for the rest of her life.

That essay was pathetic. And not just for the obvious 'some fat kid stole my lunch money' shit. But for pretty much everything.

In a roundabout way, using the same sort of logic as "you don't look fat in that...BUT...it doesn't suit you well because it makes your ass look big" she calls out Philip Seymour Hoffman because he took the easy way out, acting in a role that had a backstory to study up on, inferring that Heath "Knights Tale, 10 Things I Hate About You" Ledger and Jake "Apocalypse Movie Part 417, Jarhead, Donnie Sucko" Gyllenhall were better actors because they started from scratch? Umm, hello? Was there not a book to use as prior reference? Sure, there wasn't film reals of what these two were to look like, but really, is she trying to rationalize putting Ledger or Gyllenhall in the same sentence as one of the best actors out there in Hoffman? Or even Phoniex for that case? Christ, lady. If ever she had a point before that for me--which she didn't--she lost all cred. there.

And ripping on Three 6 Mafia? Christ, they were the highlights of that whole show. At least they were excited to win their award. Dolly Parton? Come on, now. She was old and tired before I was even born. And they didn't win for being new, or fresh, they won because their song had something to say. Christ, we all know it's a hard damn life being a pimp.

This act of taking herself, and her "art" way too serious sold me on never reading any of her stuff again. Which is sad, because most of it I actually enjoyed.

Wow, that couldn't have been more bitter if she tried. Which I'm sure she did. She took pot shots at everything! Even things that had nothing to do with that crap movie losing.

Yeah, I said it. It was gash and I didn't even finish it. Fair enough I was baked and not in the mood for it... but still, I really didn't enjoy it. I'm sure the book would have been better and I may have to read it to confirm this.

Well shot by Ang Lee I 'spose... but I mean what did she expect? To win all 8?!

I enjoyed Crash but it certainly shouldn't have won. And I agre fully with whoever ointed out that the idiots 'behind wrought iron gates' who are reclused against reality are all mostly gay friendly or gay themselves.

[QUOTE]She just sealed never winning an Oscar for the rest of her life.

That essay was pathetic. And not just for the obvious 'some fat kid stole my lunch money' shit. But for pretty much everything.

In a roundabout way, using the same sort of logic as "you don't look fat in that...BUT...it doesn't suit you well because it makes your ass look big" she calls out Philip Seymour Hoffman because he took the easy way out, acting in a role that had a backstory to study up on, inferring that Heath "Knights Tale, 10 Things I Hate About You" Ledger and Jake "Apocalypse Movie Part 417, Jarhead, Donnie Sucko" Gyllenhall were better actors because they started from scratch? Umm, hello? Was there not a book to use as prior reference? Sure, there wasn't film reals of what these two were to look like, but really, is she trying to rationalize putting Ledger or Gyllenhall in the same sentence as one of the best actors out there in Hoffman? Or even Phoniex for that case? Christ, lady. If ever she had a point before that for me--which she didn't--she lost all cred. there.

And ripping on Three 6 Mafia? Christ, they were the highlights of that whole show. At least they were excited to win their award. Dolly Parton? Come on, now. She was old and tired before I was even born. And they didn't win for being new, or fresh, they won because their song had something to say. Christ, we all know it's a hard damn life being a pimp.

This act of taking herself, and her "art" way too serious sold me on never reading any of her stuff again. Which is sad, because most of it I actually enjoyed.[/QUOTE]

"For those who call this little piece a Sour Grapes Rant, play it as it lays."

Maybe it is. I kinda liked it.

I love it when people rag on the Oscars, because they're a ludicrous, bloated creation. Her motives may have been to gripe about not getting best picture over a massively average film, but some of the points in there were valid.

I do think that Hollywood laps up "mimic" performances (Phoenix, Smith, Fox etc etc) more than original characters (unless they're disabled), even though Hoffman is awesome.

If you enjoy her stories, keep reading them. Maybe you're taking this too seriously, you know?

But yeh - this essay can't have done her too many favours.

True, it was good to see someone call the Oscars out for what they are but I think it would have had more punch had it not been coming from a belly full of tantrum.

Maybe. I guess sometimes it's sort of refreshing to hear something genuine, even if it does come from sheer immature hissy-fitting.

[QUOTE=Riddlegimp]"For those who call this little piece a Sour Grapes Rant, play it as it lays."

Maybe it is. I kinda liked it.

I love it when people rag on the Oscars, because they're a ludicrous, bloated creation. Her motives may have been to gripe about not getting best picture over a massively average film, but some of the points in there were valid.

I do think that Hollywood laps up "mimic" performances (Phoenix, Smith, Fox etc etc) more than original characters (unless they're disabled), even though Hoffman is awesome.

If you enjoy her stories, keep reading them. Maybe you're taking this too seriously, you know?

But yeh - this essay can't have done her too many favours.[/QUOTE]

I didn't see it as calling out the Oscars at all. I saw it more as a, "My creation was soooooo much better than yours." Indicting other actors because they play known characters, blasting the fact that a studio sent copies of Crash out for voters to screen, blah, blah, blah. She sounded more like a high school girl who lost the guy she had a crush on to a better looking girl and in turn had to call her a slut to justify her letdown instead of a best-selling author who should be happy that anyone--yes anyone--would praise a movie with those two actors in it.

