Jake

Twin Peaks Rewatch 3: Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer

Recommended Posts

Also I just read that the woman in Blank Check was an FBI agent, just like Cooper. What is it with FBI agents and minors?

Now that I have talked too much about Blank Check for one lifetime, I think I'm finally going to go drive by the castle house in Austin. I'm sure it attracts almost no one.

In Coopers defense,

Audrey is 18, not a minor. And, also, he continues to abstain from any potentially gross situation based on his moral beliefs, despite wanting to go with it

 

Also, in response to the discussion of magical realism, there is an interesting scene in season two

where Sheriff Truman decides, against Cooper's wishes, to press charges against Ben Horne for the murder of Laura. There is an interesting conversation where he essentially acknowledges how strange some of Cooper's methods are, and that even though he respects Cooper and goes with (and in a way understands) his mysticism, at a certain point he had a job to do. That scene really interested me as it gave more depth to the magical realism elements.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Also, in response to the discussion of magical realism, there is an interesting scene in season two

where Sheriff Truman decides, against Cooper's wishes, to press charges against Ben Horne for the murder of Laura. There is an interesting conversation where he essentially acknowledges how strange some of Cooper's methods are, and that even though he respects Cooper and goes with (and in a way understands) his mysticism, at a certain point he had a job to do. That scene really interested me as it gave more depth to the magical realism elements.

 

I will have to look out for that moment. I was looking up the writing credits for Mark Frost. He had written for the Six Million Dollar Man and Hill Street Blues before coming to Twin Peaks and working with David Lynch. It's funny to think of that conversation in the context of Mark Frost saying it to David Lynch in the writing room. As in, you know, I'm writing a crime procedural whodunit and your writing...your stuff, but in the end we have to put them together in order to resolve parts of the plot not just obscure and mystify the audience. And Lynch coming at it from the exact opposite direction. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Sorry for the wall of text. There is a TL:DR at the bottom.

CLWheeljack brought up the idea of magical realism early on, but I didn't remember enough of the details of Twin Peaks to definitively make a case for or against magical realism. You might think, Magical Realism sounds like a boring literary term, so why do I care? The reason Magical Realism is important speaks to the specific way Twin Peaks makes you feel when you watch it. The specific ways in which Twin Peaks plays with reality are its biggest strengths. A weaker example would break the rules of Magical Realism and just leave you irked.

Magical Realism's first rule is that the plot has to have a mundane setting such as a small town like Twin Peaks. The second rule is that magical things have to go on in the background and the characters in the story simply have to accept the magical elements without question. A good example of this outside of Twin Peaks, from a culture with more instances of Magical Realism, is Like Water for Chocolate. I am talking about the movie here not the book, because I haven't read that. In Like Water for Chocolate, the narrator has a gift for cooking that has been passed down through the generations; however, she is not just able to cook exquisite meals, she is able to perform magic with her meals. If I remember correctly, she is able to do things like give her sister persistent flatulence and horrible breath or make a whole table full of people become sexually amorous. This is done so expertly that the viewer almost begins to believe in the magic of food. All this is set against the mundane story of a modestly poor family.

Now, one of the things that Magical Realism can't do and still be called Magical Realism is confine all the magical and inexplicable things to a dream sequence. Dream sequences are psychological in nature and are the realm of surrealism. Dali is a good example of surrealism and when you look at his paintings, many look like something you vaguely remember from a dream and physics are out the window. The first Matrix movie does a good job of playing with your understanding of the surreal because we are made to understand that all magical and arguably surreal elements are confined to the "dreaming" world. Nothing magical happens in the mundane/drab world of the people in the waking world. Then, in the second(?) Matrix movie Neo uses magic in the real world to subdue some squids that are about to attack them and things become irksome because it breaks the rules but the series doesn't really move toward Magical Realism in any way. This is the best example I could come up with on short notice.

Again, why does this matter? It matters because many of the surreal things that happen in Twin Peaks, happen in dreams. All the Red Room sequences are dreams, I believe. My memory is still hazy on the later episodes and season two. So, maybe this will be proven wrong. But for now, all the things that happen in Cooper's dreams are surreal not magically real. The surreal does not rule out the fact that Agent Cooper could be demented. Or, his dreams could simply be the surreal representation of his mind working through the clues and the secrets he learns there could be deductive jumps personified by the entities we meet in the Red Room.

