The Owl Cave Ring - thematic significance

General discussion on Twin Peaks not related to the series, film, books, music, photos, or collectors merchandise.

Moderators: Brad D, Annie, Jonah, BookhouseBoyBob, Ross, Jerry Horne

User avatar
FauxOwl
RR Diner Member
Posts: 151
Joined: Sun May 18, 2014 3:08 pm

Re: The Owl Cave Ring - thematic significance

Post by FauxOwl »

I find the whole TM thing pretty fascinating but without any real investment either way in whether it's legit. From what I can gather, if it's a cult it's a pretty soft one: a lot of people go to them to get a mantra and technique and then depart without any pressure to stay. On the other hand, any organization that is charging fees for spiritual teachings automatically rings alarm bells for me. My completley uninformed and therefore worthless suspicion is that most likely, the technique is effective and useful but the organization somewhat suspect as most institutions are. Not Church of Scientology-level though.
This is more or less my take, though my stance on the TM organization is a bit harsher. I learned it in India, where it wasn't insanely expensive... I cannot fathom charging the kind of money they charge in the U.S. for these teachings. They used to charge $2,500, and I believe these days it's $1,500. At those prices, I find what they do unethical. The technique on its own is actually good. Meditation is good, and TM is about the easiest form of meditation there is. The TM organization tells you not to teach anyone, because of course they want people to give them ridiculous amounts of money, but I swear I could write three paragraphs detailing the technique and give you about 75% of what you'd get forking over the money. I can't give you the mystical mantra but I don't believe the mantras they give are any more effective then any mantra you can make up. Pick a word you like and google translate it in Estonian... it'll work. I agreed not to teach it so I won't, but the book "The Relaxation Response" boils it down and gives you the gist.

I've also learned the Vipassana Meditation technique. It's far, far more difficult. For most it would be one of the most challenging undertakings of their lives. It requires a 10 day course which includes food and lodging. There's no way I could approximate what I learned there in writing or even if I were to meet you and give personal instruction. The total cost for the 10 day instruction, food and lodging? $0. Everyone who runs the course is doing so on a volunteer basis. At the end of the course, open only to people who have completed it, there is a donation table. They don't even pressure you to go up to it.

I do think Lynch's foundation is doing good work, but they make it available only to people who meet certain criteria, where as Vipassana is available to anyone. If the TM organization was really interested in helping the world with their technique, a comparison to the Vipassana organization doesn't give them much excuse for not doing it much differently.

As for whether the practicing the TM technique makes one a Hindu, it does not. There is a puja performed at the "initiation" when you learn it. This is supposed to pay respects to Maharishi's teacher, Guru Dev. A puja is certainly a religious ceremony, even if they claim it is not, but it is the only time a religious ritual is performed in the teaching of the technique. Beyond that, it is just a simple technique of meditation that can be practiced by people of any belief system, or no belief system. I don't know if Lynch considers himself a Hindu, but being a practitioner of TM does not make him one.

If I ever had the good fortune of meeting and speaking with David Lynch, I wouldn't bring any of this up because we'd have some major disagreements, and there would be plenty of things I'd rather speak to him about. My view on the TM organization has no bearing on how I view him as an artist.
User avatar
LostInTheMovies
Bookhouse Member
Posts: 1558
Joined: Tue May 20, 2014 12:48 pm

Re: The Owl Cave Ring - thematic significance

Post by LostInTheMovies »

Wow, great post. I agree about artists - I find it a bit odd and occasionally amusing how people will sometimes judge the work by its creator's personality (or even more ridiculously, politics - "oh, I won't watch this because he/she said something bad about >insert speaker's political party here<). I mean, I think Roman Polanski is one of the most brilliant filmmakers out there and would applaud his work any day. He also appears to be an absolutely rotten individual (but maybe I'm opening up a can of worms here - we've already wondered way off-topic haha). By comparison, Lynch supporting a somewhat shady (or should I say "Sadie" ;) ) organization is pretty mild.

