Twin Peaks (TV show)

[e_wind]

Have any of you all watched this? 22 years late, I know, but its on Netflix. I can't stop watching it.

Also, I have some questions if any of you all really know it well. Mainly about some of the mythos /philosophy/religious undertones associated with it.

[HansAndreas]

My favorite tv show. Watched it on swedish television the first time it aired. Love Audrey Horne.

[joey_rogo]

I just started watching it a year ago. I'm not done with the whole series yet, but I have gotten to the episode where they reveal the killer. Great show.

[e_wind]

It is a fantastic show. One of the best I´ve ever seen.

In another thread I posted awhile back I was looking for some help in choosing a topic for a paper that is for a eastern religion/eastern philosophy class. After watching about 15 episodes of this show, and realizing how much philosophical and religious undertones there are in the show, I decided to write my term paper on the eastern influence on the show. I was wondering if anyone who has seen it all, perhaps multiple times, can think of any specific examples of religious/philosophical undertones in the show. I'm in the beginning-ish of season 2 still, but the giants/owls/and dreams Cooper is running into in season 2 are certainly carrying taoist undertones. Not surprisingly, its impossible to find any scholarly article on Twin Peaks.

[johnnYYac]

I've never watched the show, but there's these:

http://www.sheepproductions.com/tps/typical/symbols.htm

http://ericrschiller.com/tag/twin-peaks/

http://www.twinpeaks.org/index.htm

http://books.google.com/books?id=PiCZcaozHn0C&pg=PT114&lpg=PT114&dq=twin+peaks+eastern+religion&source=bl&ots=yPGEL804pg&sig=tb0gq9TQI7G2Y4N3USryWpBY2Lw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=FKuyUKeMJfCB0QG_oYHIAg&ved=0CFEQ6AEwCTgK


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[ms. yvon]

ewind, i binge-viewed season 1 about 5 years ago. LOVE IT.  i have a real soft spot for Agent Cooper and his appreciation on damn good coffee, natch. 

i don't have any observations or theories related to your research, though.  alas!

[Shug]

I've watched it all the way through several times, but its been some years since I've done so, so my memory of specifics may be spotty (that and the state of mind in which I prefered to view it  ).  But as for the spiritual stuff in there, which i agree its rife with, I'm thinking about Cooper's ability to intuit stuff about the natural world being kinda native American mysticism, his mind-over-matter methods being kind eastern mysticism and his journey into darkness being very much a Jungian/Joseph Campbell mythologic theme of the hero's journey: having to pass through the shadow world to come out the other side more pure and stronger.  Or the idea of having to "eat the shadow" so that it doesn't become a monster that eats you.

I think a major theme running through all of David Lynch's work is that the 50's white picket fence/Ozzie and Harriet surface of American culture was very dangerous in that it utterly ignored the dark side of life, leaving the culture way out of balance in the light/dark yin yang thing.  Jungians would say if you ignore the shadow or pretend it doesn't exist, it gets bigger and stronger and comes out in more chaotic and uncontrollable ways, like say, people who get so damaged that they become serial killers or whatever dark and ugly human behavior you can think of.  Integrating the dark with the light, both on a cultural and individual level, makes a person or a society healthier and more balanced because the dark is given space to exist so it doesn;t get expressed in such destructive ways, kinda like the mock-warfare in which no one really got hurt that tribes in New Guinea would use to solidify tribal unity.

Sorry for the ramble, hope its helpful.

PS There are scholarly articles on Twin Peaks, I've read them.  it was over 20 years ago, so they might be hard to find, but I found some really deep and intellectually impressive ones in literary film review journals.  If I can find a reference, I'll shoot it to ya, e-wind.


Nice topic for your project, you could really go to town on this one.  I'd be interested to hear how its going if you feel like sharing.

PS Wait until you get to the prequel/sequel (time is not linear in Lynch's visionary world) of Fire Walk With Me.  You'll get some answers and a lot more questions and you'll see Cooper go through the shadow world on his personal hero's journey.  Its fucking brilliant and a total mindfuck, at least it was to me.

