'Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier' Novel by Mark Frost 10/31 (SPOILERS)

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laughingpinecone
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Re: 'Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier' Novel by Mark Frost 10/31

Post by laughingpinecone »

Wouldn't it make the first book completely pointless? I imagine we're gonna find out what was up with that dossier, but it will be up to us to mentally correct it.

From the info we have now, ie just the title, I'm not fully committing to any hypothesis but I'm inclined to think that it could be the continuation of the Archivist's work past the "mayday" cliffhanger, either by him personally or by someone taking up his mantle.
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Re: 'Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier' Novel by Mark Frost 10/31

Post by Agent Earle »

laughingpinecone wrote:Wouldn't it make the first book completely pointless? I imagine we're gonna find out what was up with that dossier, but it will be up to us to mentally correct it.

From the info we have now, ie just the title, I'm not fully committing to any hypothesis but I'm inclined to think that it could be the continuation of the Archivist's work past the "mayday" cliffhanger, either by him personally or by someone taking up his mantle.
Well, the first book pretty much makes the original show pointless, the way it screws over the established facts... So I'm yearning for some kind of explanation; I'd hate it if it would all turn out to be a consequence of Frost's whim and sloppiness.
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Re: 'Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier' Novel by Mark Frost 10/31

Post by Soolsma »

I have the feeling the final dossier has been assembled by an FBI agent, one whom we might already already familiar with... Rosenfield? Stanley?

To keep things fresh and interesting, the book would benefit from shifting the POV away from Briggs. Though the persona the archivist will surely play his part again.
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Re: 'Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier' Novel by Mark Frost 10/31

Post by djerdap »

laughingpinecone wrote:Wouldn't it make the first book completely pointless?
Not to stir the pot or anything, but in my mind - it kinda already is.
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Re: 'Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier' Novel by Mark Frost 10/31

Post by Twin Peaks Podcast »

djerdap wrote:
laughingpinecone wrote:Wouldn't it make the first book completely pointless?
Not to stir the pot or anything, but in my mind - it kinda already is.
Yeah, I'm not pre-ordering this next book. I'll wait for reviews and opinions this time, like I should have for the first one.
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Re: 'Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier' Novel by Mark Frost 10/31

Post by underthefan »

djerdap wrote:
laughingpinecone wrote:Wouldn't it make the first book completely pointless?
Not to stir the pot or anything, but in my mind - it kinda already is.
Can't say I much disagree...
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Re: 'Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier' Novel by Mark Frost 10/31

Post by AgentEcho »

I'm not at all inclined to write off TSOTP. There's no reason to rush to judgement regarding the inconsistencies. There are too many of them and they are so obvious that they were clearly put there for a specific reason, which we aren't going to know about until we see the new series.

Again I don't think Frost himself regards these books as anything other than supplemental material to the series. These books were written after the series scripts and the scripts were likely not written knowing there would be supplemental books. I'd guess this final dossier book will just close out some of the mysteries about the first book that won't be satisfactorily addressed by what is going on in the new series. But I'm quite certain the reasons behind the big issues in the first book (i.e. the inconsistencies) will be addressed by what happens in the show.

IMO without waiting to see how the whole thing plays out (do I need to remind people we still have no idea what is going to happen in the new series?) any judgement about the "pointlessness" of the books is coming from a perspective of ignorance.
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Re: 'Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier' Novel by Mark Frost 10/31

Post by Dalai Cooper »

I liked the first book (with qualifications, and I'm not about to make any great claims for it) but I think people who didn't care for it are absolutely right to hold off on buying the next one as I think it'll be more of the same. Highly doubt there'll be some puzzle piece that clicks into place and the people who were cold on it will suddenly be all "hey I like this now".