Btw what are the conditions one have to meet to qualify for DLF training? Is it mostly income-based (aside from being a veteran)?
User avatar
LostInTheMovies
Bookhouse Member
Posts: 1558
Joined: Tue May 20, 2014 12:48 pm

Re: The Owl Cave Ring - thematic significance

Post by LostInTheMovies »

Just to bring it back to the original question a bit - how the ring plays out thematically and the theory that Laura's use of the ring was added in post-production - here's an quote from Lynch: "Well, editing is very depressing in a way, because at that point it is what it is. You cut stuff together and you look at it and if there were loaded guns around you might kill yourself. It's a process that is sometimes very painful, but by acting and reacting and trying to hold your objectivity, you can eventually get there. It's an experiment. You lose scenes you thought you would never lose and you take on a little bit of a scene that you thought was a throwaway. But those combinations make it happen. The film seems to want to be a certain way and an editor can help you get it that way. You need an editor who is anxious not only to make it work but to take some strange chances. Experiment. And a lot of times through experimentation you get to some beautiful places. A lot of times you go down a wrong road and you get in trouble. But you have to be willing and you have to be with people who want to take the chance and experiment." Fairly general as his statements usually are but definitely makes me think of FWWM more than any of his other films (Inland Empire too in a way, but HE was the editor on that).

It makes me wonder what role Mary Sweeney played in Fire Walk With Me's evolution (especially consider how close her and Lynch were growing at the very time of its making). There are a lot of interviews with Bob Engels, but I don't think I've read any with Sweeney. John Thorne said he spoke with her and, like Lynch, she didn't want to provide much information about what actually happened in editing.
User avatar
FauxOwl
RR Diner Member
Posts: 151
Joined: Sun May 18, 2014 3:08 pm

Re: The Owl Cave Ring - thematic significance

Post by FauxOwl »

LostInTheMovies wrote:Wow, great post. I agree about artists - I find it a bit odd and occasionally amusing how people will sometimes judge the work by its creator's personality (or even more ridiculously, politics - "oh, I won't watch this because he/she said something bad about >insert speaker's political party here<). I mean, I think Roman Polanski is one of the most brilliant filmmakers out there and would applaud his work any day. He also appears to be an absolutely rotten individual (but maybe I'm opening up a can of worms here - we've already wondered way off-topic haha). By comparison, Lynch supporting a somewhat shady (or should I say "Sadie" ;) ) organization is pretty mild.

Btw what are the conditions one have to meet to qualify for DLF training? Is it mostly income-based (aside from being a veteran)?

Thanks. To quickly address the last question, the DLF seems to focus primarily on at risk populations like low income urban schools, war veterans, prisons, etc. I'm not sure if you can get training based solely on income. And yeah... it's mild compared to Polanski and others, to say the least... I mean it's good work the foundation does and Lynch is doing it because he believes in it and genuinely wants to help people, so not only do I have no problem with it, for the most part I respect it.

Anyway, back to the Owl Cave... :)
Fernanda
Roadhouse Member
Posts: 99
Joined: Mon Jun 11, 2012 2:27 pm

Re: The Owl Cave Ring - thematic significance

Post by Fernanda »

Last edited by Fernanda on Wed Apr 01, 2015 11:00 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Fernanda
Roadhouse Member
Posts: 99
Joined: Mon Jun 11, 2012 2:27 pm

Re: The Owl Cave Ring - thematic significance

Post by Fernanda »

~
Last edited by Fernanda on Wed Apr 01, 2015 11:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
AgnililaOzwald
Roadhouse Member
Posts: 30
Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2014 5:51 pm

Re: The Owl Cave Ring - thematic significance

Post by AgnililaOzwald »

I wonder if the Owl Cave ring is inspired by the blind (and reputedly dark) agreement made for material gain when someone becomes a mason and then, wedded to the unseen, is given a masonic ring.

