Things I Know I Know

There's an awesome quote in Roger Ebert's review of Brokeback Mountain which gets at the heart of some really good discussion that's been going on at places like this about whether Brokeback Mountain is just a 'big gay cowboy' movie or whether it's something else. It also says something wonderful about what writers do or hope to do:

"Brokeback Mountain" could tell its story and not necessarily be a great movie. It could be a melodrama. It could be a "gay cowboy movie." But the filmmakers have focused so intently and with such feeling on Jack and Ennis that the movie is as observant as work by Bergman. Strange but true: The more specific a film is, the more universal, because the more it understands individual characters, the more it applies to everyone. I can imagine someone weeping at this film, identifying with it, because he always wanted to stay in the Marines, or be an artist or a cabinetmaker

This is what writers mean when they talk about making a story specific. Beginning writers say, well, I don't want to describe the character or the setting or the world in too much detail. I want people to be able to fill in their own details, to identify with it through their own experience. But, as most of us know but can't always articulate, lack of details doesn't make something more 'ours' or more 'real.' Lack of details makes a story less immediate and less dramatic and less personal. Strong vivid details of individual characters, of specific settings, of place and time, give us a way to immerse ourselves in a world and also give us a way to both distance ourselves from the actions and reactions of the characters and identify with their conflicts and struggles. We don't always want to see ourselves as weak or stupid or mean, but when we see our actions in someone else, we can, finally, see ourselves as well.