Reviewed by Stacey Kalish
(Moving Pictures Art Issue, Apr/May 2007)
Book: Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity
177 pages; Tarcher/Penguin Publishing; $19.95
By David LynchHow does David Lynch's mind work? I didn't believe a book could answer that question - even if it was written by Lynch himself. In Catching the Big Fish, this three-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker responsible for Twin Peaks, Lost Highway, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire, opens a rare window into himself. And he's not remotely as disturbing as his films.
In 85 brief, lucid chapters, some only a sentence or two, Lynch divulges the secrets to his artistic sorcery. But just like his unpredictable films, the book reveals an unexpected truth. Lynch is not the tormented artist who prompted comedian Mel Brooks to once dub him "Jimmy Stewart from Mars." On the contrary, Lynch is a free and blissful man who no longer wears what he calls "The Suffocating Rubber Clown Suit of Negativity." He shed that costume back in 1973 when he visited the Transcendental Meditation Center in Los Angeles and met an instructor who looked like Doris Day. For 33 years, he has never missed one of his twice-daily 20-minute meditations. And for a man whose films are like a surreal baptism where fantasy and reality morph and strange men speaking backwards are a motif, the secret to his process is simple: It's like catching fish. Fish are the ideas, the ocean is consciousness and the bait is meditation.
Interestingly, Lynch never wanted to be a filmmaker. He loved to paint. In the book, he describes how one day, while attending art school, he was working on a painting of a garden at night. All of a sudden, the plants started to move and he heard a wind. He was not on drugs, he says (with an exclamation mark). He wondered if film could be a way to make paintings move. This is but one of many of Lynch's personal anecdotes that help to finally make sense of his often incomprehensible work. It becomes clear that his brand of non-linear, abstract cinema is less about rejecting narrative and more about continuing to make "moving paintings."
Lynch is considered to have broken down the wall between art-house cinema and Hollywood moviemaking. In this book, he also breaks the stereotype that pain and struggle produce great art. Lynch explains that the more the artist suffers, the less creative he is going to be. He answers the commonly asked question, "Why, if meditation gives him so much joy, are his films so dark and violent?" He writes that films only reflect the darkness flowing around in this world. You can understand conflict and not have to live in it. Let the characters do the suffering.
In Catching the Big Fish, Lynch gives a little about a lot. He shares intimately about everything from his favorite diner to yogis to his vision for the future of film. And while he is heavy-handed with plugging Transcendental Meditation as the life buoy of creativity, it doesn't drown out the other fun, rich material for fans interested in his films more than his consciousness.
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