The Horse is the White of the Eye: Pioneering and the American Southwest in Twin Peaks

Abstract

This paper examines imagery of the American Southwest and its history in the transmedia of David Lynch and Mark Frost’s Twin Peaks. Elements in season three and The Secret History of Twin Peaks reveal a contemporary perspective on the consequences of western expansion. A social construct, the mythos of the American West has always been propagated through artistic mediums such as paintings, radio drama, and most importantly television and film. Twin Peaks’ contemporary imagery of ghost towns through Rancho Rosa, perspectives on nuclear testing, and ufology expand upon those narratives of the west. This paper argues that when one recognizes the incorporation of the mythos of the American West in the mythos of Twin Peaks—the creators’ usage of the Trinity Test in New Mexico, products of gold rushes and oil booms as well as their abandonment, and Southwestern desert rituals—a larger statement is revealed on the boundlessness of western conquest and the evil that men do.

Keywords

• twin peaks
• pioneer
• american southwest
• atomic bomb
• jack parsons
• history
• ghost towns