I do think there will be a lot more of the town in this last dossier, though; I'll be very very surprised if this isn't essentially just the stuff from the 25-year gap.
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Re: 'Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier' Novel by Mark Frost 10/31

Post by djerdap »

Dalai Cooper wrote:Highly doubt there'll be some puzzle piece that clicks into place and the people who were cold on it will suddenly be all "hey I like this now".
Yep. Somehow I highly doubt that the new series will shine more light on the adventures of Dougie Milford for instance.
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Re: 'Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier' Novel by Mark Frost 10/31

Post by AgentEcho »

Not Dougie Milford but the alternate Ed and Nadine story, non-existence of Annie? I do think the series will shed light on that. But we'll see.
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Re: 'Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier' Novel by Mark Frost 10/31

Post by Snailhead »

Dalai Cooper wrote:I liked the first book (with qualifications, and I'm not about to make any great claims for it) but I think people who didn't care for it are absolutely right to hold off on buying the next one as I think it'll be more of the same. Highly doubt there'll be some puzzle piece that clicks into place and the people who were cold on it will suddenly be all "hey I like this now".

I do think there will be a lot more of the town in this last dossier, though; I'll be very very surprised if this isn't essentially just the stuff from the 25-year gap.
I feel very much the same. I liked it for what it was but I would hesitate to call it essential. That being said, I'm excited to see if having read it will enrich any of the new material.
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Re: 'Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier' Novel by Mark Frost 10/31

Post by Rudagger »

AgentEcho wrote:I'm not at all inclined to write off TSOTP. There's no reason to rush to judgement regarding the inconsistencies. There are too many of them and they are so obvious that they were clearly put there for a specific reason, which we aren't going to know about until we see the new series.

Again I don't think Frost himself regards these books as anything other than supplemental material to the series. These books were written after the series scripts and the scripts were likely not written knowing there would be supplemental books. I'd guess this final dossier book will just close out some of the mysteries about the first book that won't be satisfactorily addressed by what is going on in the new series. But I'm quite certain the reasons behind the big issues in the first book (i.e. the inconsistencies) will be addressed by what happens in the show.

IMO without waiting to see how the whole thing plays out (do I need to remind people we still have no idea what is going to happen in the new series?) any judgement about the "pointlessness" of the books is coming from a perspective of ignorance.
I just find that cross media stuff tends to be pointless by design. You can't create something that is in anyway essential to the narrative in a form that most people won't consume.

I enjoyed Secret History (and I'm very excited to see something that might actually fill the gap), but, I picture it ending up something like those Mad Max prequel comics, which Miller himself was involved in, that from my understanding give little context to the story beyond the occasional "Oh, neat" references. I think the other issue is, as you said, it's often written outward from the main material. So, references always have a sense of feeling like retcons rather than intent (i.e., the difference between Season 3 using, say, the Owl Cave ring, and with the book retroactively saying Doug Milford's ring was the Owl Cave ring). That stuff comes down to a matter of suspending disbelief, obviously, but, the writer in me always gets a little bit driven nuts when something is written in reverse in a way that isn't at all subtle. I'm not saying it should be any other way though, because nobody wants to watch a movie or show and hear "Oh, the book answers that".
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Re: 'Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier' Novel by Mark Frost 10/31

Post by AgentEcho »

Rudagger wrote:
I just find that cross media stuff tends to be pointless by design. You can't create something that is in anyway essential to the narrative in a form that most people won't consume.

I enjoyed Secret History (and I'm very excited to see something that might actually fill the gap), but, I picture it ending up something like those Mad Max prequel comics, which Miller himself was involved in, that from my understanding give little context to the story beyond the occasional "Oh, neat" references. I think the other issue is, as you said, it's often written outward from the main material. So, references always have a sense of feeling like retcons rather than intent (i.e., the difference between Season 3 using, say, the Owl Cave ring, and with the book retroactively saying Doug Milford's ring was the Owl Cave ring). That stuff comes down to a matter of suspending disbelief, obviously, but, the writer in me always gets a little bit driven nuts when something is written in reverse in a way that isn't at all subtle. I'm not saying it should be any other way though, because nobody wants to watch a movie or show and hear "Oh, the book answers that".
I'd say there's gray areas between "pointless" and "non-essential". I'm not actually arguing that the book even lies there because I too don't know what will happen in Season 3. I'd say any "oh neat" moment that offers readers of the book a moment of recognition and context that the non readers don't wouldn't be pointless. One difference between this and the Mad Max comic is this was actually released before, and intended to be read before, the series.

