Wednesday, February 17, 2010

A Couple of David Lynch Books . . .

I've been meaning to comment on a number of things but I've been busier than usual.  Soon, however, I hope to talk about some recent comics, books and TV. 

In the mean time . . .

I was in Half-Price Books and came across a couple of David Lynch books that I didn't have.  The first was a 2007 British book, David Lynch, by Colin Odell and Michelle Le Blanc.  The book appears to contain the standard Lynch overview: chapters about each significant Lynch project, from the short films all the way up through INLAND EMPIRE.  The book also has a couple of potentially intriguing chapters with titles such as "There's Always Music in the Air - David Lynch and Sound in Cinema"; "Pretty as a Picture - David Lynch's Visual Style"; and "Unlock the Dream, Solve the Crime - Mysteries and Secrets."  A quick check of the endnotes and bibliography reveals that the authors used Wrapped In Plastic as one of their sources.  Oddly, they apparently had access to only one year of WIP, listing issues 12-18 (and no others) as source materials. 

The second book is a recent release, David Lynch Interviews, edited by Richard A. Barney.  It was published just a few months ago (November 2009).  From a quick perusal, Interviews looks to be a valuable addition to my Lynch library.  Barney has managed to collect a number of unusual and hard-to-find Lynch interviews and articles from the past 30 years.  From a 1977 interview in Soho Weekly News to a 2008 unpublished interview (conducted by Barney), Interviews also features a couple of rare French interviews translated into English for the first time, the transcript of the Cannes Fire Walk With Me press conference, a transcript of Lynch's 1997 KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic interview and many others from various magazines and websites. Interviews appears to a worthwhile and important Lynch book.

That's all for now.  But check Craig Miller's blog entries over at http://www.wrappedinplastic.com/ for some interesting reading.  Craig has just put up a great essay about David Foster Wallace and he informs me that he will be posting new material as often as time permits!