This month, we’ve summoned friend of the show (and verified Lynch stan) Stacie Ponder to join us as we wander aimlessly into the surrealist nightmare of David Lynch’s mind. Through an exploration of his first film Eraserhead, we’ll investigate one of cinema’s most enigmatic creatives and his myths of America.
Check out Stacie’s podcast: Final Girl After Dark!
REQUIRED READING
Eraserhead. Dir. David Lynch, 1977.
EXTRA CREDIT
Who Made That Built-In Eraser? An overview of an American partnership.
The Theatre of the Absurd Martin Esslin’s critical essay that defined an undefinable movement.
Premonition Following an Evil Deed (1995) on YouTube. A very unsettling 56-second film!
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What a great guest – so glad you had Stacie join you! She brought a lot of ideas to the show. The dialogue helped me with this admittedly weird mother-trucker of a film. Lots to think about in this episode.
I really wouldn’t think of Eraserhead as being about DE-industrialization. It comes across as quite industrial. For someone from Montana, Philadelphia would seem much more industrial. I suppose his perspective might have been like Tolkien’s in reacting with aversion once exposed to the “dark satanic mills” of industry.
What a great episode! I have been following Stacie’s career as a writer since her Final Girl days (I even have a copy of her film, Ludlow, somewhere in my DVD collection).
As Alex mentioned, Eraserhead is ‘languidly’ paced. Trying to re-watch it as an adult without drugs was impossible!
I remember reading an interview with David Lynch from the 1980s where he discussed Eraserhead as a metaphor for how we, as a society, are giving birth to our own monsters—and he refused to talk about the ‘baby’ at all!
Anyway, I’m a long-time fan and first-time commenter. I am really looking forward to hearing your take on Last House on the Left.”