As for the note about Hollywood celebrating performances of real life people, I've always seen it as more of a challenge rather than less of one. With a real life person--especially on the scale of legends like Ray Charles, Muhammed Ali, Johnny Cash, or Truman Capote--the buying public already has heightened expectations of what to expect out of the movie. They aren't going to accept some half rate substitute for someone they admire as much as they would a movie where they walk in having no real vision/sense of real relationship with the characters. To nail a performance as Hoffman and Phoniex did this year, I think there's a lot more merit in than pulling a character out of a book and making it you. You can't make Johnny Cash or Truman Capote you, you have to make you them. And both Phoniex and Hoffman did that. You lost yourself in both of those characters, and those movies.

And in my opinion, [I]Crash[/I] was better than [I]Brokeback Mountain[/I].

Proux lost what respect I had for her, and her work. To blast an Award ceremony, and the process that goes with it, because the film she's associated with didn't win everything, that's more than a bit petty. It's outright diva.

What's really kind of ironic is that Proulx lives in Arvada Wyoming. A town which has a population of, get this... 33. You read that right. Thirty-fucking-three people. To put it in perspective the hole in the air I live in which is too poor to have a police force or a streetlight OR even a name (they voted on naming the town after the county to save money on signs) is STILL over a 100 times bigger.

I also love their racial makeup: No black people, no Hispanics, no Asians, no Pacific Islanders. The people there are 85% White, 7% Native American and the rest are classified as being of "Two or more races".

Yeah, she's got the pulse of the country there.

I thought Brokeback Mountain was a dirt bike movie

It took me a day or so to get around to reading the essay. And I could've waited another day, or forgot it altogether. Her story, I would hope, is better written than the essay, because otherwise not even Larry McMurtry (with or without Diana Ossana) could've made the screenplay into anything beyond semi-interesting. But I've not seen it, so who knows? Not me, and others tell me it's a good movie. May be.

I've only seen two of the nominees anyway, [B]Walk The Line[/B] and [B]Capote[/B], and though [B]Capote[/B] was a terribly amazing and layered film, I don't think it deserved the Academy Award... and maybe none of them did. [B]Walk The Line[/B] was their kind of movie, I would've thought. Not mine, but, you know, those West Coast Hollywood types. The Academy is a back-patting routine, usually, and this year wasn't all that interesting to me. It's only every now and then I even semi-care about the Awards, and the last time I can remember is around 91-92 when [B]The Silence of the Lambs[/B] swept the Awards. It was unexpected...

But yeah. Poor loser. She did have a few excellent scenarios in that essay (none of which really [I]mean[/I] anything but still...):

[INDENT][I][B]Brokeback[/B]'s first award was to Argentinean Gustavo Santaolalla for the film's plangent and evocative score. Later came the expected award for screenplay adaptation to Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry, and only a short time later the director's award to Ang Lee. And that was it, three awards, putting it on equal footing with [B]King Kong[/B].[/I][/INDENT]

Ha! Excellent, great image in my mind about this flick now...

But this last one was classic, in its own non-sensical way (I mean, I know [I]what she's getting at[/I], but if you're not gonna say it, why [I]almost[/I] say it? Least in the pouty, bitch-fest context of her condescending-to-everyone--mainly the reader--"essay"...?)

[INDENT][I]It was now dark, or as dark as it gets in the City of Angels. As we waited for our number to be called we could see the enormous lighted marquee across the street announcing that the "2006 Academy Award for Best Picture had gone to [B]Crash[/B]". The red carpet now had taken on a different hue, a purple tinge.

The source of the colour was not far away. Down the street, spreading its baleful light everywhere, hung a gigantic, vertical, electric-blue neon sign spelling out S C I E N T O L O G Y.[/I][/INDENT]

AH-ahahahahahahaha... damn. Wouldn't that have read "[I]has[/I] gone to"...? And her point is?

(Again, I know what her point is, but if she isn't gonna nail it home, then it's about as flighty as the rest of her drivel. Is her story on which the film was based as badly written? Probably not, but everyone gets stupid-lucky every now and then. Either way, I still can't imagine she's terribly intelligent, no matter how much she seems to patronize the Academy as some sort of West Coast thing... I mean, [I]they were too slow for Jon Stewart's humor[/I]. Losers...)

she actually wrote "colour"? what a pretentious whore!!

Damn English editors.

I love that this essay seems to be pissing people off about as much as she was that Brokey didn't win. I guess there's reasons she snuck it out in a British newspaper (the big Jessie).

Anyway - no point rehashing what I said before. I'm not that bothered by this. Sour grapes is so human I love it to bits.

she's no anne rice

I miss that crazy vampo. She's probably tracking down her amazon reviewers and taking a bite out of their necks

i havn't seen [I]broken[/I], but i taste stale shit after reading that article, that hissy bitch fit is pathetic.

[I]Crash [/I]didn't break ground subject wise but I still think it's a hell of a script. Alex can probably rip me an asshole since he knows script writing inside and out. Yet the movie runs multi narratives together, it nailed the human capacity for good and evil regardless of profession, ethnicity, and beliefs through the eyes of criminals, cops, politicians, minorities, in an array of timeframes, that for me, came together (almost too easily). A lot of tough shit to pull of in a movie. I felt the characters were well explored and layered for such a multi-narrative, again a fucking task in a two hour cubicle.

That interview turned me off from ever picking up her work. It drives me batshit when a known, proliferated, and accomplished writer starts whining about a some fucking award they didn't win and reverts to bashing other work just to tether her ego.

i'm still dying to see capotte.