A Moment of Reflection with David Lynch
and Stories That Don’t Explain Themselves
In the book Big Fish, I came across a passage about explaining symbols in films. Well yes — trying to understand a Lynch film is a discipline of its own. Most of the time you understand absolutely nothing… and that only makes you try even harder to understand absolutely everything.
And of course, I’m one of those people who like to dig into it properly. 😀
“A film should work on its own. It’s absurd when a filmmaker has to explain what it means. The world within a film is invented, and audiences love to step into it. To them, it’s real. And when they find out how certain things were done and what they mean, it naturally affects their experience. I feel that we should protect the world of film and avoid saying things that might disturb the viewer’s impression. It can be highly absurd, yet people still crave to intellectually understand and put it into words. And when they fail, it frustrates them intellectually. But meaning lies within them – they just need to let it surface. The thing is, people know much more than they think.” – David Lynch
I always let my close friends read my stories first. And every time, I watch with suspense to see whether they’ll be thrilled, confused, or whether they’ll end up looking like they need a much stronger cup of coffee.
Take The Bridge Across the Marsh for example — I had doubts about putting it on my blog. It was one of those longer stories that kept going, and I had to return to the meditation several times. It may have been a bit too long for a blog post, but a friend told me she enjoyed it, found it suspenseful, and that the atmosphere really pulled her in … and then she hit the symbol explanation at the end, and that “totally ruined it for her.” 😀
I hesitated for a long time. But now I know for sure: stories are not meant to be over-explained.
Maybe the reader won’t notice everything the author tucked inside the story.
But that doesn’t matter at all — because they will find something of their own in it. Something that touches them directly. And that’s what truly matters.
David Lynch, by the way, also meditated. And inspiration often arrived to him in silence. Maybe he worked with his stories the same way I do: you don’t fully know what it’s all about… but somewhere deep inside, it hits you.
And that’s enough.
Check the comment: → Why I don’t explain the symbols right away ✨
🎨 I meditated on how to express this in an image—and this is what emerged. :D)
