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The chewing ice cream I like is back in fashion

David Lynch is at the height of his career in the recent issue of the television series Twin Peaks. 




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

The owls are not what they seem to be, it was called the original Twin Peaksseries at the beginning of the 90 century. Or, to make another cryptic statement that was repeated in the series: The chewing gum you like will come into vogue again. Especially this last one I pondered for a long time, I remember, when it originally appeared on screen. The chewing gum i liker? I did not get this connected. There was another thing about owls, giants, a scruffy Killer Bob, as well as short-growing who spoke weirdly, because these characters were already on their way into the enigmatic, I thought. But not the gum.

But yeah, that too. Nothing is protected for the ritually enigmatic, which is repeated in mighty appearances in Lynch's symbolic world. All of these strange statements, the most trivial elements you can imagine, are malleable puzzles for Mr. Lynch.

Kyle MacLachlan in a still from Twin Peaks. Photo: Suzanne Tenner / SHOWTIME

Ritualized symbols. Huge amounts have been written about Twin Peaks, so what can we really say about this series? Based on a murder, a detective story, the series moved at least light years away Bridge or any other crime series we've seen before and since. It was hooked on the magic, the spiritual – and a secular world, which is also well described in the series, turned into something mythical in itself.

I remember a scene from one of the first episodes in which FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper – played by Kyle MacLachlan – was investigating the murder of a young man -
girl Laura Palmer. After a few rounds of more conventional methods, he suddenly switched to Tibetan Buddhism; Inspired by Eastern mythology and rituals, he threw stones to eliminate suspects. The intuitive and mythical trump the rational. And so it went on, and many of us sprang, because we had not witnessed such a thing before. I became a fan. And of course I was on fire when the series was coming back, as Laura Palmer suggested when she told Agent Cooper in the early 90s that "we'll see you again in 25 years."

Lynch emphasizes that the world is still a mystery.

The question is whether the new episodes are changing anything and whether they are keeping goals. At least we can say that both the new and the old episodes are shaped as a mechanism for producing wonder and curiosity. They hollow out what we thought we knew what was (owls and chewing gum) to guide us into what we didn't understand. Or: Lynch turns what we have a given concept into something hazy and fascinating, to emphasize that the world is still a mystery. He fixes the wonder in pregnant symbols, emblems closest: a fireplace that burns a little faster than it should, for example. Or huge amounts of donuts ritually danced in the sheriff's office in the small town of Twin Peaks, as if it were a liturgical ceremony we witnessed (they show up in the new season too).

Or simply the high priest's agent Dale Cooper's credo, "damn good coffe" – with wafer biscuits for the occasion replaced with cherry pie.

Wandering fire and television that is not television. No, the owls weren't sure what they looked like 25 years ago. They are symbols of something else, something more, something mysterious and ambiguous, that you do not stop to think about what might be, but which is hidden in the forest or the secret temple that is moving away from daylight, the rational investigation, the mapping. Red lodge, Black lodge. Four, walk with me.

So it is in the new series too, except the owls are enough even less like himself. For Twin Peaks is not quite Twin Peaks rather, we will judge by the first episodes of the new season. In fact, I would argue that Twin Peaks: The Return works sea promising than the original series which – let's face it – became more or less soap opera-like towards the end. Now it must be said that series creator Lynch himself was to a small extent involved in these last episodes, and only directed a handful of the entire series; in any case, it does not come from the fact that the 2017 edition seems more solid. More Lynch-like – it is obvious that he himself has control throughout the process, in all stages.

Better than the original. Visual artist Lynch is also right here: Many scenes are exceptionally well-worked and can be considered as independent works of art. The sound of the new series is also excellent.

But best of all, I like the crazy compromise, which is stronger now – and how Lynch once again draws me into a symbolic landscape that is unlike anything else I've seen. In the third episode, all of the boots go over when two issues of Agent Cooper compete for attention. Portals from one dimension to another go through a power outlet, and a moving tree with a talking brain refers to Lynch's first film Eraserhead from 1977. Among many other things.

Many have been excited about whether Lynch would live up to the expectations he left with the first two seasons. He does that to his advantage. Put another way: The chewing gum I like has come back into vogue.

Kjetil Røed
Kjetil Røed
Freelance writer.

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