I am looking at that most beautiful passage in BBM in which Jack remembers their silent embrace satisfying some shared and sexless hunger, and thinking that nothing could be further from Annie Proulx’s intent than that love is a force of nature.
. . . the shadow of their bodies a single column against the rock.
The rock feels nothing whatsoever.
. . . minutes ticked by from the round watch in Ennis’s pocket.
Time’s irreversible arrow could not have been more cruel to them.
Stars bit through the wavy heat layers above the fire.
Le silence éternel de ces espaces infinis m'effraie.*
When Ennis leaves there is grind of hoof on stone.
Rock . . . time . . . stars . . . stone—this is the stuff of the force of nature
What Jack remembers is the single moment of artless, charmed happiness in their separate and difficult lives.
Jack had leaned against Ennis’s steady heartbeat, the vibrations of the humming like faint electricity.
Love is more like, as here, the faint electrical activity of a beating, human heart--in an uncomprehending and indifferent universe.
The force of nature is something else altogether different from love—nature is more like the wind that struck Ennis’s trailer like a load of dirt coming off a dump truck, said Annie Proulx, eases, dies, leaves a temporary silence.
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*Blaise Pascal
(I see, tpe, unless "adamantine" is for you just another household word, that you read my other post also <headlong, irreversible fall>, where Milton used it. :D)
Thanks, Froggy, for putting these two posts together for me.no problems, x
Hello septuaginarian. Also, don't forget the use of this image in the Rev. Maturin's gothic romance, 'Melmoth the Wanderer'. The image of the rock in this novel is, of course, far more sinister and hellish than is applicable in this context, but worth noting also. After all, Maturin did love his Milton. :)Quote
Hello tpe. I see that for you "adamantine" is just another household word. Please quote the appropriate Maturin. I don't know it.
Hello, septuaginarian, I'll try to find an online text to quote (perhaps from Project Gutenberg). I'll post it later. :) It is the final section that shows Melmoth being swallowed into Hell. ;)
BBM itself can be thought of as such an adamantine rock. It is unchangeable in the face of love, death, and resignation.
Thanks, tpe, for your favorite correspondence. I took a closer look at it and found it a favorite too.
What could he say? “Alma, this is Jack Twist. Jack, my wife Alma. His chest was heaving. He could smell Jack—the intensely familiar odor of cigarettes, musky sweat and a faint sweetness like grass, and with the rushing cold of the mountain. “Alma, he said, . .
The awkward, abrupt transition from the pleasant smell of Jack, to the uncomfortable feeling of chill, informs Ennis’s first words to Alma with the rushing cold of the mountain.
What Ennis smelled was very, very different from what he felt.
It is as if the mountain has lain asleep for 4 years and suddenly rises like some unstoppable force when Ennis and Jack finally meet again.
And the phrase: 'Old Brokeback got us good' really brings to mind images of 'the old man of the mountain' -- i.e., some mythical force that binds and must be appeased.Quote
Remember not Lord our offences, nor the offences of our forefathers, neither take thou vengeaunce of our synnes: spare us good Lorde, spare thy people, whom thou hast redemed with thy most precious bloude, and be not angry wyth us for ever:
Spare us good lorde.
From all evyll and myschief, from synne, from the craftes and assaultes of the devill, from thy wrath, and from everlastyng damnacion.
Good lorde delyuer us
From blindnes of hearte, from pryde, vaynglory, and hypocrisy, from envy, harred and malice, and all uncharytablenes:
Good lorde deliver us.
From all fornycacion and all deadly synne, and from all the deceiptes of the worlde, the fleshe, and the devill:
Good lorde deliver us.
From lightnyng and tempast, from plage, pestilence and famyne, from battayle and murder, & from sodaine death:
We beseche the to here us good lord.
That it maye please the to gyve all thy people increase of grace, to here mekelye thy worde, and to receive it with pure affection, and to brynge forth the fruites of the spirit:
We beseche the to here us good lord.
That it maye please the to bryng into the waie of truth all suche as have erred and are deceyved:
We beseche the to here us good lord.
That it maye please the to strengthen such as do stande, and to comfort and helpe the weake hearted, and to rayse up them that fall, and fynallye to beate downe Sathan under our feete:
We beseche the to here us good lord.
That it maye please the to succour helpe and comfort al that be in daunger, necessitie and trybulacion:
We beseche the to here us good lord.
That it maye please the to have mercye upon all men:
We beseche the to here us good lord.
That it maye please the to forgeve our enemies, persecutours and slaunderers, and to turne theyr heartes:
We beseche the to here us good lord.
Cranmer’s 1544 Exortation and Litany*
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*(http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/Litany1544/Litany_1544.htm