Just a thought. Please carry on.
Garbanzo I OM
User avatar
LostInTheMovies
Bookhouse Member
Posts: 1558
Joined: Tue May 20, 2014 12:48 pm

Re: The Owl Cave Ring - thematic significance

Post by LostInTheMovies »

Quick observation, after reading a piece about the ring on another site which discusses matter-of-factly how Desmond is transported to the Lodge after wearing the ring. I'm surprised that so few people mention the fact that Lynch DOESN'T show us Desmond touching the ring. He doesn't just stop the scene before Desmond puts it on, he stops it before Desmond has actually even made physical contact with it. It's always assumed he puts it on and perhaps he does, but to me the far more interesting fact is how Lynch chooses to halt the scene abruptly, not just cutting away but actually freezing the frame. This is particularly peculiar in that Lynch typically does not use this technique elsewhere in the film, or in Twin Peaks that I can recall (other than the frozen picture of Cooper and the red curtains underneath the closing credits to episode 14 - contrast to the end credits of 2, 8, and 29 which all feature motion). My feeling it is has something to do with Desmond's inability to crack Teresa's case - it's just out of reach for him, and like Cooper confronted with his failure after Maddy's death (immediately after which he touches his finger as if feeling for the ring), he's frozen onscreen.
User avatar
LostInTheMovies
Bookhouse Member
Posts: 1558
Joined: Tue May 20, 2014 12:48 pm

New Thoughts on the Ring

Post by LostInTheMovies »

Some thoughts about the ring (as well as Little Man/Mike), which I'll have to divide into sections:

-ONE-

There are many hints, especially in the context of the original script, that the ring is a bad thing (and I think both Bob Engels and Al Strobel interpret it that way) but when you break down the finished film, its function is almost entirely positive!

Most notably, of course, in an unscripted climax it results in Laura escaping Bob's control (yes, through death but Lynch often presents physical death as a spiritual gateway to higher understanding - Eraserhead & Elephant Man (imo) & Inland Empire (definitely!) although not so much Mulholland Drive admittedly). But it is also highlighted when Teresa realizes who Leland might be (and subtly transmits that information to Laura), accompanies Gerard's warnings about Leland, follows Annie's revelation that the good Dale is in the Lodge (twice, if you include the Missing Pieces), and actually (as Martha Nochimson points out) reanimates rather than numbs Laura's arm in her dream (it goes numb BEFORE she receives the ring).

-TWO-

That last bit makes me wonder if the ring caused Teresa's numb arm, or actually presented relief from the numbness (as it does for Laura in the dream). It's interesting to note when the ring appears on Teresa's finger. We don't see it in the Flesh World picture and whenever Teresa talks to Leland (over the phone, in bed, and in the motel court) it's hidden. In bed with Leland, her left arm lies completely under his body, which I'm sure is no accident.

In the parking lot, we can actually see it if we freeze-frame but it's mostly hidden by an ice-pack (!) Teresa is carrying in her left hand. And then she positions her hand exactly so that her finger is just out of frame. As she walks away from Leland and turns back to look, we can glimpse it but it isn't featured prominently until she's back in the motel room with Laura and Ronette. Which suggests to me the ring has some connection between her suspicions about (and power over) Leland (and Bob). Anyway, StealThisCorn has pointed out interestingly that Teresa is NOT wearing the ring when she is killed.

At any rate, I do not think the ring marks property/victim of Bob nor that it marks them for death, except inasmuch as Bob is going to destroy what he can no longer have. If it marks the property of anyone, I think it would be the Little Man/Mike, if "property" is the right term (maybe partner would be better).

-THREE-

Where did Teresa get the ring? It's assumed it came from the Lodge because of the Owl Cave symbol and I think a Lodge-ish origin makes sense with my interpretations above too. But aside from the symbol, everything on the surface of the film suggests it's simply Teresa's ring, which gains significance only later because she has been killed. Just throwing that out there as a devil's advocate but personally I suspect it has (dramatic and metaphysical) significance before she dies.

-FOUR-

I like the idea, suggested on another thread (can't remember by who), that the elongated adaptation of the Owl Cave symbol on the ring is meant to convert the owl into...corn.