But the reason Twin Peaks is so exceptional in its handling of the surreal and magical is that it is attempting to marry surrealism and magical realism and not become irksome while doing so. Lynch and Frost make this easier by the overt characterizations, the music, the sounds and noises, and the quirkiness in the real world settings.

In Like Water For Chocolate, the Magical Realism plays with the idea of food and its powers. It deals with the mythos of food and stretches the realities of what are possible with cooking. Twin Peaks has its own mythos that it uses to stretch our beliefs and that is the mythos surrounding FBI agents and the serial killer hunting agent in particular. From the moment we first meet Agent Cooper he is already endowed with the armor of previous incarnations of serial killer hunters. This is why movies such as Silence of the Lambs are so important to the mythos. Twin Peaks takes the precision of these other incarnations and places them in the likable incongruity of Agent Cooper. From the moment he finds the letter under the fingernail we understand that he has been "at this" for a long time. We also are made to gradually understand that he not only has gifted abilities of deduction, he can also intuitively tell when people are romantically involved.

However, Cooper's deduction and intuition take a rapid turn in Episode 3: Zen, or to Catch a Killer. We see his otherwise orthodox methods flare out of control when he invites the sheriff's office to the rock throwing ceremony. This scene is really fun to watch with a group of people who have forgotten it or never seen it before, because at this point in the story, we begin to believe that Cooper believes he has otherworldly powers, but the characters in the show literally (four of them on a wooden bench) lean in to the explanation and the exercise. They take it as a matter of course, either because they understand otherworldly happenings, or because they believe in the mythos of the FBI agent serial hunter so strongly that we are given our first inclination that the characters aren't phased by the magical. Regardless, at this point, things get weird. This is followed later in the same episode by the Red Room dream where things become surreal.

But I don't think things become trully Magical Realism till Episode 5: The One Armed Man. The beginning of the episode has many of the characters gathered around in the Palmer household listening to Laura's Mom tell of her visions. But they aren't just humoring her. They are working up a sketch and Cooper agrees that was the man in his dream. Then, her vision of Jacoby finding the locket is revealed. Does the fact that Cooper's dream and Leland's wife match up seem to phase anyone? Not really.

The trick and fun parts of Twin Peaks are determining those things which happen magically outside of Cooper's dreams or from his dreams until the two different types of fiction get lost in each other.

TL:DR When magical things are confined to a dream sequence it is surrealism. Magical realism is when inexplicable things happen in the real world but don't really phase the characters. I believe Lynch and Frost are trying to gradually marry the two.

EDIT: Changed the TL:DR to include the fact that surreal things can happen outside dreams.

How do you feel about writing this in to [email protected]?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

He just exists in this world so well.

That's a great way to put it. Or even when he might not be fitting in that well, he still marvels at what he's seeing every day and is so glad to be in the world. Case in point: when he warns Truman about Albert not being good with social niceties, and after Albert starts insulting everything, Cooper just keeps looking over at Truman with a grin that says, "see? Isn't he exactly what I said?"

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I really love the move the original Wicker Man (1973). I think Twin Peaks and that movie have strong similarities. They both have morally upright, pure law men who journey to a small back water community to solve the mystery of a missing/dead girl. The Wicker Man's protagonist is as repulsed by the community that he finds as Agent Cooper is infatuated with Twin Peaks.

They also both have uncomfortably-extended scenes of women dancing over music. Audrey in the diner this episode and the blond woman in the hotel (or whatever it was) room in Wicker Man.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Korax posting a gif of Lucy sticking her tongue out made me think of other gestural insults we don't do from the 90's anymore. 

 

1) Flipping people off, but with your ring finger, so you were allowed to.

2) Brushing your throat with your fingers out towards the person.

3) The thing where you karate-chopped with one arm into the crook of your other arm, raising its fist.

4) "Suck it."

 

Other than this moment with Lucy though, Twin Peaks may not serve as the best show to remind us of anymore forgotten things of the era. It certainly is timeless and of its own world.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

4) "Suck it."

???

