the Missing Pieces

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StealThisCorn
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Re: Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces - analysis/thoughts etc

Post by StealThisCorn »

weren't the following episodes already shot and scheduled for the following weeks when the network decided to end it with Josie?
Oh you know what, now I'm not so sure. If they were already filmed by the time that episode aired, I wasn't aware of it. I just know it went off the air for a bit after that. And with that in mind I can see why they maybe wanted to end the episode with some strong mindscrew images that would loop back to the earlier, better stuff of the show--Bob, the Little Man and give a lasting wtf with Josie going in the drawer pull and all.
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Re: Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces - analysis/thoughts etc

Post by You Shot Mike, Bobby »

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Last edited by You Shot Mike, Bobby on Sat Apr 11, 2020 10:00 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces - analysis/thoughts etc

Post by StealThisCorn »

The squawking of birds is the first thing that came to mind when I heard the Jumping Man.
When I heard it, I also couldn't decide if it sounded like birth pangs or like death throes of some kind, but I felt it sounded like one or the other.
Carlton L. Russell (the Jumping Man) says, "David told me that my character was this talisman come to life"
Yeah, I really wish I knew more about what he was referring to. The use of the word talisman reminds me of Wrapped In Plastic #11 in an interview with Al Strobel (Philip Gerard/Mike) where, discussing the film, he says, "[W]e are inhabiting beings from another place. The ring is a physical symbol of the other place. Not a physical symbol of all the other place, just a physical symbol as a talisman. The characters are not as evil as the symbol is. The symbol is the evil." In occult terms, a talisman is different from an amulet, which has natural magical powers, in that a talisman must be created and "charged" with a specific magical purpose by its creator.

According to the 19th century magical order, the Golden Dawn, a talisman is (cribbed from wikipedia), "a magical figure charged with the force which it is intended to represent. In the construction of a talisman, care should be taken to make it, as far as possible, so to represent the universal forces that it should be in exact harmony with those you wish to attract, and the more exact the symbolism, the easier it is to attract the force."

I have no idea though, if the lore and ideas of real world occultism have any purposeful bearing on the Twin Peaks mythology in this aspect, but it's interesting.

I had figured that "the chrome reflects our image" might be in reference to like how Bob sees himself reflected in mirrors when inhabiting a human host.
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Re: Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces - analysis/thoughts etc

Post by Jasper »

LostInTheMovies wrote:it does make me want to take a look at the Vedic scriptures which have supposedly had a big impact on Lynch (through the Maharishi, whose teaching he avidly followed). I suspect Fire Walk With Me is a more Hindu film than many realize (the last sequence in the Lodge, with Bob taking the garmonbozia definitely feels this way to me, though perhaps the vaguely Indian-sounding Sycamore Trees instrumental adds to this vibe). There was a comment I read once, somewhere, about the Maharishi believing that Transcendental Meditation generated an energy which spirits devoured for their sustenance. That certainly caught my attention in light of FWWM & garmonbozia. Not sure if this is the case though or if it was an anti-TM conspiracy theory.
I’ve known about this for a while, and I always sat on it because I didn’t want to get into controversial territory. I was tempted to get into it a little ways back when discussing the transformation of pain and suffering into a golden substance of nourishment. Since you’ve mentioned it, we may as well discuss it, because I have no doubt that there is a direct relationship between TM and TP mythology.

I think that Garmonbozia is a sort of flip side of Maharishi’s reinterpretation of Vedic and later Hindu scripture. It came out in a court case, apparently with a videotape as evidence, that the Maharishi, who claimed TM was not religious, did, in fact, preach about Hindu gods. Those practicing TM would produce “Soma” in their bellies through meditation and prayer. The gods would then descend to feed upon this nutritious substance. So, these Gods, Indra principally among them, would more-or-less feed upon the well-being of the TM practitioners. Therefor, the Black Lodge spirits feeding on Garmonbozia produced through “pain and suffering” is a straightforward reversal of this phenomenon. So the Lodge spirits, in this sense, are demonic counterparts to the benevolent(?) Hindu deities. It’s easy to imagine that the White Lodge inhabitants may have represented the Hindu gods, and therefor may have benefited from the well-being of citizens of Twin Peaks (and perhaps of the greater earthly realm).

From what I can glean, the Maharishi’s apparent conception of Soma is not the same as the original Vedic interpretation. The difference being that Soma was produced from plants (etc.) and consumed without any mention about religious practitioners producing it in their bellies.
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Re: Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces - analysis/thoughts etc

Post by Jasper »

So, let’s check out the similarities between Soma and corn, creamed corn, and by extension, Garmonbozia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soma

Soma (...) from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sauma-, was a Vedic ritual drink of importance among the early Indo-Iranians, and the subsequent Vedic and greater Persian cultures. It is frequently mentioned in the Rigveda, whose Soma Mandala contains 114 hymns, many praising its energizing qualities.

(…)

The plant is often described as growing in the mountains (..._) It has long stalks, and is of yellow or tawny (hari) colour.