-FIVE-

There's also the matter of the Little Man's "with this ring I thee wed." I think this could mean a couple things. Most obviously, it means Laura is wed to the Little Man/Mike (more on that in a second) when she accepts the ring in the train car, which represents a defiance of Bob's control and initiation into a larger cosmic understanding ("I saw what it was, and it was beautiful" - Between Two Worlds).

But it could ALSO be the Little Man is wedding Laura, in a metaphysical sense, to the good Coop in the Lodge which has interesting implications both for the original series (where Laura assists Cooper through his dream and later greets him in the Lodge) and the upcoming series in 2016.

-SIX- (Little Man/Mike)

I've been on the fence before, but increasingly I lean toward two complementary interpretations of the Little Man:

1) That he IS, for all intents and purposes, Mike and that him being "the arm" is another way of saying this. I can't fully commit to this though because of the seemingly contradictory information on the show. If it was just Phillip who lost his arm, then the arm could = Mike but in the series they make it as if Mike himself, the spirit, chopped off an "evil" arm. Division is rarely a good thing in Lynch's world, so perhaps he (re?)conceived the severing of the arm as a bad thing, a mistake on Mike's/Gerard's part in which he tried to separate himself too dramatically from evil? Anyway, I still lean toward an equation of the Little Man with Mike as a whole and not JUST his arm but am not sure how this plays out.

2) I think Mike's role in FWWM is a positive one. And I would say the same of the Tremonds. Laura needs to learn the ugly truth about her father and Bob, but also that there is a greater order to the universe (the angels), and that evil does not have to defeat good. Not sure about the whole convenience store scene, except that I think it's meant to illustrate the larger spiritual order of Twin Peaks and Mike's and Bob's place in it. They both play a role and I don't think Lynch conceives good/evil, knowledge/confusion in terms of a White vs. Black Lodge spiritual battle (the way Frost does) so it makes sense on some level that they are laughing together rather than duking it out or whatever. That said, there's a whole lot going on here I haven't figured out yet (if it's even possible to figure out).

-SEVEN- (garmonbozia)

For all Engels' talk of planets of corn, what indication do we have that Bob actually feeds on garmonbozia? As Mike says on the show, Bob feeds on "fear and the pleasures," not "pain and sorrow."
User avatar
StealThisCorn
RR Diner Member
Posts: 150
Joined: Thu Aug 21, 2014 2:53 pm
Location: Laying on Laura's lap in the Red Room / Gorging on garmonbozia with Bob Above the Convenience Store

Re: The Owl Cave Ring - thematic significance

Post by StealThisCorn »

Yeah if it didn't have the damn Owl Cave symbol on it and we didn't see the Little Man offering it or Mike/Gerard wearing it then we could assume it's just Teresa's ring and connect it's appearance on a mound of dirt with Laura's necklace from James also being ritually placed on a mound of dirt in the train car. Sort of a calling card of Leland/Bob the serial killer. But we know that Bob wanted Laura as his new host, hence (I guess--we don't really have a firm grasp of how the "magic" works in that world) the ritual of placing her necklace on the mount of dirt, writing the "Fire walk with me" chant in blood and tying her up in front of a mirror. I also definitely think that Leland stabbing himself in the gut and thus accounting for the bloody towl discarded on the train tracks, is part of this process. Like Bob has to kill Leland before he can fully "pass his spirit" on into Laura after trying to torture her into giving in. But unable to break her/unable to overcome the ring's power, he has to settle for Leland again for now, and, in a moment of uncharacteristically blatant magic for the series, completely removes his wound from the physical world entirely. After all, when he is trapped later in the series by Cooper, Hawk and Truman, Bob ultimately bashes Leland's head in and kills him to escape, presumably forced to go back to the Black Lodge/Red Room since he is without a host.

