Catching the Big Fish
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| Author | David Lynch |
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| Country | United States |
| Subject | Meditation Self-help Creativity |
| Published | December 28, 2006 Tarcher |
| Pages | 192 |
Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity, a book by film director David Lynch, is an autobiography and self-help guide comprising 84 vignette-like chapters. Lynch comments on a wide range of topics “from metaphysics to the importance of screening your movie before a test audience.”Catching the Big Fish was inspired by Lynch's experiences with Transcendental Meditation (TM), which he began practicing in 1973. In the book, Lynch writes about his approach to filmmaking and other creative arts. Catching the Big Fish was published by Tarcher on December 28, 2006.
The title refers to Lynch's idea that "ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you've got to go deeper". To Lynch, going deeper means experiencing a deeper, more expanded state of consciousness, a transcendental or fourth state of consciousness, an experience he has during meditation but believes is rare in ordinary daily life. According to Lynch, this experience expands artistic capacity.
Lynch tells the reader that initially he did not want to meditate. He relates how he eventually began Transcendental Meditation on the advice of his sister. At the time, he was struggling to complete Eraserhead, his first feature film, and his first marriage was ending. He was out of money with a young daughter to support. Lynch's father and brother admonished him to abandon Eraserhead and become responsible. Lynch started meditation and took a job delivering the Wall Street Journal for $50 a week. Before meditation, he felt empty. When he started meditation, he felt a “weight lifted” and fear and negativity dissolved. He saved money, kept his focus and slowly completed the movie over the next four years, one scene at a time. The lead actor stayed with the project and waited three years for Lynch to complete the film.
Lynch writes about the continuing effects of meditation on his creative process. He explains that his imagination is let loose by meditation and creative concepts surface while he is meditating. He believes that from meditation, he is uniquely open to creative ideas. These ideas inspired the rabbit and Greek prostitute characters in his film Inland Empire. From OJ Simpson’s trial came the idea for Bill Pullman’s character in Lost Highway.
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