 

i say this on a daily basis

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Short note to say, I always look at the table of donuts and try and spot the donuts without holes, because they would be the jelly filled donuts that Cooper likes. I can never spot them. It messes with me. I said this to my wife last night just before a scene where Cooper takes a jelly donut off the table. I'm not one of the guys who often looks for this type of thing, but I'm always wondering if they are prop donuts and whether prop-nuts only come in the holed versions. Damn brain! Why can't you apply this level of attention to real life?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Also,

 

As a follow-up, I would like to note that there is one mistake in my previous arguments. Silence of the Lambs the movie didn't come out till 1991 which I believe is after the premier of this series; however, the book came out in 1988. So, serial killers and the FBI forensic psychologists (I think that's what they are called) who hunt them were part of the culture because of the Ted Bundy and others. I think the book was a big success. So, maybe it was used for inspiration, but wasn't quite as culturally significant as I give it credit for here.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

SickNotes:

I appreciate your effort and attention to detail, and apologize that I can't respond in kind at the moment. Instead, I just have a few minor points.

 

1) Your distinction between surrealism and magical realism seems somewhat apologetic. At the time Twin Peaks aired, hiding the fantastical elements may have been necessary for audience acceptance, but in the modern climate of Harry Potter and vampires and zombies, it seems a little quaint. I see no reason not to simply call it what it is, which is basically a modern fantasy-horror setting. The fact that the producers felt the need to play coy with revealing that to the audience doesn't mean that we have to treat it that way, we can treat it as a whole thing.

 

2) While I thing we probably all agree that genre labels are more convenience than any kind of strict delimiter, "magical realism" is quite amorphous even amongst its peers. But I've decided, as I've watched more of the series, that I don't think it counts. The primary reason is that one of the central elements of Twin Peaks appears to be interrogating the nature of the magical events. Although people aren't interested in the magic qua magic (they're interested in a murder which appears to have occult / fantastical elements), that means a modicum of exploring the nature of that magic system. So, how it works becomes part of the plot, and not simply part of the backdrop.

 

If I were pitching it to a network exec, I would probably use the words "urban fantasy", which is a catch-all term for much of the current modern-day set vampire / wizard content created today. (I would actually probably try to be clever and call it - wait for it - "rural fantasy", at which point the exec would ask "Who are you and how did you get in my office?")

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

They also both have uncomfortably-extended scenes of women dancing over music. Audrey in the diner this episode and the blond woman in the hotel (or whatever it was) room in Wicker Man.

 

Yeah, haha, the dance scene in The Wicker Man is accurately described as uncomfortably-extended, yet naked, so, I'm not complaining a lot.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

First time watcher and holy cow this show is great. Cooper made me laugh out loud twice: when he returns to his hotel room and is just so excited and then again when ... I forgot. 

 

Every. Single. Scene. Has something interesting going on in it. 

 

I'm honestly surprised by this show. I haven't been surprised by anything in ages, and this 25 year old TV program is just knocking me out. Great stuff. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

That's a great way to put it. Or even when he might not be fitting in that well, he still marvels at what he's seeing every day and is so glad to be in the world. Case in point: when he warns Truman about Albert not being good with social niceties, and after Albert starts insulting everything, Cooper just keeps looking over at Truman with a grin that says, "see? Isn't he exactly what I said?"

He abides in the world in a zen way. He actually plays a trope interestingly. At first he appears to be the ultra-competent attractive man with the coat that understands everything. But, soon, you start to understand HE doesn't understand everything, he just accepts it all

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

At first he appears to be the ultra-competent attractive man with the coat that understands everything. But, soon, you start to understand HE doesn't understand everything, he just accepts it all

 

I know the "coat" part of this statement probably wasn't the main thrust of your statement, but it got me to thinking about wardrobe and its selection of clothes for Cooper. So, there's this link:

 

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BadassLongcoat

 

Which doesn't seem to describe Cooper at all. Although some of the stuff in the article fits (har-har), most of the stuff doesn't. I like this statement a lot: "A Badass Trenchcoat is never closed (unless it's on Humphrey Bogart)." I like that a lot.

 

That trench coat Cooper wears is REALLY present, though. For me, it is the main focal point in most shots where Cooper can be seen in full? In my opinion, he's wearing it because it is part of what makes up an FBI agent. Mulder wears one a lot in the X-files. Maybe if he didn't wear it, he wouldn't be the inspector, he'd just be some guy in a suit? I don't have any firm read on this other than his coat is really THERE in a wardrobe sense.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

SickNotes:

I appreciate your effort and attention to detail, and apologize that I can't respond in kind at the moment. Instead, I just have a few minor points.

