Electricity

During the dream sequence, the Cowboy appears at the corral to Adam amidst electricity surges. In earlier Lynch works, this was used to show the presence of something supernatural. The Cowboy seems to be the antithesis of the DARK MAN or the MONSTER MAN. If he were some sort of supernatural guide, it makes sense that he wakes up Diane at the end of her dream. Because basically, the end of Diane's dream is the end of her life. - (jonviglione)

Cowboy travelled to the meeting with Adam through the light (with the skull) that came on. That's why it went out after he left - (vicster)

The first quote is from the Cowboy page on the site, the second from vicster on here a couple of weeks ago (I think!).

So let's talk about electricity. MD as the starting point, but Lynch's other stuff too.

I'd quite like to be able to explore it and in some semblance of permanancy build some content for the site on this subject as it's been touched tangentially a few times but (AFAIK) never really been looked at closely in relation to MD.

So maybe a bit of brainstorming as well as thinking about what we know from David's other work about the subject. Recently (very reecently) he said:

"I love electricity, so it sort of stands to reason that I would like electronics."

Undoubtedly it is a theme/motif he's used before, but what do we have in MD? Not really looking for speculations about what certain references in MD to electricity may or may not mean at the minute, more a documentation of things that might connect. So we have ...

1. The light at the corral as mentioned above.
2. "Kill the lights" - Kesher in the convertible scene
3. Uses of the Hollywood search lights in the trip to Silencio and more abstractly in the Ryan Board scene
4. Silencio neon sign
5. A number of light switches that you could say are almost showcased (next to Bob in the audition scene, for example)

What else?

Straight away I think of the vacuum cleaner when Joe performs the bungled hit. Electricity, via the vacuum cleaner is like a witness to the event. When Joe shoots it the vacuum causes a big puff of smoke and gives off some "electric" noises before setting off an (electric?) alarm.

Lights and lighting could almost have a post of their own;
- The car lights when the dream starts
- The lights of LA when Rita gets out and when the detective later looks down from the scene of the accident
- The lights coming on and then off when Ray goes to visit Mr Roque
- The apartment lights outside Sierra Bonita

On http://www.mulholland-drive.net/theories/04.htm there's a section about "Electro-Shock Therapy" that attempts to explain the surges of blue light at Club Silencio.

I wanted to resurrect this thread too.

In FIRE WALK WITH ME, when Agent Jeffries disappears Gordon Cole shouts "he's gone! he's gone!" and Lynch actually shows you a shot of travelling along power lines like this:



So it's not that crazy to say The Cowboy got to the corral the same way. Through the power lines.

It's a brilliant observation actually.

Just to add that after the electricity shorts out in Ed's (back to MULHOLLAND DRIVE) office, Betty says "I got a real shock to see your friend, Rita here."

And, back to TWIN PEAKS, there is the following dialog:

COOPER
Do you know where dreams come from?

SHERIFF TRUMAN
Not specifically. (he and LUCY nod no)

COOPER
Acetylcholine Neurons fire high voltage impulses into the forebrain. These impulses become pictures, the pictures become dreams but ... no one knows why we choose these particular pictures.

So here's this:


To which I would add this:


And just to have a whole mess of fun with this, Ed asks Joe "you makin' ends meet?" Joe chuckles and says "Hardly."

kmkmiller wrote:So it's not that crazy to say The Cowboy got to the corral the same way. Through the power lines.

It's a brilliant observation actually.

Absolutely. One of the more astute things I'd read on MD in a while when it was first posted.

Twin Peaks spoiler

[spoiler]l[/spoiler]
Great post in general dude. I like the connections you're making.

No pun intended!

And thinking about it, there's a weird electric effect in Lost Highway around the Fred/Pete transformation that some have argued is Fred getting fried in the electric chair. Perhaps it's this idea of leaving and arriving with that too.