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“Diane... Entering the town of Twin Peaks.”

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The importance of colours symbolism

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(@ezekielmoist)
Posts: 168
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I'll start this all thread with the one thing I wasn't looking for, but eventually came in the picture. 

I was looking for the very first scene of Diane at the bar because i remembered She had a different bracelet colour than the one we see later on.  On my way to that scene in ep 6, some minutes before, there was a true classic scene of this series: the changing of the traffic lights from green to yellow and then red (I wish i could have seen my eyes in that moment! ). 

I find Diane to be the biggest and  most fascinating mystery of The Return (also because i love Laura Dern). And this is why i think even a change of colour in her dress or any of her accessories can be potentially crucial. Here are the most interesting changes i observed in her:

-She always wears two bracelets,  but only in that first scene at the bar they are Green and Red.  From then on she's wearing a Red one and  a yellow one. 

- The earrings are Red in the first part of the trip (until the news of Major Briggs body found) and then they turn to Yellow (same type)

- All that she dresses on is following pretty much The same colours tones. 

- Only the <spiritual finger> on both hands is the one with the nail painted red. 

- Her white hair,  fake probably,  still makes me think of Leland change of colour at the start of season 2. 

-The paint on the cover of her phone looks like a Plant (Corn?) Each leaf coloured  different.  

Now...what do these colours symbolize?  It's A tough question since the garmonbonzia is YELLOW but also the waiting colour from green to red in the traffic Lights. I also find interesting that when Diane remains in the waiting room of the morgue, Gordon tells it out loud 'waiting room'.   GREEN is The colour of trees but also the one of the ring and formica table.  RED I can't even start...

What do you think?  What elements of the TP world comes up to your mind related to these Colours?  I would like someone with better memory to help me remember a scene I have in my mind in which BOB kinda take the garmonbonzia (from Leland? ) and red blood splashes Om the floor....when and how was it?

PS: Another element to add is the new flavour turkey meat Sarah freaked on. It is yellow (the beef one being red). 

 

 
Posted : 02/08/2017 7:37 am
(@ezekielmoist)
Posts: 168
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For me Yellow is quite clearly a colour of evil sign.  The doppleganger of the arm/tree has the head in Yellow

 
Posted : 02/08/2017 7:46 am
(@meaxylon)
Posts: 57
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Diane mixes these colours so for me it becomes difficult to interpret. For me, the traffic lights, green and red are opposites. But Diane uses both. Maybe the green Diane is the trickster - she's in black and green suit with pants sitting on the green sofa in the morgue when first reading the text on her phone. In green sweater and red pants when she memorizes the coordinates and looks them up. In red top black skirt when she meets Mr C in prison (she seems genuinely afraid here), and also in red and black when she is deputized (I thought there was something vulnerable over her in that scene as well).

Orange and yellow, difficult to interpret, because I noticed there was a lot of yellow and orange in Janey-E's and Dougies home. And that place seems cosy, safe.

If we're going by traffic lights maybe yellow/orange means "wait" or "get ready".

 
Posted : 02/08/2017 8:35 am
(@mad-sweeney)
Posts: 351
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Crazy stuff happens at literal red traffic lights in Twin Peaks. Shouting matches, shootings with traffic jams, vehicular homicide, teenagers running off to their deaths. You don't want to be at a red light for long in Twin Peaks.

The hum at the Great Northern. Seemed to be loudest when standing near an amber colored lamp. 

 
Posted : 02/08/2017 8:44 am
(@fumiko)
Posts: 316
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I'm still not sure what to make beyond yellow/garmonbozia being "bad".  Red seems to suggest danger/peril.  

Green I have a more positive feeling about.  I thought Miriam's little trailer was decked out in a very green setting.  Like life/nature.  But I'm not sure that is what they are going for since, as you mention, the ring and the formica table are also green related.  As I suppose is "Jade" who gives two rides. 

 

 
Posted : 02/08/2017 9:29 am
(@meaxylon)
Posts: 57
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I recently read David Lynch's Catching the Big Fish. In it, he says that when he meditates, he is picturing a room with yellow, red and blue curtains. The curtains represents waking, sleeping and dreaming. I read eleswhere that red means "dreaming/obfuscating truth" in Lynchs symbolism and blue means "truth or uncovering truth". So would that mean red=dream, blue=awake (seeing truth), and that would leave yellow=sleeping. It would fit with Dougie in a house with yellow interior if he's "sleepwalking" and Mike tells him to "wake up". His door being red also fits, if he's in "dreamland". But I agree that red can also mean danger as well as many other things.

