LYNCH’S COMMUNITY

For my observational approach to Lynch’s Community, I decided to take a peripheral member approach, which entails “interacting closely enough with members to establish an insider’s
identity without participating in those activities constituting the core of group membership” (Adler, Adler, 1994). This means I consider myself a fan of Lynch and his work, and see myself as apart of his fan community but rarely engage with it. So my experience after watching episodes and the series as a whole sort of elevated my appreciation for Lynch, his work, and his fan community. There were three main platforms I used when interacting and observing Lynch’s community. I would usually go from watching an episode or two to browsing one of these platforms on either my phone or desktop computer. These were Facebook (The Kinoplex and Twin Peaks Logposting), Reddit (r/twinpeaks) and YouTube (DAVID LYNCH THEATER). And while I never posted on any of these platforms and interacted with the community in anyway, I still felt involved. Christine Hine makes a good point in saying, “On other platforms, content is generally public and “lurking” or passive reading is the norm for a significant proportion of community participants and therefore, to an extent for the researcher” (Hine 2015). This explains my experience and interaction with these platforms and community I was researching.

The two Facebook groups was something I browsed (and still browse) daily. Both of these groups are mainly shit-posting groups but every now and then I’d come across a few interesting opinions. For example some members weren’t fans of Lynch’s work like a user in The Kinoplex posted a thread that read, “ITT: Times you felt Filtered (A piece of entertainment or media which “filters out” uncultured people)”. A thread started in the comments with, “I just couldn’t watch twin peaks. Stopped at episode 3 with a massive what the fuck am I watching visage”, and someone responded with “Yeah that’s pretty much the reaction to all David Lynch directed stuff”. While I absolutely adore Lynch and am pretty biased towards him, I can understand why one might not be a fan of his work, its not for everybody.

Reddit was a similar experience to the Facebook groups, but I felt that I got some insightful perspectives, theories, new details, and interpretations from users on the site. An interesting theory I came across was how season 3 (The Return) is a retelling of the Greek myth “Abduction of Persephone”. And finally YouTube, which I found Lynch’s channel ‘DAVID LYNCH THEATRE’ and the community to be wildly wholesome. Lynch uploads weather reports daily and always adds a nice little wholesome note of what he’s been thinking of that day. For example, a weather report uploaded on September 26th, Lynch stated how he had been thinking of trees that day, and how beautiful and important they are. While researching the fan community of Lynch, I came across the ethical issues of privacy. While I wanted to link and quote the people I was researching and looking at, I wanted to respect their anonymity. As Milena Popova points out in her Digital Autoethnography of fan studies, “the fact that content on social media and other internet sites is publicly accessible in theory does not mean that those posting the content necessarily view it as such” (Popova, 2020).

CONCLUSION

To conclude I think what makes me love this show, Lynch, and his community are one in the same. So much of Lynch goes into his work that they sort of feel like windows into his mind. His fan community is packed with die-hard fans of the works with so much to say and add in terms of fan art, theories, interpretations and opinions. The show is weird, quirky, funny, interesting, dark yet optimistic and hopeful. And Lynch is in my mind, all of these things too. His persona seeps into everything he creates and always leaves me intrigued and wanting to find out more, and the more I look into Lynch and his work, the more I want to know. He leaves his work completely open to interpretation just as he leaves himself, and I believe that this is the answer to why David Lynch interests me and holds a special place in my heart.

ACADEMIC SOURCES

Adler, P, & Adler, P 1994, ‘Observational Techniques.’ https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1994-98625-022 [9th November

Hine, C 2015, ‘Ethnography for the Internet: Embedded, Embodied and Everyday.’ https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/da50/4fe4636040c1beb7b19680857d07c009e7f3.pdf?_ga=2.204413463.629877214.1605264928-928093212.1605264928 [11th November 2020]

Popova, M 2020, ‘Follow the Trope: A Digital (Auto)ethnography for Fan Studies.’ https://moodle.uowplatform.edu.au/pluginfile.php/2509008/mod_resource/content/1/Follow%20the%20trope-%20A%20digital%20%28auto%29ethnography%20for%20fan%20studies.pdf P. 3 [12 November 2020]

DISCLAIMER: MINOR SPOILERS FOR TWIN PEAKS

So now it was time to start Smashing through TP and everything it had to offer. I found myself absolutely enthralled and unable to stop watching for the most of this series. The characters were extremely well written, goofy, and fun. The mystery was captivating and had me constantly guessing. The production quality is unmatched for its time, with incredible direction, writing, cinematography, editing, acting, sets and sound. And most importantly, the show’s atmosphere had Lynch written all over it. So these examples of why I liked TP is all well and good but it doesn’t answer the question, “What it is about Lynch’s persona and work that interests me?”.

