Hey folks, have at it!  I will post my own comments here soon, as I have some things I need to do first today... in the meantime, I wanted you all to have the opportunity to start without me. 

For now, let's stick to the first 50 pages or so (dates listed in the subject) of the diary.  More in the weeks to follow.  Have fun. 

-geo

Well, first let me say Geoff that I think this is a great idea for discussions and I'm on it, man... Two thumbs up... I've finished reading those first pages just a moment ago and I'm ready to write my impressions...

To me the highlights of this first part of the diary are the meeting of Laura and the Log Lady, which is short yet enigmatic enough and above all the very erotic part about those boys, Rick, Josh and Tim. It's much better described here that in the series by Donna, very well written, sexually charged but according to what a 13 years old girl (Laura or not) would write. I don't like much the inclusion of "cameos", and that goes for the whole diary, Big Ed, Truman, Nadine; I know it's a nice connection to the series, they live after all in TP so it's understandable that they appear in the diary, but sometimes it feels forced.

Marvellous how BOB is introduced, being just mentioned, could be anybody... I love how she mentions she's happy and hopes BOB doesn't show up. If we could put ourselves in the position of reading the book without knowing anything about the series then this would become a very intriguing aspect. Who's BOB? Bobby Briggs, the bad boy from school?

IMO the book gets better later but this is a very good beginning, yep...

More later...

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yes, i noted after the 1st diary entry that laura writes that she hopes bob doesnt show up.

as well, the diary is very well written for a 12/13 year old.[i realise, of course, that it wasn't actually written by a kid that age, but instead by mabey david lycnh's wife? perhaps some one could confirm this for me].

it was nice to read that the young men with whom donna and laura fooled around were very gentle and nice to them.

it was interesting to note that laura found audrey to be kind of mean. as well, it was interesting to read that Ben horn had a great deal of interest in laura when she was a child.

oh, man, my comments here are goofy, but i can't think of much to say at the moment.

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Yeh, I think it has already been established that Maddy's age was not verified in the series. You would think Donna would remember her, but then, considering she only knew her from 4 days 5/6 years ago I guess they could forget...I never forget anything like camp outs with friends when I was that age, but some people have better memories than other I guess.  It was interesting to me also, how, when Maddy is in the diary, in the early part of it, it's like she comes across as Laura's role model "ooh Maddy talked about French kissing! Did this did that wore sexy clothes blah blah" and Laura really seems to idolise her, yet the Maddy later on, seems to be like the "good" Laura and pretty geekish, nothing like we see in the diary, so it also makes me wonder what changed her and what her dreams in the woods were about.  Maybe she had premonitions of what would happen to her cousin so it made her see things differently. 

 Maddy is Lauras cousin and four years older, of couse she looks up to her, doesn't matter what way she looked like, Laura would been looking up to her anyway. Meaning, that Maddy in the diary maybe wasn't THAT cool as Laura saw her. I can only refer to my older sister. As I grew up i just worshipped her! She was just the coolest person ever, what did it matter to me that she had pink hair and was shaved on the sides of her head, smoked and had a lot of nuttie friends? When reading this first part of the diary, don't forget it's supposed to be written by a 12-13 yearold, we have to put ourwelves in the same situation...I've been reading my own diary at the same time as Lauras, and especially when I was 11 years old I seemed to look up to every single person who was older than I was - now most of them are not that "cool"...

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i realise, of course, that it wasn't actually written by a kid that age, but instead by mabey david lycnh's wife? perhaps some one could confirm this for me].

Snog - Jennifer Lynch, who wrote the diary is actually David's daughter. :-)

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and the woods talk in this early part of the diary I find fascinating..

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One last thing I find very interesting and I think could be seen as a clue of sorts...when Laura finds out it was Ben that bought Troy for her rather than Leland and she talks about how this makes Leland "less of an honest man." Does this mean that after this she starts to distrust/be wary of him?

Good call, Maddy. Snog, you should also check out Jennifer Lynch's other work to date, the film Boxing Helena.

The woods talk is so great here.

a) Like the spell Laura is under, "It was like the woods got us acting all crazy, like the trees and the fact that it had gotten dark made us forget anything else existed." It's as if BOB's (and the owls') realm, the "pleasures," as Mike says, "appetite... satisfaction," is the woods and not even her first happy, sexual discoveries are safe from him there :( And her poem that talks about the trees trying to cry and speak to "lead the world to the one that made the hole."

b) The Log Lady gives her warnings about the woods as a place for gaining good and bad knowledge. and says "Children are prey sometimes." Is this Secret Diary an allegory for child abuse? Then she tells Margaret that things happen to her in the woods "when it is very dark" that she isn't sure are real. That's so creepy.

She also really loves her mom. They seem so close, like Sarah's goodnight to Laura must have been just that sincere. (In the series, it seems when Maddy says goodbye and 'I love you' to Sarah and Leland she really means it, too.)

Also the rat dream foretells what she is going to do to avoid being taken by BOB.

