Product Description

"Full of Secrets" is the complete source book on "Twin Peaks", the first foray into television for prominent film director David Lynch. Addressing a wide variety of topics, including the series' cult status, its obsession with doubling, and its silencing of women, this diverse group of essays analyses the series from feminist, deconstructionist and semiotic perspectives. The show, which earned 14 Emmy nominations in its first season, was originally tauted as capable of changing television forever. Due to its unique visual style, its resistance of stereotype - it was a hybrid of FBI drama, murder mystery, soap opera, comedy and commercial - and its controversial subject matter centred around father-daughter incest, "Twin Peaks" was, for a time, the most talked about show on television. Because it was at once subversive and innovative, many found it hard to believe that this moody, bizarre, intertextual, and self-referential series found an audience on network television. To help explain the phenomenon, "Full of Secrets" looks at "Twin Peaks" from a critical and interpretive standpoint. In doing so, the book not only acts as an essential guide to the series, but it also raises questions about the very nature and function of television in the 1990s. Containing virtually everything necessary for an in-depth examination of the series' importance and meaning, this book also features a director and writer list, a cast list, a "Twin Peaks" calendar, a complete scene breakdown for the entire series, and a comprehensive bibliography.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #165781 in Books
• Published on: 1995-01-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 292 pages

Customer Reviews

1/2 pseudo-intellectual nonsense, 1/2 simplistic garbage
"The echolalia and subvocal signs of the semiotic - what we might call feminine Twinspeak - therefore co-exist with and challenge both the patriarchal canonization of Laura Palmer and its Freudian subtext (104)"

The above sentence comes from arguably the best of the twelve essays contained within this book, Christy Desmet's "The Canonization of Laura Palmer." She makes some extremely insightful points, but to reach them, you have to wade through pretentious written-with-thesaurus-in-hand idiocy like the preceding paragraph.

In general, those expecting to find opinions on what the Red Room really is, or whether coffee and cherry pie are a metaphor for something deeper, will have to parse through endless masturbatory babble, and for the most part will be ultimately disappointed by the lack of any revelations about the show itself (one notable exception is Angela Hague's interesting "Derationalization of Detection," which delves briefly into what actually happened to Cooper in the Black Lodge).

Some essays, such as Jonathan Rosenbaum's "Bad Ideas..." might simply be re-titled "Why I liked Twin Peaks," as it comes off more like high-brow film criticism than anything else, revealing nothing about the show other than why the writer thought it was good. Ditto Marc Dolan's essay "The Peaks and Valleys...", which contains only speculation as to why the show might have lost its audience. Henry Jenkins' is awful, doing nothing more than chronicling ultimately irrelevant discussions on alt.tv.twinpeaks while the show was airing.

A few of the feminist writers are equally terrible for different reasons. Martha Nochimson's "Desire Under the Douglas Firs..." had potential to be very interesting, but went on a "phallocentric" tangent, and from her we read insights like "The phallic nature of the thumbs up sign, and the phallic incapacity of the Old Bellhop, who cannot stand up straight, are complemented by the visionary presence of The Giant, a phallic presence, as emphasized by the visual foregrounding of The Giant's crotch (153).

In addition, I fear, some of these writers seem to be a little out of their depth, and readers who are specialists in any of the fields contained within might be able to find numerous mistakes. For instance, in the essay about music (my own area of specialty) Kathryn Kalinak misidentifies leitmotifs, writes musical examples in the wrong key AND mode, and generally reveals herself to be musically illiterate. She also assigns import and symbolism to things that deserve none. She notes that in one scene, "a country and western selection on the jukebox mysteriously disappears for Shelley and Norma's entrance only to reappear a few moments later," citing this as proof that Lynch is trying to make us aware of the line "between illusion and artifice." Nonsense. It was an editing mistake. I could wax philosophical that the chess game between Cooper and Earle (which contained impossible positions/illegal moves) was Lynch trying to symbolically demonstrate any number of things, but it was really just Lynch being lazy, and that's fine.

The essays alone really only merit two stars, but following them "Full of Secrets" has several excellent appendices which contain writing/directorial/acting credits, a Twin Peaks calendar of events, and a complete scene breakdown from the pilot through FWWM, all very well done and useful.

For the rest of the book, well, you've been warned.

Invaluable for the TP academic
I purchased this book as a key text for my dissertation, which is about Twin Peaks. This book looks at the programme from almost every angle available - my only slight criticism would be that it doesnt offer a a psychological perspective on the programme. A Jungian look at the show would be very insightful, but lack of such theory is understandable considering the fact that such research has only recently been explored. I found the chapters regarding postmodernism and semiotics invaluable in understanding such phenomena as the Red Room. It may not be the best book for somebody who simply wishes to research their favourite programme, but it is absolutely invaluable for anyone tackling TP from an academic POV. I recommend using Lavery in conjunction with a book on Lynch (such as Chion or Nomchimson) to truly get a handle on where Lynch was coming from with the themes and symbolism running through TP. A "damn fine" book!

Full of Amazement
With "Twin Peaks", the prequel "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me" and the tie-in book "Laura Palmer's Secret Diary" the Lynch family managed to get under the skin of an entire generation. The mixing of reality and dream, the intermingling of genres and the chemically correct blend of moods and feels made for an excellent and truely uncanny cocktail. In a way this brilliant book of essays "Full of Secrets" does the same, as different authors direct our eyes to details and analytic treats that we almost equally uncannilly seem to have thought about - without being able to put them into words. However, these authors do, and, they do it very well in fact. Especially Angela Hague's essay on "Twin Peaks" as a postmodern mystery crept under my skin by putting into words the vague ideas i had when watching David Lynch's film(s). For any 'Twin Freak' this book is a must-have purchase, a book that neither can nor will disappoint. Maybe it does not unravel the mystery Lynch, but it offers you ways of perceiving his main work "Twin Peaks" that will leave you Full of Amazement and crying for more.