'The Secret History of Twin Peaks' novel by M. Frost 10/18

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kingsoprano718
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Re: 'The Secret Lives of Twin Peaks' new novel by M. Frost 2

Post by kingsoprano718 »

There seems to be two opinions here.

1. The book is going to fill us in on what has happened the past 25 years, something i do NOT want to read about. Any details like whether Nadine and Ed divorced and if Hank is still in prison are things I want to visually see and be surprised about. Thats like having a friend tell you what happened. Just because it is written by Frost does not mean it doesnt feel like a cheap way to wrap it all up. 20 minutes of the first episode could have filled us in on all these events as we meet the characters again.

2. This book is just going to be exposition on things not important to the show, it wont resolve Cooper or the lodge. It wont introduce any new characters and nothing major will happen......so why is it even being written if we can all together skip it?

Something seems wrong here about this. I dont want Cooper or Truman even mentioned in this book. I want to turn y tv on in 2016 and see my screen go dark and hang on for a thrill ride of answers, mysteries and new questions. This book robs us of a fresh experience. Its not needed. Put this book out AFTER the new show airs as sort of a prequel to tie up those loose ends. Why before? Why does my first exposure to official TP cannon have to be in a novel after 25 years when months later there will be a visual to see.

And just to be clear I am not saying anyone is wrong for being excited for this. this is just my opinion. we all love this show and i think each one of us feels like we own a piece of it, from writing fan fics and drawings to dreaming of how it all would have ended. Maybe im too possessive lol.
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Gabriel
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Re: 'The Secret Lives of Twin Peaks' new novel by M. Frost 2

Post by Gabriel »

It's a difficult one . . . I think this'll be a relaunch as well as a follow-up, so I think the book will be for the hardcore fans filling in gaps and character absences while freeing things up for the new show and a new audience. Twenty-five years is an extremely long time. In 1989, when the show started airing, my recently-retired grandparents had just moved to my home town (I actually watched the show while surrounded by packing cases at their place.) My grandmother's been dead almost 10 years and my grandfather seven. They lived a lot of life in those years. I've completed secondary school, Further Education and Higher Education and 15 years in employment. I live in a capital city now on the other side of the country. The same sort of things go for the characters in Twin Peaks: life will go on. People might have moved away five years after the finale and simply not be remembered anymore. At most, the 25th anniversary of Laura's murder will make a few people nostalgic, but it will be a distant memory for many.

The show won't just be picking up where it left off: everything will have changed in a quarter century and Lynch and Frost will be interested in the story they want to tell. I suspect the book will deal with a lot of stuff that the series won't have time to approach. I'm still speculating the show will be something that will bring Coop back to Twin Peaks (maybe Major Briggs dies) and he won't be BOB. The story element of Coop having to revisit the Lodge will explain his escape in the intervening years. Lynch loves Cooper and I'm not convinced he'd punish such a wonderful character by having a kiddie rapist serial killer running around in his body for 25 years.

Personally, I've liked the Twin Peaks books thus far, so I'm happy to have a new one!
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Re: 'The Secret Lives of Twin Peaks' new novel by M. Frost 2

Post by Ross »

Gabriel wrote:The story element of Coop having to revisit the Lodge will explain his escape in the intervening years. Lynch loves Cooper and I'm not convinced he'd punish such a wonderful character by having a kiddie rapist serial killer running around in his body for 25 years.
For me, this seems like this will be the hardest thing for them to deal with in the new series. Such a huge part of TP was Cooper's charm, enthusiasm & goodness.
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Ross
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Re: 'The Secret Lives of Twin Peaks' new novel by M. Frost 2

Post by Ross »

kingsoprano718 wrote:There seems to be two opinions here.

1. The book is going to fill us in on what has happened the past 25 years, something i do NOT want to read about. Any details like whether Nadine and Ed divorced and if Hank is still in prison are things I want to visually see and be surprised about. Thats like having a friend tell you what happened. Just because it is written by Frost does not mean it doesnt feel like a cheap way to wrap it all up. 20 minutes of the first episode could have filled us in on all these events as we meet the characters again.