1) Who do we think the man singing Waltzing Matilda to Laura in Sara's voice is?  Could it be Mike?  It can't be BOB because Laura has already established his presence earlier in the diary, so surely she would have said "BOB was singing Waltzing Matilda" but I just get the feeling it could be Mike because

A) Like BOB, he is an inhabiting spirit, so therefore could still be in Gerard's body, but have inhabited Sarah's voice while she was sleeping or something, or recorded her voice when she originally sang it to Laura and then mouthed it back?  Does that make sense?  The reason I kinda am thinking that now as a pose to in the past is because of the Mulholland drive "It's all a tape recording" line.  Sorry if that sounds like I'm going off topic, but it seems all relative to me somehow..

B) She just says that he is strange and sings it in a scary voice - who else would do that other than BOB or Mike?  

2) Who do you think the man/pervert making the circles with the long hair is?  I don't believe that can be BOB either because again, why wouldn't she just have said "BOB".  She just talks about the wind and her legs burning and snapping because she couldn't keep them closed (lol) and the woods talk in this early part of the diary I find fascinating..

 I used to wonder this too. But what if Laura didn't see Leland as BOB at first. She would've been creating BOB in to her because she couldn't handle the fact that her father was abusing her sexually. At first it would only be about changing the name of the abuser and later on actually seeing him as the strange man from her dreams. Also, if we think BOB as a supernatural inhabiting spirit, he might have said his name, BOB, to Laura. And Laura would only hear his name but not see his face.

It really sounds like he would be BOB in the dream. It fits to BOB perfectly.

I've also wondered that Laura said BOB has been having here since she was 12, but she got the diary at that age and she mentions BOB very early. If BOB would've been having her since she was 12, it would've started at the same day she got her diary. Now, then it would be odd to hope that BOB wouldn't come because she couldn't actually have seen him if we think that what Laura told to Harold in FWWM is true. This could be an inconsistence, but if we think that Laura began to see BOB, or began to create BOB to forget that it's her father who is doing it to her, then we could say that BOB really did start to have Laura ever since she was 12. Leland could've been doing it to her before that.

That said, some children who have been sexually abused forget what has happened to them. Then, we could think that Laura made herself to forget that her father had been abusing her by starting to write about BOB in her diary.

Wow, this post is quite hard to read... I'll try to explain my point later if it's not understandable.

Maybe Laura knew BOB before he actually began abusing her, after all he was already in Leland when she was born... He could have been a presence, sort of an evil "imaginary friend" appearing in dreams, visions, whatever, exactly like he did with Leland...wanting to play...

Maybe Laura knew BOB before he actually began abusing her, after all he was already in Leland when she was born... He could have been a presence, sort of an evil "imaginary friend" appearing in dreams, visions, whatever, exactly like he did with Leland...wanting to play...

There is a poem later in the diary that corroborates this theory. It would be cheating to quote it this early, though.

thankyou for telling me who jennifer lynch is. btw, i just added Boxing Helena to my netflix cue! i had heard of this film years ago and had wanted to see it.

i'm enjoying reading people's comments here, btw. many are quite illuminating.

What's wrong with the adults in Twin Peaks?  Why do they let unescorted children into the Bookhouse and the Roadhouse?  Doesn't anyone recognize the smell of tobacco or alcohol?

The encounter on River Road with the Log Lady nicely foreshadows the meeting between the two in FWWM.

 Last summer I found myself asking the same question - "Whats wrong with the adults? Why do they let children into the local bar when we're celebrating easter?", concerning the "children" in the smalltown I live in myself. I don't know if it's a typical smalltown-thing? That we let our children and teenagers join the party, since we want to etend so much ourselves and not leave the kids home alone...some kids where there wíthout their parents too of course. I don't know if it's typical swedish either, but I did too go to these localbars-parties when I was a teenager. Sometimes we would sneak in of course. And once you were in, the boys naturally thought you were older than you were (so, I guess Rick, Josh and Tim couldn't tell Laura and Donnas exact age). And it is quite simple for a girl to look older - just put some make-up on and light a cigarette and you're at least 3 years older (if you're 13). The bartenders and barowners never seemed to care. Now when I'm an adult I cannot believe it's still going on! The strangest thing is that our local bar look very similar to the Road House! ;P

I like the Log Lady-part in the diary too, it's really nice!  

So I'm pretty much a terrible "host" to this discussion, I know.  I've been finishing up school stuff this week, so please forgive my absence.  I will try to be a much larger presence in the upcomming weeks.  On the brighter side... my thesis is done and submitted.  WOOT!

I really have little to say about this week's selection.  Laura seems to say and do a lot here that merely sets her up as a sweet girl tormented by a sinisterly precocious knowledge of her own sexuality.  I'm not sure if I think it was handled as well as I would have liked, but it's okay.  For example, it's interesting that both of the experpts referred to in the series (I include here the mirror of Donna's story from ep 12 or 13)  appear here in this first year when she's 12.  It's almost like Jen wanted to get them out of the way.  And I cant help but think the boys (Josh Tom and Rick) were kinda creeps for messing around with 12 year old girls.  I mean... they cant really look like theyre 18, after all.  :)

And I cant help but think the boys (Josh Tom and Rick) were kinda creeps for messing around with 12 year old girls. I mean... they cant really look like theyre 18, after all. :)

Yeh!  I was kinda thinking that too when reading it this time around...ew. Especially when Laura mentions something about how she was sure they knew they weren't really 18, but if they did know they didn't say anything..I mean you'd think they'd be able to tell by their bodies too..