My reading of the end of Fire Walk With Me

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LostInTheMovies
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My reading of the end of Fire Walk With Me

Post by LostInTheMovies »

First off, a few disclaimers:

1. I'm not trying to claim this is the ONLY way to see the film's climax, nor am I even claiming this was Lynch's intended reading - I'm not sure if he himself even has one (and if he does, it was almost certainly in flux and may still be - recall that as Michael J. Anderson walked past the editing bay he heard Lynch marvel, "So THAT'S what I meant by that!"). Simply that this is the interpretation that I've found works best for me. It's influenced heavily by ideas from John Thorne (the link between Ronette & Donna, the active signification of the ring), Christy Desmet (the notion that Laura provides the guardian angel for Ronette), and Brett Steven Abelman (the role of the carriers in "manifesting" the spirits that harm or save them).

2. My take on the mythology - while I certainly DON'T see the Lodge creatures as "metaphorical" in the sense that they only exist in Laura's head onscreen, I DO see them as allegorical/mythological, which is to say that their physical existence is doubled by a spiritual/pyschological purpose. As with Abelman, I don't believe the relationship is simply puppet/puppeteer as the series sometimes suggests: not only does Lynch contradict this reading in numerous spots throughout Fire Walk With Me, it's also - to me at least - much less interesting than a more complex relationship between the two realms. I don't think the film works - or would be particularly compelling - as a straight-up "monster" movie in which helpless victims are tormented by creatures from beyond.

3. I also think it's worth keeping in mind that the mythology was invented as it went along, not just by Lynch (who already has a penchant for finding his path as he walks it) & Frost, but also, apparently, Peyton & Engels who were left to their own devices to interpret and add to the lore at various points. Therefore there are inevitably going to be twists, turns, and contradictions along the way; I view all of Twin Peaks - from the pilot to the film - as a cohesive whole, but it's a whole with an emotional throughline more than a logical one, more concerned with where it ends up than with conventional notions of canon and continuity.

So with that said...here's how I've come to see Fire Walk With Me.

I think the film shows how Laura was saved - not simply because she died before Bob could possess her, but because in her final days, and specifically her final moments, she acted out of compassion rather than selfishness, or to put it in terms straight out of the show's mythology, love instead of fear: something her father ultimately could or would not do. The narrative structure encourages us to see this by treating Donna & Ronette as doppelgangers who amplify the two sides of Laura's life, and the two poles of her personality. Twice the movie emphasizes this connection. First we see Donna reeling under the influence of her drugged beer in the Pink Room and then we transition into a shot of Ronette emerging out of the haze, as if she is Donna's "bad" double. Later it is Ronette who points out that Donna is being assaulted. Secondly, when Leland arrives in the Hayward home to see Laura & Donna sharing a tender moment on the couch, his mind flashes to the memory of Ronette & Laura in underwear on the bed, awaiting an orgy. As the show did on many occasions, the film employs characters as doubles to point up two extremes and imply the fragile divide between them.

In the Pink Room, Laura seems to be under Bob's sway - in the sense that she is allowing her bad, manipulative, cruel side to take over. Note that this has less to do with prostituting herself & getting drunk (except inasmuch as she is harming herself rather than transgressing social limits) than with her treatment of Donna, whom she not only allows to get sucked into this dangerous world but whom she drugs (by encouraging one of the johns to spike to her drink while she's not looking). The true test comes when she witnesses a nearly unconscious Donna being stripped and groped by one of the men. What happens? Blue, electric flashes around her as she leaps to her feet and rushes to rescue Donna - here she takes an active, positive role against evil.

Then flash forward to the ending. Now it is Ronette and Laura, rather than Donna and Laura, who are in the dragon's lair with the stakes much higher: lives are hanging in the balance. Ronette prays (calling out, "Father, look at me," just as Laura's own father forces her to look at herself - and see Bob in the mirror) and then what happens? Blue, electric flashes in the air as Laura stares at her friend...and an angel is manifested, untying Ronette's binding and saving her life. Laura seems both astonished and extremely focused - to my eyes, whether or not she realizes it, she has echoed her previous rescue of Donna by saving Ronette as well. This is an escalation, in both stakes and scale, or the earlier scene and the fulfillment of the seed planted by that crucial moment: Laura has the power to save others, and thus herself. Put simply, I believe Laura - through her own psychic, and perhaps even unconscious, power - summoned the angel for Ronette.

