The Brokeback Book

William R. Handley is an associate professor of English at the University of Southern California. He is the author of Marriage, Violence, and Nation in the American Literary West and the coeditor, with Nathaniel Lewis, of True West: Authenticity and the American West, available in a Bison Books edition. Contributors: Martin Aguilera, Calvin Bedient, Colin Carman, Alan Dale, Jon Davies, Chris Freeman, Judith Halberstam, William R. Handley, Gregory Hinton, Andrew Holleran, Alex Hunt, David Leavitt, Mun-Hou Lo, Susan McCabe, Daniel Mendelsohn, James Morrison, Vanessa Osborne, Annie Proulx, James Schamus, Michael Silverblatt, Adam Sonstegard, Noah Tsika, Kenneth Turan, Patricia Nell Warren, and David Weiss.

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: The Pasts and Futures of a Story and a Film William R. Handley Part 1. Gay or Universal Story? Initial Debates and Cultural Contexts 1. Men in Love: Is Brokeback Mountain a Gay Film? David Leavitt 2. An Affair to Remember Daniel Mendelsohn 3. Response to "An Affair to Remember" James Schamus 4. The Magic Mountain Andrew Holleran 5. Backs Unbroken: Ang Lee, Forbearance, and the Closet Mun-Hou Lo Part 2. Miles to Go and Promises to Keep: Homophobic Culture and Gay Civil Rights 6. Back to the Ranch Ag'in: Brokeback Mountain and Gay Civil Rights James Morrison 7. Breaking No Ground: Why Crash Won, Why Brokeback Lost, and How the Academy Chose to Play It Safe Kenneth Turan 8. "Jack, I Swear": Some Promises to Gay Culture from Mainstream Hollywood Chris Freeman 9. "Better Two Than One": The Shirts from Brokeback Mountain Gregory Hinton 10. American Eden: Nature, Homophobic Violence, and the Social Imaginary Colin Carman 11. West of the Closet, Fear on the Range Alex Hunt Part 3. Adapting "Brokeback Mountain," Queering the Western 12. Interview between Michael Silverblatt and Annie Proulx 13. In the Shadow of the Tire Iron Alan Dale 14. Adapting Annie Proulx's Story to the Mainstream Multiplex Adam Sonstegard 15. Not So Lonesome Cowboys: The Queer Western Judith Halberstam Part 4. Public Responses and Cultural Appropriations 16. "One Dies, the Other Doesn't": Brokeback and the Blogosphere Noah Tsika 17. Making Sense of the Brokeback Paraphenomenon David Weiss 18. Alberta, Authenticity, and Queer Erasure Jon Davies Part 5. Scenes of Work and Experience in the Rural West 19. Real Gay Cowboys and Brokeback Mountain Patricia Nell Warren 20. Marx on the Mountain: Pleasure and the Laboring Body Vanessa Osborne 21. Personal Borders Martin Aguilera Part 6. Sympathy, Melodrama, and Passion 22. Mother Twist: Brokeback Mountain and Male Melodrama Susan McCabe 23. Passion and Sympathy in Brokeback Mountain Calvin Bedient Selected Brokeback Bibliography Works Cited Contributors

"There's a Chinese saying, that you throw a brick to attract jade. So it is that the most precious thing about film-making---the reactions of the viewers---is entirely out of the hands of the filmmakers. We set out to make one film with "Brokeback Mountain", and in return, we got an overwhelming number of reactions that we never expected from moviegoers who saw themselves, or the other, or both, reflected on the big screen. There is a whole range of Brokeback Mountains, many of which are explored in the fascinating, sometimes contradictory, and always passionate essays in this book." - Ang Lee, Academy Award-winning director of Brokeback Mountain "Enlightening and provocative, The Brokeback Book is an outstanding collection of personal and scholarly essays. It's an indispensable guide to a cultural milestone of our time."---Robert Sklar, author of Movie-Made America: A Cultural History of American Movies