Personally, I Liked It Better Than "Mulholland Drive."

This is a little-known fact but long before he shot such classic films as "Eraserhead" and "Lost Highway" David Lynch provided art direction for a book of baby knitwear designs. Though it was an early episode in his career, thumbing through the pages you can recognize many of the stylistic trademarks that have defined his highly original body of work.

Let's take a look, shall we?

This cover sets the overall tone and feel, dark and moody, with a surrealist shot of color.

The first appearance of Disembodied Plastic Baby Head, a figure represented throughout the booklet. There has been much speculation as to his symbolism, which we will discuss in further detail as we go along.

And now things are starting to get a little weird....

And in a jump-cut, the Disembodied Heads have switched position and the colors have changed. Many feel this is a statement on the power of sexuality but Lynch has never commented to confirm this.

And now a switch back to black and white, and the classic Disembodied Baby Head Trinity.

One of the work's most haunting images and certainly a favorite of mine, the Flying Plastic Boy With Romper. Evocative of human desolation but shown with a sense of warped beauty, Flying Plastic Boy represents different things for different people.

The Socks and Bottoms shot, Lynch has allegedly declined any symbolism in this image, stating that he merely thought it "looked neat." 

A return to color, Pink Girl With Stroller represents hope and beauty in a cold and industrialist society.

And jumping to another scene. The baby shown can be thought of as either crying or laughing, depending on the audience's perception.

A flashback sequence relating to the booklet's first image...

I still get a chill every time I turn the page to find this powerful shot.... 

And the final page. I really think this just speaks for itself, and apparently Lynch feels the same way, as he had never spoken publicly about the booklet's ending.

It just blows your mind, doesn't it?  If you think the images are something, try flipping through the booklet while listening to Radiohead's "Kid A."  Un-freaking-believable.

Any theories on Flying Plastic Boy or the Disembodied Head Trinity would be great, these two parts have been driving me crazy for years....

Comments

Flying Plastic Boy looks like he has a halo.

Trinity. hm.

It all comes back to religious symbolism, though as the heads are disembodied, I would say it was anti-religion. There are so many disembodied heads, that it's hard to figure out how they all relate.

Then there's the desolation of wool soaks and soakers.

Phyllis

[Cindy]

It's known amongst Hollywood insiders that Mr. Lynch did the pilot episode of the 1970's hit "Three's Company." He cast Dennis Hopper, Kyle McLachlan, and Rutger Hauer to play three men in search of the meaning of life. Shot in gritty black-and-white video on the mean streets of Baltimore, the pilot episode featured a 23-minute long dream sequence in which the Disembodied Baby Heads kept chanting in monotone "We are alone. We live. We die. There is nothing else. Abandon all hope."
The heavy Existentialist and often nihilistic overtones didn't go over well at the network. Sadly enough, the episode never aired, but to this day sits in a vault in Mr. Lynch's home and is shown to guests between whiffs of nitrous oxide.

[KarenK]

Mmm, hand-knit babies, gonna have to order me a hand-knit baby...

[Petra]

The disembodied heads are classic Lynch, symbolizing how society has decapitated us, forcing us to "wear" what is "acceptable", further demonstrated by the fact that the clothing is in vivid color, while the "children" are mere shadows, a black and white afterthought, stripped of their identities. Flying Plastic Boy is a rebellion against this repression - the halo representing a saviour, dressed completely in black and white, refusing to conform, yet maintaining his glow, unable to be snuffed out by The Man. The Trinity has been sent to warn us - look how they are surrounded by glamour and wealth, yet the color has faded - their expressions tell the story...

[Petra]

P.S. This has got to be your best one yet.

Why bother with the nastiness of sex when you can hand knit a baby? No more ruffly maternity frocks! Just buy some yarn and knit for nine months. No messy diapers to change, either! It's a win-win situation.

[Kathryn]

Alas, Mr. Lynch's work has once again fallen victim to misrepresentation. Note that there are no adults in this opus; these are tableaus of hope and optomism, indicating that in a world of grey, life springs eternal in shades of pink and blue, with the etheral angel chorus of the Disembodied Baby Heads providing a Greek chorus of wisdom and pluck. But a cautionary note creeps in with the arrival of Flying Plastic Boy, who has been cut off at the knees, apparently as a result of the evil powers of Sweater Boy With No Toes. I suspect that there is a Lost Pattern Book out there, continuing the story with Waiting for Playclothes.

[puck]

holy hell this is the best ever. i would say more, but i really can't. speechless.

[Chris]

I wonder what makes a parent say, "I would like to dress my child in all one color so they look like a strange piece of fruit."? Take the first image for example, I don't know about you all, but the child looks like a blueberry to me.

[Martin H]

These are actually file photos from a secret CIA project in the 50's. Plastic boy was a first primitive attempt to grow the perfect Corporate American. Slow, stupid and wooden in appearance, he was nonetheless elected to the presidency twice.

[Julie]

On real babies' faces, I see looks of confusion and vexation as they are faced with choices that seem all-important to their parents, but meaningless to the children. "Which sweater to wear? Which head shall be my friend to-day?"

Which indeed? And why not?

[Jenn]

I question whether Flying Plastic Boy is not, in fact, a sly nod from Lynch to Terry Gilliam's "Brazil"... Definitely a symbol of the desire for freedom in a smothering post-apocolyptic materialistic society.

[phil]

You wouldn't remember--it was all before your time, and later they tried to make everyone have the operation to forget. They sent you to the camps if they caught you talking about it back then, but now it's all ancient history. Folklore.

The winters were very cold back then, and the war had dragged on for so many years that no one thought it would ever end. It was early days for us hybridized carbon-silicon folks--facory-mades they called us, and worse--and the old-style pure carbons were so desperate they were eating their own young. Would have eaten ours if they could've digested us, but of course their poor weak systems didn't have the enzymes for it. We got even, though. We gobbled them up with no trouble. Tasty, too. Every time we found the head of one of our kids we took three of theirs and put three of ours, customized to match, in their places. That's where the disembodied heads came from. We kept them to remember them by, and sometimes people prayed to them. That's that whole silly trinity thing, all there is to it. They do make great hat models, though, don't they? The Monarch people went house to house buying them up so they could have a monopoly. That little fellow on the last page, that's my baby brother Jimmy.

[Racheal]

Kid A! "We've got heads on sticks"

[kittenhead]

milk came out of my nose as i looked ;at thes images. stark.

[emma rothwell]

please keep me up to date with all your wonderful creations. ta emma