Again, I view the Lodge creatures - including, in this case, the angel - as having a very give-and-take relationship with their human hosts and counterparts. They not only manipulate or influence people in the "real" world, they are also summoned by them: their interventions arrive at or near moments of discovery for the characters. The Chalfonts show up with their portrait shortly after Laura has discovered the missing pages of her diary. Of course Bob emerges whenever Leland has reason to be jealous or possessive of his daughter. Note too the little kid with the mask, whom many see as corresponding with the young Leland who was probably molested himself, jumping out of the bushes and dancing around as Leland rushes off from a near-disastrous rendezvous with Laura and Ronette. (As a side note, perhaps Ronette is not simply collateral damage in the end, but one of Leland's targets in the quest to eliminate all reminders of his transgressions).

Crucially, the one-armed man arrives when Leland is stricken by guilt and discomfort over the memory of his daughter's prostitution and Teresa's murder: and hardly anyone else in the scene seems very concerned with the illegally stopped, extremely loud van and its driver - they are all reacting to Leland. Laura responds to the burning engine oil and Leland's screaming ("Dad, are YOU all right?") and the mechanics warn Leland to be careful about burning out his engine; only Leland is distraught about the man who just verbally assaulted him. The one-armed man was not a "vision" per se (Laura obviously saw him as well, and Lynch doesn't really give us reason to believe he was invisible or imagined) but he functions much as a personal vision, one which spills over into Laura's consciousness.

The ring seems to represent both knowledge (perhaps why Cooper tells her "don't take the ring" - as the final episode indicates, he himself has imperfect courage when facing the deeper reality) and, perhaps as a function of that knowledge, resistance to Bob (although this doesn't really explain how it relates to Teresa). It's certainly the element I still feel the most perplexed by but in the final scene it clearly plays a crucial role in Laura's fate. I see the One-Armed Man rushing through the woods as providing (or echoing) Laura's final opportunity to save herself before Bob takes over: note that it is Ronette, saved by the angel (manifested by Laura in my reading) who opens the train car door, thus allowing the ring to roll inside - while there is no clear shot indicating this (or indicating otherwise), I believe the one-armed man throws it inside in the brief moment Ronette opens the door. The perfect visual expression of the fact that, by saving Ronette, Laura has saved herself.

It's an ending that feels very much like the conclusion of Inland Empire and The Straight Story - and the opposite of Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway - in which actions and objects characterize the protagonist's journey from helplessness to action, action which not only redeems them but rescues another.

And "Judy"? Whatever she was intended to be, in the finished film (from which Lynch cut many other elements intended to set up a sequel, almost as if he suspected - subconsciously perhaps - that this would be the last entry in Twin Peaks) I think "Judy" works as a kind of mantra, an incantation that corresponds to garmonbozia: pain and sorrow, specifically the pain and sorrow of the mysterious figure we saw wash up on shore in the opening minutes of the saga. (Here I also must tip my hat to Thorne, who noted that as Judy lost specificity in various drafts and cuts of the finished film she became more like a kind of archetypal female victim - so that Laura herself is a "Judy" by the film's end). "We're not gonna talk about Judy at all," Jeffries screams helplessly as the tangible FBI office begins to dissolve and we move closer to the final chapter of Twin Peaks, in which the entire focus will be on Laura's subjective experience (the object of the story's quest from the very beginning). The first words of Twin Peaks are "Gone fishin'" - for what, we don't yet know - and the final word is, "Judy" - what we've caught and finally reeled in. It's an abstraction, the perfect example of Lynch using words poetically rather than literally.

Is any of this what he meant? Who knows. Does it work? I think so. Does for me anyway.
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Re: My reading of the end of Fire Walk With Me

Post by StealThisCorn »

Just wanted to say I enjoyed reading that and think it's a fine take away. I definitely agree about the mythology side of things having both an existence of there own but affecting, manifested from and influencing in turn, the psychology of real people and such.
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Re: My reading of the end of Fire Walk With Me

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Re: My reading of the end of Fire Walk With Me

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Yeah, that's the one! One of my favorite pieces of writing on FWWM.

