Brokeback Mountain author Annie Proulx regrets writing it because of obsessive fans

Annie Proulx says that since her story Brokeback Mountain was turned into a film she has been inundated by mail from obsessed fans who want the story to have a happy ending – to the point that she now regrets writing it at all

The author of the short story Brokeback Mountain has told The Paris Review that she now regrets writing it because of the way fans have responded to it since it was made into a film by director Ang Lee.

Annie Proulx told The Paris Review that the main characters in the story, Jack and Ennis, were the first that she had written in her literary career that felt ‘very damn real’ to her.

‘I think it happened with “Brokeback Mountain” because it took me so long to write that story,’ Proulx said.

‘It took at least six weeks of steady work, which is not my usual pace. So yeah, they got a life of their own. And unfortunately, they got a life of their own for too many other people too.’

When asked what she meant by this, Proulx revealed that the attention from obsessive fans of the film had been too much for her.

‘I wish I’d never written the story,’ Proulx said, ‘It’s just been the cause of hassle and problems and irritation since the film came out. Before the film it was all right.’

Proulx said that while many people in Wyoming had objected to her setting her tragic love story between two cowboys in the state, that wasn’t the biggest problem for her.

‘In Wyoming they won’t read it. A large section of the population is still outraged,’ Proulx said.

‘But that’s not where the problem was. I’m used to that response from people here, who generally do not like the way I write. But the problem has come since the film. So many people have completely misunderstood the story. I think it’s important to leave spaces in a story for readers to fill in from their own experience, but unfortunately the audience that “Brokeback” reached most strongly have powerful fantasy lives.

‘And one of the reasons we keep the gates locked here is that a lot of men have decided that the story should have had a happy ending. They can’t bear the way it ends—they just can’t stand it. So they rewrite the story, including all kinds of boyfriends and new lovers and so forth after Jack is killed.

‘It just drives me wild. They can’t understand that the story isn’t about Jack and Ennis. It’s about homophobia; it’s about a social situation; it’s about a place and a particular mindset and morality. They just don’t get it. I can’t tell you how many of these things have been sent to me as though they’re expecting me to say, Oh great, if only I’d had the sense to write it that way.’