We have no such indication that Bob ever wanted Teresa as a host, only that she was Leland's prostitute and became a problem for him so he killed her, and somehow that translated in the spiritual world to Bob stealing the corn Mike had canned above the store, probably because Teresa was wearing what appears to be Mike's ring and it either means she was "wed" to him or his property somehow. This is all just speculation on my part but there is a certain fantasy logic to it.
LostInTheMovies wrote:But it could ALSO be the Little Man is wedding Laura, in a metaphysical sense, to the good Coop in the Lodge which has interesting implications both for the original series (where Laura assists Cooper through his dream and later greets him in the Lodge) and the upcoming series in 2016.
I find that idea extremely interesting. I do love Audrey and Cooper, but deep down I always kind of felt like it would be interesting if Cooper was subconsciously falling in love with the dead girl Laura slowly over the course of the series. I think there was an old film where the investigator starts falling in love the victim of a murder he is trying to solve or something? And also this could tie into my personal theory that Mike was grooming Cooper to become his new host after Philip Gerard, "the magician", with Laura being wed to Mike inside Cooper. And thus this is why Cooper was baited and led to the Black Lodge/Red Room for to be tested by both the Little Man (if he is Mike or what's left of his Arm) and Bob, though, ultimately, Bob won out in the contest, hence the Little Man's, slightly awed and disappointed, "wow Bob wow".

The Little Man says "that gum you like is going to come back in style", yet Bob/Cooper says "I need to brush my teeth".
LostInTheMovies wrote: I can't fully commit to this though because of the seemingly contradictory information on the show. If it was just Phillip who lost his arm, then the arm could = Mike but in the series they make it as if Mike himself, the spirit, chopped off an "evil" arm.
And that is why I cannot fully embrace this interpretation yet. But I guess I'm of the completely opposite opinion about Mike's nature and even the Tremonds. I think they are all "evil", though not in a dualistic sense, but, rather, in an "alien" sense whereby their system of morality ("you stole the corn!") is completely aloof and inimical to ours and we are just prey to them, farmed for pain and sorrow and, sometimes, parasitically inhabited. I think this is the part of Twin Peaks that verges into the "cosmic horror story" of a Lovecraft tale. I think the times when Mike aids the investigators in exposing Bob's host or when the Tremonds try to warn Laura, can be explained as their attempt to reign Bob back in because he has gone out of control and broken the rules, presumably because, after Mike broke up their "golden circle of appetite and satisfaction" by "cutting off the Arm", he ceased to be merely Mike's "familiar" and started having "the fury of his own momentum". And somehow that ring has something to do with this.

But then again, there is the Giant and the wild card of the Angels introduced in FWWM to consider, possibly meant to create a balancing group of entities or force that, and I'm reaching here, possibly harvests love or something?

But, for certain, both fear, pleasure, pain, sorrow and love will be always be a part of humanity and the "evil we do", so one wonders how an entity like Bob could ever be destroyed or defeated, if that will indeed be a goal in 2016.
User avatar
LostInTheMovies
Bookhouse Member
Posts: 1558
Joined: Tue May 20, 2014 12:48 pm

Re: The Owl Cave Ring - thematic significance

Post by LostInTheMovies »

StealThisCorn wrote:I think there was an old film where the investigator starts falling in love the victim of a murder he is trying to solve or something?
There is and it's called..."Laura"! And she has a secret diary. ;) Also features a character named Waldo Lydecker. Coincidence, I think not...
I think they are all "evil", though not in a dualistic sense, but, rather, in an "alien" sense whereby their system of morality ("you stole the corn!") is completely aloof and inimical to ours and we are just prey to them, farmed for pain and sorrow and, sometimes, parasitically inhabited.
I think Mike's "morality" doesn't exactly correspond with the human conception, but I think of the Lodge creatures as something akin to ancient gods. They have their own purposes, surely, and they don't have the sort of stern parental/judgemental/moralistic relationship to people that, say, the God of the Old Testament has. But they stand for larger cosmic forces that correspond roughly to the forces controlling human lives. And the film seems to suggest that Mike's power is generally more positive, and perhaps deeper & richer, than Bob's.

