11 Comments
11hEdited

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.

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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!

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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.

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i'd pay 89 cents for this opinion and an empty tuna can

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The Mr Eddy/Mercedes scene is in Lost Highway, not Blue Velvet.

But yeah, I'll miss him too.

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Straight Story, truly Lynch’s most experimental film as he claims. Teeming with absurdist humor, dreariness, and transcendent sincerity

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I love thé fact that for all the weirdness beloved by David Lynch, his most subversive presentation was about an old man who followed the rules, in The Straight Story. That’s a fitting memorial to the irreplaceable Lynch.

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Who’s David Lynch?

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You, sir, are mad! And I thank you for it. Wonderful to read you always. I love Chesterton’s quote: "keep in some sense before the mind the fact that civilization itself is the most sensational of departures and the most romantic of rebellions. When the detective in a police romance stands alone and somewhat fatuously fearless amid the knives and fists of a thieves' kitchen, it does certainly serve to make us remember that it is the agent of social justice who is the original and poetic figure, while burglars and footpads are merely placid old cosmic conservatives happy in their immemorial respectability as apes and wolves. The police romance...is based on the fact that morality is the most dark and daring of conspiracies."

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Bro all-caps like he’s 17

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I've always liked the way he all-caps his titles (maybe just because of how much I like Zizek as a thinker.) There's this sense of uncomfortable loudness that you get with too-important truths, and with uncomfortable ideas that need to be shared, which is the vibe he's going for. Of course, that's also the vibe many 17 year olds are going for, but I think that Zizek has so many important, timely ideas that it's justified.

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