Return to Twin Peaks: New Approaches to Materiality, Theory, and Genre on Television

by Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock (Editor), Catherine Spooner (Editor)

This volume showcases the ways in which new theoretical paradigms and cultural emphases can reinvigorate and enrich understanding of what Twin Peaks was and what it has become since it went off the air in 1991.

Genres: Nonfiction

275 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 18, 2015

Reviews

[Sezin Koehler · Rating 5 out of 5]

So wonderful. I hope all these authors publish a volume two after the third series of Twin Peaks finishes. I'd love to read updates on their perspectives.

[Kieran Telo · Rating 1 out of 5]

A collection of articles focusing on Twin Peaks, and startlingly similar to Lavery's Full Of Secrets. Like that collection this has a succession of mediocre overwritten essays, some completely execrable texts that an undergraduate anxious to impress her Film Studies lecturer might toss together: Baudrillard this and Zizek that (Lacan is seemingly back in fashion), and one article that redeems the book as a whole and which is better than all the others put together. In Lavery's book that article was by Martha Nochimson. In this book too the article head and shoulders above all the others is by Martha Nochimson. The rest just aren't worth bothering with, with the exception of Lorna Jowett's. This is no great shakes but at least it doesn't try to club the reader with how many very clever authors the writer has misinterpreted. 2.5/5 but on the strength of those two articles alone.

19 July update: I have subsequently been upbraided for my review by an anonymous member of Goodreads whose complete collection is 11 books edited by Jeffrey Weinstock. He correctly points out that I got the name of Martha Nochimson wrong, so I have corrected that, but can't resist resorting to wounded sarcasm. As I recognise a sock puppet when I see one and don't like being patronised by people hiding behind pseudonyms I have now revised the review downward from my generous three stars to one.

[Judith · Rating 1 out of 5]

This reads like a fanzine, so it's perfect if you're a die-hard fan of the series but a little bit overwhelming and superfluous if you're not. The last essay is great though and I loved it.

[tatiana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Individual ratings:

"The Matter of Twin Peaks. Wondrous and Strange: The Matter of Twin Peaks" (Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock) - 3.5/5 - Worth reading.

"Substance Abuse: Special Agent Dale Cooper, "What's the matter?"" (Martha P. Nochimson) - 2.5/5 - I appreciated the concept of "The Marketplace" in this. Did not enjoy the physics segment, a lot of it was inaccurate or incorrect.

"The owls are not what they seem: Animals and Nature in Twin Peaks" (Sherryl Vint) - 2/5.

"That Cherry Pie is Worth a Stop: Food and Spaces of Consumption in Twin Peaks" (Lorna Piatti-Farnell) - 4/5.

"Wrapped in Plastic: David Lynch's Material Girls" (Catherine Spooner) - 4/5 - Really interesting.

"Twin Peaks, in Theory. Jacques Lacan, Walk With Me: on the Letter" (Eric Savoy) - 0/5 - "Oh, Lacan is in this?"

"Lodged in a Fantasy Space: Twin Peaks and Hidden Obscenities" (Todd McGowan) - 1/5 - Two Lacanians in a row. I almost dropped the book.

"Fandom, & New Reflections. Complementary Verses: The Science Fiction of Twin Peaks" (J. P. Telotte) - 4/5 - Got me to reconsider what Science Fiction is in the first place. Put me on to Darko Suvin's Metamorphoses of Science Fiction.

"Doing Weird Things for the Sake of Being Weird: Directing Twin Peaks" (Stacey Abbott) - 4/5 - Goes really well with Catherine Spooner's essay.

"I'll See You Again in 25 Years: Paratextually Re-commodifying and Revising" (Matt Hills) - 5/5 - Worth reading the whole collection for.

"Academic work focusing on the "romantic-modernist" innovation of Lynchian auteurism works, therefore, uncritically to reproduce paratextual discourses put into play in early promotion of the series."

"Anniversary Twin Peaks. Nightmare in Red: Twin Peaks Parody, Homage, Intertextuality and Mashup" (Lorna Jowett) - 3.5/5.

"Trapped in the Hysterical Sublime: Twin Peaks, Postmodernism, and the Neoliberal Now" (Linnie Blake) - No rating. Just skip this. Would prefer to read the one I gave 0/5 and it's not close.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slightly uneven but diverse and overall very satisfying collection of essays that reflect on the series' cultural, political, industrial, and theoretical legacy, written on the eve of the show's recent Return.

[Returnee · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Several very fine insights here but overall it felt much less NEW in approach than I'd hoped.

[Todd Glaeser · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be expected, in a collection of articles such as this, I enjoyed some more than others. It did prompt me to rewatch the first 20 episodes so far.