 

1) Your distinction between surrealism and magical realism seems somewhat apologetic. At the time Twin Peaks aired, hiding the fantastical elements may have been necessary for audience acceptance, but in the modern climate of Harry Potter and vampires and zombies, it seems a little quaint. I see no reason not to simply call it what it is, which is basically a modern fantasy-horror setting. The fact that the producers felt the need to play coy with revealing that to the audience doesn't mean that we have to treat it that way, we can treat it as a whole thing.

 

2) While I thing we probably all agree that genre labels are more convenience than any kind of strict delimiter, "magical realism" is quite amorphous even amongst its peers. But I've decided, as I've watched more of the series, that I don't think it counts. The primary reason is that one of the central elements of Twin Peaks appears to be interrogating the nature of the magical events. Although people aren't interested in the magic qua magic (they're interested in a murder which appears to have occult / fantastical elements), that means a modicum of exploring the nature of that magic system. So, how it works becomes part of the plot, and not simply part of the backdrop.

 

If I were pitching it to a network exec, I would probably use the words "urban fantasy", which is a catch-all term for much of the current modern-day set vampire / wizard content created today. (I would actually probably try to be clever and call it - wait for it - "rural fantasy", at which point the exec would ask "Who are you and how did you get in my office?")

 
1) It is difficult in a forum which is watching or re-watching a serialized television show to make any statements that move too far ahead in the series, both because, that would talk about the series as a whole and I haven't watched the series recently enough to understand it as a whole. I only added mention of episode 5: The One Armed Man, because I was watching ahead for what I felt was the first time the surreal moments crossed paths with the real world and infringe on the possibility of Magical Realism. I didn't mean to sum up the series as a whole. My only intent was to define Magical Realism and the way it differs from Surrealism and to caution that stuff in dreams is merely surreal until it has to be explained otherwise. Basically, this is what is “in play” at this point. So, in answer to that question, no, I can't treat it as a whole thing, because I don't have a firm enough grasp on it to do so at this point. Nor would it look like anything worth reading cause it would just be spoilers all over the place and no text. This is why I said, “My memory is still hazy on the later episodes and season two.”
 
2) “While I think we probably all agree that genre labels are more convenience than any kind of strict delimiter, "magical realism" is quite amorphous even amongst its peers.” I can agree that Magical Realism is somewhat without form, which is why I chose two basic concepts to define Magical Realism and tried to describe how I felt Twin Peaks has succeeded and failed at being so. I think I did an adequate job of that without defining the show itself by using examples of movies that hewed more closely to the genres I was defining. So, it's ironic that you go on to define what Twin Peaks is, therefore "delimiting" rather than saying how it does or does not resemble a thing.
 
It's no surprise that David Lynch would actually play with the genre's because he has made his career defying genre's intentionally.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I know the "coat" part of this statement probably wasn't the main thrust of your statement, but it got me to thinking about wardrobe and its selection of clothes for Cooper. So, there's this link:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BadassLongcoat

Which doesn't seem to describe Cooper at all. Although some of the stuff in the article fits (har-har), most of the stuff doesn't. I like this statement a lot: "A Badass Trenchcoat is never closed (unless it's on Humphrey Bogart)." I like that a lot.

That trench coat Cooper wears is REALLY present, though. For me, it is the main focal point in most shots where Cooper can be seen in full? In my opinion, he's wearing it because it is part of what makes up an FBI agent. Mulder wears one a lot in the X-files. Maybe if he didn't wear it, he wouldn't be the inspector, he'd just be some guy in a suit? I don't have any firm read on this other than his coat is really THERE in a wardrobe sense.

The modern context of such a coat is sort of interesting, I guess. Its really making some sort of statement, it kinda can't not. I can say that Kyle really can pull it the hell off, though. He's a very attractive man.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The modern context of such a coat is sort of interesting, I guess. Its really making some sort of statement, it kinda can't not. I can say that Kyle really can pull it the hell off, though. He's a very attractive man.

 

It is in no small part do to the magical powers of his chin. It is unmatched.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

So, it's ironic that you go on to define what Twin Peaks is, therefore "delimiting" rather than saying how it does or does not resemble a thing.

 
It's no surprise that David Lynch would actually play with the genre's because he has made his career defying genre's intentionally.