Also might as well link the pieces by Desmet & Thorne. Desmet's is in Full of Secrets, and looks like the whole text (without excisions) is online: http://books.google.com/books?id=m6mjuW ... ks&f=false. The Thorne piece is heavily edited from the Wrapped in Plastic article, which I think has more insight into the Ronette/Donna relationship, but still worth reading: http://abovethestore.blogspot.com/2009/ ... almer.html. I was also really impressed by Martha Nochimson's writing on FWWM (and even moreso Twin Peaks the show) but I don't think she had as much to say about the aspects I'm discussing.
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Re: My reading of the end of Fire Walk With Me

Post by LostInTheMovies »

Something else that occurs to me watching this recently, as I reach the end of my video series and the point in all of Twin Peaks which most perplexes, frustrates, and ultimately intrigues me.

Check out the intense expression on Laura's face when Ronette is opening the door to the train car.

Image

Image

It seems to me that Laura has a "go get her" look. So even if she does subconsciously summon the angel for Ronette, does she also sics Bob on Ronette (and seal the train car back up)? Was her good action, if it was indeed hers, enough to "open the door" (fear and love open the doors) just long enough for the ring to roll into the train car? Or is she simply looking at him with disgust and fury, and not malevolent command? Or is, in fact, this a positive action since even though Ronette will be unconscious she will be safely out of the train car and Laura will be sealed inside to experience the death she essentially seeks (if her look at Leland/Bob is a command, then maybe it's the closest the film comes to her scripted line demanding Leland kill her)?

I would love to hear anyone else's thoughts on this.
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Re: My reading of the end of Fire Walk With Me

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Lostin - very intriguing ideas overall and I was interested by your last entry. I never saw Laura as urging Leland to do anything to Ronette with the look she has. All I ever saw was pure desperation, but also a mixture of resolve and horrified acceptance that she was going to die. At that point is she not tied up? So she cannot move and is looking towards Ronette and the door opening wishing she could escape, in part, too. Of course, her main concern is that Leland will finish off Ronette - it seems clear that Laura wants Ronette to survive and flee, even if she can't.

In terms of the train door opening, that is the work of the One Armed Man of course - you agree? Or you see it as having a supernatural element?

Regarding Leland, the forces that make him kill Laura seem to be 'summoned' from the same place that the Angel comes from - good and evil in flux somehow. I always found the line where Leland says, 'Don't make me do this!' quite odd - but startling. It displays how he perceived BOB as an evil force controlling him, in my view.
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Re: My reading of the end of Fire Walk With Me

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I've seen it suggested here that when Leland is healed in the lodge he may also be psychologically reset, as in what consciousness he has of his/BOB's evil deeds is erased and he's essentially got amnesia about the whole thing. Then, perhaps, closer to his death, BOB may begin to leak over into Leland's conscious mind once again.

I wonder if the angels could be said to be White Lodge spirits. For some reason I don't really get that feeling, but it's interesting to think about. They seem quite a bit like a European-Christian artistic conception of Abrahamic angels (even more so when we include Laura's angel painting), and that's interesting as well, seeing how we talk about Vedic influence and so on. Of course, the idea could be that these entities are simply symbolic (though they appear to possess some agency) or perhaps that is how good spiritual forces manifest to Laura and Ronette due to their cultural orientation.

I've not thought much about Christian imagery and ideas in Lynch's work. That might be an interesting area to explore.
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Re: My reading of the end of Fire Walk With Me

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Jasper wrote:I've seen it suggested here that when Leland is healed in the lodge he may also be psychologically reset, as in what consciousness he has of his/BOB's evil deeds is erased and he's essentially got amnesia about the whole thing. Then, perhaps, closer to his death, BOB may begin to leak over into Leland's conscious mind once again.
It's a compelling idea. Even on a psychological level (and usually these things work both ways with Lynch) I could see the trauma of Leland's filicide just snapping him. He's already an expert at repression/denial and perhaps his ability to comparmentalize just morphs into complete selective amnesia.

The interesting thing about FWWM, that I'm only just starting to realize now, is that Leland's awareness of his own actions does not necessarily mean Leland is aware of Bob. In the train car, for example, I'm positive Leland doesn't see Bob at all, even when he's functioning as "just" Leland ("I always thought you knew it was me!"). And Bob seems genuinely surprised that Laura knows about him ("I never knew you knew it was me" - although this is slightly inconsistent with the ceiling fan scene, and extremely inconsistent with the secret diary which may prove Jennifer Lynch's contention that her dad never read it).

