It occurred to me the other day while listening to a podcast on Twin Peaks where the hosts were discussing the pureness of Dale Cooper, and how the "later" Cooper we witnessed in Odessa, TX much less "pure", that Dale Cooper was definitely something of an abstraction in the show. Sure, it's fiction, and all characters are basically abstractions in some way, that's the nature of fiction.
However, given the revelations in the final episode of Twin Peaks, by Gordon Cole, that Cooper and company were sent to find/confront/defeat "Zhou Dei" (Judy), it really connected with me the idea that Cooper was a sort of Parsifal in this fiction (See reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parzival), who was considered the purest of knights in King Arthur's round table, and became a quest-knight to find the Holy Grail. In some tellings, Parsival never succeeds in finding the Grail, although he does not die like the other Grail Knights. In these versions, the Quest is considered a fools-errand. In other versions, Parsival does eventually (after many perils/set-backs/failures etc.) finds the Grail, and is reunited with his family.
If we accept that this is a appropriate mapping between the two characters, or between both characters and some archtype, we could extend the mapping a little more, and say that Gordon Cole is the role of Arthur in this story. The king who has sent his "knights" (Special agents) many years ago towards the quest to find Judy. However, just like the Quest Knights, one by one, each of Cole's agents have failed in one way or another.
Further, if we allow ourselves some more liberty to map, we can then put Phillip Jeffries as the Merlin character. Why? Admittedly this is pure conjecture, but there are some potential clues that would allow for a congruent mapping. First, it's clear Jefferies is a few years Cooper's senior, in fact, the few snippets of info we get from the show, Jeffries may have been a sort of "equal" to Cole, or partner in this quest. Similar to how Merlin was Arthur's chief advisor/equal in ruling the realm
Jeffries eventually vanishes into "non-existence" through some machinations of Judy. Likewise, Merlin is eventually trapped in a tree or stone somewhere by the Lady of the Lake in some versions, by Morgan Lefay in other versions (including the film version of the movie Excalibur from 1981). Once Merlin is trapped, he can only communicate with Arthur via dreams (this is a cool scene from the 1981 Excalibur film of Arthur finding Merlin again in a dream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE9fN89Jc0Y) Link: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE9fN89Jc0Y"
Also, in T.H. White's "Once and Future King", Merlin is said to "remember the future, and forget the past". It's implied Merlin lives in a "non-linear time" and experiences the world very differently from normal people. He is after all a powerful magician. Similarly, Phillip Jefferies also now "trapped" somehow/somewhere or is transformed, and is only able to communicate with others in "another place" perhaps like a dream-world. Although not stated explicitly, we can possibly infer that he also now experiences time differently, just as the other lodge entities are stated to do in Twin Peaks source material. Further, like Merlin, Jefferies machinates "behind the scenes" to move events into some order/level that escapes us, but presumably is coherent to him (similar to Merlin in some versions).
A couple other mappings could be made, if Gordon Cole is Arthur, Rosenfield could be Sir. Kay, Arthur's step-brother who tormented him (in some versions) when they were younger, but became his loyal aid/strategist when Arthur was King. "Judy" could be the Lady in the Lake/Morgan La Fay antagonist (I'm aware depending on version she could be an antagonist or a protagonist) in this mapping. She is, like Merlin, a magician of sorts, and operates on a level much higher than the rest of the characters. If Morgana Le Fay is the "mother of evil" than her child, "Bob" is Mordrid. Of course the mapping isn't clean in this case, as Mordrid is the son of Arthur (who obviously did not birth Bob).
Given this sort of mapping between the two stories, we could understand Season 3 (and 1 ,2) not as the "main story" of the Twin Peaks universe, but a side story/quest (although admittedly important side) of the Parsival character. The "main" story has to center on Gordon Cole, which is fitting, since in this case, Cole is David Lynch, the co-creator of the tale.
Future seasons would naturally center more on Cole (maybe a prequel even, how he became "King" and how he came to be in conflict with "Judy"). The final chapter could include Parsival triumphant, finding the Grail, his purity in no doubt, or forever lost, just as the rest of the Quest Knights. However, it ends, it would end with the death of Gordon Cole, and that agency. Perhaps Tammy Preston is a sort of Gwineviere character in this light, who lived to old age in a convent, and in some versions passed on the memory of the Arthurian mythos to the future generation. Tammy in some way is already a kind of scribe from her role in the "Secret History" text.
I'd love to know what people think about this view of the show? Does it make sense? Any other people who are read into the Arthurian lore that would like to dispute (or add) to the theory?
Lastly - if people here haven't seen it, I highly recommend y'all checking out the film Excalibur (1981). It's not at all like a Disney version of Arthur, doesn't seem to take much from T.H. White, but takes a lot from the older romances like Le Morte. The imagery and the film's dealings with magic is surreal and dream like. Given that much of the soundtrack is from Wagner's Parsival or Gotterdamerung, there's a strong dream-like quality to it (much like Twin Peaks).