 

Yeah, I don't feel that I did that all. My point was that in so far as magical realism is well defined, I don't think Twin Peaks actually fits the criteria at all, for the reasons I cited. 

 

My joke about "urban fantasy" is speaking more to the way it could be positioned, rather than what it "belongs" to per se.

 

Having watched a little more of the series, I will say that if you ask me what Twin Peaks is "about", I would say it's about boundaries. Boundaries between genres, between identities, between dream and reality, and even between the viewer and the television. I think a great deal of people's fascination with the show derives from an inability to categorize it neatly.

 

Incidentally, I think the same resistance to easy categorization is the western appeal of many popular anime. So, that's what Twin Peaks and FLCL have in common, I guess.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It is in no small part do to the magical powers of his chin. It is unmatched.

One thing I thought about in this sequel will be the very conservative way they portrayed an older Cooper, basically just with some grey in his hair. He doesn't look quite like that.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

One thing I thought about in this sequel will be the very conservative way they portrayed an older Cooper, basically just with some grey in his hair. He doesn't look quite like that.

Does anybody else kind of want them to Tron Legacy / Lucas the red-room scene with present day Kyle MacLachlan? Just as a special feature or something.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Incidentally, I think the same resistance to easy categorization is the western appeal of many popular anime. So, that's what Twin Peaks and FLCL have in common, I guess.

 

I agree. FLCL also has the bonus of being a good example of something that is defying or commenting on its own artform. Spefically when the artists do something like comment in the anime about how the particular type of animation is hurting the artist's hands (which is awesome). I think anime in general also has the benefit of being foreign to begin with.

 

I think the same could be said of David Lynch himself, because he tries to be anachronistic. His foreign qualities are due to liking things from a wider range of eras. Agent Cooper has a quality that is the same. In other words, many people have commented on the fact that the music and Cooper himself seems to have driven into town from 1966. I think David Lynch tries to be that way as well. I like it that he pulls from a wider range of references. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

In response to an offhanded comment Chris made about the name BOB, I'm excited to know what makes you dislike the name. Besides the "ugh-ness" of having Mike and Bobby and MIKE and BOB. But that's probably not a week three discussion.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hey, thanks for mentioning my comments Chris and Jake. I didn't send them in to the email address till you asked because I thought it was too involved, but I'm glad you found them interesting nonetheless.

 

One short note, Magical Realism is not something that we practice here in the United States a lot, so, coming up with a thing that was definitely Magical Realism but NOT Lynch was difficult because most of them are books. Like Water for Chocolate is one of the few movies that have been made from a Magical Realism books. That's why I picked it. All the others are equally obscure. That's why I just went on and explained what the plot of the movie was.

 

David Lynch practices a lot of different genres and I think a good case can be made that he uses it regardless of whether he would mention it as an influence. In fact, the wikipedia page for him doesn't mention any Magical Realism influences (I don't think), but does go on to state:

 

"His films are known for their use of Magical Realism."

 

SPOILERS PROBABLY? I can't say that there will not be spoilers following the link:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lynch#Influences

 

I think it is wonderful to have a director that pulls from such varied sources so far afield and makes them consumable to a larger audience, but it is still difficult to talk about those genres without going real deep on their history and having to pick such obscure sources.

 

This from TVTropes.org is great:

 

Rule of thumb: Say there are vampires in New York.
If the protagonists spend a lot of time with vampires, either taking evil ones down, incorporating them into romance stories, etc. it's Urban Fantasy.
If the cop just goes through his life as a cop, but his partner is a vampire, is greeted with "Hi, Mr. vampire!" by cheerful little children in the street, and casually drinks blood in plain sight out of transfusion packs during coffee breaks, it's a case of Mundane Fantastic.
If a cop's partner is very pale, very strong, generally acts odd, and come to think of it, he's never been seen in daylight, but the story focuses primarily on just a Police Procedural or the interpersonal relationships, it's Magical Realism.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

In response to an offhanded comment Chris made about the name BOB, I'm excited to know what makes you dislike the name. Besides the "ugh-ness" of having Mike and Bobby and MIKE and BOB. But that's probably not a week three discussion.

Yeah we can and will talk about Mike / Bob vs Mike / Bobby next week... because we're dense. (Actually just forgetful.)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now