Twin Peaks Rewatch 43: Mid-Season Intermission

[Jake]

Twin Peaks Rewatch 43:

Mid-Season Intermission
With Twin Peaks on break last weekend, we turn to the Twin Peaks Rewatch mailbag, to discuss your thoughts on the new season so far, and where we might be going in the second half.

We'll be back in just a few days with our discussion of The Return, Part 9.

If you have a question for us or thoughts to share on the new season of Twin Peaks, write us at twinpeaks@idlethumbs.net.

Looking for a place to discuss the season with fellow viewers? We recommend the Twin Peaks Rewatch forum.

 

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[Gailbraithe]

Sam Lanterman, the Log Lady's deceased husband, died sometime between 1958 and 1983, while the Woodsmen died in the Night of the Burning River incident of 1902, so its very unlikely that Sam is a Woodsman -- though the Woodsmen may have played a role in his death.

[Jake]

I couldn't remember if there was a generation gap there or not. Thanks for the clarification!

[simonster]

So you didn't really seem all too interested in discussing the term "lynchian" and what the term means and I get why and I generally agree with you. But I watched the David Lynch: The Art Life documentary and in it David Lynch tells a story that I thought felt very "lynchian".

 

I didn't find a video for this exact story.

David Lynch grew up in a very small place. His entire view of the world stretched from his friend's house up the road to another friend's house on the other end. It was a very small and cozy suburb environment. One evening David and his older brother were out playing. Their father would usually come out and yell for them to get home and get ready for bed. But on this day for some reason he hadn't done so yet and night was setting in. From out of the darkness came a naked lady. A very pretty figure stripped of all clothes to hide her body. She was bleeding from her face as she walked towards David and his brother, down this small road in middle-class america. The two brother's, too young to know what to do started to scream.

 

David Lynch said he often thinks about this strange woman and cannot remember what happened afterwards. But this is what "lynchian" means to me. When something strange or absurd crosses paths with our predictable and safe mundane life.

 

The more well-known example for "lynchian" which I got taught in film class is the ear on the lawn from blue velvet. But as I think about "lynchian" I'm also reminded of how David Lynch's first feature film Eraserhead is the reverse of this. Eraserhead is one of the most uncomfortable films I've ever seen because of the inept parenting skills and general fear that the lead character has for his own baby. Here absurd doesn't cross paths with the mundane it's the absurd that has the spotlight and as we spend time in it we get used to it and can see the mundanity beneath. Fears of adult life and fatherhood takes a strange form but at it's core it's a very relate-able story.

 

I'm sorry if I'm rambling on the topic of a overused term but I wanted to share the story of the young David Lynch and the naked lady with a bloodied face.

[UnpopularTrousers]

I think Lynchian is just what we all started saying when Kafkaesque became too much of a cliche. 

[Jake]

8 hours ago, simonster said:

So you didn't really seem all too interested in discussing the term "lynchian" and what the term means and I get why and I generally agree with you. But I watched the David Lynch: The Art Life documentary and in it David Lynch tells a story that I thought felt very "lynchian".

 

I didn't find a video for this exact story.

David Lynch grew up in a very small place. His entire view of the world stretched from his friend's house up the road to another friend's house on the other end. It was a very small and cozy suburb environment. One evening David and his older brother were out playing. Their father would usually come out and yell for them to get home and get ready for bed. But on this day for some reason he hadn't done so yet and night was setting in. From out of the darkness came a naked lady. A very pretty figure stripped of all clothes to hide her body. She was bleeding from her face as she walked towards David and his brother, down this small road in middle-class america. The two brother's, too young to know what to do started to scream.

 

David Lynch said he often thinks about this strange woman and cannot remember what happened afterwards. But this is what "lynchian" means to me. When something strange or absurd crosses paths with our predictable and safe mundane life.

 

The more well-known example for "lynchian" which I got taught in film class is the ear on the lawn from blue velvet. But as I think about "lynchian" I'm also reminded of how David Lynch's first feature film Eraserhead is the reverse of this. Eraserhead is one of the most uncomfortable films I've ever seen because of the inept parenting skills and general fear that the lead character has for his own baby. Here absurd doesn't cross paths with the mundane it's the absurd that has the spotlight and as we spend time in it we get used to it and can see the mundanity beneath. Fears of adult life and fatherhood takes a strange form but at it's core it's a very relate-able story.

 

I'm sorry if I'm rambling on the topic of a overused term but I wanted to share the story of the young David Lynch and the naked lady with a bloodied face.

 

Everything in this post is really good and it makes for a good read - thanks for sharing! - and it also serves as a capsule to explain why "Lynchian" as a word could mean so many different things, that it's dangerous to try and use as a universal shorthand to mean one thing.