Thursday, January 31, 2008
David Lynch
David Lynch is such a strange character that you never know what to make of him. In this talk at Berkeley he is talking about Transcendental Meditation, which he has been practicing for decades. He is a fantastic salesman for the simple process; he says the organization charges $2500 to learn it — Lynch said when he started it was $35. He doesn't say this as a criticism but justifies it as well worth it.
Here is what you do: You sit and focus on a word, sensical or nonsensical word/sound, for 20 minutes, twice a day. That's it. The rest is rationalization, what is called in a deeper tradition, the “stink of Zen” — discourse; in art school we used to call it being “an art school lawyer”.
You watch Lynch to try and figure out if he is kidding, but he always convinces you, he is the real thing. Art derives in part from the shaman function and Lynch is a manifestation of that art-as-magic model, as well as to the 1960s, with all its self-absorption intact. What finally wins you over is that Lynch is harmless and affirms good things — imagination and beauty and the interior experience and the sense of wonder. Whether Lynch achieves these qualities in his work you can determine for yourself. Rejecting Lynch himself would be like rejecting individuality.