It's actually pretty sketchy, to be honest, with definite orientalist tendencies.
Context makes it clear that Dale Cooper has an interest in Tibet because of reading about the Dalai Lama's escape in (god I hope I get this date right) 1960 and the subsequent subjugation of the Tibetan people. He also (if I'm remembering correctly) has a dream about them -- which spawns his "Tibetan method", which has no relationship whatsoever to Tibetan Buddhism or Bön that I've been able to find. (That's definitely an episode I'd recommend watching, and it's fairly early on in the first season. I want to say it's 1x03, but I can't remember if that's including or after the pilot.) There's also at least one source I remember reading that quotes David Lynch as saying that he had a dream about Tibet, and that's why Cooper had one.
I wrote a paper for my American Indian Lit class a few years ago that looks at elements of American Indian culture in Twin Peaks in much the same way as you're asking about Tibetan culture, and the framework I used for analyzing Indian culture is also useful here. The basic gist of it is that Lynch, Frost, et al. use culture within the show to underscore the moral alignment of various characters and their relative degrees of otherworldliness (I'm writing this pre-coffee, just fyi), and Indian culture gets used to signify that characters and places are filled with mysticism and are more likely than not to represent Neutral Good or similar.
By that same stretch, though, Cooper is the one who seems to introduce Tibet as a concept into the town, and it's definitely a signifier that Dale Cooper is really, really weird. Correct a lot of the time, but weird. (See also the scene early on in the second season where Harry Truman tells Cooper he's had enough of the weirdness, and brings up Tibet as an example.) We don't actually see any Tibetan art -- or Tibetans, for that matter. Tibet in Twin Peaks is a concept defined solely through the eyes of Dale Cooper, who's Mr. All-American White Guy.
In short, both Tibet and American Indian culture (not just limited to tribes of the Pacific Northwest, either) get co-opted to underscore the "weirdness" of the (mostly white) characters and the (mostly white) town.
I love that show, and it's got problems. *wry*
Further reading: I'm at work right now and can't get links, but I believe there's a site called Glastonberry Grove (sic) that's got episode transcripts, among other things.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 02:37 pm (UTC)Context makes it clear that Dale Cooper has an interest in Tibet because of reading about the Dalai Lama's escape in (god I hope I get this date right) 1960 and the subsequent subjugation of the Tibetan people. He also (if I'm remembering correctly) has a dream about them -- which spawns his "Tibetan method", which has no relationship whatsoever to Tibetan Buddhism or Bön that I've been able to find. (That's definitely an episode I'd recommend watching, and it's fairly early on in the first season. I want to say it's 1x03, but I can't remember if that's including or after the pilot.) There's also at least one source I remember reading that quotes David Lynch as saying that he had a dream about Tibet, and that's why Cooper had one.
I wrote a paper for my American Indian Lit class a few years ago that looks at elements of American Indian culture in Twin Peaks in much the same way as you're asking about Tibetan culture, and the framework I used for analyzing Indian culture is also useful here. The basic gist of it is that Lynch, Frost, et al. use culture within the show to underscore the moral alignment of various characters and their relative degrees of otherworldliness (I'm writing this pre-coffee, just fyi), and Indian culture gets used to signify that characters and places are filled with mysticism and are more likely than not to represent Neutral Good or similar.
By that same stretch, though, Cooper is the one who seems to introduce Tibet as a concept into the town, and it's definitely a signifier that Dale Cooper is really, really weird. Correct a lot of the time, but weird. (See also the scene early on in the second season where Harry Truman tells Cooper he's had enough of the weirdness, and brings up Tibet as an example.) We don't actually see any Tibetan art -- or Tibetans, for that matter. Tibet in Twin Peaks is a concept defined solely through the eyes of Dale Cooper, who's Mr. All-American White Guy.
In short, both Tibet and American Indian culture (not just limited to tribes of the Pacific Northwest, either) get co-opted to underscore the "weirdness" of the (mostly white) characters and the (mostly white) town.
I love that show, and it's got problems. *wry*
Further reading: I'm at work right now and can't get links, but I believe there's a site called Glastonberry Grove (sic) that's got episode transcripts, among other things.