Created by Matt Zoller Seitz
Directed by Judith Carter
“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”
Haruki Murakami
Audacious. Cryptic. Vexing. These are a few words that describe David Lynch and Mark Frost’s Twin Peaks: The Return, the third chapter in the Twin Peaks cycle (following the original series, Twin Peaks, and the feature film, Fire Walk With Me). Operating by its own rules, The Return subverted conventional narrative, rejected the lure of nostalgia, and defied the boundaries of its medium. It was a masterpiece, but an elusive one.
In Ominous Whoosh: A Wandering Mind Returns to Twin Peaks John Thorne dives deep into The Return, closely examining each episode and offering in-depth theories about the show’s most perplexing riddles: Who is “telling” the story we see? What is Laura Palmer’s new role in the Twin Peaks universe? How do Audrey and Diane fit into this complex new tale? Drawing on a study of David Lynch’s past work and Lynch’s observations about Hindu theology, Thorne offers compelling answers to these and other questions.
Aspiring to persuade, certain to provoke, Ominous Whoosh resonates with insight and imagination.
“John Thorne has been the definitive voice on Twin Peaks for over two decades, and now he brings his signature insight and thoughtfulness to David Lynch’s masterwork, Twin Peaks: The Return, shedding light on its darkest corners and diving into its many mysteries. This book will deepen every Twin Peaks fan’s understanding. If I’m ever lost in those dark woods, I want John Thorne to come looking for me.” – Jeff Lemire, creator of Sweet Tooth
“In the popular fanzine Wrapped in Plastic, John Thorne and Craig Miller explored every possible aspect and angle of the original Twin Peaks. In his latest book, John Thorne returns to Twin Peaks, exploring the 18-part continuation of the series. Undoubtedly, Thorne is one of the most prominent and convincing Twin Peaks scholars out there, and his new book is full of insight and valuable analyses, applying Hindu theology, a strong understanding of film history, and an unmatched knowledge of David Lynch and the Twin Peaks universe. This is, arguably, the best companion to Twin Peaks that you will ever read.” – Andreas Halskov, author of TV Peaks: Twin Peaks and Modern Television Drama (2015) and Beyond Television: TV Production in the Multiplatform Era (2021)
“John Thorne, the greatest of Twin Peaks detectives, has produced the ultimate investigation into pop culture’s most daunting and alluring mystery. His interpretive readings illuminate and entertain with their ideas and inventiveness, but even better, his theorizing, suffused with respect for the material and others who are passionate about it, teaches us the art of intelligent, gracious fandom.” – Jeff Jensen, writer, HBO’s Watchmen and Better Angels: A Kate Warne Adventure
John Thorne has a Bachelor of Science from Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York, and a Master of Arts in TV/Radio/Film from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. (His thesis was on the narrative structure of the television series, Homicide, Life on the Street.) For thirteen years, John was co-editor and co-producer of Wrapped In Plastic, a magazine where he wrote extensively about Twin Peaks and the works of David Lynch and Mark Frost (as well as other film and television). In 2017, he joined the editorial staff at The Blue Rose where he continues to write about Twin Peaks: The Return. John is author of the book, The Essential Wrapped in Plastic: Pathways to Twin Peaks and is co-editor and contributor to the Kindle book, Twin Peaks in the Rearview Mirror: Appraisals and Reappraisals of the Show That Was Supposed to Change TV. John is co-host of the podcast, In Our House Now. You can follow him on Twitter: @thornewip.
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MZS.Press is the online arts bookstore founded by author, critic, and filmmaker Matt Zoller Seitz and Directed by Judith Carter. It offers new, used, signed, collectible, and rare books on film, TV, music, photography, and the visual arts. The store was launched in 2019 on a different platform and has expanded to incorporate arts books published by MZSPress's private imprint: titles currently include Seitz's The Deadwood Bible: A Lie Agreed Upon and Dreams of Deadwood, about the HBO Western, and Walter Chaw's A Walter Hill Film.
Our deepest wish is to promote, encourage, and distribute work by small presses, academic presses, and individuals. Extraordinary work tends to get swallowed up on giant platforms like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The titles featured here are personally selected by a group of curators and advisors, including Seitz and an array of critics, artists, journalists, educators, publishers, and arts mavens who are known for their ability to suss out what Seitz's jazz musician dad liked to call "the good sh*t."
Judith's favorite Quote of the month is:
“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
-Marcus Tullius Cicero
Matt Zoller Seitz
Critic, Author, Filmmaker, MZS Press Creator
Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor at Large and film critic of RogerEbert.com; Features Writer for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, Contributing Writer for D Magazine and Texas Highways as well as finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism. His writing on film and TV has appeared in Sight and Sound, The New York Times, Salon.com, The New Republic and Rolling Stone. Seitz is the founder and original editor of the influential film blog The House Next Door, now a part of Slant Magazine.
Seitz has written, narrated, edited or produced over a hundred hours’ worth of video essays about cinema history and style for The Museum of the Moving Image, Salon.com and Vulture, among other outlets such as Texas Highways and AARP. His five-part 2009 video essay Wes Anderson: The Substance of Style was spun off into the hardcover book The Wes Anderson Collection. This book and its follow-up, The Wes Anderson Collection: Grand Budapest Hotel were New York Times bestsellers.
Other Seitz books include the New York Times bestsellers The Sopranos Sessions and Mad Men Carousel; TV (The Book), The Deadwood Bible: A Lie Agreed Upon, The Wes Anderson Collection: The French Dispatch and the new The Wes Anderson Collection: Asteroid City. He is also an interviewer, moderator, and film programmer who has curated and hosted film and TV presentations for the Museum of the Moving Image, IFC Center, San Francisco's Roxie Cinema, and other venues. In October 2024 he brought the legendary filmmaker Oliver Stone back to Dallas for a historic return to the city and the Texas Theatre, considered the biggest film event of Dallas in 2024 by Dallas Observer!
Judith Carter was in the Upscale and Luxury Hospitality Industry for most of her life. In 2004 she had a beautiful baby boy with Special Needs and put the pause on her career until 2017 to dedicate herself to him and then others, assisting and volunteering as a legal advocate ensuring the best medical care, evaluations and educations for Special Needs children and their families.
Matt and Judith were family friends for over 20 years. She was there with her family in support when his wife Jen passed away suddenly in 2006. Then just 6 weeks later while Matt was in Dallas; he and his Father, Dave, and Step-Mother, Genie, were there as support, when Judith was alone and her son received the first of many diagnoses that changed the trajectory of their lives. So it made sense in the turbulent year of 2020, Matt asked Judith to take over running the online store that has become MZS.press. The rest as they say is, "Their"-story.