From his cult classic television series Twin Peaks to his most recent film Inland Empire (2006), David Lynch is best known for his unorthodox narrative style. An award-winning director, producer, and writer, Lynch distorts and disrupts traditional storylines and offers viewers a surreal, often nightmarish perspective. His unique approach to filmmaking has made his work familiar to critics and audiences worldwide, and he earned Academy Award nominations for Best Director for The Elephant Man (1980), Blue Velvet (1986), and Mulholland Drive (2001). Lynch creates a new reality for both characters and audience by focusing on the individual and embracing existentialism. In The Philosophy of David Lynch, editors William J. Devlin and Shai Biderman have compiled an impressive list of contributors to explore the philosophy at the core of the filmmaker’s work. Lynch is examined as a postmodern artist, and the themes of darkness, logic, and time are discussed in depth. Other prominent issues in Lynch’s films, such as Bad faith and freedom, ethics, politics, and religion, are also considered. Investigating myriad aspects of Lynch’s influential and innovative work, The Philosophy of David Lynch provides a fascinating look at the philosophical underpinnings of the famous cult director.
Table of Content
An Introduction to the Philosophy of David Lynch
The Owls are Not What They Seem: The Logic of Lynch’s World
Intuition and Investigation into Antoher Place: The Epistemological Role of Dreaming in Twin Peaks and Beyond
The Horrors of Life’s Hidden Mysteries: Blue Velvet
The Thing about David Lynch: Reading and Enjoying the Lynchian World
The World as Illusion: Rediscovering Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway through Indian Philosophy
All Roads Lead to the Self: Zen Buddhism and David Lynch’s Lost Highway
City of Dreams: Bad Faith in Mulholland Drive
Constellations of the Flesh: The Embodied Self in The Straight Story and The Elephant Man
David Lynch’s Road Films: Individuality and Personal Freedom
Lynch’s Zarathustra: The Straight Story
There’s a Sort of Evil Out There: Emersonian Transcendentalism in Twin Peaks
In Heaven Everything is Fine: Erasing Traditional Morality
The Monster Within: Alienation and Social Conformity in The Elephant Man
Prophesies. Experience, and Proof: Philosophy of Religion in Dune
About the author
Shai Biderman is in the philosophy department at Boston University. He lives in Tel Aviv, Israel.More ebooks from the same author(s) / Editor
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