Todd McGowan launches a provocative exploration of weirdness and fantasy inDavid Lynchs groundbreaking oeuvre. He studies Lynchs talent for blending thebizarre ... » 

Todd McGowan launches a provocative exploration of weirdness and fantasy inDavid Lynchs groundbreaking oeuvre. He studies Lynchs talent for blending thebizarre and the normal to emphasize the odd nature of normality itself.Hollywood is often criticized for distorting reality and providing escapistfantasies but in Lynchs movies fantasy becomes a means through which theviewer is encouraged to build a revolutionary relationship with the world.Considering the filmmakers entire career McGowan examines Lynchs play withfantasy and traces the political cultural and existential impact of hisunique style. Each chapter discusses the idea of impossibility in one ofLynchs films including the critically acclaimed Blue Velvet and The ElephantMan the densely plotted Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive the cult favoriteEraserhead and the commercially unsuccessful Dune. McGowan engages withtheorists from the golden age of film studies Christian Metz Laura Mulveyand JeanLouis Baudry and with the thought of Sigmund Freud Jacques Lacanand Hegel. By using Lynchs weirdness as a point of departure McGowan adds anew dimension to the field of auteur studies and reveals Lynch to be the sourceof a new and radical conception of fantasy. «