The drink is prepared by priests pounding the plants with stones. The juice so gathered is filtered through lamb's wool, and mixed with other ingredients (including cow milk) before it is drunk. It is said to "roar". It is said to be the bringer of the gods.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creamed_corn

Creamed corn is a soup or sauce made by pulping corn kernels and collecting the milky residue from the corn. (…) It is an almost soupy version of sweetcorn, but unlike other preparations of sweetcorn, creamed corn is partially puréed, releasing the liquid contents of the kernels. Sugar and starch may be added and in home-made version, some variety of milk, perhaps even cream.
A bit more on Soma:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soma

Later, knowledge of the ingredient was lost altogether, and Indian ritual reflects this, in expiatory prayers apologizing to the gods for the use of a substitute plant (...) because Soma had become unavailable. In the Vedic ritual Agnistoma (or Somayaga), Soma is to be presented as the main offering. The substitution of one element in a sacrifice for another was in harmony with an underlying principle of Vedic ritual - the victim is a substitute for the sacrificer. The texts provide an extensive list of plants that can be used as substitutes and end the list by saying that any plant is acceptable, provided it is yellow.
I’ll be selective with what I include below, though there’s plenty more to read and interpret in the wikipedia article on Soma.

One translation of a portion of Vedic text in the wikipedia article reads:
“We have drunk Soma and become immortal; we have attained the light, the Gods discovered.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soma

In Hinduism, the god Soma evolved into a lunar deity. Full moon is the time to collect and press the divine drink. The moon is also the cup from which the gods drink Soma, thus identifying Soma with the moon god Chandra. A waxing moon meant Soma was recreating himself, ready to be drunk again.

[Probably nothing, but I'll point out the that the moon in Twin Peaks is full an unrealistic number of times, including the night when Maddy Ferguson is killed. I don't recall offhand if it's full when Laura is killed, or when BOB's arm emerges in the grove, etc.]

The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Meditation-Sidhi Program involves a notion of "Soma", allegedly based on the Rigveda.
There’s more to add, but I think I’ll continue in additional posts.
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Re: Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces - analysis/thoughts etc

Post by StealThisCorn »

One quick note: in the original script for Episode 2002, Mrs. Tremond originally hisses, "We don't eat yellow food," instead of the more familiar "I requested no creamed corn." I'm definitely seeing these connections. Great work folks!
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Re: Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces - analysis/thoughts etc

Post by LostInTheMovies »

Thanks, Jasper. Absolutely fascinating stuff.
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Re: Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces - analysis/thoughts etc

Post by nemo »

I also always considered garmonbozia as a substance very much alike the Vedic soma or the Greek ambrosia too. In both ways it denotes the gods drink. That's where the term itself came from, I think. The first root ,,garmon" to my ears at least refers to music (compare with the Greek ,,armonia" and Latin ,,harmonia"). LMFAP is a symbol of the mystery of music himself - he's from the place, where there's always music in the air. I'm not sure, whether creamed corn was originally completely associated with something particular like soma, anyway it represents an image of divine nourishment as an archetype or even a drug - I like how A. Huxley interpreted soma in this way in his anti-utopian novel ,,Brave New World". Talking about the look of garmonbozia - in my view it contains an additional North Indian reference much alike the whooping - we know, how TP is imbued with such alusions.
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Re: Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces - analysis/thoughts etc

Post by AgnililaOzwald »

I wholeheartedly agree about the connection between garmonbozia and the vedic stuff...even if it's not literally soma it's still a similar device by which karmic relationships are sown and harvested, binding one to the stimulations of different experiential worlds, and as pointed out, related to sacrifice and exchange of some sort.

btw I think horselover phat's website is absolutely stellar...I wonder if Lynch belongs to 'lodge' himself...if perhaps TM is something that he practices in conjunction with other similar religious worldviews...
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Re: Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces - analysis/thoughts etc

Post by David Locke »

I love the idea of the Missing Pieces as a bridge between TP and FWWM; it certainly feels that way, tonally and formally, in all the ways that have been already pointed out.

I loved a lot of scenes in the MP -- Nance and Chen's scene with the old banker, Lynchian absurdist comedy at its finest; the moving scene with the muffins and Doc Hayward's "prescription" for Laura (wouldn't mind if that was in the movie, but it does feel more like the series); the astonishing convenience store extended scene, even better than the original cut; the IE-like creepy slow warping of Laura's smile below the fan; the various sad/heartwarming scenes between Laura and her mother, which maybe should have been in the movie, where Sarah is kind of given short shrift for such an important character; the happy/forlorn scene with Norma and Ed listening to Badalamenti's theme in the car, drunk at night, etc.

But though I loved a lot of it, I'm glad it is where it is. I just can't see the Cooper and Annie scenes, for example, in FWWM, as good as they are.

The one scene I really wish WAS in FWWM is the one where Leland, looking scarier than ever before, enters the Palmer house at night as Laura hides in the bushes waiting to get picked up by James. This is just such an eerie and effective scene, and so brief and fitting with the film's feel, too, so I don't get why it was cut -- actually, I watched FWWM again after the MP and found that the cut in FWWM from Laura briefly hiding to jumping on the back of Bobby's motorcycle seemed a bit rushed, but maybe that's just because I've seen the compelling material that lies in between. Wonderful scene, with Lynch's typically painterly, enveloping use of darkness.

