Early this year when I stumbled across a YouTube trailer for an upcoming book titled David Lynch's American Dreamscape, full of clips that exhibited Lynch's keen eye for postwar American iconography and landscapes, I was intrigued. I already had my own plans to tackle Lynchian Americana in a Journey Through Twin Peaks video essay (which I will begin exploring in depth behind the scenes this month, having already outlined my ideas for this chapter), so this seemed right up my alley - and as soon as I discovered more about the book being promoted, the project felt even more resonant. Mike Miley, a New Orleans teacher who has previously analyzed game shows, developed this book from an initial series of essays comparing individual Lynch works to various novels and musical movements; intrigued by the ways this film director linked up with other forms of media, he subtitled the resultant study Music, Literature, Cinema. I'm always keen on drawing connections and Mike's efforts are some of the more imaginative I've encountered: Eraserhead and Fire Walk With Me with Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper and Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar; Blue Velvet with Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are; Mulholland Drive with The Day of the Locust and other Nathaniel West fiction; the third season of Twin Peaks, particularly Part 8, with Cormac McCarthy's The Crossing; Wild at Heart with the rise of rock 'n' roll as theorized by Greil Marcus; all of Twin Peaks with the teen tragedy ballad; Lost Highway with cover songs; The Straight Story with The Anthology of American Folk Music and Bob Dylan's The Basement Tapes; and Inland Empire with mixtapes. Drawing together the three threads, a coda parallels Lynch with David Foster Wallace and Lana Del Rey.
I had a great time juxtaposing images of these different works for the intro to the (otherwise mostly audio-only) video that resulted. It turns out that there are often visual as well as thematic rhymes between the works - or at least between their promotional materials, or the related images I found online to illustrate an idea. You can scroll down for screenshots of these as well as links to Mike's, my, and other's work which we ended up discussing alongside David Lynch's American Dreamscape. The first, public part of our discussion takes a broad view of Mike and his analysis: his first acquaintance with Lynch's filmography, his development of this project, and what he sees as its purpose. In the longer back section for the $5/month tier on Patreon, we dive into each of these sections in turn - with particular emphasis on those involving Fire Walk With Me - and I pose particular questions that occurred to me while reading. I was a great conversation and a fascinating book.
PART 1 on YouTube premieres at 8pm EST
Listen to...
(also premieres at 8pm EST)
Like my last two conversations with John Thorne (one in December on his Mulholland Drive book and a more general one in October), my April/May 2024 conversation with Cameron Cloutier and Josh Eisenstadt, and my December 2023 conversation with Rob King, this is a bonus episode of the Twin Peaks Conversations podcast (which ended its monthly run halfway through 2023). Bonuses will continue over the next few years, at least as long as I'm working on the three big Twin Peaks projects (Journey Through Twin Peaks videos, the written character series, and the second season of the Lost in Twin Peaks podcast).
Purchase Mike's new book David Lynch's American Dreamscape
Watch the book's trailer:
RELATED ARTICLES MENTIONED IN DISCUSSION
David Lynch's Wonderful Weather by Mike Miley (Reactor)
David Lynch's Influence Beyond Hollywood Examined in New Academic Book: "His Artistic Signature Is Unmistakable" by Danielle Directo-Meston (The Hollywood Reporter)
Author Mike Miley on the Loss of David Lynch - and Why Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me Is His Greatest Film by Emma Specter (Vogue)
TEEN TRAGEDY SONGS REFERENCED IN THE BOOK
MY WORK REFERENCED IN DISCUSSION
(intertwines Eraserhead & Fire Walk With Me)
OTHERS' WORK REFERENCED IN DISCUSSION
The relationship between "Twin Peaks" and "Fire Walk with Me" by Hussein Ibish (Ibishblog)
Zola Jesus - Witness (video)
MY UNMENTIONED BUT RELATED WORK
(hosted in video form)
(review of 2009 film)
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