The Philosophy of David Lynch Book

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction William J. Devlin Shai Biderman 1

Part 1 The World of David Lynch

"The Owls Are Not What They Seem": The Logic of Lynch's World Robert Arp Patricia Brace 7

Intuition and Investigation into Another Place: The Epistemological Role of Dreaming in Twin Peaks and Beyond Simon Riches 25

The Horrors of Life's Hidden Mysteries: Blue Velvet Sander H. Lee 45

The Thing about David Lynch: Enjoying the Lynchian World Russell Manning 61

The World as Illusion: Rediscovering Mulholland Dr. and Lost Highway through Indian Philosophy Ronie Parciack 77

Part 2 Selfhood and Subjectivity: The Existential Drive toward Self-Understanding

All Roads Lead to the Self: Zen Buddhism and David Lynch's Lost Highway Mark Walling 95

City of Dreams: Bad Faith in Mulholland Dr. Jennifer McMahon 113

Constellations of the Flesh: The Embodied Self in The Straight Story and The Elephant Man Tal Correm 127

David Lynch's Road Films: Individuality and Personal Freedom? Richard Gaughran 143

Lynch's Zarathustra: The Straight Story Shai Frogel 159

Part 3 The Self Confronts the World: Issues in Ethics, Society, and Religion

"There's Sort of Evil Out There": Emersonian Transcendentalism in Twin Peaks Scott Hamilton Suter 175

"In Heaven Everything Is Fine": Erasing Traditional Morality Jason Southworth 189

The Monster Within: Alienation and Social Conformity in The Elephant Man Shai Biderman Assaf Tabeka 207

Prophesies, Experience, and Proof: Philosophy of Religion in Dune William J. Devlin 225

Contributors 239

Index 243