The strange world of David Lynch : transcendental irony from Eraserhead to Mulholland Dr. / Eric G. Wilson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wilson, Eric, 1967-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Lynch, David, 1946-2025--Criticism and interpretation.

Lynch, David.

Lynch, David, 1946-2025.

Motion pictures--Religious aspects.

Motion pictures.

Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

x, 177 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Continuum, 2007.

Summary:

Anyone who has watched Blue Velvet or experienced the dark and grainy world of Eraserhead knows that David Lynch's films pull us into a strange world where reality turns upside down and sideways. Lynch's films place form and content in a perpetually self-consuming dialogue, as he vacillates endlessly between Hollywood conventions and avant-garde experimentation, placing viewers in the awkward position of not knowing when the image is serious and when it's in jest, whether the meaning is lucid or if it's been irrevocably lost.

Irony exists in the gap between appearance and reality. In The Strange World of David Lynch, Eric G. Wilson, posits that Lynch, through his frequent use of irony, unsettles traditional ideologies and throws viewers into a relentless interpretive limbo. Focusing in particular on Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Lost Highway and Mulholland Dr., Wilson argues that Lynch's films are transcendental-pushing audiences into that borderland between equally valid, though thoroughly opposed, interpretations. By drawing viewers into this realm, these extraordinary films invite ideas of a healing third term, a figure of synthesis that approximates traditional notions of self or soul. Hence, Lynch's pictures are, in this rather idiosyncratic fashion, religious. The Strange World of David Lynch argues that the films of this remarkable director are lessons in how to escape the willful laws of society's demiurges and in how to participate in seemingly infinite possibility.

Contents:

Introduction: The Transcendental Irony of David Lynch 1

Chapter 1 Eraserhead and the Ironic Gnosis 29

Chapter 2 Blue Velvet and Paradoxical Chastity 55

Chapter 3 Sacred Sensuality in Wild at Heart 85

Chapter 4 Positive Negation in Lost Highway 111

Chapter 5 Real Dreams in Mulholland Dr. 137

Conclusion: David Lynch's Nihilism 163.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 169-173) and index.

Includes filmography: page 167.

ISBN:

9780826428233

0826428231

9780826428240

082642824X

OCLC:

87454691