Counter Esperanto Podcast: Tangents About Twin Peaks: The Return Part 2

Greetings Listeners! We continue our series of guest-packed Twin Peaks: The Return re-watch discussions with author, scholar, and all-around lovely gent Rob E. King!

Rob E. King is an associate librarian at Texas Tech University’s Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library and a doctoral student in English at Texas Tech University. He has contributed to 25YL, Blue Rose Magazine, Twin Peaks Unwrapped podcast and published in New American Notes Online and the West Texas Historical Review. 

Rob is also co-editor with Christine Self and Robert Weaver of a book of essays titled David Lynch and the American West: Essays on Regionalism and Indigeneity in Twin Peaks and the Films.

We begin our discussion with classic Weird writer (and creator of Conan the Barbarian) Robert E. Howard, discuss regionalism in that author’s writings, and bring it around to Twin Peaks, discussing the importance of the Las Vegas bits, Jerry’s Odyssey,  the role of electricity and telecommunication, and much more.

Ep. No. 21 — The Seventh Song: “Horror at Harold House”

Here’s something a little different…

It used to be that the dark of the year was the time to tell each other ghost stories, and so this particular song would not be out of place with it’s six fellows. Yet, it is very different indeed, for those other stories were all–or claimed to be–fiction.

This one is real.

Today, Jubel offers Counter Esperanto the true story of certain spectral happenings at “The Harold House.” A true story that happened to him. A strange odyssey into the impossible, complete with Swords, Spirits and the Secret of 4:17 AM.

Ep. No. 20 — The 14th Secret: Folklore of (and in) Twin Peaks

The holidays are holiday-rific as they say, and their multi-spectral horror and insane blandishments have had certain “insalubrious” effects upon your humble hosts.  Rallying against this tinseled terror, we present for your hopeful approval, the initial results, interpretations, commentary and tangential matters arising from Jubel’s academic study of folklore.

We asked for your help to fill out our understanding of how Peaks viewers understood and processed modern folklore, and your support and responses just blew us away.  Over a hundred of you took the time out of your day to answer a survey to a level of completeness and deep thought that I have never before witnessed–and as a former pollster, I’ve witnessed more than I can say.

Both Jubel and myself pondered how to best process your exquisite thoughts, but in the end the load was too heavy for just the two of us. We’ve therefore asked a few members of the Twin Peaks community to be surprise guests on today’s show, and they have very generously agreed.  For this reason, Michael Wilson and Caemeron Crain of the Drink Full and Descend podcast, and Eileen G. Mykkels of the 25 Years Later site deserve some seriously good slices of cake, they are fabulous human beings and incredibly knowledgeable scholars.

Thank you again for lending us your expertise and insight!

EP No. 17 — The 12th Secret: “or… ‘Technical Difficulties: Being a Cadenza in Several Parts for Resonator and Atom Bomb'”

After some major technical issues, your intrepid hosts are back and talking about Twin Peaks: The Return, with a focus on Parts 9 through 12.  True to form, we live up to the “tangents” part of our title, talking about everything from the intricacies of story structure in modern premium television, to why we love Dougie so damn much.  We discuss H.P. Lovecraft’s “From Beyond” as a key Weird text, and some intriguing parallels between that story and The Return’s approach to sound and energy as a way to split the barrier Between Two Worlds.

The Fifth Song: “From Beyond”

An overarching theme of The Weird is that some knowledge is–or should be–forbidden. That seeing into the abyss means that it’s denizens may see you, reach you, touch you… and do worse than see and touch. In various ways, Twin Peaks has always dealt with this idea. Sara Palmer, the Log Lady, and Cooper himself all found themselves seeing beyond the normal 5 senses that most humans share, and all of them have paid a steep price. The Return has gone even further, introducing devices, spaces and places that offer glimpses behind the curtains of reality, and what we have seen there has been the exact opposite of safety and mundanity.

Therefore we offer you a chance to reset your clocks 97 years into the past and witness the very first time that the foundational horror writer H.P. Lovecraft ventured to set down the facts relating to what issues, From Beyond.