ERASERHEAD: Almost Fifty Years Late?

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We all know that David Lynch passed away a little over a year ago (at the time of writing this post), and it was a sad day. We’ll probably never see anything else quite like what he gave to the world. Although, it pains me now, since I’ve finally watched Eraserhead, that the only Lynch movie I’d seen beforehand was Dune, and I haven’t even watched Twin Peaks!

But anyway … Eraserhead.

This movie is all over the place. I’d like to say I could make total sense of it, but I can’t. And I’m not going to look up anyone else’s explanation as to what was actually going on, or what someone else thinks was going on.

I have some ideas, though …

My theory, is that the main character was a killer. He killed his wife, and he killed the infant they had together. Everything appeared the way that it did, because we were seeing the world from his perspective. The way his mind rationalized everything that was going on, which made it easier to carry out the things that he ultimately did.

Is that true?

Is that what happened?

Probably not.

I think the most bewildering scene was the maybe dream where his head fell off, and a child snatched it up, and then some guy made actual, literal eraser heads from his brain matter.

Maybe a metaphor in his own dream-state for erasing the things he’d done, or was planning to do.

You saw in his apparent dream that he slept with his neighbor, and then upon waking up, he attempted to possibly do the same thing! Except she was with another man, and she only looked at him strangely, with bewilderment. Displaying what I believe to be the delusion in his own mind, that the things he believes are happening and that are possible, are wildly different from the reality of his situation.

Never-the-less, that’s my personal analysis of what was going on.

No, I can’t explain the asteroid/moon and the guy flipping levers.

But hey, maybe that was just his own mind, also. Flipping the levers of thought, and action.