Annie Proulx

[BayCityJohn]

Annie Proulx: Choice Words on Film Adaptations of Book

http://fora.tv/2010/10/01/Living_History#Annie_Proulx_Choice_Words_on_Film_Adaptations_of_Books

[Ellen (tellyouwhat)]

Book of the week being serialised on Radio 4 FM @ 9.45am UK....Annie Proulx "Bird Cloud"

wow, that is really cool to know they are doing this in the UK!

[BayCityJohn]

LET'S get this straight: Annie Proulx is not the wealthy outsider that some reviewers of her memoir Bird Cloud think she is, criticising her finicky attitude to the trials of building her dream house.

''What horseshit!'' she says, steely-eyed. ''That house took my last penny. I live in rather straitened circumstances.''

You might assume Proulx got rich from the Hollywood adaptations of her award-winning novel The Shipping News and her short story Brokeback Mountain. The 2005 film Brokeback Mountain, with Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as gay cowboys, grossed $178 million worldwide and won three Academy Awards.

Proulx liked the film and was glad the producers agreed to keep her dialogue, despite a desire for ''everyone to speak like television announcers''.

But she says: ''I didn't make much from that. The payment for the rights to the story was in two parts; they paid the first and they didn't pay the second. Hollywood accounting is infamous; it happens to writers all the time.'' She recalls being paid about $300,000 but says the studio knew she would have to spend as much in legal fees as she would retrieve by fighting for the rest.

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/this-is-the-house-that-annie-built-20110304-1bhva.html

[foreverinawe]

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/this-is-the-house-that-annie-built-20110304-1bhva.html

John, many thanks for your link to the Sydney Morning Herald. This was my first encounter with that newspaper, and I am highly impressed. They actually have reviewers who can read and write.

I was curious, so I googled "Sydney au newspapers".  The very first hit was the SMH, and it popped up an option to name what subject I wanted in the SMH, so I entered Annie Proulx.



The result was a gold mine of thoughtful reviews and articles about Annie and her books. I'm still reading through them, but I felt obliged to report what I had discovered to the forum. Here's a clip from the first page (there are many pages) of SMH's articles:



There are a few articles where Annie is only mentioned peripherally, but that's normal for online searches.

   ~~~fia

[Marge_Innavera]

LET'S get this straight: Annie Proulx is not the wealthy outsider that some reviewers of her memoir Bird Cloud think she is, criticising her finicky attitude to the trials of building her dream house.

''What horseshit!'' she says, steely-eyed. ''That house took my last penny. I live in rather straitened circumstances.''

I'm sure people all over the US who are facing foreclosure will just drown in their own tears over this.  

But how does someone say something "steely-eyed"?  Does AP have talking eyes?

[Ellen (tellyouwhat)]

heavens to betsy!

Talking eyes and "steely-eyed" are metaphors, of which concept I am completely sure Ms. Innavera is a master!  Because you ARE a master in all things literature.

I think we know how you feel about Annie Proulx.  For more enlightenment, why not read Bird Cloud?  And then why not come back here and give us your review?

[Marge_Innavera]

heavens to betsy!

Talking eyes and "steely-eyed" are metaphors, of which concept I am completely sure Ms. Innavera is a master!  Because you ARE a master in all things literature.

I think we know how you feel about Annie Proulx.  For more enlightenment, why not read Bird Cloud?  And then why not come back here and give us your review?

"heavens to Betsy"? ?

So are personal attacks on Forum members acceptable if they don't worship at the AP shrine?  Maybe you should post a list of other exceptions, if there are any.

I think we know how you feel about Annie Proulx.

We know how just about everyone here feels about Annie Proulx; does that mean we should all just shut up?  Or does that apply only to people who don't gush about her enough?

[Ellen (tellyouwhat)]

My post was not meant as a personal attack, nor was it sarcastic.  Please take it at face value.  I do honor your skills in literary arts.

As for our feelings about Annie Proulx, this is a fan-forum, so yes it's more likely the people participating here are going to be fans of Annie Proulx.

And naturally, you can dissent.

Your posts are meant to provoke some reaction, I think -- and you know you're posting among people who are fans. 

Once you've made your point, repetition doesn't seem to be on topic in a fan thread.

[Oregondoggie]

Friends! 

We are all at this campfire.  Watch the whisky!  Make sure the sticks hit the fire.  I ain't been perfect but I sure am glad to have found you all as companions... "where none had been expected" a few years ago.  You've kept me "pawing the white out of the moon" many a night on the laptop.

[foreverinawe]

If the Bird Cloud saga interests you, here's an update.

I spoke with the realtor in Wyoming again today, and after a bit of Internet tag, we finally discovered why his company was still displaying the ad that said Bird Cloud had been sold -- it was their old ad from six years ago, before Annie bought the property. The SOLD sign was added after Annie had bought the property, back in 2005.

They had simply never gotten around to taking down the ad!

There is still a Facebook ad, but the realtor says  it is not his, even though it has his company's name on it. Go figure.

He also allowed that it was taken off the market because of the current depressed real estate values. But he allowed that if someone wanted to offer $3.7m, it might get back in the market quickly. He also added that she won't sell to anyone who wants to raise cattle on it.

At any rate, I thought you might like a glimpse of her house. On the left is her geodesic dome greenhouse.

    ~fia

[brianr]

Have just discovered that Annie Prouix is in Dunedin and gave a talk at the Public Library last night. There apparently was an article in Saturday's paper but as I was away on a camp, I asked my neighbours to take the paper. However even then the talk was booked out.
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/152331/teller-cold-land-tales-warms-audience

Last Saturday's article is at
http://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/books/151364/house-proulx-built

Probably lifted (legally) from elsewhere as Dunedin is only a city of 130,000.
The Otago Daily Times is good but not the level of the Sydney Morning Herald in a city of 4 million.
Glad you like that excellent paper Foreverinawe. I now have to read it online after a lifetime of picking it up off the front lawn

[foreverinawe]

Have just discovered that Annie Prouix is in Dunedin and gave a talk at the Public Library last night.
....
Glad you like that excellent paper Foreverinawe. I now have to read it online after a lifetime of picking it up off the front lawn

Hi Brian,

Thanks for the articles, I enjoyed reading them.

I've been reading the NY Times online for many years, but yesterday they announced they were going to begin charging me a fee to do that. I like their editorial policy in general (yes, I am liberal), and I hate to forego it, but I may have to. Their news stories have always been good, but my ISP gives me worldwide, national, regional and local news updates hourly, often with videos, and it is far more extensive than the NYT.

Oh well, things change.

   ~~~fia

[morrobay]

this was on the BBM General Discussion thread

http://bbmfoundation.org/images/Artifacts%20of%20Love%20and%20Violence%20-%20Hinton.pdf

and included this:


Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist are fictional characters,
not real cowboys. Some have argued that they aren’t really
even fictional cowboys. Of note, in the aftermath of fans’
intrusions (who have written and rewritten variations of
her original story as prequels, sequels, screenplays, ballets,
and operas), author Annie Proulx has stated, along with
charges of violation of her intellectual property, that she
wishes she had never written “Brokeback Mountain.”“The story,” she says, “was about homophobia in a place”
(L.A. Times, October 18, 2008). But she may just have
been having a bad day.

Bold is mine, and that is why I despise Brokeback slash...while at the same time feeling driven to write it, albeit without porny sex, or descriptions of sex, I'm frankly surprised anyone at all reads it...and I'm trying to quit...

[Ellen (tellyouwhat)]

^^^^

ah, you wish you knew how to quit slash?

 

[morrobay]

ha!

right, I'm looking for a 12-step...