Andrew Leggett

In Dreams, a Novel and its Exegesis: In Dreams – Novel; The place of dreams in the Novel and the Cinematic Work of David Lynch– Exegesis Author Leggett, Andrew Alfred George Published 2016 Thesis Type Thesis (PhD Doctorate) School School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science DOI https://doi.org/10.25904/1912/2813 Copyright Statement The author owns the copyright in this thesis, unless stated otherwise. Downloaded from http://hdl.handle.net/10072/366962 Griffith Research Online https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au In Dreams, a Novel and its Exegesis In Dreams – Novel The place of dreams in the novel and the cinematic work of David Lynch – Exegesis Andrew Leggett Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, University of Queensland Master of Philosophy in Creative Writing, University of Queensland Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists School of Humanities Arts, Law and Education Group Griffith University Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 22nd October 2015 1 SYNOPSIS Dr Garrick Willis, the protagonist of my novel In Dreams, is a recently divorced neurologist who suffers premonitory dreams and intrusive violent fantasies. Willis loses his girlfriend Jade to a drug dealing pimp and comes to be wrongly accused of her murder, a crime that has plagued his waking fantasies and haunted his dreams. At the start of the novel, Garrick’s first patient for the afternoon is Nick Myshkin, with whom he has just shared a seat on the train from Meadowbrook to Princess Alexandra Hospital. Nick is a bass player in the grunge band Return of the Evil Youth for Christ, who deals amphetamines in Fortitude Valley nightclubs and pimps mysterious women on the streets. Garrick is not aware that his discomfort with Nick’s utterance of the name ‘Jade’, during complex partial seizures, is based in their common interest in the same woman, or that he and Nick were born to the same mother. Jade progressively unravels towards a violent end. Her attachment and investment moves from protagonist to antagonist, as her nursing colleague Rachel takes her place in Garrick’s heart. Garrick struggles to contain the expression of his passionate and violent emotions in poetry, to translate his destructive impulses into clinical research and expressions of love. His poems, integrated into the text, serve as vehicles for twists in its structure. He fails to heed his premonitory dreams, and his vacillations cost him dearly. He does too little, and always arrives just too late. While it is clear from the start that Jade is doomed, tension in this psychological thriller is maintained throughout as to who is the killer and who will be blamed. This tension is built into the mystery of Garrick and Nick’s brotherhood, paralleling that of the two Allans in Wilkie Collins’ Armadale (1864-1866; 2010a), and of Prince Myshkin and Parfyon Roghozin in Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot (1868-1869; 1982; 2001). The premonitory dream as narrative device in my novel follows a tradition originating with Collins that was developed in David Lynch’s and Mark Frost’s Twin Peaks (1990-1991) television work. The novel ends, refusing to deliver redemptive justice, leaving the reader much 2 more dissonantly affected, thrown into a Lynchian state of dis-ease and irresolute mourning (Leggett, 2009). The novel’s exegesis addresses the question: ‘How is the writing of the novel In Dreams influenced by viewings of Lynch’s cinematic work and readings of Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot?’ Reading Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot (1868-1869) and viewing David Lynch’s cinema and television work informed the writing, in response to questions arising in fiction as it mirrors life, and those presented in Lynch’s work. Both the novel and the exegesis address questions of the nature and meaning of violence, disintegration and passionate investment. This creative writing exegesis informed by cinema develops as a practice-led work articulating inception of dis-ease into the human subject through trauma. The exegesis compares and contrasts the ways in which this inception of dis-ease works in the places of dreams in Lynch’s cinema and in the novel In Dreams, acknowledging the limitations and possibilities inherent in an ekphrastic process, moving from the sound-image and time image medium of cinema to the solely textually- dependent medium of the novel. The three chapters of the exegesis are, in turn, an introduction to the place of dreams in my novel and in David Lynch’s cinematic work, including an autobiographical account of the process of development of the novel and my understanding of its historical antecedents and their appropriation; a detailed analysis of the development of Lynch’s place of dreams; and the questions such reflection raises regarding the possibilities and limitations of the ekphrastic writing a novel with a place of dreams that responds to Lynch’s; and finally, a chapter arguing the necessity for the violently disruptive nature of the place of dreams in Lynch’s cinema, and in my novel, concluding with reference to the impetus thus given to generate further narrative and further dreams, ending as dreams end, without resolution. 