2. This book is just going to be exposition on things not important to the show, it wont resolve Cooper or the lodge. It wont introduce any new characters and nothing major will happen......so why is it even being written if we can all together skip it?

Something seems wrong here about this. I dont want Cooper or Truman even mentioned in this book. I want to turn y tv on in 2016 and see my screen go dark and hang on for a thrill ride of answers, mysteries and new questions. This book robs us of a fresh experience. Its not needed. Put this book out AFTER the new show airs as sort of a prequel to tie up those loose ends. Why before? Why does my first exposure to official TP cannon have to be in a novel after 25 years when months later there will be a visual to see.

And just to be clear I am not saying anyone is wrong for being excited for this. this is just my opinion. we all love this show and i think each one of us feels like we own a piece of it, from writing fan fics and drawings to dreaming of how it all would have ended. Maybe im too possessive lol.
I understand the concern here. And in many ways I feel the same. On the other hand, I think its best to see how it all plays out. It seems as if this is all part of Frost & Lynch's bigger plan. I actually think the book will be a combination of both points above:
Meaning, it won't be something new viewers will have to read. But it will fill in many questions that viewers of the original will have, thus in fact making the new series be even more of a fresh start by allowing the story to move forward and not backward. Some fans may like that, some may not.
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Re: 'The Secret Lives of Twin Peaks' new novel by M. Frost 2

Post by Fernanda »

Lynch loves Cooper and I'm not convinced he'd punish such a wonderful character
Do you think he 'punishes' Henry what he does to the baby, or Jeffrey Beaumont by having him slap Dorothy the same way Frank Booth does?

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Last edited by Fernanda on Fri Nov 14, 2014 6:53 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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musicaddict
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Re: 'The Secret Lives of Twin Peaks' new novel by M. Frost 2

Post by musicaddict »

Unfortunately this just goes to show that as soon as people get what they want (new Twin Peaks, new merchandise) someone is not going to be happy. To be honest if you feel that put off by the book then don't buy it.

I personally think the book is going to work more in the way that they will reference something in the TV show without giving too much detail but if you have read the book you will have a deeper knowledge of certain events that cannot be fully explained in the show. For example lets Audrey went to Hollywood became an actress then her fortunes changed and she returns to Twin Peaks. In the TV show she may be back in Twin Peaks already and someone may reference something to her time in Hollywood. This to me would be not an essential need-to-know to experience/enjoy the TV show but if you have the book then you would have an idea of what is being reference and hence enhance the understanding whilst watching the show.
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LostInTheMovies
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Re: 'The Secret Lives of Twin Peaks' new novel by M. Frost 2

Post by LostInTheMovies »

The Cooper thing is really, really interesting.

On the one hand, from what I gather (someone correct me if they've heard differently) it was much more Frost's idea to have Cooper get "taken over" by Bob. Lynch supposedly was not keen on the idea but was stuck with the conclusion of the script which was an important cliffhanger for season 3. Obviously he changed all the Lodge stuff - and added a split into good vs. evil rather than having Cooper simply "possessed" (and FWWM doubles down on this by telling us that the good half is STILL in the Lodge). He makes sure that a part of Cooper, albeit a helpless part, still remains good. So in a way this is further evidence that Lynch doesn't like the idea of a corrupted Cooper.

On the other hand, making Cooper split in two emphasizes that the evil arises, in some sense, from within not simply from big bad Bob taking over. That's there's an imbalance there somehow. So in another sense, Lynch's change to the script actually doubles down on the idea that Cooper has "fallen." Plus we have the fact that all of Lynch's subsequent films have been obsessed with "fallen" or "troubled" protagonists - this is certainly true of Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, and even The Straight Story, and while the heroines of Fire Walk With Me and Inland Empire are ultimately more successful, their triumph is more otherworldly than worldly (both move through death toward a spiritual rebirth) and involves going through a tremendous amount of agony. It would certainly be consistent with the spirit and tone of his later works to leave Cooper's fate dangling, and even give evil the upper hand.