The series is ambiguous when it comes to host's knowledge of the spirit's actions. In ep. 10 & 13, with Mike, and ep. 15 & 16, with Bob, the impression we get is that the spirit is completely running the show and the host is somehow "sleeping." But in ep. 14 (and obviously in FWWM), Leland and Bob seem to be co-present. There are parts of Maddy's murder where he's clearly full-on Leland (whereas in 15 & 16, he only "acts" like Leland when other people are around). The only time Lynch seems to play with the concept of 100% possession/control is in the final episode, with Cooper, and of course there he goes out of his way to establish that Cooper split in two inside the Lodge. Not sure what all of this means - except, as already established, Lynch is fond of duality but not so much complete this-is-this and that-is-that dualism. But it's interesting, and I look forward to seeing how he will pursue these elements in 2016.

Another interesting thing I've never noticed till now, probably because Al Strobel is just so good at doing whatever he's doing that it didn't register: Mike varies wildly from episode to episode. In #13 he's this Shakespearean figure, more well-composed and well-spoken than he is as Phillip Gerard. Then in #14 he seems more unhinged, like a crazy person. #15 and #16 seem to take their cue more from Lynch's interpretation, but taken in a new direction: Mike appears more animalistic than superhuman (although this might be due more to the script: there's that "dog biscuit" moment in 15 and 16 plays with the conceit of his health breaking down).

From the way Frost has talked about Leland/Bob, and the way ep. 16 plays on the page, I suspect that he also likes the ambiguity of when-is-it-the-host, when-is-it-the-spirit. But with him it seems to come down more to "either/or, but who knows?" type of ambiguity (see Albert and Truman at the end of #16) whereas with Lynch it seems to be "probably both at once, but who knows?" ambiguity. If that distinction makes sense.
I wonder if the angels could be said to be White Lodge spirits. For some reason I don't really get that feeling, but it's interesting to think about. They seem quite a bit like a European-Christian artistic conception of Abrahamic angels (even more so when we include Laura's angel painting), and that's interesting as well, seeing how we talk about Vedic influence and so on. Of course, the idea could be that these entities are simply symbolic (though they appear to possess some agency) or perhaps that is how good spiritual forces manifest to Laura and Ronette due to their cultural orientation.
That's definitely my take on it. I mean, I think all of the Lodge creatures manifest to a certain extent based on the perceptions of their hosts/witnesses. Bob is certainly the quintessential image of the dangerous drifter, although I'm not sure how the Little Man fits into that. But particularly with the angels - it's Laura's way of understanding that her universe isn't just dark and ugly, there's more there to it (whether that understanding is coming from a separate spiritual source, or her own subconscious understanding or - as is usually the case with Lynch - both).
I've not thought much about Christian imagery and ideas in Lynch's work. That might be an interesting area to explore.
That would be an interesting angle to pursue. There's a book out there called Pervert in the Pulpit which basically holds that Lynch is a Calvinist moralist but the author is really down on Lynch and offers a lot of (to my mind) wild misinterpretations of what he's going for. That said, Lynch was brought up Presbyterian. Greg Olsen touches on this in the biography Beautiful Dark, but I don't know if he relates to any of Lynch's visuals.
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Re: My reading of the end of Fire Walk With Me

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james wrote:Lostin - very intriguing ideas overall and I was interested by your last entry. I never saw Laura as urging Leland to do anything to Ronette with the look she has. All I ever saw was pure desperation, but also a mixture of resolve and horrified acceptance that she was going to die. At that point is she not tied up? So she cannot move and is looking towards Ronette and the door opening wishing she could escape, in part, too. Of course, her main concern is that Leland will finish off Ronette - it seems clear that Laura wants Ronette to survive and flee, even if she can't.
I would like to think so, but have my nagging doubts. Your theory preserves the angel as a real turning point for her, whereas if she is "siccing" Bob on Ronette in that moment, she's already "relapsing" and it makes the scene feel somehow less redemptive for her. Although that could also be what Lynch is going for - that good and evil both still exist within her, but the awareness of the good (via the angel) is already enough to save her from Bob. Maybe?
In terms of the train door opening, that is the work of the One Armed Man of course - you agree? Or you see it as having a supernatural element?
Ronette opens the door - the one-armed man either can't reach or manipulate the door, or it is locked from inside. In the film, Ronette opens it because her hands have been untied by the angel. In the script, she opens it with her feet. It would be amusing if the real origin of the angel was that once Lynch got on-set, he realized Phoebe Augustine couldn't actually manipulate the door handle with her toes. ;)