3 STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself. ……………………………………………………………. Andrew Leggett 4 CONTENTS Synopsis Page 2 Statement of Originality Page 4 Contents Page 5 Acknowledgements Page 6 Novel: In Dreams Page 8 Exegesis: The place of dreams in the novel and the cinematic work of David Lynch Chapter 1: Introduction to the place of dreams in the novel and the cinematic work of David Lynch Page 179 Chapter 2: The trope of dreaming in the cinematic work of David Lynch Page 200 Chapter 3: Violence against civility and the destruction of fantasy: The waning of the Oedipus complex in In Dreams and Blue Velvet Page 227 References: Bibliography and filmography Page 249 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The following works published by the candidate prior to commencement of the candidature have been incorporated into or provided a basis for work included in the text of the novel: ‘Wallaby dreaming’ first appeared in the Weekend Australian in 1994, then again in the author’s first collection of poetry Old Time Religion and other Poems in 1998. ‘Broken for me’ first appeared in Poetry Nottingham (UK) in 1994, then again in the author’s first collection of poetry Old Time Religion and other Poems in 1998. ‘The idiot’, ‘Hair care products’ and ‘locket’ first appeared in the author’s first collection of poetry Old Time Religion and other Poems in 1998. ‘A night in the toolroom’, the candidate’s short story, of which Chapter XXI of the novel (A Night in the Toolroom) is an expanded adaptation, first appeared in Social Alternatives in 1986. The parody of a haiku attributed to the character Nick Myshkin in Chapter XIII won the candidate first prize in the Haiku Slam at the Brisbane Writer’s Fringe Festival in 1997. The poem ‘Shadow’ first appeared in Stylus Poetry Journal in 2009, published by the candidate during the candidature. Chapter IV of the exegesis, ‘Violence against civility and the destruction of fantasy in the novel: The waning of the Oedipus complex in In Dreams and David Lynch’s Blue Velvet’, is an expanded application of a paper published by the candidate in the journal Crossroads during the candidature in 2009. All of the above works authored by the candidate and cited above are fully referenced in the list at the end of this dissertation. Conference papers developed in the context of the candidature, later contributing the text of the exegesis were presented by the candidate at the following conferences: Mourning and Its Hospitalities, University of Queensland 2007; Rhizomes IV Power Violence and Language, University of Queensland 2008; Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists Section of Psychotherapy Conference 2010, 6 Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Association of Australasia Conference 2010; and Australasian Association of Writing Programs Conference 2012. The candidate also acknowledges the support and scholarly advice on the writing process, including necessary revisions of the text of the novel and the exegesis, offered by his principal supervisor Professor Nigel Krauth and the scholarly support and advice offered by his secondary supervisor, Dr Anthony Lawrence. Thanks are also due to the following people who have acted as first readers of various drafts of the manuscript of the novel and whose comments have prompted the candidate to make revisions: Rosanna Licari, Ann Ralston, Cheryl Hayden, Duncan Richardson, Melissa Ashley and Tanya Morton. 7 Novel In Dreams 8 IN DREAMS A novel – a psychological thriller ANDREW LEGGETT TABLE OF CONTENTS I Something Funny Happened Page 12 II Broken For Me Page 20 III Too Little, Too Late Page 31 IV The Angel Moroni Page 37 V Family Page 42 VI The Idiot Page 52 VII Grandma Stirring Page 59 VIII His Mother’s Body Page 66 IX Pale Blue Eyes Page 72 X Eulogy Written for a Country Churchmouse Page 77 9 XI Macadamia Page 86 XII Camera Obscura Page 92 XIII Return of the Evil Youth for Christ Page 97 XIV Father’s Day Page 106 XV A Letter to My Love Page 112 XVI Grounds for Suspicion Page 124 XVII A New Beginning Page 130 XVIII Renewed Fervour Page 140 XIX Shadow Page 148 XX Together, Forever Page 156 XXI A Night in the Tool Room Page 164 XXII It’s Happening Again Page 168 XXIII The Neurologist’s Crime Page 173 10 A candy-colored clown they call the Sandman Tiptoes to my room every night Just to sprinkle stardust and to whisper, ‘Go to sleep, everything is all right.’ – Roy Orbison, In Dreams 11 I SOMETHING FUNNY HAPPENED The Pacific Highway can be a real bastard when you’re stuck between petrol tankers drag- racing.

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