While providing some clear, lucid insights into his creative process, how he worked before discovering transcendental meditation, and interesting trivia such as descriptions of happy accidents on how his films are made and what Kubrick’s favourite film was (“Eraserhead”, according to Lynch), there’s also a downside.
Lynch does get me interested in transcendental meditation, but the theme is so regurgitated and repeated throughout the entire book that he feels a bit like a cult member trying to lure you in. It’s very “transcendental meditation can cure anything, make you do anything, will overcome anything”. I particularly disliked the chapter where you’re to imagine you’re the Empire State Building and transcendental meditation is electric gold; just swap the junk in all your rooms for the electric gold and you’re all good. Yeah.
To me, it all reeks of an empty promise, mainly because Lynch doesn’t explain how transcendental meditation works. And that knowledge, my dears, is expensive to attain.
So, if you can shut the lid on that all-permeating aspect of the book, Lynch does bring interesting stream-of-consciousness stuff to the table, especially on how he’s overcome obstacles in his creative process and how he seems very open to new things that influence and come to him.
A review of "Diary: A Novel" — 1 year ago
