In the town of Twin Peaks, nothing is ever as it seems. After the first few episodes this becomes blatantly obvious to the viewer. But, if one proceeds to really investigate David Lynch’s series, Twin Peaks, it also becomes obvious that he presents us, the viewers, with an allegory. In his writings, David Lynch, skews the traditional representations of dark and light. Dark, which is usually associated with evil, is associated with good. And light is associated with evil. I feel this is an important concept to observe as a viewer because it not only helps you further understand Lynch’s writings, it helps one too look beyond the surface meanings of every situation offered to Twin Peaks viewers.
The first, and most apparent situation that led me to realize darks and light in Twin Peaks were skewed, were the hair colors chosen for Laura and Madeline. Laura has blonde hair, which is usually characterized with good. While Madeline is a brunette, which leans more toward evil, based on theories of light and dark. After viewing the first season it is easy to see Laura, although initially presented as the iconic character, has the evil tendencies; Whereas Madeline, only entered Twin Peaks to comfort and restore normalcy, relating her with good.
Another hairy situation is Leland’s hair. Before Bob took complete control over Leland his hair was a dark brown color illustrating he still had some good left inside of him. He still had a grasp on Leland. Once Leland kills Jacques Renot out of revenge, it is obvious he no longer has a grasp on the inner Leland and Bob has completely enveloped him. Ironically enough the next morning his hair is as white as snow showing he is now completely enslaved by Bob.
Although there are countless examples, the last I will present you with, is the lights and darks in The Black Lodge. For example, the entrance to the Black Lodge, the ultimate place of evil is a white powder. The shadow selves in The Black Lodge are the evil sides of each character, yet the eyes of the shadow selves are the lightest of blue. The floors in the lodge are black and white zigzags. Which I believe is Lynch’s subliminal way of hinting at this allegory, and there is a strobe light flashing dark and light as Cooper views the room. In Angela Hague’s article “Infinite Games: The Derationalization of Detection in Twin Peaks,” Hague notes “A flashing strobe light illuminates one side of his face and then the other, alternately showing his face in light and dark, an image that reinforces the black/white dichotomy that the subsequent scenes will undermine.” In her excerpt Hague validates David Lynch clearly undermines the traditional division, and association of dark and light with characters and situations in Twin Peaks. I promise you there are so many more small details I could go on all day. Re-watch the series with this perspective and you will pick up on things you never did before! –Sydney P.
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3 comments:
Syd, I enjoyed your argument. Very nice. I am musing about why Lynch would subvert light and dark. Is it because we take for granted that light represents goodness and darkness represents evil, and he wants us to question that popular cultural myth? You're right--one could go on and on and on.....
If what you belive is true then you might realize that your thoughts go in the right direction, but are not seen as clearly as they could be.
I belive that you are taking the meaning of allegory wrong as Wikipedia states on the definition of allegory it is meant as a figurative mode of representation conveying a meaning other than the literal.
David lynch is overlapping Bob's spirit world with Coopers reality and causing confusion. As J.P. Telotte describes in his article Dis-order of things in twin peaks, “If at times languages and other sorts of signs seem to tease us with their many possible meanings, they sometimes taunt with implications that are all too obvious." Telotte understands it best that one thing might be said, but there could be infinite meanings to such statements.
For example when the Giant tells Agent Cooper three clues to help him, the Giant never says it is to help solve Laura Palmer’s murder. The Giant comes from the same place the Man from Another Place lives and as we have seen in the series he speaks almost backwards just as Martha Nochimson’s noted in Entering the Body of Reality, “The Red Room is a place where everything that has always been true of onscreen murder mysteries is inverted.” So when the Giant says that there is a man in a smiling bag, he might really be trying to say there is a man with a smiling bag. Due to the inversion of his words, more examples might include without chemicals he points could be interpreted as with chemicals he watches. In all of this everything can be invert into a way that when you try to solve the clue you have different possibilities. Everything might be in black or white but to determine what is black or white might take more consideration with all the factors lynch put in the way.
Katherine Z.
Katherine, I'm just so lost, girlfriend What the hell are you talking about. Your argument fulfils the course assignment requirements, but it isn't really a rebuttal to Sydney's very fine and well constructed argument. Please, tell me how this rebuts what she has claim because your argument does not connect.
Benny
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