"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

I'm one of those annoying people who tries to have it both ways. From about my second or third revisiting of the series (as opposed to when I watched it first-run and didn't think about this stuff) and FWWM, I became convinced that BOB is both real and imaginary. Here's how it breaks down in my mind:

First off, I think it's pretty clear that BOB does not exist ONLY in the mind of Leland and/or Laura. As you point out, too many other people experience BOB's influence for him to be a mere figment of the imagination. And if BOB were simply a construct of one individual's troubled psyche, how could that possibly explain the experience of Cooper, Annie and Windom Earle in the Black Lodge? So that's pretty solid evidence that BOB is a supernatural force, a manifestation of the "darkness" in the woods that Harry warns Cooper about.

But...that never quite covered enough ground for me. It leaves too many questions open (I know that DL is all about leaving questions open, but the fun is in trying to find your own answers). For instance, why does BOB look the way he does? That may seem like a stupid thing to focus on, but it's something that always nagged at me. One thing in particular that always stuck with me is why BOB would look exactly like someone Leland remembered from his childhood. Now the simple answer is that Leland is simply remembering BOB, and BOB always looked like that. I don't think that's it, though.

I think the evil force that BOB represents looks for people to feed on and it does so by becoming what they fear. Remember Mike saying that BOB feeds on fear? In order to feed on too-good-to-pass-up victim Leland, BOB took on a form from Leland's nightmares. Leland is a molester, pure and simple. And most molesters were victims of molestation themselves. I think when we look at BOB, we're looking at the guy who sexually preyed on Leland as a child when he went with his parents up to Pearl Lake. Leland probably repressed these memories, creating a deep well for BOB to drink from.

I think in Lynch's worlds, it almost always works this way. Things are not either real or imaginary because oftentimes they're both. To my mind, Lynch crafts worlds where people's inner world "leaks out" and has an effect on the world around them.

"What? Did your life pass before your eyes? Cuppa tea, cuppa tea, almost got shagged, cuppa tea..."

"What? Did your life pass before your eyes? Cuppa tea, cuppa tea, almost got shagged, cuppa tea..."

"What? Did your life pass before your eyes? Cuppa tea, cuppa tea, almost got shagged, cuppa tea..."

(Scholarly writing begs to be made fun of.)

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

lol    

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

*necromancer mode on - couldn't resist, sry*

I think you guys just make a philosophy out of things that are simple, really. Remember that BOB wasn't originally part of the plot, he was created accidentally, and because Lynch liked how Silva's own appearance fitted in.  And what a supernatural entity should look like? A big cloud of special effects? That's not in Lynch's style. His supernatural looks like a normality, but normality weird and twisted.

You guys! The Booth versus WilliamThe Bloody double denim debate (a look only evil incarnate could love) and critiques from 12rainbow and KahlanMnel make this my favourite post in donkeys years. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against all the people who go to the trouble of joining a board about a TV series they've never seen (I am Buddha perfection... deep breath) but I like it best when the threads are about, you know, stuff... I often catch myself thinking a poster has delighted me long enough and then realise it was their first post. If boredom could kill one of the numerous "I think BOB is real" threads would have done for me years ago.

I do love this board. 12rainbow's posts are always worth reading and lazy Miss Amanda's non-moderation never fails to make me feel better about the world. If I was moderator I'd banish so many people, it'd be like that other Twin Peaks board by the time I'd finished (i.e. brown bread).

And since I'm here, I'm going to have to go with corporeal because once you remove BOB as supernatural entity, Laura choosing to die, the Log Lady, the Lodges, the One Armed Man, the Tremond's, Sarah's visions, the meeting above the convenience store and even Hawk's speech about souls (everything I love about Twin Peaks) become tinsel. I need Laura to be a coke snorting metaphysical Wonder Woman, otherwise it'd all be unbearably sad. I need more from Twin Peaks than "Damn fine coffee", "Oh no! I killed my daughter!", "Laura imagined the whole thing...", "Evelyn Marsh did it!" and "Save the pine weasel".  

There was a fiish..iinn the percolatrr!

Could Bob be something like a tulpa? Tulpa is a term in mysticism that refers to a being who is created through willpower. It is a materialized thought in physical form.

"The word 'tulpa' is from the Tibetan language and refers to any entity that attains reality solely by the act of imagination. The entity is created entirely within the confines of ones own mind, not drawn out, written down or even verbally described.

If its creator wishes, this 'Tulpa Creation' may become physical reality through intense concentration and visualization."

http://www.tulpa.com/explain/tulpaexplain.html

http://www.tulpa.com/explain/alexandra.html

http://www.davisanddavis.org/harvey/tulpa.html

Heh. I don't think Lynch ever suggested the majority of theories that rise around his work. :)

Sometimes cigar's just a cigar. And BOB's just a violent otherworldly creature that disobeyed his master. Yes, Leland could've created a nightmare, but 1) it'd be hinted more clearly at, 2) he surely didn't create Lodges, MFAP and the stuff.

I think Bob is just a symbol, a personification of evil.  I believe that the sign on the Vet's office holds the key.  It said "Aid to the beast incarnate" 

 Anyone else?

 Then do you think that sign meant nothing?  A random coincidence?  

... that David Lynch/Frost went through the trouble of disguising a post office as a vet office with a specific slogan written in large letters on the front?

 Besides that fact that a great deal of Lynch's work deals with personifications of someone's fear or evil?  (Ala Lost Highway)

 Just curious.  I don't know many people that would take Lynch as just being basically what amounts to being sci-fi then...