I'm surely over-thinking this but this scene from Excalibur (apologies for the low quality couldn't find a higher bit-rate version on Youtube : https://youtu.be/nGm-zkRNj58) Link : "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGm-zkRNj58" really reminds me of Dale Cooper's journey in Season 3. To put in context, a minute into the clip Parsival finds himself lost and unable to find the Grail, he is cast into a river, and to survive, he must shed his armor, basically his identity as a Grail knight. To Parsival, this is what he is, and has always wanted to be since he was a child, to be a knight of the round table. As he sheds his armor he comes out of the water, and (in a vision? In a dream world? In another place?) finally discovers the Grail, but only after he has "metaphorically" shed his identity, to find himself again, his pure self. Beautiful imagery.
Wouldn't you say that's what Cooper went through this season?
Your connections are amazing and I don't doubt for a second that Lynch & Front were thinking like this when they wrote the story. Beautiful. Thank you.
Haha thanks Nick, although you do me too much justice. Much of western literature/media has been influenced by Arthurian legend, so perhaps in one respect, I'm saying something trivial when I say that we can map (in a fairly consistent way) the various archtypes to Twin Peaks. Perhaps it's the case that such a mapping could be made for many fiction.
That being said, I do think that such a mapping seems especially appropriate for Twin Peaks after season 3.
I would not have made the connection had I only seen either Season 1 or 2. Each season, the mystical and/or "global" elements have been expanded upon, and it's only been this season where Twin Peaks sort of extended beyond the "weird artsy crime mystery show".
The real question is, did David Lynch and/or Mark Frost have such notions when they were first filming Season 1 and 2? Or did these kind of mythos come out much more recently?
What year is it ? !
Yes, I think the Arthur connections are absolutely correct, but it also seems as though Lynch and Frost spent incredible amounts of time working in elements of almost every noteworthy story from Western mysticism. This is the best write-up I've seen on the topic:
http://zoraburden.weebly.com/the-esoteric-symbolism-of-twin-peaks.html
I've been waiting to throw this in somewhere, and this seems like a good place to do it. Did Cooper's odd silence in the 5+ minute sequence between Odessa and Twin Peaks make anyone else think of Orpheus escorting Eurydice out of the Underworld? (He never even looks at her until right before the Valero station.)
You make a great, interesting case for it. I enjoyed reading it.
First I wanted to say how much I've enjoyed your posts, they've all been incredibly thoughtful and dense! I mean that in a good way of course. Lots to extract!
I think your breakdown of the mapping between Aurthurian legends and Twin Peaks is phenomenal and I mean to come back to it as soon as possible. Have to leave my computer for a bit. But every time I think the discussion on this forum is tapped out someone proves me wrong and I LOVE IT.
Yes, I think the Arthur connections are absolutely correct, but it also seems as though Lynch and Frost spent incredible amounts of time working in elements of almost every noteworthy story from Western mysticism. This is the best write-up I've seen on the topic:
http://zoraburden.weebly.com/the-esoteric-symbolism-of-twin-peaks.html
Hey greggreason! Thanks for the link. I read the the entry once now, but will have to re-read a few times, it's a very lengthy treatment. I think this author was prescient with respect to the Chinese philosophy given the reveal of "Zhou Dei" (sp?) in this last episode of the 3rd season.
The three broad influence that text outlines, the "eastern" philosophies, the Western works, and the distinct Jungian analysis/synthesis is interesting. I don't think I caught if the author says definitively whether they believe Twin Peaks is meant to be metaphor or taken more literally. I would like to hear more along those lines, as the ultimate "analysis" should differ dramatically based on which perspective one takes.
I will add a quick thought on my end as I was reading it. I feel like the reason Twin Peaks compels so many people to analyze it is that it's full of contradictions/inconsistencies. If you look at the direction of our thought here in the West, it's been for the longest time heading towards expelling inconsistency from our thoughts, whether that's philosophic/mathematical (check up on Whitehead/Russell's program for mathematics, and the ultimate conclusion of that program in the negative with Kurt Godel), or the sciences more broadly, trying to "rationalize" our environment by discovering explanations for every phenomena we encounter. I think from media, you would call this the Mulder vs Scully debate, but deeper.
When we as the viewer see's 2 Coopers, or 2 timelines, that are mutually exclusive, it offends our consistency-driven minds, and we have to expunge it from our reality, by analyzing the medium, and finding a way to make what we saw "consistent" again. Case/Point, Odessa, Texas, and Laura's house not being her house... nor Laura being Laura. That's an inconsistency, how do we reconcile? Parallel Universes, and we are comfortable with that because we have been told in popular culture that such a thing is within the realm of possibility in science.
We're kind of like the Vampire who see's an untied shoe lace, and has to stop everything to tie it back up again. I think Lynch senses this, and tries to not let this drive within our culture guide his work. As other forum dwellers have noted however, even he has started to become "predictable". I agree with many forum folks here, that even if we get Season 4, 5, etc., ultimately, I don't think it's in Lynch's power to end it "nicely". We will probably always get an open-ending, whether that is now or some other point in the future. And why not? Open stories have a better chance of surviving the ages in my opinion. Case-Point of King Arthur, the end of that story is that King Arthur's body is whisked away to Avalon, some ethereal place whereby he will return someday. People have to wonder about it, it's a mystery, and the want more.
Fire walk with