 
Posted : 02/08/2017 9:51 am
ezekielmoist reacted
(@mad-sweeney)
Posts: 351
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Like the fire/electricity, the effect/meaning of colors can possibly relate to intent. The yellow traffic light can mean "be careful, slow down" or it can mean "hurry up, it will be red soon" depending on perspective. 

 
Posted : 02/08/2017 9:52 am
(@meaxylon)
Posts: 57
Trusted Member
 
Posted by: James M Sweeney

Like the fire/electricity, the effect/meaning of colors can possibly relate to intent. The yellow traffic light can mean "be careful, slow down" or it can mean "hurry up, it will be red soon" depending on perspective. 

I agree! 

Just like the green and red can mean both positive and negative things (red could also mean love/life, as well as danger/violence. Blood means something positive for you when it's flowing inside your body, and negative you when it's flowing out of a wound for example)

 
Posted : 02/08/2017 9:58 am
(@ezekielmoist)
Posts: 168
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Posted by: meaxylon

I recently read David Lynch's Catching the Big Fish. In it, he says that when he meditates, he is picturing a room with yellow, red and blue curtains. The curtains represents waking, sleeping and dreaming. I read eleswhere that red means "dreaming/obfuscating truth" in Lynchs symbolism and blue means "truth or uncovering truth". So would that mean red=dream, blue=awake (seeing truth), and that would leave yellow=sleeping. It would fit with Dougie in a house with yellow interior if he's "sleepwalking" and Mike tells him to "wake up". His door being red also fits, if he's in "dreamland". But I agree that red can also mean danger as well as many other things.

I need to read that book! Yellow is actually the color of moderation/temperance for the prehistoric chinese philosophy.  Which can also be adapted to the meaning in the traffic lights.  Anyway is obviously the colour of disease as well. 

RED instead is definitely something hidden inside like blood. Has un untold ambiguity, something that can involve different perspectives from the apparent one. So you have to stop to go through (to follow the path of the trafficlights parallelism).   The lady with the blue rose hiding hints in her gestuality was dressed in red and had red Hair if i remember well.  Also this Red chatacter is a complete mystery and is clearly hiding a lot behind his smile. 

Red courtains obviously.... And so so on

 
Posted : 02/08/2017 10:37 am
(@ezekielmoist)
Posts: 168
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Posted by: meaxylon
It would fit with Dougie in a house with yellow interior if he's "sleepwalking" and Mike tells him to "wake up". His door being red also fits, if he's in "dreamland". 

Not only the interior of the house but  all the daylight scenes in Las Vegas (even the Lucky7 ones) have a yellowish cinematography imo. 

 
Posted : 02/08/2017 11:05 am
meaxylon reacted
(@arcadesonfire)
Posts: 388
Honorable Member
 

Hmm, that's a new take on Yellow. I'll have to read all this and think before responding further, but so far, I had always thought of Janey-E and Dougie's house having really yellow-tinged light. (The bright lights of Vegas scream yellow to me too.) In the kitchen, the lamp is putting out yellow light* in an otherwise dark room when Dougie sits in episode 5 doing all those case files. Given how Janey-E and MIKE have been helping Dougie Cooper in that house, I took yellow to be a sign of good will. Hmm. I'll read your points and respond in a little while.

(*This could just as well be unfiltered light, not necessarily yellow. But the scene comes across as yellow to me as opposed to scenes with white walls/light or red or blue walls/light.)

 
Posted : 02/08/2017 1:07 pm
meaxylon reacted
(@myn0k)
Posts: 968
Prominent Member
 

The difficulty I find is that symbolism is subjective. That's not to say there are no fundamental symbols that are universally accepted. But what Lynch symbolises red to mean will be different for other people. 

I feel we need some type of codex or key. 

Somebody needs to list the overall topic / feeling each episode and note the reference colour of the intro. This might go some way. 

 
Posted : 02/08/2017 1:17 pm
(@maurice_dumont)
Posts: 86
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Detail: In the original series Cooper says about Twin Peaks that it's a place where yellow lights mean slow down, not speed up. 

 
Posted : 03/08/2017 2:15 pm
(@ezekielmoist)
Posts: 168
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Posted by: Maurice Dumont

Detail: In the original series Cooper says about Twin Peaks that it's a place where yellow lights mean slow down, not speed up. 

Do you remember the episode? 

 
Posted : 03/08/2017 2:18 pm
(@maurice_dumont)
Posts: 86
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Apparently Season 1, episode 1

https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/Twin_Peaks  

 
Posted : 03/08/2017 2:29 pm
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