on david lynch

watching the documentary "lynch/oz" on kanopy (shout out public libraries and their partnerships in providing great non-book content to the masses) and it got me thinking about one's hobbies, passions, and talents and utilizing them as far as making a living out of it but not actually crossing that barrier. even if david lynch did cross that barrier because inherently his talent/passion could not make the cinema we all love on dreams or the money made with another job - too much necessary time is taken up with that creation, that thought process, that delivery of such sweet nectar in the form of entertainment. he made such beautiful pieces of art, ones which tore at the underbelly of the idyllic american life as he grew up to see it, and exposed the truth of the seediness, the nastiness, the awfulness that can lie underneath it. without his view into that, we wouldn't have blue velvet (my dad's favorite lynchian piece) or twin peaks (my favorite,) nor the other countless works he brought into this world.

i first heard about david lynch as a creative force with my dad's recommendation of blue velvet as a film he absolutely enjoyed and which he thought i would too. it's on my letterboxd watchlist as of this writing (literally this sentence, as i apparently didn't add it since he talked about it so often) but it is absolutely something i had intended on watching and hadn't gotten around to it yet. but i did think more about david lynch and at around the same time i had the opportunity to plow thru the first book of dune in a week and found it transformed my entire viewpoint of science fiction in a way that made me realize the truth of the genre's political intention - while all works are inherently political given life itself provides no space for one not to be affected by politics in some fashion, it really hit me over the head with the symbology of colonialist pursuits of oil in the middle east and other conflicts modern to the time of writing, such as feminism and demagoguery. that is not to say those issues are resolved and buried, no, we are still in the midst of all of them and some may never see true resolution, at least not without true revolution, but it opened my eyes a bit more to the world at large and the history that surrounds and consumes it.

being so enamored with dune, i searched for a visual representation of the work, knowing that the denis villeneuve film adaptation was scheduled for november of that year and i was aching for more, and came across an adaptation (really, THE adaptation) by none other than mr david lynch. i got my hands on a copy of the film and i readily watched it and... was left thoroughly confused, as any reader of dune without proper context on the film would be. this would not be the last time i was left confused by a david lynch work. however, i took that confusion in stride as i did not feel that the movie was in and of itself a bad representation of the work, but just something radically different. it was certainly a closer-to-faith work than jodorowsky's dune would have been, that's for sure. maybe it was a good thing that one wasn't made.

nevertheless, i didn't walk away from the 1984 adaptation hating lynch's work or even thinking that he was off-the-mark, no! i found that that rendition was a worthwhile watch and gave it 4 stars since it was very enjoyable, just not so faithful to the source as i had wished at the time. i didn't know what other work of his to watch, so at the time i just kept to remembering him being the 1984 adaptation's director/creative force and kept it moving.

it wasn't until last year that a new friend of mine (shoutout ashlynn) convinced me to watch twin peaks because of its uniqueness as a tv show, especially in the sci-fi realm. i'll admit my hesitation when hearing it was a david lynch work - again, not as a detriment to him, but because i was unsure whether it was a work beholden to a source material that would be uniquely adapted or if it was its own thing. being assured that it was its own thing and something that absolutely had to be watched given its role in science fiction, i gave watching the first episode a whirl and... wow i was positively blown away.

after being so enraptured by that first episode alone, with its positively 90s and fun vibe and yet still being full of unique intrigue, cinematic filming, and good humor, i knew i had to watch the rest of the seasons (thankfully, only two) to get the most out of the work. that took maybe a couple months? but as i wrapped up the last episode of twin peaks: the return (season three of the series,) i had to take a step back and take in everything i had witnessed in that short span of time. much as before when watching the 1984 dune, i was left very confused. but it was a different confusion. it wasn't one related to being lost that something was so different from a source material, but that it was simply so different. it bended my perception of science fiction even further, into something so out-of-this-world (no pun intended, given space travel being so prevalent in dune) that i couldn't help but be dazed by all the post-show processing my brain had to do to even come close to understanding the show and where it left the viewer.

twin peaks was certainly one of the greatest works of tv from the 20^th century i'd seen. i'd yet to find something like that in a show that wasn't from 2010 or newer, barring the inclusion of the show's third season, which premiered in 2017. i'll take the criticism of being unaware of another show in that niche existing solely for the ability to jot that recommendation down and start watching it, but for now that's my opinion to stand on. if letterboxd tracked tv shows, it'd wholeheartedly be 5 stars and a like, along with a hearty review.

all this to say, david lynch was a luminary whose depth i had not known prior to both my dad's mentioning of him to me and my chance to visit and take in the limited amount of works of his creation that i was able to experience. it was certainly shocking to hear the news of his death when it came (and what death isn't in some sense, shocking?) but i know that his impact on the world won't be forgotten any time soon and that he will be sorely missed. thank you mr lynch, godspeed.