Thoughts on 'The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer'

[TwinPeaksFanatic]

I recently reread this book and found it very interesting. What do you think of it?

http://twinpeaksfanatic.blogspot.com/20 ... almer.html

[LostInTheMovies]

I recently reread this book and found it very interesting. What do you think of it?

http://twinpeaksfanatic.blogspot.com/20 ... almer.html

I love the Diary, and completely agree with everything you wrote. There is that odd, uncomfortable voyeuristic feeling of peeking into someone's secret life. The show doesn't really guilt-trip the viewer that way (at least not until the killer is revealed, and then it guilt-trips hardcore) and in the film I think we identify so much with Laura that it feels more like we're experiencing everything through her eyes than just going along for the ride. But the book really does hammer home how awful her life was. Very sobering read - and it's amazing to me it was such a bestseller in 1990! It was really the last widely popular piece of Twin Peaks media when you consider the reaction to the season 2 premiere a few weeks later.

I think Jennifer Lynch's contribution to the Twin Peaks universe is very underrated.

[BOB1]

For me it's absolute top.

I, too, have had an experience of reading it again years later although I had read it more times before and remembered it very well. Still, it revealed a new face to me when I read it having a daughter myself who was approaching the age when Laura's life went astray. Now THAT was highly disturbing. And more than disturbing, it was real. It was true. It gave me a whole range of thoughts about the distant but possible dangers a young (wo)man might face. I learned to value every week or month that my daughter was going on without anything bad happening to her or even around her. You can end up bad when you're adult, sure. But obviously for a young person who is growing up the hazards are greater. You're young, you crave for lots of things, you want to trust your own and not other people's wisdom yet you have no experience in life, you tend to believe that basically you can get away with most things... And you might be full of good intentions but it's like on the road - being a good driver helps but doesn't prevent you from fools around you. So when you're young, you crave etc., there are these fools around and sometimes you can get fooled, too. That sort of happened to Laura and I don't mean BOB, that's a whole different problem which in her case triggered anything else. But then she had the bad luck of meeting the wrong people. She didn't have to start doing cocaine and orgies. Sure, with the BOB damage inside her, she was prone to it, she sought medication (as dr Jacoby would say) which a person leading a *normal* life would not seek. But then again you never know with the so called normal people...

The Secret Diary read anew played an important role in my understanding of my role as a father to a teenaged girl and also, it was a thrilling readng experience as such. As a young freak I might swallow any Peaks thing and be delighted. As a man with pockets full of criticism of different kinds, I found Jennifer Lynch's book even better than I had remembered it. And that was a cool discovery!

[TwinPeaksFanatic]

It really is a dark yet wonderful book

[Johnsusername]

Good book, enjoyed it. I'll read it again before the new series.

Is it true that she lost the original manuscript and had to re-write the whole thing?

[Johnsusername]

I just ordered the hard copy, I only had it on digital. Looking forward to reading it again!

[MrJackpots]

Not quite as canon-addled as everything else, but the Guide to Twin Peaks is super fun as well.

The one with the dark green border and slice of cherry pie in the center.

I'm revisiting everything, call it a pre-Twin Peaks Return binge. Wrapped it all up prior to the premiere, but one of the real memorable moments was listening to BLUE:BOB again. I don't remember it being quite so indulgent.

[claaa7]

the diary really is wonderful.. with a few discrepancies itactually works within the narrative of the story as we know it (the only thing i had a problem with as first was that Leo, Bobby and Laura was such close "friends"), and being privy to Laura's thoughts and feelings makes for compelling but truly sad reading. and just like FWWM and the series puts us right into the dark/light world of Twin Peaks and the horrors lurking within those dark woods where the thick tree branches and rustling wind in the leaves hides an unexplainable, creeping horror, Lynch's book really puts the reader into that same world. as such it feels one with the world that we have come to know. and even more than a precursor to The Series it works like a charm as the predecessor to FIRE WALK WITH ME. i found it very interesting that Sheryl used two "script" to get into the character aside from David Lynch's directing - the Engels/Lynch script as well as Jennifer Lynch's book. she said she has never played a character with such a tremendous loneliess, and that's the feeling I get from the book as well.

David Lynch has a dark mind for sure when it comes to fiction, using it as a outlet, but from the movies (and this book) i've seen from Jennifer she has an even darker imagination with movies like "Surveillance" and "Chained". she also did a great episode of American Horror Story recently, by far the best episode of the season (which was weak). i really hope that "A Fall From Grace" will be made sooner rather than later.