On conscious and unconscious messaging

The Director David Lynch died earlier this year at the age of 78 and had directed movies of a specific style, his debut film Eraserhead was an entirely dream-like, ethereal art film that impressed the likes of Stanley Kubrick and Mel Brooks. Mel, known for his slapstick comedies such as Blazing Saddles had become a producer and was so enamored with Eraserhead that he gave Lynch his first big break in greenlighting Lynch to direct Elephant Man. The Elephant Man is a stark contrast to Eraserhead in that it produces a clear headed and concrete portrait of the life of a man born with a congenital disfiguration.

The fever dream style of Lynch is what he was best known for, with mysterious strangers providing cryptic messages, often confusing the protagonists more than providing any clear resolution. But Lynch was remarkably capable of directing clear dialogue with precise meaning. When your messages are too controversial to be read in polite society, we are forced to develop a parallel language of codes and hidden messages with alter egos. In a way that’s what fiction is, or, at least, my attempts at fiction are about.

However, we who support Trump and Vance won the messaging battle. What people want, I’m told, are essays. Clear and concise statements explaining problems with society, and, how to address them with policy. No cryptic dwarves or mysterious cowboys. We can speak with authority now and provide clear directions.

But fiction is fun and I love it, so my compromise is, I will give you both. My forthcoming short story, “The Diversity Statement” describes in a fictional way the struggles of writing a diversity statement from the position of a white male. Later, I will write an essay about Diversity Statement in an essay with prose as clear as a bell. I will try to repeat this process in an ongoing manner with future fiction paired with essays.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.