When Leland hits Ronette, the opening is briefly clear and Phillip moves toward it (the camera pans down so that we can't see what his hand might be doing). We then cut immediately to the ring rolling into the train car. And then we cut to Leland closing the door.

So basically the angel frees Ronette, who opens the door, which allows (once she's out of the way) the ring to roll inside.
Regarding Leland, the forces that make him kill Laura seem to be 'summoned' from the same place that the Angel comes from - good and evil in flux somehow. I always found the line where Leland says, 'Don't make me do this!' quite odd - but startling. It displays how he perceived BOB as an evil force controlling him, in my view.
Could be...my take he is talking to Laura - she's "making him do this" because she has refused Bob's possession and, simultaneously, Leland's control (likewise Leland's other victims are women he cannot control - Teresa, who was going to blackmail him, or Maddy, who was about to leave the Palmer home for Missoula, Montana). This resistance is represented when she takes the ring, which replaces her scripted "NO! YOU CAN'T HAVE ME. KILL ME." Which, while a more clear dramatic beat than what's in the movie, sounds more nihilistic and is certainly less visually compelling than the action with the ring.
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Re: My reading of the end of Fire Walk With Me

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Apologies.... posted this comment in the wrong thread.
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Re: My reading of the end of Fire Walk With Me

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Not a bad takeaway from it, I think. As for that look on Laura's face, it does seem to me to be just a kind of desperation...And frankly, she's earned a little desperation. Always saw the angel as a White Lodge spirit too...Though much as I don't think the Black Lodge spirits have any real form, I highly doubt the White Lodge is actually full of angels. All just convenient images for the humans.
Twin Peaks has layers, man. Twin Peaks is an onion. 8)
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Re: My reading of the end of Fire Walk With Me

Post by LostInTheMovies »

I just realized something else, contributing to my sense that Laura is responsible for Ronette's angel. During much of the early part of the scene Laura is looking in the mirror (it's interesting to observe that she glances at the mirror for a beat the moment before Bob says "I never knew you knew it was me").

Lynch cuts between Ronette's prayer and Laura's reflection but at a certain point, before he starts cutting between Laura and Ronette there is a shot of the mirror and Laura is not looking at it but straight ahead, emphasizing that she is no longer absorbed in its reflection. Obviously this could have been achieved simply by cutting to the shot of Laura looking at Ronette but it interesting that the mirror is shown one last time in this specific way. Ronette's suffering is able to pull her out of the self-oriented trap Bob wants to keep her in (which he has obviously succeeded in keeping Leland in).

In this sense, Leland/Bob's biggest mistake was bringing Ronette to the train car. On the other hand, he was probably hoping Laura would kill her (otherwise why not just kill Ronette in the cabin and deal with Laura elsewhere?). So it was probably not so much a mistake as a risk/test of Laura, which backfired.
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Re: My reading of the end of Fire Walk With Me

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LostInTheMovies wrote:
james wrote:
In terms of the train door opening, that is the work of the One Armed Man of course - you agree? Or you see it as having a supernatural element?
Ronette opens the door - the one-armed man either can't reach or manipulate the door, or it is locked from inside.
Actually, looking at it again, we may both be right. Without Ronette working at it from inside, I don't think Phillip could open it but once she starts pushing it he is shown tugging on the other side. So the two of them together get it open, although Ronette makes it possible in the first place I think.
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Re: My reading of the end of Fire Walk With Me