Oh yeah, and I loved the Buenos Aires sequence with Jeffries, too, but it would've felt like too much of a digression from the film, I think. Still, can't get enough of the lodge/red room inhabitants stuff; endlessly fascinating. This is in the film as well, but I love the awe with which MFAP touches that green formica table, as if he's never felt this pure sensation ever before, the sense of touch and the feel of different surfaces. And I love how creepily childlike the expression on his face is in that scene, especially when he laughs/cackles at the end; something about the way his eyes widen and his tongue flops out makes him seem like a particularly unusual/possessed baby, and I don't say this just because Anderson's natural dimensions.
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Re: Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces - analysis/thoughts etc

Post by StealThisCorn »

Hey LostInTheMovies, you know I just noticed that when Teresa is murdered by Leland in the trailer, she is *not*wearing the Ring, and whats more it is like she deliberately holds her hands up to show us that, like how Lynch has her hand obscured by the ice cube trays in the motel scene. I had always assumed Bob partly killes her *because* she was the Ringbearer and that it somehow sealed her fate, but it looks like it was already gone.
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Re: Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces - analysis/thoughts etc

Post by LostInTheMovies »

Wow, great catch. I never thought to look at that scene. The ring thing is fascinating - still not 100% sure how I will tackle it in the video. I do think it does a lot more, narratively, than just convey a link to the Black Lodge but the connections are somewhat vague. I've talked about it representing knowledge before but perhaps a better way to put it would be that it encapsulates/embodies an aspect of the mystery, much like creamed corn (garmonbozia) and the blue rose. If the corn is the pain and sorrow commissioned in the violence/violation, and the blue rose suggests the inscrutibility of this crime to outside forces, the ring may convey understanding of the relationship between victim and victimizer (this ties in to both the idea of a ring as a "circle," golden in the case of Cooper's ring, and also the use of Cooper's ring on the show as a token of his own comprehension). I do very much believe the use of the ring on the show and in the film are related, even though they are obviously different rings.

Why is Teresa not wearing the ring in the scene? We don't see her until after she's been hit, right? Maybe at that point, the job essentially complete, we no longer need to see it. It could also have to do with the idea that Leland, rather than Bob, killed her but then why give her a ring in the first place (I also, increasingly, see less of a point in distinguishing between the two - rather than separate actors, I think they are probably two sides of the same coin, the specific and the general aspect of evil).
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Re: Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces - analysis/thoughts etc

Post by Xryztofer »

LostInTheMovies wrote:It could also have to do with the idea that Leland, rather than Bob, killed her but then why give her a ring in the first place (I also, increasingly, see less of a point in distinguishing between the two - rather than separate actors, I think they are probably two sides of the same coin, the specific and the general aspect of evil).
Doesn't the fact that the letter "T" was placed under her fingernail have to make it a Bob killing? That's his signature. If it were just Leland stopping her from blackmailing him, he wouldn't have bothered with that, and I doubt it would have even occured to him in a non-possessed state of mind.
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Re: Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces - analysis/thoughts etc

Post by StealThisCorn »

LostInTheMovies wrote:the ring may convey understanding of the relationship between victim and victimizer (this ties in to both the idea of a ring as a "circle," golden in the case of Cooper's ring, and also the use of Cooper's ring on the show as a token of his own comprehension)
I think that is a great way of putting it--the theme of the 'cycle of abuse' is a strong theme in TP. And don't forget Mike and Bob's "golden circle of appetite and satisfaction".
We don't see her until after she's been hit, right?
No actually it looks like it's before she's hit, when she is cowering in horror after Leland smashes the television set. First we see her right hand, and then her left hand is visible I think (actually is she holding her left hand--because it's numb?). It looks like the ring is already gone.

Damn the fact that I can analyze this story after all this time and *still* find new details I never noticed before is what makes this so amazing and yet frustrating all at the same time.
Xryztofer wrote:Doesn't the fact that the letter "T" was placed under her fingernail have to make it a Bob killing? That's his signature. If it were just Leland stopping her from blackmailing him, he wouldn't have bothered with that, and I doubt it would have even occured to him in a non-possessed state of mind.
Well, actually, the viewpoint me and LostInTheMovies have kind of come to talking about this is that the film very much blurs the lines between Leland and Bob and their various responsibilities and motivations. I very much think this was a conscious decision by Lynch to make a strong narrative against domestic child abuse and rape, without literally letting "the devil" get blamed for it, which could stop real world victims from being able to relate. In other words, I think it was both Bob-and-Leland, and they both use each other and reinforce each other ("a two-way street"). Sure Bob was probably the one responsible for the letters, but Leland had the motive of stopping blackmail and probably devised the means, blunt force trauma, and cover up of the body. From his eerily precise murder of Jacques, we see he's rather capable at it and covering his tracks.
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Re: Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces - analysis/thoughts etc

Post by LostInTheMovies »

StealThisCorn wrote:And don't forget Mike and Bob's "golden circle of appetite and satisfaction".
That's what I was going for with the circle reference but I couldn't remember the exact quote haha.
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