'What is it about David Lynch's cinematic bag of tricks - his shots of shadows and flickering
electricity his sinister soundscapes and his heartfelt scores his dreamlike irrational
stories - that affects us so deeply? How can he present us with trees swaying in the wind or a
character suddenly becoming another person or more questions than answers and it stays with
us forever? And why is it that when somebody else uses his tricks it does not achieve the
same results?' The loss of David Lynch in January 2025 produced an extraordinary outpouring
of love and grief that revealed how deeply he mattered. But the strength and size of this
reaction came as a surprise to many. In life Lynch was a wilfully obtuse cult filmmaker who
had been unable to get a film financed for the last two decades of his life. In death both the
man himself and his work are unquestionably in the pantheon of all-time greats. He leaves
behind an adjective 'Lynchian' a term used to describe work that echoes his. And yet only
Lynch could be truly Lynchian and those who copy him fail to have an impact. So why does his
work affect people so deeply? Why do some find it haunting and unforgettable while others
dismiss it as meaningless? Answering that question takes us into the strange realms of
psychology art and theology. We will discover why ambiguity and mystery are so seductive how
Lynch's creative and meditative practices overlapped and why a director whose work contains so
much abuse of women has such a female-skewing fanbase. Through a personal first-person lens
Lynchian unpacks the mystery but refuses to solve the enigma of an artist whose work reshaped
cinema from the inside out - where story gives way to dreams and meaning lies not in answers
but in experience. 'A while ago I decided to read anything Higgs writes. He seems to be able
to take any subject and poke at it until it yields up its secrets' FRANK COTTRELL BOYCE
'Reading John Higgs is like being shot with a diamond. Suddenly everything becomes terrifyingly
clear' MOJO 'Higgs's prose has a diamond-hard quality. He knows how to make us relate' THE
TIMES
