Lynch may be the filmmaker of ethics' obscenity par excellence, but we can also trace this idea from Lacan's reading of Antigone through Sethe. In the noir mode of filmmaking, the demands of the ethical almost always occasion defiance of the law (lower case 'l,' as in 'legal') which Lynch took to the most exacting extremes. RIP.
lacan was a loyalist pervert with dreams of destroying the family to develop infantile dependence on a cult ideology. lynch's obscenity is exactly the same trash narrative as the war on drugs. the only thing that's extreme in both is an obsession with following one law in favor of another. and it's all recycled from sketchy places.
Great article as always. Lynch seemed to have a pulse to the *weirdness* of desire, and the way he used the logic of dreams to convey that ad-infinitum relationship was powerful. He reminds me of a Lacan who thought there *really could be a sexual relationship,* that humanity could get over its "one true failure," that we could all Really love each other beyond the imaginary. I think Twin Peaks did that really well. Powerful as always!
Reading this article made me feel the same discomfort as watching those scenes from Wild at Heart or Blue Velvet. Your analysis shows how power operates beyond physical violence, manipulating fantasy and extorting an empty consent that amplifies humiliation. The Bobby Peru scene perfectly illustrates how symbolic control can be even more devastating than the act itself. Your insights on the ambiguity of desire and the subversion of gender roles add a deeply unsettling layer to this dynamic. Thank you for forcing us to confront what we’d rather avoid.
Lynch is primarily the author of the style of presentation made possible through the technical realization of images and the atmosphere on set. His writers made the content. Zizek seems wholly unaware of that.
lynch's ethics are trite conservative nonsense packaged into your wildest fantasies about getting to hurt children. every ethical turn in every moment of his movies and music are done in order to reinforce the idea that the americana family is the lost beacon of cultural survival. get a fucking grip
Zizek's comments on the cultural-economic apparatus and the need to increasingly shock audiences in order to sustain itself was in evidence in Scotland last year, when the creative industry body (Creative Scotland) saw fit to use £85k in public funds to produce an £85k 'hardcore sex project' in which underage disabled children were fisted and abused. Unsurprisingly, the director was very well established and middle class - a grifter from London who has made a living for herself 'shocking' audiences. She is but a fraction of a larger milieu of 'artists' masquerading as progressive and subversive whilst in reality sustaining themselves and reproducing their position atop a vacuous cultural hierarchy dependent on the public purse. Interesting to think that in order to be subversive today is in fact to be normal. I have some problems with that, namely the propensity towards reactionary thinking - but when the cultural establishment has cottoned on to the economic and social benefits that the appropriation and manipulation of subversive ideas can confer onto themselves as individuals - there is something to be said for straight edge. Finally - it's quite easy to shock. It requires talent and depth of insight in order to create something meaningfully subversive.
I can't help thinking about Chauncey Gardener and his co-optation by the conservative institutions of his country. Do persistence and naive immediacy stand a chance against the appetite of hungry old conservatives?
Yeah, Lynch's centering and exposing radical evil and the deceptive normalized veneer of conventional morality reveals his longing for the assertion of true goodness. The clarity of his vision of evil makes impossible to read his assertion of true loral rectitude as naive or Pollyanna.
Lynch may be the filmmaker of ethics' obscenity par excellence, but we can also trace this idea from Lacan's reading of Antigone through Sethe. In the noir mode of filmmaking, the demands of the ethical almost always occasion defiance of the law (lower case 'l,' as in 'legal') which Lynch took to the most exacting extremes. RIP.
lacan was a loyalist pervert with dreams of destroying the family to develop infantile dependence on a cult ideology. lynch's obscenity is exactly the same trash narrative as the war on drugs. the only thing that's extreme in both is an obsession with following one law in favor of another. and it's all recycled from sketchy places.
Great article as always. Lynch seemed to have a pulse to the *weirdness* of desire, and the way he used the logic of dreams to convey that ad-infinitum relationship was powerful. He reminds me of a Lacan who thought there *really could be a sexual relationship,* that humanity could get over its "one true failure," that we could all Really love each other beyond the imaginary. I think Twin Peaks did that really well. Powerful as always!
The Mr Eddy/Mercedes scene is in Lost Highway, not Blue Velvet.
But yeah, I'll miss him too.
i'd pay 89 cents for this opinion and an empty tuna can
Reading this article made me feel the same discomfort as watching those scenes from Wild at Heart or Blue Velvet. Your analysis shows how power operates beyond physical violence, manipulating fantasy and extorting an empty consent that amplifies humiliation. The Bobby Peru scene perfectly illustrates how symbolic control can be even more devastating than the act itself. Your insights on the ambiguity of desire and the subversion of gender roles add a deeply unsettling layer to this dynamic. Thank you for forcing us to confront what we’d rather avoid.
Your best work is always at the intersection of your mind and Pop culture!
Lynch is primarily the author of the style of presentation made possible through the technical realization of images and the atmosphere on set. His writers made the content. Zizek seems wholly unaware of that.
...Lynch wrote 3 out of the 4 films mentioned here?
Straight Story, truly Lynch’s most experimental film as he claims. Teeming with absurdist humor, dreariness, and transcendent sincerity
lynch's ethics are trite conservative nonsense packaged into your wildest fantasies about getting to hurt children. every ethical turn in every moment of his movies and music are done in order to reinforce the idea that the americana family is the lost beacon of cultural survival. get a fucking grip
Starfucker.
Zizek's comments on the cultural-economic apparatus and the need to increasingly shock audiences in order to sustain itself was in evidence in Scotland last year, when the creative industry body (Creative Scotland) saw fit to use £85k in public funds to produce an £85k 'hardcore sex project' in which underage disabled children were fisted and abused. Unsurprisingly, the director was very well established and middle class - a grifter from London who has made a living for herself 'shocking' audiences. She is but a fraction of a larger milieu of 'artists' masquerading as progressive and subversive whilst in reality sustaining themselves and reproducing their position atop a vacuous cultural hierarchy dependent on the public purse. Interesting to think that in order to be subversive today is in fact to be normal. I have some problems with that, namely the propensity towards reactionary thinking - but when the cultural establishment has cottoned on to the economic and social benefits that the appropriation and manipulation of subversive ideas can confer onto themselves as individuals - there is something to be said for straight edge. Finally - it's quite easy to shock. It requires talent and depth of insight in order to create something meaningfully subversive.
I can't help thinking about Chauncey Gardener and his co-optation by the conservative institutions of his country. Do persistence and naive immediacy stand a chance against the appetite of hungry old conservatives?
The scene you are referencing to with Eddy and Balthazar Getty is in Lost Highway, not Blue Velvet.
make sure yall are up on those boosters. my boy slav would agree...
Yeah, Lynch's centering and exposing radical evil and the deceptive normalized veneer of conventional morality reveals his longing for the assertion of true goodness. The clarity of his vision of evil makes impossible to read his assertion of true loral rectitude as naive or Pollyanna.
The End of Violence is the adult version of Lost Highway.