Laura’s Ghost: Women Speak About Twin Peaks by Courtenay Stallings

Synopsis:

In 1990, the groundbreaking television series Twin Peaks, co-created by David Lynch and Mark Frost, opened with a murder mystery when a beautiful homecoming queen, wrapped in plastic, washed up on a cold and rocky beach. The character of Laura Palmer began as a plot device that triggered a small town to face its fractured self. Laura’s ghost has had a lasting impact on fans.
But after three seasons and a film, Laura Palmer is no longer just a plot device. Instead of solely focusing on the murderer, like most traditional storytelling at the time, the audience gets to know the victim, a complex young woman who explores her sexuality and endures incredible abuse.
Laura’s Ghost: Women Speak About Twin Peaks is an examination of Laura Palmer’s legacy on the 30th anniversary of Twin Peaks. Palmer’s character was one of the few frank and horrific representations of sexual abuse victims which did not diminish the strength and complexity of the victim. Sheryl Lee, who played Laura Palmer, discusses the challenges of the role and how it has impacted herself as well as women she has met over the years, many of whom are survivors of sexual abuse. The role demanded Lee give all of her vulnerability as an actor to this role. This role is one she cannot escape, one with which she will forever be identified. It’s a role that still haunts her today. For many women, this character represents them. Here was a woman who was not just a victim, but who was owning her sexuality as well – a woman coming into her own and discovering her sources of power. This book is a reckoning in which women from the show and community speak about grief, mischief, humor, sexuality, strength, weakness, wickedness, and survival.

Edition:

Paperback

Trigger Warnings:

Of course, this is Twin Peaks we’re going to talk about here, so…

My Thoughts:

Conceptually, I think that Laura’s Ghost is an incredibly powerful book. I really enjoyed reading the thoughts of female fans of the show, as well as female cast and crew. Laura’s Ghost allows a unique dive into the story of Laura Palmer. It provides context from all around the story in a way you don’t usually get from this type of book.

I feel like there’s a lot of division surrounding whether or not folks think the series is misogynistic. By the way, if anyone were to ask me I would wholeheartedly disagree with that whole notion. I think that he shows a surprising amount of sensitivity toward his female characters. Even when they live and/or die horribly – which admittedly they often do. But he allows them to be more than just a beautiful, tragic corpse.

In the case of Laura Palmer, for example. If you only watched season 1 then you could be excused for thinking that she was nothing but another Pretty Dead White Girl. But if you watched or read anything beyond that, you’d know that she had a LOT going on in her life. She was more than an innocent, beautiful angel gone too soon. She was a deeply nuanced, incredibly troubled, but also smart and incredibly strong young woman. And there were a lot of seemingly disparate puzzle pieces that had to come together in order for the end to come as it did.

“Anytime someone shares their personal story, that is a place where Laura haunts me in a good way.”
~ Sheryl Lee

Anyway, if your looking for something that is going to take a long, hard, critical look at Twin Peaks as a whole – keep walking. But if you want to read about how the story of Laura Palmer helped a bunch of very different women deal with their own issues, or just generally inspired them in some way I highly recommend checking out Laura’s Ghost. You’ll learn what the story meant to fans, but also to the women who were involved in the show. What was it like acting out that story? How about David Lynch and Mark Frost – what did they think about the way the story was written? What did their parts mean to them? Fascinating stuff, really.

I think it’s wonderful that women were given a platform to discuss such an interesting and divisive show as Twin Peaks and a character like Laura Palmer. It is so important that we (and although here I specifically mean women, but also more generally and at other times I mean everyone so relax your pants) are allowed to like/discuss/even relate in some way to characters and stories that are sometimes messy or fucked up or whatever. Because newsflash: WE’RE ALL MESSY AND FUCKED UP SOMETIMES. And it’s important to see that represented in stories.

I think Twin Peaks in general has a few important takeaways:

• No matter how messy and fucked up you might be, you are still deserving of love and care
• If you see something bad happening, do something about it
• If you can’t do something, find someone who can and let them know it’s happening so THEY can do something
• The damned owls are definitely not what they seem (clearly this one is less serious, but still valid, dammit)

Rating:

I think my favorite thing about this book is that a portion of the proceeds the author receives will be donated to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN). So if you want to read it, I highly recommend purchasing it directly if you can in order to maximize that impact. Or get it from the library and donate the purchase price directly to RAINN. Whatever floats your boat.