I know I've posted these thoughts elsewhere, but I felt like cleaning it up a little and reposting it here where it belongs, see if it can help any further discussion.LostInTheMovies wrote:As we await news, I'm curious to hear others' take on the Lynch/Frost collaboration specifically in regards to mythology.
Thinking more about what we now know as the Twin Peaks mythology, it occurs to me that I really do have to appreciate Frost's work on that and, to a lesser extent, Peyton and Engels (except for the overly literal ideas which I think we're a mistake--such as making the entrance to Red Room a physical portal in Ghostwood Forest that opens when Jupiter and Saturn align or the unrealized idea of the Planet of Creamed Corn).
I find Lynch's imagery in this regard completely unique and endlessly fascinating, almost mesmerizing to watch. We all know he created Mike and Bob, the "Fire walk with me" chant, the Red Room with the dancing dwarf and Laura Palmer 25 years later, Sarah Palmer as a visionary, the Giant, creamed corn and started the thing with spirits being in wood.
But, without Frost and others, most of these would remain inexplicable, bizarre images without context or significance. Beautiful, creepy, fascinating. The imagery is brilliant and so unique, but it seems like Frost took that imagery and wove it into the context of something that is familiar enough either because of culture, mythology or even genre sensibility, that my mind can conceptualize it and appreciate it even more as actually being a unique mythology and not just Lynchian imagery such as in Wild At Heart or Mulholland Drive.
That said, Frost and especially Peyton and Engels almost stretched that to the breaking point by trying to veer into and tie-in space UFOs, Project Bluebook, dugpas, whatever was up with Major Briggs appearing in 1940s pilot gear, abduction phenomena, ancient petroglyphs etc. Though certain things, like inhabiting spirits (which seems like it was more of Frost's way of solving the problem but there is no hard info on this specifically that I can find), the owl motif, Windom's speech about how fear is the bread and butter of the creatures that hover on the edge of our nightmares (which sounds like John Keel's theories on stuff like the Mothman), the linking of UFO phenomena to the woods around Twin Peaks and "the earth below" (a more magical interpretation than an X-Files sci-fi one, in the vein of Jacques Vallee's studies on the links between modern UFO stories and older faerie lore ) and creating a clear good versus evil (or at least lawful evil versus chaotic evil) do actually add to the mythology in my opinion. Again, by referencing things that are culturally tangible and familiar enough to me to where I can almost imagine a cohesive mythological framework out of all the elements.
Now, of course, Lynch takes this again and then improves on it even more such as taking the vague ideas of the Black/White Lodge and folding that back in to the Red Room 25 years later, time being non-linear, doppelgangers, the creamed corn as pain and suffering (at least from Leland to feed Mike), the mysterious Ring and the otherworldly space Above the Convenience Store. Though, in the film, I know Engels helped form the idea of them being from "another world" and wanting to return home and, I suspect, the more science-fiction type elements such as David Bowie's physical teleportation, Cooper seeing himself on the monitor and who knows what else.
It's like, can you imagine if the original Mulholland Drive pilot got picked up for a television series? Though, presumably, Lynch would have learned his lessons from his heartbreak over Twin Peaks, if other writers started contributing to the show and even other directors or just other collaborators (because Lynch on TV *needs* collaboration), I bet you that the Creature Behind the Diner, the Cowboy, the Grandparents, the Blue Box and the Blue Key, the Woman with Blue Hair etc. might have all been interpreted by the other writers as some kind of strange mythology and tried to work them into the story of the show in the same way that Frost and the other writers saw Lynch's imagery of Mike, Bob, the Red Room, the dancing dwarf, etc. from the end of the European pilot and took parts to make into a show mythology and tried to force others to fit into a narrative of clues. All to deepen the mystery and provide a cosmic scope to the human drama playing out.
So I guess my point is that, because of Frost and, to a lesser extent, Peyton, Engels and maybe other writers/collaborators, when my mind goes to touch if you will, or play with, imagine etc. the mythology of Twin Peaks world, there is something solid there for me to grasp, because of culture, myth and genre allusions rather than just the smoke of Lynch's strange and beautiful, but undefined, imagery. And that, is probably why, despite its many mistakes and flaws, it remains my favorite out of all things Lynch has worked on.
And, though it's been said before, these thoughts just make me so intrigued, excited and curious about what in the world a much stronger, focused, lasting collaboration between Frost and Lynch will do with the established mythology in the new 2016 series. How it will be utilized, how it will be expanded, what new idea or explanations might be given. I hope Lynch is gonna create some more incredible imagery, atmosphere and emotional depth and Frost will help weave it into one hell of an epic story.