By Douglass K. Daniel, AP Book Reviewer
"Room to Dream" by David Lynch and Kristine McKenna (Random House)
The simplest avenue for beginning to understand filmmaker David Lynch might be found in a childhood friend's observation: "David's always had a cheerful disposition and sunny personality, but he's always been attracted to dark things. That's one of the mysteries of David."
Dark things abound in Lynch's signature films — the grotesque infant in "Eraserhead" (1977), the disfigured adult in "The Elephant Man" (1980), the violent and perverse Frank Booth in "Blue Velvet" (1986) — and in his first TV series, the offbeat murder mystery "Twin Peaks" (1990-91). When his cheerful and sunny side shows itself, and that's not often, the result is "The Straight Story" (1999).
Like a David Lynch film, the biography-memoir "Room to Dream" is set in a world we recognize but one with a dreamy, compelling perspective at its core. Co-author and Lynch friend Kristine McKenna writes from interviews and other research in one chapter while the filmmaker's own recollections of events follow in the next. It's a unique structure that's perfectly suited for a cheery fellow with dark fantasies.
Lynch has always been drawn to art of some sort — paint, film, video, music, sound design, photography, acting, even carpentry. Friends and colleagues say he is smart, nice, generous and outgoing — and insist that he isn't weird. Well, how would you describe someone who dissects a mackerel, lays out the parts, labels them for reassembly, then photographs the display and calls it a Fish Kit? Oh, and a Chicken Kit and a Duck Kit follow.
Curiously, Lynch's life lacks the elements of evil and tragedy and the bizarre found in his art. McKenna describes an all-American 1950s boyhood in the Northwest. Taking his turn, Lynch recalls an idyllic youth, too, but one with the occasional disturbing image — like the night a nude and beaten woman stumbled down his street. (If you've seen "Blue Velvet" you'll recognize that childhood memory.)
At one point Lynch writes: "Almost everybody has a bunch of stuff swimming in them, and I don't think most people are aware of the dark parts of themselves. People trick themselves and we all think we're pretty much OK and that others are at fault."
McKenna doesn't omit unflattering details — Lynch's extramarital flings, for example, and the crumbling of the first three of his four marriages. Actress Isabella Rossellini describes how Lynch used a phone call to end their years-long relationship, a subject on which Lynch contributes only silence.
Importantly for cinephiles "Room to Dream" explores such things as how "Mulholland Drive" (2001) rose from the ashes of a failed TV project to the cult film that the website BBC Culture declared to be the best movie of the 21st century. That backstory and so many others provide a window into the mysteries of creativity.
Lynch once told director Steven Spielberg, "You're so lucky because the things you love millions of people love, and the things I love thousands of people love." Yet Lynch thrives as an artist and as a human being because he fuels his passions with curiosity, discovery and a sense of fun.
Douglass K. Daniel is the author of "Anne Bancroft: A Life" (University Press of Kentucky)
Mark Zuckerberg faces deposition in AI copyright lawsuit from Sarah Silverman and other authors
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg will be deposed as part of a lawsuit brought by authors including comedian Sarah Silverman accusing the company of copyright infringement to train its artificial intelligence technology.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Hixson rejected Meta's bid to bar the deposition of Zuckerberg in a decision Tuesday, saying there is sufficient evidence to show he is the "principal decision maker" for the company's AI platforms.
Meta had argued that Zuckerberg doesn't have unique knowledge of the company's AI operations and that the same information could be obtained from depositions with other employees.
The authors have "submitted evidence of his specific involvement in the company's AI initiatives," as well as his "direct supervision of Meta's AI products," Hixson wrote in a Tuesday ruling.
The class action lawsuit was filed last year in California federal court. The authors accuse Meta of illegally downloading digital copies of their books and using them — without consent or compensation — to train its AI platforms.
Also this week, prominent attorney David Boies joined the case on behalf of Silverman and the group of other plaintiffs that includes writer Ta-Nehisi Coates and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Boies is best known for representing Al Gore in the 2000 disputed election against George W. Bush.
The case against Meta is one of a set of similar lawsuits in San Francisco and New York against other AI chatbot developers including Anthropic, Microsoft and ChatGPT maker OpenAI.
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