Otherwise the ending of FWWM feels sort of anticlimactic to me and the drama around the ring semi-pointless (not much better than Laura just saying "kill me" as was in the original script). As if Lynch is just saying, oh yeah before I forget, some more Lodge stuff in the middle of the Laura psychodrama! I hope there's a more holistic purpose to it than that but we'll see (maybe) in 2016...
User avatar
StealThisCorn
RR Diner Member
Posts: 150
Joined: Thu Aug 21, 2014 2:53 pm
Location: Laying on Laura's lap in the Red Room / Gorging on garmonbozia with Bob Above the Convenience Store

Re: The Owl Cave Ring - thematic significance

Post by StealThisCorn »

LostInTheMovies wrote:But they stand for larger cosmic forces that correspond roughly to the forces controlling human lives. And the film seems to suggest that Mike's power is generally more positive, and perhaps deeper & richer, than Bob's.
If it was just a little more clear, I could concede that the entities seen at the Convenience Store scene are personifications of the larger cosmic forces (or as Hawk says, "the spirits that rule man and nature"), since we get references there to "electricity", "animal life", etc., with Bob perhaps being the Evil That Men Do/Fire/Mischief? And who knows, as we keep saying, maybe 2016 will provide just that extra ounce of clarity. But the show really builds up the sinister nature of what comes to be called "the Black Lodge", making it out to be a place of evil, which Lynch ultimately harmonizes with his vision of the Red Room somehow. Additionally, it is when Mike first appears to Cooper in a dream that he tells him that "We lived among the people. I think you say, convenience store. We lived above it. I mean it like it is, like it sounds... My name is Mike. His name is Bob." So it doesn't seem like too much of a stretch for me that Mike (at least was if not still is depending on how FWWM is interpreted) and Bob=evil. They once were partners and lived above a convenience store (I think there's some kind of play on words going on there regarding living among the people, "convenient", like it sounds, and canning above the store, i.e. our world perhaps). So hence the entities seen above the Convenience Store are, somehow, a part of that evil predatory relationship.

But I'm curious, what do you see in the film that suggests to you Mike's power is more positive or deeper and richer than Bob's?
User avatar
LostInTheMovies
Bookhouse Member
Posts: 1558
Joined: Tue May 20, 2014 12:48 pm

Re: The Owl Cave Ring - thematic significance

Post by LostInTheMovies »

StealThisCorn wrote:But the show really builds up the sinister nature of what comes to be called "the Black Lodge", making it out to be a place of evil, which Lynch ultimately harmonizes with his vision of the Red Room somehow.
True, but the show also presents both Mike-as-OAM and the Little Man as helping Cooper catch Bob. Obviously, we've discussed theories that this is subterfuge but on the surface at least, both are good guys for most of the series. Most interpretations of Bob/Mike-as-evil seem to stem from the film (and, to a lesser extent, the finale) so I think a reading of them as a positive force in the movie would actually BETTER harmonize the film with the show (the only hitch being the whole "arm" thing since the arm was initially supposed to be evil).
But I'm curious, what do you see in the film that suggests to you Mike's power is more positive or deeper and richer than Bob's?
His actions, as both the LM and the OAM, and the ring he wields in both capacities, lead Laura to expose and ultimately resist Bob. The ring also does NOT numb Teresa's and Laura's arms is usually assumed - in fact their arms appear inert or numb (Teresa with the icepack or crushed under Leland) BEFORE they have the ring (or - technically - before were supposed to notice it on Teresa in the parking lot). When they do wear the ring their limb is re-animated. The ring is also linked to the angel inasmuch as it is only allowed inside the train car when the angel frees Ronette's hands to open the door. And, of course, in turn this brings Laura to the Red Room where she sees her own angel. In the end, as Bob and Leland stand divided and defeated, Phillip and the LM appear united and triumphant, joined together.

There's also some deduction involved about where Lynch is going with all this based on his own stated belief in "the unified field" and devotion to a Hindu tradition emphasizing "the all" (Brahman) behind the facade of division and chaos (Maya). The Log Lady's intros also suggest several times an underlying unity and order which is stronger than evil (I'll try to dig up the exact ones) and Laura in Between Two Worlds talks about seeing "what it really was" and that it was beautiful. Will all this in mind, moving with the logic of the film - in which Mike leads Laura out of her delusions, away from Bob, into the larger possibilities of the spirit world, and finally into the Red Room with her angel I have to conclude that Mike represents a larger cosmic order and higher truth than Bob (or at least the potential for such; perhaps when the arm is separated his power is reduced). I also have to credit Martha Nochimson's book, The Passion of David Lynch, and the selphieamaysie (sp?) videos I mentioned a few weeks ago, which also helped push me in the Mike-is-positive direction.