To answer this question I had to really start looking inward on what it was about the show that David Lynch brought to it that made me so intrigued. To do this id need to choose a method that best suited my experience with the show. That method would be the Autobiographical method, which aim is to “awaken and inspire researchers to make contact with and respect their own
questions and problems, to suggest a process that affirms imagination, intuition, self-reflection, and the tacit dimension as valid ways in the search for knowledge and understanding” (Douglass & Moustakas, 1985, p. 40). This method of autoethnography would allow me to talk about and reflect on my experience, opinions, interpretations of the show, Lynch and hopefully gain a better understanding of the question I’m asking myself.

The first season, which consists of 8 episodes, I believe to be one of televisions greatest opening seasons of all time and smashed it out in about 2 days. These first 8 episodes set up the show and gave solid introductions to the shows major characters. The first 6 episodes from the original series second season were still solid and had me thoroughly engaged and found myself enjoying and invested in every second of the mystery and surreal nature of the show. Episode 7 while easily one of the best episodes, reveals the Laura’s killer. This I believe wouldn’t have been a problem if series wrapped up after this, But the show goes on for another 15 more episodes. Every episode from #7 was such a drag to get through and just felt really silly and not really Twin Peaks. The direction feels off, characters are written super strange, editing and music choices are really weird and abrupt and I just wasn’t invested anymore. Now I did have the understanding that Lynch was infamously uninvolved after the Mystery was revealed and I thought that maybe this affected my views and opinions on these episodes. But I remembered that this was about the time I stopped watching when I first attempted to watch Twin Peaks a few years back and at that time I didn’t have that knowledge. So yeah, I think Lynch truly did bring something extremely special to this show and something that kept me coming back. But at least this time I had the return series to look forward to, which I knew Lynch directed and wrote every episode of. So I decided to push through and finish off the series. After finishing the series I took some time to reflect on the way the show made me felt and how I experienced it. While Twin Peaks obviously deals with some heavy themes, like abuse, drug addiction and murder, it always found a way to incorporate quirkier and optimistic elements as well which I really liked. This contrast is something that I really came to appreciate and notice more as a common characteristic of the show and of Lynch’s as a whole. For example Kyle Maclahclan’s character Dale Cooper, who is the main protagonist, is constantly pitted against these darker themes of the show, but his character always gave me a more optimistic outlook on the show as a whole due to his quirky traits. I would go as far as to say that I even see some of Lynch in this character. Take these two clips for example-

There’s also the philosophical and moral ideas that Lynch implements into the show. Ideas that really stuck with me after the show which made me think and reflect. For example, good vs evil with the supernatural elements of Bob possessing Leland being the evil, and One armed Mike being the good fighting against Bob. I also interpreted Bob as Leland letting his darker side that’s present within him take over and commit these horrendous crimes.

After watching the original series I then moved on to Fire Walk with me, which recounts the final days of Laura’s life and exactly how she died. As a stand alone movie, I can’t really seeing this hold up and even as a prequel to the series, I didn’t find it particularly necessary. That being said, Lynch instils a sense of dread into this movie which makes this movie more akin to something like a horror movie unlike the shows more light-hearted tone. This movie left me in a state of depression after watching it due to its dark themes and ideas. While I’m never against an artist censoring or holding back darker themes from their vision, I just don’t think it really fits well when held up to the more off-beat and quirkiness of the show.

Where to begin with The Return? This shit was weird ass, in true David Lynch style. So this season starts off 25 years after we were left on the cliff-hanger finale of season two. A lot of this season felt more like a dream to me than a series of events unfolding, and its about as Lynchian as I could hope for. Episode 8 (which gave me a little bit of Eraserhead vibes) is such a bonkers episode, and is easily my favourite episode from the series. Just this episode alone encapsulates what it is I love so much about Lynch and his work. Super surreal, experimental and refused to hold my hand and give me the answers to everything I wanted them for, but instead asked me to interpret it how I liked. As the season went and just as I felt that I was starting to get a grasp on answers and what Lynch is trying to convey, part 18 came around and threw me off the rails. It answers questions but for each answered it leaves 20 more its place.

In my next blog I will be discussing my experience with Lynch’s community and the different platforms I used to navigate it. I will be using the participant observation as my research method to analyse my findings and will be summarising my research.

REFERENCES

Douglass, G, & Moustakas, C 1985, ‘Heuristic inquiry: The internal search to know.’ https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022167885253004 [6th November 2020]

David Lynch. A Director whose filmography is so bizarre and uniquely Lynch that he has a genre named after him. So when asked to chose a media niche to focus an Autoethnography on for an analytic research task (Digital Artefact), the decision to research Lynch and his filmography was an easy one. Lynch has been a very polarizing director ever since his debut with 1997’s Eraserhead and its easy to see why. Nonetheless I love Lynch and his films. But as much as I love his work, I can never really give a definitive answer on why is it I’m so intrigued by Lynch and his filmography.

