Its Title Should Be Simple

[Volcanic]

"—a few plain words—"My Heart Laid Bare." But—this little book must be true to its title."

So I stumbled open an OR thread for this, a really old one from when it had just stopped being THAT, and I figured we needed it here. I think some people have already mentioned ideas back in the first thread (and they're welcome to repost them here), but it's still fun to speculate on the very first thing: The Title.

fa·mil·iar   
[fuh-mil-yer] Show IPA
–adjective
1.
commonly or generally known or seen: a familiar sight.
2.
well-acquainted; thoroughly conversant: to be familiar with a subject.
3.
informal; easygoing; unceremonious; unconstrained: to write in a familiar style.
4.
closely intimate or personal: a familiar friend; to be on familiar terms.
5.
unduly intimate; too personal; taking liberties; presuming: The duchess disliked familiar servants.
6.
domesticated; tame.
7.
of or pertaining to a family or household.

–noun
8.
a familiar friend or associate.
9.
Witchcraft and Demonology .
a.
an animal, as a cat, that embodies a supernatural spirit and aids a witch in performing magic.
b.
familiar spirit.
10.
Roman Catholic Church .
a.
an officer of the Inquisition, employed to arrest accused or suspected persons.
b.
a person who belongs to the household of the pope or of a bishop, rendering domestic though not menial service.

In any case; go wild.

[Norkhat]

Well, speaking of going wild.
I recently re-watched the whole of Twin Peaks,

The very notion of the familiar, in its esoteric understanding calls for the notion of binding.
An invisible link binds master and familiar, there is hierarchy, there is power, command, execution of orders.
Links can get twisted, any force that is bound in chain wriggles and sometimes get free.
Caution, spoilers ahead (Twin peaks related)..

In Twin Peaks, such unleashed forces do roam around.
At one point, a being called Mike answers special agent's Cooper question
in a most unexpected way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEnxmB0qyw8

"Cooper : Who are you?
Mike : My name is Mike.
Cooper : What are you?
Mike: I am...an inhabiting spirit.
Cooper : Who is Phillip Gerard?
Mike: He is host to me.
Cooper : You spoke to me in my dream...about BOB.
Mike : Mmm. He...was...my familiar.
Cooper : Where does BOB come from?
Mike: That...cannot be revealed.
Cooper : What does BOB want?
Mike: He is BOB...eager for fun. He wears a smile... Everybody run! Do you understand the parasite? It attaches itself to a life form and feeds. Eh. BOB requires a human host. He feeds on fear...and the pleasures. They are his children. I am similar to BOB. We once were partners.
Mike and Cooper a l' unisson: Through the darkness of futures past,
The magician longs to see.
Mike: One...chance out, between two worlds,
Fire...walk with me. "

Bob as a/the Familiar, I must say it shed a new light on this all-cat business, here on the forum.
For that matter, the Owl-Shape so pervasive in TP, "Owls are not what they seem", suddenly juxtaposed
itself in my mind to the vision of Merlin & Archimedes in "The sword in the stone".

Owls and magicians, cats and witches, this imagery goes way back and suffuses all kind of pop-culture, and halloween costumes.

But there may be ways to explore the ambivalence of this relationship, Lynch's appropriation is full proof of that.

Needless to say, that The Creep in OR already had lynchian overtones to me (cf. Wild at Heart), but it's way of manifesting itself, out of the blue, as a trap laid in the fabric of time, also echoed Bob's concentration of loathing and lust.

The familiar is something that got in
.

Okay, i'll stop there, it was just something that laid on my mind, some kind of Lovecraftian warning, for thoughts, even unspoken sometimes act as the invocation : but "Do not call up that which you cannot put down."