Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Beginning with Lost Highway, director David Lynch "swerved" in a new direction, one in which very disorienting images of the physical world take center stage in his films. Seeking to understand this unusual emphasis in his work, noted Lynch scholar Martha Nochimson engaged Lynch in a long conversation of unprecedented openness, during which he shared his vision of the physical world as an uncertain place that masks important universal realities. He described how he derives this vision from the Holy Vedas of the Hindu religion, as well as from his layman's fascination with modern physics.

With this deep insight, Nochimson forges a startlingly original template for analyzing Lynch's later films--the seemingly unlikely combination of the spiritual landscape envisioned in the Holy Vedas and the material landscape evoked by quantum mechanics and relativity. In David Lynch Swerves, Nochimson navigates the complexities of Lost Highway, The Straight Story, Mulholland Drive, and Inland Empire with uncanny skill, shedding light on the beauty of their organic compositions; their thematic critiques of the immense dangers of modern materialism; and their hopeful conceptions of human potential. She concludes with excerpts from the wide-ranging interview in which Lynch discussed his vision with her, as well as an interview with Columbia University physicist David Albert, who was one of Nochimson's principal tutors in the discipline of quantum physics.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface: Critic on Fire (p. ix)
• Acknowledgments (p. xvii)
• Introduction: The Perplexing Threshold Experience (p. 1)
• Chapter 1 Lost Highway: "You'll Never Have Me" (p. 28)
• Chapter 2 The Straight Story: "And You'll Find Happy Times" (p. 60)
• Chapter 3 Mulholland Dr.: An Improbable Girl in a Probable World (p. 89)
• Chapter 4 Inland Empire: The Beginnings of Great Things (p. 122)
• Afterword. A Summary: Living Large Among the Particles (p. 159)
• Appendices: In Their Own Words
• I Fragments from My March 18, 2010, Interview with David Lynch (p. 173)
• II Excerpts from My Interviews with Professor David Z. Albert (p. 183)
• Notes (p. 215)
• Bibliography and Filmography (p. 251)
• Index (p. 257)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Descriptions such as surreal, hallucinogenic, abstract imagist, strange, symbolic, unsettling, disorienting, and unconventional seem to pepper mainstream interpretations of director David Lynch's work. Here noted Lynch scholar Nochimson (The Passion of David Lynch: Wild at Heart in Hollywood) argues that his oeuvre necessitates less an understanding of psychology than of physics-or more precisely, of quantum mechanics. She posits that the nonlinear chronology and shapeshifting in Lynch's more recent films (Lost Highway; The Straight Story; Inland Empire; Mulholland Drive) are less a New Age romanticizing of physics than they are an intentionally cyclical and multidimensional representation of consciousness and totality. Lynch draws this understanding from his study of the Maharishi, while Nochimson reconciles its principles with those of Columbia University physicist David Albert. VERDICT This new take suggests that signature Lynchian devices unsettle because they represent a model of physics that stands akimbo to a linear interpretation of the universe. The book succeeds in making more sense of Lynch's more puzzling works and will find an appreciative audience among fans and film students. Recommended.-Benjamin Malczewski, Toledo-Lucas Cty. P.L., OH (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.