by J.K.

Archetypal Bushwhacking

Even if high school is a distant memory, do you still catch yourself doodling during life's most tedious moments? Chances are, if the answer is yes, you are recreating designs which have appeared for thousands of years: the spiral@, the circleO, the cross+, and the star*. Though ancient, these simple symbols continue to stream out of the human consciousness almost instinctively.

Since the beginning of time, humans have utilized such symbols to create archetypes and myths to live by. Conjuring the symbolic can transform one-way roads into a network of paths. And when explored, these paths become organic webs of interrelationships, which make the individual's experience relevant to the collective whole. Thus, our isolated personal struggles become the shared hardships and blessings of all of humanity.

It is true that many symbols, archetypes and myths, especially those of past millenniums and distant cultures, don't rightly interpret our lay of the land in these times. Yet, many believe that our exposure to Shakespeare's characters over the years has enabled us to embody a dynamic range of personalities. And it also has been discovered that children can increase their intelligence by listening to classical music at a tender age. Therefore, it would seem the "cosmic" job of artists is to continually weave new symbols into the collective mythological web. Their discovery of new visual, tonal and linguistic patterns establishes a relationship between the archetypes of past and present, both distant and near, to create new mythologies all together.

Every culture needs such artistic bushwhackers to map out unknown territory with psychic machetes. Every culture needs artistic bushwhackers to dive into a dark future with a past awareness. Every culture needs artistic bushwhackers to report back on how the random dross of our lives might actually be a part of a meaningful order, an order that we can resurrect to both nuance and navigate through our lives.

David Lynch's Mulholland Drive suggests that America-Hollywood is not only in need, but also ready for a new generation of bushwhackers. Although familiar cultural symbols and icons appear throughout the film, rather than serve as hallmark keys for unlocking the story, they are a source of confusion. And while they appear out of nowhere without any context, these archetypes somehow imply a deeper significance. But this significance cannot be found in the narrative. Rather, the viewer is sent on a tangential quest away from the plot to search for the film's underlying relevance.

In fact, understanding the actual who, what, when, where, how and why becomes easier without the symbolism. When reconstructing the story's events, it becomes clear that the symbols are irrelevant to the actual plot. Instead, their discombobulated intrusions illustrate the protagonist's shifted perception of the world around her. The viewer witnesses how inappropriate her appropriation of these distinctly American icons and myths are and consequently registers that such symbols are insignificant, if not meaningless, to other cultures.

The old mythological maps of the US, if not reexamined, deconstructed and reapplied, will no longer provide us insight into the existential arena we find ourselves in. If we continue to embrace these myths without a critical consciousness, we will continue to pursue and believe in dead illusions. Though we may hear the sounds of the trumpet, we are listening to a recording. There is no orchestra. There is no conductor. There is no God. We are living under the guise of outdated cultural myths.

Critics of Mulholland Drive say it just doesn't deliver. I say Lynch delivers twice. Once, because the less we understand, the more we want to watch. And then again, because as we leave the theater, we trip over a bush and wonder what the hell just happened.