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LostInTheMovies wrote:In the train car, for example, I'm positive Leland doesn't see Bob at all, even when he's functioning as "just" Leland ("I always thought you knew it was me!"). And Bob seems genuinely surprised that Laura knows about him ("I never knew you knew it was me" - although this is slightly inconsistent with the ceiling fan scene, and extremely inconsistent with the secret diary which may prove Jennifer Lynch's contention that her dad never read it).
I always thought BOB was simply mocking Leland (and Laura) there. I think he knows full well that Laura knows about him and what he is, far more consciously than the truth she buried about Leland for years. Why else tear out pages of her diary? He's just terrorizing her in the train car.
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Re: My reading of the end of Fire Walk With Me

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LostInTheMovies wrote: The interesting thing about FWWM, that I'm only just starting to realize now, is that Leland's awareness of his own actions does not necessarily mean Leland is aware of Bob. In the train car, for example, I'm positive Leland doesn't see Bob at all, even when he's functioning as "just" Leland ("I always thought you knew it was me!"). And Bob seems genuinely surprised that Laura knows about him ("I never knew you knew it was me" - although this is slightly inconsistent with the ceiling fan scene, and extremely inconsistent with the secret diary which may prove Jennifer Lynch's contention that her dad never read it).
Leland always thought Laura knew fully well that she was having sex with her father. He thought Laura was fully ok with the idea of incest.
Maybe Bob always thought Laura hadn't made any connection between Leland and Bob.

Let's look at the scene in FWWM where Bob comes through the window and soon Laura finds out the truth about Leland:
Bob is seen coming through window. Leland very unlikely comes through the window, but instead normally through the door. To think of it, it kinda feels like Leland is coming to have sex with his daughter on his own, and Bob enters the situation just as it's about to begin, as they both exist at the same time in the same house, but are moving in different places. So, maybe at that point Bob doesn't know Laura is actually seeing him and not Leland. Sure Laura asks "who are you really", but maybe Bob thinks Laura is saying it to his father.

Maybe there are two type of sexual situations between Bob and Laura:
1. When Leland is raping Laura (he doesn't know it's rape since he thinks Laura is ok with it and that she sees him instead of Bob), Bob is there to feel the pleasure, but isn't aware that Laura actually sees only Bob.
2. When Laura thinks she's having sex with Bob, and when Bob is aware of it, she's actually masturbating.

So really truly physical sexual intercourses are between real people with Bob "hiding behind the mask" of the physical sex partner, and when Laura is masturbating, Bob is there with her and Laura might imagine herself having sex with him.


Even more shotly, Bob knows Laura knows he exists but doesn't know he is inside other people too, or at least inside Leland, using them to get pleasure.




Maybe the whole thing with Bob is that he actually is inside everyone to take pleasure from actions caused by people's sexual depravity and things that might cause pain and suffering in people. Mostly he can't be in control of people, but he can influence people, and the more people become influenced by him and the more people give in to those desires, the more they become like Bob. And the more people become like Bob, the more Bob has control in them. And being in control might simply mean that person acts upon his desires gladly without fighting them and without questioning them. One can grow to become pretty much completely like Bob by living life pleasing to Bob day by day, year by year, or by having to live through traumatic events such as a young boy getting molested in Pearl Lakes or a teenage girl getting molested and eventually tortured by her own father. The best combination for becoming exactly like Bob, is to grow seriously into having pleasures, to grow into liking to abuse others in a way or another, and to be scared. Basically letting thoughts of pleasure control you, and losing your conscience all the while being vulnerable by being afraid.

Maybe Mike is able to find Bob, and even battle him, if a person has grown to be like Bob. Maybe Mike, the gifted and the damned are able to see those people, whose hearts are like Bob's, as Bob. Ben Horne had probably done so many immoral things that he was so closely like Bob, so that Mike was able to feel Bob when Horne got closer to Mike. But as Leland was even more like Bob, Mike couldn't see Ben as Bob.

Maybe our negative emotions, primal desires and will to do evil are collective, and maybe this collective field of emotions has a consciousness of its own, and that consciousness has a name: Bob.
We fear it and we desire it. Laura was one of the rare people who was able to see this collective field of emotions as something that looks physical. Laura was one of the rare people who was able to interact with it. Laura was scared to be like him, yet he at times wanted to be like him. Bob knew he could interact with Laura, not by just manipulating her consciousness, but as himself, a consciousness to consciousness, but he didn't know Laura saw him in his father too.






Damn, I was supposed to only write a few sentences, but ended up writing a wall of confusing mess :D
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