As for Frost, I don't get the impression that he's ever had a problem with having Cooper under Bob's sway and I don't think he'd have an issue with it lasting for 25 years, or want to short-circuit the dramatic potential of this situation.

Indeed, I do NOT think they will say that Cooper somehow got back to normal in the intervening years. For one thing, narratively this would rob the finale of its power and make it a non sequitur - while many other plot threads can be resolved in Frost's book this strikes me as the most important to keep onscreen. And it would close off a lot of fascinating thematic avenues. I suspect (for whatever that's worth!) that in the first episode we'll get a Cooper who SEEMS to be the old Cooper we know and love but that it will be revealed (at the end of the episode) that he is still "evil" Cooper. Or perhaps which Cooper he is will be one of the show's ongoing mysteries through the run.
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herofix
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Re: 'The Secret Lives of Twin Peaks' new novel by M. Frost 2

Post by herofix »

I think that any Lodge-related development should be kept on screen. Seeing the Lodge stuff the way Lynch presents it leaves it open to discussion and interpretation and in a way that's probably why we're all here discussing Twin Peaks all these years later.

I wonder if Frost will make his novel be primarily about one character. I'd love an Audrey novel. Plus because of her privileged position she'd have insight into not only the bank blast aftermath but also how Ben and Catherine develop, she has the perfect vantage to explain how Donna dealt with the revelation and what happened to the Haywards as a result. She'd be at the top of the totem pole in terms of big changes to the town, etc. She's always carried a torch for her special agent, so it makes a lot of sense that even though she is not aware of certain things, she'd keep an interest in Cooper.
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Re: 'The Secret Lives of Twin Peaks' new novel by M. Frost 2

Post by Gabriel »

Thing is, reflecting the world we live in, some people are deeply in love with the dark, apocalyptic side of Twin Peaks. Hell, I've always loved that aspect. But, on the Blu-ray rewatch I'm doing now, I'm reminded just how much I love the silly, surreal stuff: the 'damn fine coffee and cherry pie' aspect. I like the goofy, silly stuff.
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Re: 'The Secret Lives of Twin Peaks' new novel by M. Frost 2

Post by cinemartin »

Personally, I wish the book would be written more like a scrap book of articles from the Twin Peaks Gazette pointing towards superficial exposition of the Town and characters (those we know and those we haven't met yet) over the past 25 years, leading up to where we are now with the new season. But I'm just some guy - the actual guy writing the book created Twin Peaks, so you know - I trust him.
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Re: 'The Secret Lives of Twin Peaks' new novel by M. Frost 2

Post by MoondogJR »

cinemartin wrote:Personally, I wish the book would be written more like a scrap book of articles from the Twin Peaks Gazette pointing towards superficial exposition of the Town and characters (those we know and those we haven't met yet) over the past 25 years, leading up to where we are now with the new season.
I would like that as well.

I wonder if the book is already written. Knowing that Lynch and Frost talked about a possible return of TP for years, knowing that writing, recording en producing 9 episodes will be a lot of work and knowing that writing a book isn't something you do overnight, I would guess that large parts of it are already on paper.
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Re: 'The Secret Lives of Twin Peaks' new novel by M. Frost 2

Post by Jerry Horne »

Apparent release date of October 8th, 2015

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Lives-Tw ... twin+peaks
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Re: 'The Secret Lives of Twin Peaks' new novel by M. Frost 2

Post by Agent Sam Stanley »

Hope doesn't take too long to get to Brazil. I can read fine in English, but it will probably be too expensive to import.
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Re: 'The Secret Lives of Twin Peaks' new novel by M. Frost 2

Post by Jasper »

For some reason I was thinking December, so I'm very happy that (apparently) we'll have a chance to read it a bit sooner.
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Re: 'The Secret Lives of Twin Peaks' new novel by M. Frost 2

Post by Nightsea »

Just in time for Halloween! It will create a great atmosphere for a book that will likely be wonderfully moody and strange.

*Update: I hate to bring bad news, but according to Twitter... "There is NO release date yet for The Secret Lives of Twin Peaks by @mfrost11, despite what Amazon UK says."

So, it very well could be Christmas after all...
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