细读 Brokeback Mountain 后的问题

Question 1: 第 6 页，作者写 Ennis 和 Jack 在山上的放牧生活：

During the day Ennis looked across a great gulf and sometimes saw Jack, a small dot moving across a high meadow as an insect moves across a tablecloth; Jack, in his dark camp, saw Ennis as night fire, a red spark on the huge black mass of mountain.

当你把一个人看作一团 night fire，你看见了什么？

Question 2: 第 12 页第 6 行开始，作者为了写 Jack 和 Ennis 四年后首次拥吻，用了一个超长句。为什么作者选择一逗到底，而不用句号区隔？穿插其中的短句，短语，甚至一个单词，给你带来什么样的阅读体验？如果让你用一个形容词来描述这个拥吻，你会怎么说？

Question 3: 第10 页，作者写到 Ennis 的婚姻生活：

He was still working there in September when Alma Jr., as he called his daughter, was born and their bedroom was full of the smell of old blood and milk and baby sh*t, and the sounds were of squalling and sucking and Alma's sleepy groans, all reassuring of fecundity and life's continuance to one who worked with livestock.

1）读到这里，你能揣摩 Ennis 对婚姻生活的感受吗？

2）这些气味背后的暗示是什么？

3）对比 12 页 Ennis 嗅到 Jack 身上气味，以及 13 页 两人在 motel 云雨之后的气味，这里的气味有什么不同，或者说不足？

4）新婚生活的气味和声音真的只有 Ennis 感受到这些吗？Ennis 从中感受到了 fecundity and life's continuance。对他而言，为什么这些意味着繁衍而不是新生，为什么是生活的继续而不是生活的希望？

Question 4: 第12 页，Ennis 和 Jack 拥吻后进屋看见 Alma 站在那里（他们并不知道他们的拥吻已经被Alma 无意撞见）作者写到：

The door opened again a few inches and Alma stood in the narrow light.

这里的 narrow light 有什么象征意味？

Question 5: 第 12 页，Jack 得知 Ennis 有孩子后的反应：

His shaking hand grazed Ennis's hand, electrical current snapped between them.

1）Graze 除了轻擦的意思，还有牛羊吃草的意思。如果按照后者来理解 Jack 的这个动作，是否能读出不一样的意味？

2）小说中有很多贴合两人牛仔身份的表达，大家可以留意。

3）如果我们把这个行为看作 Jack 的试探，为什么试探结果是两人之间的电流断了？

Question 6: 第 19 页末尾，Ennis 和 Jack 多年来一直秘密地去过很多地方幽会，但是一直没有回 Brokeback Mountain。你觉得可能的原因有哪些？

Question 7: 第 21 页下到第 22 页上，我们从 Ennis 和 Jack 的聊天内容中读出什么？

1）同样的内容他们是否可以和各自生活里别的人分享？

2）他们的生活没有交集。过去的幽会，以及在 Brokeback Mountain 上的回忆是他们唯一的 shared history。要从这仅有的 shared history 里创造两人之间无可取代的 intimacy，你认为可能吗？

Question 8: 第 24 页，Ennis 和 Jack 的争吵以拥抱告终：

What Jack remembered and craved in a way he could neither help nor understand was the time that distant summer on Brokeback when Ennis had come up behind him and pulled him close, the silent embrace satisfying some shared and sexless hunger.

1）Jack 认为自己和 Ennis 尚待满足的 shared sexless hunger 指的是什么？

2）他还认为，silent embrace 只能满足部分渴望。其余不能被满足的渴望是什么？

3）第 25 页，Ennis 这样看待这个 silent embrace：

Later, that dozy embrace solidified in his memory as the single moment of artless, charmed happiness in their separate and difficult lives.

即便是 dozy silent embrace 对于 Jack 也有举足轻重的意义。作者没写 Ennis 的感受，你能想象吗？

4）渴望的和获得的之间巨大的鸿沟左右着 Ennis 和 Jack 之间的关系。是 Jack 渴望的太不切实际，还是 Ennis 不够勇敢，畏葸不前？考虑到 20 世纪 80 年代美国的社会氛围，他们的 shared and sexless hunger 能否被满足？

Question 9: 第 25 页，从 Lureen 口中证实了 Jack 的死讯之后，Ennis 的感受：

The huge sadness of the northern plains rolled down on him.

Ennis 感到的 sadness 和 northern plains 有何关联？

Question 10: 第 29 页，Jack 来到 Ennis 的房间，发现了自己的衬衫被包裹在 Jack 的衬衫里：

He pressed his face into the fabric and breathed in slowly through his mouth and nose, hoping for the faintest smoke and mountain sage and salty sweet stink of Jack but there was no real scent, only the memory of it, the imagined power of Brokeback Mountain of which nothing was left but what he held in his hands.

1）Ennis 对气味的迷恋和敏感再一次得到确证。如果气味都消散了，Jack 以及他和 Ennis 的关系曾经的存在还有什么凭证？

2）所以读到最后，我们是否能够描述清楚 Ennis 和 Jack 心中那 imagined power of Brokeback Mountian？

Question 11: 第 30 页，Ennis 购买了明信片，并把两人的衬衫整理好：

"Jack, I swear -- " he said, though Jack had never asked him to swear anything and was himself not the swearing kind.

Ennis 承诺的内容可能是什么？

Question 12: 小说的结尾是这样的：

There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe, but nothing could be done about it, and if you can't fix it you've got to stand it.

1）对于 Ennis 而言，“what he knew” 以及 “what he tried to believe” 到底是什么？二者之间的差异是如何造成的？

2）上一段，描写 Ennis 的梦境时，作者写到：

The spoon handle was the kind that could be used as a tire iron.

这里暗示了 Jack 怎样的内心活动？其中哪些是 what he know，哪些又是 what he tried to believe？