[Shug]

e wind, try this bibliography  http://www.thecityofabsurdity.com/papers/detective70.html

It appears this issue of Literature/Film Quarterly was devoted to Twin Peaks: Literature/Film Quarterly 21.4 (1993)

I think I was remembering both Fire Walk With Me and the last episode of season 2.  So my last statement refers to both of those together.  Journey into The Black Lodge!

And I also remembered an episode in which Cooper takes the local police force out for some target practice.  Doesn't he go off on a little spiritual monologue?

[e_wind]

thanks for responses, guys.

The class that I'm in is Eastern Mysticism and so the assignment is based on eastern mystecism to the western world. the outline is "Your research will be in the area of the relationship of eastern mysticism to the west, or some area that we did not cover in class.  For example, you might research how Taoist mystical practices improve sports performance or help agoraphobic children be calmer in nature.  You might research the influence of Hindu mysticism on Yoga in the United States.  You might research the influence or compare/contrast Upanishadic mysticism on Christianity."

My professor (one of my favorites in college. this is my 3rd religion class with him) actualy said that outlining the Eastern Mysticism undertones in Twin Peaks would be "one hell of a paper", after I talked to him about how good of a show it is.

The problem I'm having is that there are so many undertones that, being from the US, its hard for me to pick out the Eastern ones and not automatically assume everything has Christian undertones. I have a couple weeks to write it, so I'm not stressing (yet). Its just hard to get started.

I know that this is outside of the average viewers thoughts while they're being entertained, and I would gladly like to discuss this amazing show. Tonight im watching the episode in which Lauras killer is revealed, though i think i know because of my research.


Thanks Shug and Yac for some sources

[ManNamedTruth]

I watched the series for a second time earlier this year, so if you have any questions I might be be able to help. I'm not an expert on eastern philosophy however. Enjoy the rest of the series! Unfortunately things fall apart a bit after they reveal Laura's killer, something they never planned on doing. It does improve toward the end though.
I don't know how much you know about David Lynch, but he does practice transcendental meditation, so any articles/interviews on that might interest you.

[ManNamedTruth]

My favorite tv show. Watched it on swedish television the first time it aired. Love Audrey Horne.

[e_wind]

Yeah, she's a babe

[e_wind]

Just found out who the killer really was... er, kind of. I knew it was Bob, but just found out who he was inhabiting. Since theres 13 more epsiodes left, which is almost half, they should've ended season 2 with Leland dying in the jail cell and made season 3 the hunt for bob. wouldve made it seem more dramatic, imo. It's weird to me to have the biggest question of the series revealed halfway through the show.

[Shug]

Yeah, season 2 is generally considered weaker and less consistent than season 1 (too many guest writers, too many potential storylines they left as dead ends and probably not enough focus of purpose?), but again the identity of the killer is really just the surface appeal of the show.  The deep appeal of the show, to me, is the philosophical underpinings.
Its a cool mix when the philosophy is interspersed with the bizarre and the ridiculous.

I think Cooper's superior abilities and his supreme confidence and calmness have a lot to do with his Taoist "going with the flow" and being in tune with the spirit world.  And he's not afraid to confront and reconcile the dark and the light, even though he is a kind of Lancelot, a pure, chivalrous and uncorruptable champion of light and good.

Stick with season 2, like Man Named Truth said, it improves towards the end of the season and the ending is fantastic, IMO.

[e_wind]

I decides that rather than writing the paper on this broad as subject, I'm going to write it specifically on Cooper and how his dreams/visions make him a taoist "hero" type figure. I'm basing it almost entirely on Zhuangzi's argument that knowledge is impossible. It's an argument with five reasons while we cannot be truly knowledgeable in our world, with one of the five being "the possibility of dreaming." He basically says that there is no way to prove weather we are dreaming or experiencing "reality".