So for my Digital Artefact, the main question I wanted to hone in on is, “What it is about Lynch’s persona and work that interests me?”. Originally I wanted to focus my research on David Lynch’s directorial efforts, and to observe the spaces where his fans interact. I’ve since decided that narrowing in on one of his works would give me a better opportunity to be more detailed and precise about my experience and research with the work, and the platforms him and his community are most prominent. I also want to format my Digital Artefact through a series of blogs. This first one will focus on the overview and explain key elements of my niche while also explaining some of the methods I will be using. The second will focus on my autoethnographic research, which is described by Sarah Wall as a “research method that allows the author to write in a highly personalised style, drawing on his or her experience to extend understanding about a societal phenomenon“(Wall 2006, P. 1). Finally, The third blog will look at my observational research, which consists of “observing and recording human behaviour in a particular setting (often referred to as ‘the field’)” (Marvasti 2014, P. 355). and summarise my research.

I had a lot of choice when it came to picking from Lynch’s body of work. At first I was considering focusing my research on his first directorial effort, Eraserhead, as I and many others believe this to be his most “heady” movie. I then re-watched Mullholland Drive, as this is arguably his most acclaimed and accessible films. But after some consideration, I chose to opt for Twin Peaks due to the shear amount of content and fan community surrounding the show.

I decided to include the original series, Fire walk with me, and The Return into my research and focus on my experience before, while, and after watching all the Twin Peaks content. This will be the autoethnography aspect of my Digital Artefact, My experience with Twin Peaks and how I experienced it. My Observational research will take place on the Facebook groups The Kinoplex and Twin Peaks LogPosting, and Lynch’s Twitter and YouTube pages.

So, Twin Peaks. Where to begin? Well firstly, I want to start by saying that I tried watching this show a few years ago but found myself disinterested about halfway through the second season. But around the same time I was starting to narrow down my research on David Lynch, I was browsing through a Facebook group known as the Kinoplex. While on this page I came across someone who posted about Twin Peaks saying “I’m trying my darndest to give Twin Peaks a full watch through. This is my second attempt. So far, I’m sure of this: Deputy Andy did not kill Laura Palmer”. Seeing this guy give the show a second attempt sort of pushed me into also having another go at it. Plus I’d been a fan of Lynch’s for a while and feel like it deserved another chance. I then started to find out where I could watch Twin Peaks (legally). Being the biggest streaming platform, I checked Netflix first and to no surprise with their garbage catalogue, it wasn’t there. But Stan being the superior streaming service, had the original series, Fire walk with me, and the return (As well as three of Lynch’s other movies). So I’d watch the entirety of Twin Peaks from my desktop computer in my comfy gamer chair and headphones.

So I had a place where I could consume, but before I started absolutely bingeing all of what Twin Peaks had to offer, I decided to do some research on it first. Firstly I went onto the shows IMDB page, looked at a few reviews, and who was involved in the show. I then wanted to know what the best order to watch the show, which led me to Reddit, where someone said that the best order would be to start with TWIN PEAKS (1990-1991), Then to watch TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME (1992), and finally end with TWIN PEAKS: A LIMITED EVENT SERIES (2017). So over 60 hours of content, this was gonna be a mission. I then went onto YouTube to find a video to get me hyped for the journey and saw that a channel I regularly watch, Karsten Runquist, had recently uploaded a video on Twin Peaks.

Before I start talking about my experience with Twin Peaks, I’ll do my best to give you a brief description of the series. So, After beloved homecoming queen, Laura Palmer, is found dead on beach, FBI Agent Dale Cooper is sent to Twin Peaks to investigate the murder. Cooper slowly starts to uncover the towns dark secrets. The show being created by David Lynch obviously becomes ALOT more complicated and surreal than this brief description though. So in my next blog I will start to discuss in detail, my experience with Twin peaks and its content from an autoethnographic standpoint and start to delve into the question of “What it is about Lynch’s persona and work that interests me?”.

REFERENCES

Wall, S 2006, ‘An Autoethnography on Learning about Autoethnography’ https://moodle.uowplatform.edu.au/pluginfile.php/2450393/mod_resource/content/1/Wall%20S%202006%20An%20Autoethnography%20on%20Learning%20about%20Autoethnography.pdf P. 1 [26th October 2020]

Marvasti, A 2014, ‘Analysing Observations’ https://moodle.uowplatform.edu.au/pluginfile.php/2450389/mod_resource/content/1/Analysing%20Observations%20354%20Amir%20B.%20Marvasti%20The%20SAGE%20Handbook%20of%20Qualitative%20Data%20Analysis.pdf P. 355 [27th October 2020]