Subject: Re: Love is not enough (plus repeats of SPOILERS).
From: barb@zurich.ai.mit.edu (Barb Miller)
Date: 1991-06-13, 20:09
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks
Reply-to: barb@zurich.ai.mit.edu

In article <1991Jun14.000611.1@lure.latrobe.edu.au> phylac@lure.latrobe.edu.au writes:

> >  1) How can "love be enough"? {Put another way I believe "love is not enough"
> >     as has been mentioned often in postings here relates to the Yin/Yang like
> >     nature of the spiritual conflict/battles going on in TP.}
> >
The question is "enough for what?"

Since Major Briggs is the person who first said this, and there seems to
be a strong consensus that, just as fear is what gives power to Bob
and opens the door to the Black Lodge, love is what opens the door to
the White Lodge (I'm not sure this was ever stated outright by anyone
in the actual script), it may just be that Major Briggs' fear that
"love is not enough" is a fear that love is not enough to bring one
into the White Lodge.  Perhaps if he believes that he reached the
White Lodge, his greatest fear is that love is in fact not enough to
reach it, and so he has deceived himself about having done so.
Depending upon how much he has staked on his faith in the White
Lodge, this could be a very great fear indeed.

For other people in the story (and larger world), it may be that love
must be enough to overcome the fear that Bob feeds upon and that gives
greater power to the Black Lodge, whether that Lodge be an actual
entity or a psychological state.

> >    Does anyone think that the hateful/evil forces for any specific
> >    personality in the TP world will have to combine with the good
> >    side/forces to end in "victory" in the conflict? 

Bingo.  Thank you for stating something that has been in the back of
my mind for a while.  The Jungian reading I've done makes me want to
see the process of passing through the Black Lodge to get to the White
Lodge as meeting one's shadow, the embodiment of all one's most
shameful suppressed characteristics, and INTEGRATING them in order to
let one's entire self operate consciously.

> >     On the surface of it I see the existence of Bob and the requirement for a
> >     "perfect courage" to be disproofs of such a thesis as the above.

Not necessarily.  How about this: we suppress our evil side because we
are afraid to think that we ourselves might be capable of terrible deeds
(whatever we think those deeds are). But in order to stop living in
such a way that we project our own shadow onto others but it continues
to cause us to unconsciously act out our shadow side, we have to face
the fact that there is this side of us, and have enough love and
acceptance of ourselves as mere humans to acknowledge that there can
be positive power to the tendencies we are suppressing, if we don't
let them get out of hand.  

Having gone out on this Jungian limb, I could further say that Bob, whose
existence is limited to visions and the Black Lodge, could be the
collective shadow of the entire community.  Unless we each take
responsibility for the part that our personal shadow plays in making
Bob powerful, he will continue to destroy.  

> >     But what is "perfect courage" anyway?

I'm not sure the requirement is "perfect courage" so much as enough
courage to see and acknowledge the worst in ourselves without letting
it take over.  This carries over into the requirement for love in the
sense that we not only have to love and accept ourselves for what we
are, but we also have to allow the people we love to be who they
really are, rather than just projecting parts of ourselves onto them.

In Cooper's case, this could mean allowing himself to see Annie not
only as an innocent and vulnerable soul emerging into an exciting but
cruel world (as he himself has been) and requiring his protection, but
as a woman who might have power of her own. To acknowledge his dark
side to her in the Black Lodge would take tremendous courage and faith
in her love for him as a whole person rather than as a protector.

If you haven't seen the finale, you haven't been puzzling as I have
over the moment when WE asks Cooper to give him his soul in order to save
Annie and Cooper says he will let WE have it.  It seems like a very
noble sacrifice, a symbol of great love for Annie.  But Bob is right.
Where does Windom Earle (or Cooper for that matter) get the power to
decide what will happen to Annie in the Black Lodge?  If the REAL
Annie is there (not just Annie as she reflects the projections of
Cooper, Windom Earle, and even the town, since she has been just been
given the title of Miss Twin Peaks), she is having her own struggle to
achieve wholeness.  The only Annie that Cooper can give his soul in order
to save is the image of Annie that he carries inside him.  Perhaps
that projection has to be allowed to die in order for Cooper to
possess his entire self.  Refusing to let that projection die could in
fact be the same as giving up his soul. 

So, in the final scene, when Cooper sees Bob in himself and starts to
ask in that chilling voice: "How's Annie?", it underscores the fact
that the Cooper we have known all along shares with Bob a view of
women as beautiful and vulnerable souls.  The difference has been that
Bob has tried to destroy them and Cooper has tried to protect them.
The trip to the Black Lodge has not changed that view for Cooper--he
is still projecting his own anima onto Annie.  But he has taken the
first step toward integrating his shadow, although for the moment it
appears it has not been particularly successful, and in fact he may be
possessed by it.  But it is to be hoped that he will one day be able
to replace the question "How's Annie?" with "Who's Annie?".

Barb Miller