I found that Film Quarterly all about Twin Peaks in my schools library. That film quarterly basically published a bunch of articles from a book called Full of Secrets: Twin Peaks (i think is the title). Its pretty damn cool.


As for the show: After reading a bunch of stuff, while trying to stop myself from spoiling anything, I have decided that the first dream cooper has in episode 3 is probably the defining scene of that show... its the first time that shit gets strange, and its really bizzarre.

And my favorite scene overall is when Leland kills Maddie. I can never tell when things are going to take a sudden turn to the darkest place possible in that show.

Also, I already think I need to watch it again to fully appreciate it.

[ManNamedTruth]

Yeah, season 2 is generally considered weaker and less consistent than season 1 (too many guest writers, too many potential storylines they left as dead ends and probably not enough focus of purpose?), but again the identity of the killer is really just the surface appeal of the show.  The deep appeal of the show, to me, is the philosophical underpinings.
Its a cool mix when the philosophy is interspersed with the bizarre and the ridiculous.

I think Cooper's superior abilities and his supreme confidence and calmness have a lot to do with his Taoist "going with the flow" and being in tune with the spirit world.  And he's not afraid to confront and reconcile the dark and the light, even though he is a kind of Lancelot, a pure, chivalrous and uncorruptable champion of light and good.

Stick with season 2, like Man Named Truth said, it improves towards the end of the season and the ending is fantastic, IMO.

The thing about Cooper though, even though he seems great at his job, he always fails at the most important times - like when the giant warns him about the beauty contest with the hand gesturing he does at the end of season 2. Cooper ignores the warning. I tried to describe that without any spoilers.

E-wind - why it might seem weird why they revealed the killer when they did - In the special features David Lynch explains they they never intended to reveal the killer, that the network pushed for it. I think Lynch describes hiding who the killer was as a golden egg or something like that. Some of the subplots do seem to go nowhere, especially the one where James leaves town. It starts to get better when Windom Earle enters the show.

[ManNamedTruth]

Jim James is a big fan of the show, this was posted on the forum awhile ago. Here it is in case anyone missed it.

http://www.undertheradarmag.com/interviews/my_morning_jackets_jim_james_on_twin_peaks/

[e_wind]

aw shit i'm definitely gonna find a way to quote him. my professor knows how much I love MMJ and Pearl Jam so he'll think its funny

[Shug]

The thing about Cooper though, even though he seems great at his job, he always fails at the most important times - like when the giant warns him about the beauty contest with the hand gesturing he does at the end of season 2. Cooper ignores the warning. I tried to describe that without any spoilers.

Good point, he does fail a lot, I never thought of that before.  I may be clutching at straws here a little bit, but again, I look at the balanced dichotomies, like the dark/light and maybe it applies to Cooper's success/failure.  The failures are part of his destiny or part of his path as much as the successes, leading to him being a more complete, total person?  Brings up an interesting question, does Cooper overall fail or succeed?  I don't wanna go into more details so as to not spoil the ending for e wind.

Cool discussion!

PS and leave it to Jim James to talk about what is great about Twin Peaks with so much eloquence.  I'm fucking impressed, JJ is a magician, there is no doubt about it.  I LOVE this quote about how it feels to make great music.  As a non-musician, I've always suspected it felt that way when you are really on, but I've never heard any of my musical heroes express it quite this way:

"Or the feeling one is fortunate enough to feel when playing music or making art with true spirits of kindred soul, to really rip it wide open and tear a hole down the middle of the cosmos and feel God weep with joy that you are using what he and the spirits gave you the almighty gift of life for..."

[MamaKel]

Perhaps one fails in knowledge, but succeeds in soul.  It can be said that we know nothing, but cannot forget love.  Because despite the knowledge base, experiences, and opinions of every human being...they all still operate according to their relationship with love.  Even death and superstition cannot transcend it. So while Cooper may fail at these so-called 'important tasks', he maintains his relationship to the higher ideal.

This is true of Faust as well.  Though he failed continuously in his dealings with Mephistopheles, he was saved by the grace of God, for having always sought the truth.