The key question is will the book enhance the mystery and experience of watching the series. That remains to be seen, but if it does in any way it will have served its purpose. The last piece of the narrative we have is the 25+ year cliffhanging query "How's Annie"? The book seems to present the question "Who/what/where/when is Annie?" If that ends up being one of the mysteries of the new series, the book already got me thinking about that leading up to the series, and that too will be adequately serving its purpose.

At any rate no one should be disappointed that the book is not essential, since that is an absurd expectation to be placed on a book like this. If that's the problem people have with the book the only way those people would have had their expectation made would have been if the creators of the show made a completely obtuse creative decision with the book. The series will stand on its own because it needs to. I don't imagine anyone who is disappointed that the book is supplementary would expect anything different from the series, so why be disappointed that's the case with the book? It doesn't make much sense.
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Re: 'Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier' Novel by Mark Frost 10/31

Post by Gabriel »

I just remember MLMT introducing such memorable characters as Sheriff Cable to the world of Twin Peaks well before the movie showed up! Certainly, reading TSDoLP gave me a completely different view of the show in those early days and I understood far more aspects of season two and what BOB was compared with, say, my parents who hadn't read the book.

So I think the books have definite relevance and, in the internet age, I no longer consider just the cinematic and televisual medium in a franchise (I hate that word!) to be canonical. Look at the additional material put out for, say, the Doctor Who 50th anniversary. The Night of the Doctor was arguably not essential, but it was nice to see Paul McGann back and it filled in the missing regeneration (I'm not even that big a fan!) That material went out on the web and was included as part of the Blu-ray package. The same goes for the coda to Lost that was a Blu-ray/DVD exclusive.
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Re: 'Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier' Novel by Mark Frost 10/31

Post by laughingpinecone »

That's an interesting watershed, "essential". I can think of maybe five hours total that are "essential". Mill plot, not essential. One Eyed Jack, not essential. Log Lady, not essential. Donna &co's investigations at Jacoby's first and Harold's later, not essential. Bobby and Shelly, and Leo, and Hank, and Norma and Ed and Nadine, not essential.
Going further with this, we're talking about a work of fiction, of course nothing is essential.

Since October, I've had the pleasure of joining delightful discussions on:
- the ring being tied to rest knowledge and great ruin, how this goes back to Laura and Teresa, and to owls as classic symbols of knowledge
- what it means for Gordon to have been Nixon's close pal and having effectively taken over Windom's role wrt Blue Book matters.
- recursions. Opposition of "lodges" throughout human history and how it maybe possibly explains why the locals used names lifted out of an obscure European occult treatise. Spirits in the wood. Somewhere, there are giants.
- acknowledging that there is a worldwide awareness of supernatural occurrences, with both governments and private parties taking an interest in them
- scope and limits of presenting alternative versions of known events with fluctuating details and equal outcomes
- popping the biggest bottle because Audrey's irredeemable support of her father is the only one that got retconned fair and square
- Frank what the fuck
- Doug as a distant Coop parallel
- the finesse of seamlessly integrating Garland's enlightened s2 characterization with his s1 position as Bobby's dysfunctional father.
- Moonchild theories
And so much more, beside, y'know, having fun thinking about Doug and Garland's odd friendship, Sam and Margaret and their STRONG FOREARMS, Tamara and Albert and their hopeless search for a world that makes sense.
Looks enhancing enough to me, but to each their own.
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