Subject: Re: RS: Wide Awake In America
From: larryy@Apple.COM (Larry Yaeger)
Date: 1991-05-03, 13:47
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

Phil, I enjoyed reading your well thought out treatise on the underlying
meanings in TP.  For what it's worth, I largely agree with your various
observations.  I would like to point out a couple of points of differing
opinion, however, or at least alternate views...

First off, while I suspect that David Lynch would agree with many of your
interpretations, I doubt that his original (and ongoing) vision would be
quite so specific and detailed.  Not that this invalidates your views in
the least; it's just that we should remember that these are interpretations,
not the one true word of the great film god!

Secondly, I've always tended to see Lynch's works, TP included, as a
statement that the 50's vision of life always has been riddled with
contradictions and interwoven good and evil, despite its veneer of pure
good.  (Wo)man and his/her society is full of moral choices, and different
people make different choices.  In fact, the same person makes different
choices at different times of his/her life.  This is quite a different
interpretation than your (paraphrasing, of course) "the great moral values
of the 50's are now being undermined".

Lastly, I see Laura Palmer as a much stronger individual than you do.  Rather
than representing the schizophrenic root of our inability to recognize our
own problems, as you see her, I see her as a remarkable person, who, faced
with physically stronger horrors than she could possibly defend herself
against, still demonstrated a spiritual strength exceeding that of her abuser.
Now, partially, my interpretation is influenced by the secret diary.  And,
largely, it is influenced by buying into the TP myth that there are very
real spiritual, non-physical entities afoot.  In fact, *if* I could interpret
the manifestations of BOB and others of his ilk as purely psychological
phenomena, resulting from various traumas, say, then I would lean towards
a view of Laura as a tragic figure; this might permit an interpretation more
in line with yours, though I'm not certain of this - for me the reality of
BOB, MIKE, the giant, the LMFAP, the Lodges, and so on is an integral part
of the TP story (though a version that made their reality more ambiguous and
at least possible to interpret as wholely psychological phenomena might have
been even more interesting).

Well, all that said, your writeup was quite interesting!  Thanks for all that
effort and vision!
-- -larryy@apple.com "You wouldn't recognize a *subtle plan* if it painted itself purple, and danced naked upon a harpsichord, singing, 'Subtle Plans are Here Again'." - Edmund Blackadder