Twin Peaks, season 3 (2017) episode 8... the one and only time i felt my brain getting f**ked up.
RIP mr. David Lynch

 

I was watching Twin Peaks last night and I think I realized something fundamental about Lynch's work that makes it the way it is- he has absolutely no cynicism whatsoever and I don't know how many directors or artists could say that. The irony of his work is that even though it seems so confusing and inscrutable to most people, every single thing in his films is exactly what it purports to be. There is actually no subterfuge of any kind.

 

A small personal story about David Lynch - Jim Jarmusch is part of the story.
In the late 80's, I had a habit of watching 2 to 3 movies in a night at the cinema because I was an absolute movie buff. One night in 87 I bought two tickets. One ticket to "Down By Law" and one to "Blue Velvet".
Result:
I was so overwhelmed by the two films that were both so overwhelming and groundbreaking in their storytelling, etc. that I had to watch them both again the next night.

 

first discovered him back in '70 as a teen when PBS in NYC showed his short 'The Grandmother.' the last twin peaks series was weird/surreal af. my girlfriend in '78 (and now my girlfriend again after finding each other two years ago) said, "you have to see this movie.... this guy has a head like an eraser!" so we went to a greenwich village theater to see it. a true genius! RIP

 

I'm not sure lol It's difficult to articulate beyond that...

 

Come on, you're a goat and every goat that I've ever known has talked my ear off if given half a chance. There was this one billy goat that I once met on Maui that....

 

Let me work on my thesis. One thing, say, is that all of his characters are archetypes. Like, Agent Cooper is a paladin, there's no arc for his character there's no fatal flaw, he is exactly what he appears to be. Good people are good, wise people are wise, etc. There's a really cool moment in the Twin Peaks pilot where they go into a room and there's a deer head laying on a desk and it seems like a completely weird surreal moment, something really bizarre but a character says oh, that it just fell off the wall. It's not surreal, bizarre or strangely inexplicable, literally just the head fell off the wall- and yet to include that in the scene is incredibly bizarre. But that could happen in life. Things do have explanations even when they seem random and strange and even if we don't know what that explanation is. And the other thing (again) is that is good characters are genuinely good, they're not just waiting to somehow stab you in the back or reveal some kind of horrible flaw. That's the lack of cynicism I'm talking about really. When a character is flawed, like Laura Palmer we generally find out about it right up front and that's part of the reality. The only time he really breaks that is when there's a mystery like who killed her. And the biggest thing is that emotion in his work is never played for cynicism, deep emotion is always played completely straight. We don't laugh at it.

 

Documentary : David Lynch The Art Life [2016]

 

Last edited: Jan 22, 2025

Thought a day later would make it easier to find words to describe how much of a loss that feels to me, but it is not getting any easier...
Important people and artists leave us all the time, but to me, I can count the cases of artists' passing which had/will have an enormous impact on me on the fingers of one hand and this was unfortunate one of them. I could write pages about his films seeing he is my favourite director by far, but I'll just unite my voice with everyone, mourning this legend.
I think the sheer volume of tributes within just 24 hours from fans of his work, creative people everywhere, mainstream media all the way to NASA, is unprecedented and merely highlights the empty space created now he is gone.
Even though he has produced a significant body of musical work too, he used to say he doesn't think of himself as a musician despite loving being around them.
And while people always talk about about the "weird" and the "absurd" etc. I think it's often understated how fucking emotional and warm his work is. Through all the curtains and the darkness, there is always a soul glowing, so may his rest in peace, living in dreams forever after...

 

BTW we lost Lynch but Severance is back- possibly as watershed of a show as Twin Peaks. Funny, the timing.

 

Is it? Already seen it's recommended for Twin Peaks / Lynch fans so definitely something to keep in mind. Also:

 

I think it is! And the opening episode of season 2 was brilliant, it seems to be avoiding the Apple+ second season slump. It feels like they have a very clear roadmap of where the show is going to go and it's not just going to fizzle out and piss people off like Lost and X-Files did. Let's hope so anyway.

 

I first watched Twin Peaks when I was in my late 20s. Now I'm watching it at 60 and the experience is profound. I wasn't prepared for this.