Reflections on Brokeback Mountain

Reflections on Brokeback Mountain

            If there ever was a threat to “heteronormativity” it was with the movie Brokeback Mountain by Ang Lee.  It is a story of love unrealized between two of America’s most revered symbols of masculinity, the cowboy.  The seemingly invisible fabric that homosexuality weaves in the enclaves of American life is wonderfully presented in this film.  Ang Lee does a phenomenal job of bringing to the screen the pain, frustration and longing that accompanies homosexual relationships in a staunchly heterosexual society.

            Ang Lee presents “heteronormativity” as a ferocious device that provides homosexuals at once with societal acceptance and simultaneously with their demise, as they are not able to truly achieve the fruition that their orientation designs.  The homosexual men in the movie were married to women and their marriages were in various stages of dysfunction.  The men are desperate and ensnared.  They want affection.  They want attention.  They want a real connection.  They want love.  And they find it in each other.

            The lengths to which the same-gender-loving individuals in the movie go to in order to experience being together are very reveling.  The movie’s main characters try repeatedly to make plans to be together, but the violent threat of “heteronormative” reprisal was an ever present barrier.  The two main characters in the movie, Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist continue a long distance relationship for over ten years.  They spend months apart and see each other only once or twice a year so they can re-experience their homosexual passions.  The character Jack Twist has to take sporadic trips to Mexico in order to fulfill his homosexual longings in the absence of Ennis.

            The bonds between the two main characters last a life time.  After the violent and tragic death of Jack Twist, Ennis kept the mementos of their union when they were cowboys on Brokeback Mountain.  The last scene in the movie shows Ennis pining for the love he was never able to fulfill at the hand of “heteronormativity”.

Published:  http://www.cafedelapensee.com/node/1310

Judas Iscariot

Judas

             I was living a disillusioned life in Judea.  Life was hard.  Injustice was rampant.  Taxes were high and the Sanhedrin, Pharisees, Sadducees and Romans were oppressing the masses and stealing from them in the name of God.  I want to change this injustice.  This type of life is unfair.

            There is a growing movement among the people that seek to change this mode of existence.  The name everyone mentions is Jesus.  When I heard his message it was like water to my soul.  He was for the people.  He was liberating them.  Blessing the poor, feeding the needy, and breaking the established rules on the Sabbath.  This is the revolution.  I would follow him.

            After (3) long years with Jesus, I am at a breaking point.  Like a lover who has discovered his beloved’s unfaithfulness, knowing Jesus has left a bitter taste in my mouth.  I have no use for money as many may think.  I want to pay him back for his fraud.

            The Roman government has not been overthrown.  Jesus is saying things that show his weakness.  He is not as strong as he used to be.  He is making statements that are not helping our people.  Do onto others as you would have them do onto you?!  Turn the other cheek?!  Forgiveness?!  The kingdom of God is within you?!  He is misleading the people and does not deserve their devotion.  I have grown tired of Jesus and at times cannot stand to be in his company.  I have spoken to him about our differences, but he persists.  He needs to be gotten rid of.  I have wasted my time and energy with this man.  He has betrayed ME!!

            Like a jilted lover driven to desperate acts out of frustrated passion, unable to see my way out of my anger, I went to the chief priests to pay Jesus back for his deception.  “…I will deliver him unto you?  And they covenanted with him for 30 pieces of silver.” - Matthew 26: 14 & 15

            We arranged to meet in the Garden of Gethsemane.  After our last meal together, I kissed Jesus and the soldiers took him away.

            A temporary victory, that passes upon the shock of hindsight.  I am overcome with iniquity with the accomplishment of my treachery.  I am so taken with anguish, shame and sorrow.  I beg my co-conspirators to take the money back, but they have gotten what they want from me.  I am alone.  I can’t stand myself.  I can’t live with what I have done.  A rope around my neck and a tree will be my only escape.

Published: www.revistacruce.com/artes/judas-iscariot.html and
                  www.jukepopserials.com/home/read/1120

The White Witch of Rose Hall

The White Witch of Rose Hall

            After my parents died of yellow fever in Haiti, I was reared to maturity by my nanny.  When I came of age, I left the island of Haiti for the island of Jamaica in search of a better life.  I intend to have financial security.  I met and married John Palmer and lived on his beautiful plantation estate, Rose Hall.  Complete with a sugar plantation and thousands of slaves.

            I have a way with men, and I have way with my male slaves.  I’m as brutal and sadistic as any male plantation slave owner.  I’m also gaining a reputation as a “black widow”.  People are starting to wonder why every husband I have gets sick and dies.  My fortune grows after each husband’s untimely demise.  I am three times a widow.  My slaves are also getting restless.  They don’t like my treatment of them.

            Well, no party lasts forever.  I was done in by my black lover and company.  But I still can’t leave this place, its beauty, the scenery, the memories.  People claim to see me riding on horseback and hear my footsteps in the mansion halls.  Come by and see me sometime.  Tours of my former estate are a popular attraction.

The Star Spangled Banner Deconstructed

The Star Spangled Banner

The national anthem of America, typically invokes feelings of pride, devotion and loyalty.  It symbolizes freedom and the championing of human rights.  However, a second look at this national symbol exposes one to its warmongering, gory, pro-slavery themes.

The Star Spangled Banner is actually a four stanza poem, of which the first cadence is most commonly known as the American national anthem.  It was written in 1812 by Francis Scott Key, after seeing the American flag still flying after the battle of Fort McHenry during the U.S. War of 1812 against England.  The original title of the poem was “Defense of Fort McHenry”.  The poem is set to a popular British tune called “To Anacreon in Heaven”, a drinking song that celebrates, women, wine and carousing. 

Mr. Key was a slave owner and a lawyer who prosecuted anti-slavery activists for their abolitionist work.  Upon closer inspection, his activities seem to be in stark contrast to the last sentence in each verse of the poem “O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!”  The poem continues on with its pro-slavery sentiments with the verbiage in the third stanza and line “No refuge could save the hireling and slave.”

The poem is a call to war with bloodthirsty imagery.  This could possibly serve as a prelude to the many wars and invasions the United States has been involved in over the years.  This is embodied by the usage found in the second line of the third stanza “Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution” and in the fifth line of the fourth stanza “Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just”.

These are concepts far removed from the more popular view of this national symbol.  A deeper look at the history of the poem provides the opportunity to inspect uncomfortable aspects of its message.

Published:  http://www.democracychronicles.com/star-spangled-banner/