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Subverting Eden: Ambiguity of Evil and the American Dream in Blue Velvet
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 June 2018
Extract
In his early writing on language, truth, and art, Nietzsche notes that art “treats illusion as illusion; therefore it does not wish to deceive; it is true.” Insofar as art is an illusion whose only truth is that it is illusion, art is only true as a lie. When the illusion of art is mistaken for truth, art is destroyed. Nietzsche's observations about the truth of a work of art are instructive when considering the questions raised by postmodern artworks such as Blue Velvet, a film written and directed by David Lynch.
As Lynch explores the consequences of mistaking illusion for truth in Blue Velvet, he offers a disquieting analysis of the American Dream, its icons, and the cultural idolatry that sustains it. With a degree of suspicion characteristic of postmodern interpretative strategies, Lynch examines the values that define the “American Way of Life” and provides evidence to challenge the truth claim of traditional notions of good and evil.
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- Copyright © Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture 1991
References
Notes
* This article is a significantly revised and expanded version of a paper presented in Boston, Massachusetts, December, 1987, at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion in the “Art, Literature and Religion” section.
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