But I think the evidence is there in the film. A lot of circumsantial details (spooky appearances, interviews with actors/writers, etc) suggest that Mike is evil/negative but the substance of the narrative suggests otherwise and I trust that more! Sometimes I think we make it too complicated. In Fire Walk With Me, all of Mike's actions contribute to Laura's happy ending. This can be either coincidental or purposeful and if it's the former than the film lacks an effective dramatic arc because Laura just suffers and promptly exits stage left in the end, a pawn in the game of characters who are not our protagonists.

Of course, I may also be completely wrong and find this out in 2016. ;) You never know with Lynch.
Last edited by LostInTheMovies on Fri Jan 16, 2015 4:44 pm, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
LostInTheMovies
Bookhouse Member
Posts: 1558
Joined: Tue May 20, 2014 12:48 pm

Re: The Owl Cave Ring - thematic significance

Post by LostInTheMovies »

Here are the Log Lady intros I had in mind. More interesting for the non-dualist Hindu connection than specifically for the Mike thing but still worth musing over.

"What is a reflection? A chance to see two? When there are chances for reflections, there can always be two - or more. Only when we are everywhere will there be just one."

"There are clues everywhere - all around us. But the puzzle maker is clever. The clues, although surrounding us, are somehow mistaken for something else. And the something else - the wrong interpretation of the clues - we call our world. Our world is a magical smoke screen."

""But there is still the question: why? And this question will go on and on until the final answer comes. Then the knowing is so full, there is no room for questions."

One thing about that last one, though - in light of what Laura said in Between Two Worlds ("There are still many questions - questions about the truth of it all") it would seem that while she's ascended to a higher plane she still hasn't quite gone all the way. Unless they aren't HER questions. We'll see in, oh, roughly sixteen months...
User avatar
StealThisCorn
RR Diner Member
Posts: 150
Joined: Thu Aug 21, 2014 2:53 pm
Location: Laying on Laura's lap in the Red Room / Gorging on garmonbozia with Bob Above the Convenience Store

Re: The Owl Cave Ring - thematic significance

Post by StealThisCorn »

So...if you're correct about a link between the ring and the appearance of the angels, are we to assume the ring will bring that nurse who stole the Ring from Annie her angel as well?
LostInTheMovies wrote:There's also some deduction involved about where Lynch is going with all this based on his own stated belief in "the unified field" and devotion to a Hindu tradition emphasizing "the all" (Brahman) behind the facade of division and chaos (Maya). The Log Lady's intros also suggest several times an underlying unity and order which is stronger than evil (I'll try to dig up the exact ones) and Laura in Between Two Worlds talks about seeing "what it really was" and that it was beautiful. Will all this in mind, moving with the logic of the film - in which Mike leads Laura out of her delusions, away from Bob, into the larger possibilities of the spirit world, and finally into the Red Room with her angel I have to conclude that Mike represents a larger cosmic order and higher truth than Bob (or at least the potential for such; perhaps when the arm is separated his power is reduced).
Hmm...well when you put it like that, I have to admit it's a compelling interpretation. I certainly love Lynch's style and most of his body of work, but I also am definitely a fan of other genre fiction, so I think perhaps I project some of that into my attempts to make "sense" of Twin Peaks mythological lore, perhaps where such conventions are not really meant to apply.

Mike actually being a genuinely positive force, despite appearing quite aloof and suspicious in the film, would at least take away some of the frustration in reconciling his portrayal in the series to that of the film and not call total bullshit on his claims during his first appearance in Cooper's dream or his seemingly heartfelt speech to him in Episode 16.
Post Reply