Laura's Ghost: Women Speak About Twin Peaks

by Courtenay Stallings

Overview

This incredibly powerful book by media professor Courtenay Stallings explores the dark side of Twin Peaks through interviews with fans of the show who've experienced trauma in their own lives and worked through it with assistance from the character of Laura Palmer.

In 1990, the groundbreaking television series Twin Peaks, cocreated by David Lynch and Mark Frost, opened with a murder mystery when a homecoming queen washed up on a rocky beach. Laura Palmer’s character began as a plot device that triggered a small town to face its fractured self. After three seasons and a film, Laura Palmer is no longer just a plot device. Twin Peaksallows the audience to get to know the victim—a complex woman finding her strength while enduring incredible trauma. Laura’s Ghost: Women Speak about Twin Peaks explores Laura’s legacy through the perspectives of women in the fan community and women involved in the show. Actor Sheryl Lee examines the challenges of playing Laura Palmer. Filmmaker Jennifer Lynch discusses writing Laura’s backstory in The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer. Grace Zabriskie argues about the complicity of Sarah Palmer, Laura’s mother. Sabrina S. Sutherland, executive producer of Twin Peaks, talks about Laura’s legacy. Women in the Twin Peaks fan community share their powerful and heart-wrenching stories of survival and what Laura Palmer means to them. This book is a reckoning in which women speak about trauma, mischief, humor, sexuality, strength, weakness, wickedness, and survival.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781949024081
Publisher:	Perfect Bound Books
Publication date:	07/07/2020
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Courtenay Stallings is the managing editor of The Blue Rose magazine, a professor at Pepperdine University, the editor of But Couldn't I Do That, author of Laura's Ghost.

Table of Contents

Foreword Sheryl Lee 01

Introduction 05

Part I Women Speak

Women Speak 16

'Haunts' 18

'Wabi' 25

'Juggling' 42

'Energy' 51

Women in the Fan Community Speak 63

Part II Laura's Ghost

Laura's Ghost 195

Jennifer Lynch Speaks about The, Secret Diary 198

'Who Was Sarah Palmer to Me?' Grace Zabriskie 203

Sheryl Lee Is the One 209

'Northern Star' 222

Women in the Fan Community Speak about Laura Palmer 246

Part III Conclusion

The Legacy of Laura Palmer 278

Epilogue: Laura's Ghost and Me 294

Acknowledgments 300

Bibliography 304

Editorial Reviews

"Scholars looking for pop-culture references regarding abuse, women’s issues, and feminist theories will be interested, and Laura’s Ghost might just be a must-read for any true Twin Peaks fan." —Melissa Minsker, Book List


"Some of the women in the book (including the author) speak of their own histories of trauma, and speak of the catharsis they found in Laura’s story. They may not have encountered the evil spirits that inhabit Lynch’s imagined Pacific Northwest, but they’ve experienced the trauma." —Kurt Gottschalk, Red Hook Star 


"The overarching consensus of the contributors that Stallings features in Laura’s Ghost is that Laura’s story has given visibility to women who have endured sexual abuse and assault. For many, their understanding of Laura as an inspirational figure is rooted in their own encounters with gender-based violence." —Sophia Stewart, Los Angeles Books Review

From the Publisher