Topic: copper jeans rivets/brass-headed tacks

[septuaginarian]

They had supper by the fire that night when Ennis could “paw the white out of the moon”-- “their backs against a log, boot soles and copper jeans rivets hot.”

Long after, Ennis looked at the closeted shirts and postcard, “brass-headed tack in each corner [cold].”

Formerly, one metal and in one anothers’ pockets; finally, but an alloy of two, and cold.

[CherryCake]

Niice.
Annie is just rife with symbolism.  I love it.

[TJ]

They had supper by the fire that night when Ennis could “paw the white out of the moon”-- “their backs against a log, boot soles and copper jeans rivets hot.”

Long after, Ennis looked at the closeted shirts and postcard, “brass-headed tack in each corner [cold].”

Formerly, one metal and in one anothers’ pockets; finally, but an alloy of two, and cold.

Annie Proulx does have a way with words and she uses a style which I have seen in some other stories of the West where they were homosexual characters.

Oh, in 1963, Levi's brand 501 jeans had copper rivets for reinforcement. In those days, All Levi's 501s were western cut and low-waisted.

Apparently your quotes are from the screenplay. The word "cold" is not in the original story in regard to the postcard.

Oh, I think that the use of 4 brass-headed tacks also implied that the postcard would be a stable reminder of Ennis's love for Jack. The trailer in which Ennis was sleeping on the Stoutamire ranch was rather drafty. With all four corners firmly tacked down, it would not sway in the breeze like the shirts might and did in the original story's opening paragraph.

[septuaginarian]

I remember those Levi's brand 501 jeans used to scratch the back of chairs! Lucky they were leaning against a log.

You are right that "cold" is not in the story--that's why I bracketed it.

Did you notice that four tacks hold down the postcard in the story, but there's only one tack in the movie? What, if anything, do you make of that? I took the four rivets to be at the four corner's of a jean's pocket. Maybe, as Jack is under Ennis skin with the shirts, he was in his pocket with the tacked up  postcard.

Speaking of the postcard, when Ennis said to the store keeper, "One's enough" weren't there two layers to his meaning? Whew, one's enough! and One's one and only. "Man cannot wed twice or lose his soul."

All this is making me crazy, I know.

[ranchgal]

Wranglers and Lees also had the copper rivets.
lots of cowboys in the Montana, Wyoming, Dakotas did not wear Levis--cause of the way the company seamed their jeans---they would get rough on the inside of your legs when you were horseback very much.  Haven't actually seen the designation of Ennis/Jack's jeans---but someone said they had a pair for sale on ebay, that was supposedly taken out of the guys' trailers, and they said one was Levi and one was Wrangler