The Shining (1977) - Review

The Shining is another big one.  Ask any Stephen King fan, be it casual or a hard core constant reader for a top 5 list of King novels and this one is likely up there.

Plus there's the legendary Kubrick film, which is one of my favorites.

I was afraid the novel might not live up to the hype.

I'm happy to say it was wrong.  This book was incredible in its realistic portrayal of a small (very) struggling family's attempt to survive, both metaphorically and literally.

In many ways, it is a very intimate book, focusing mainly on the three members of the Torrance family: Jack, his wife Wendy, and their five year old son, Danny.

The Torrances have their share of family secrets.  Jack is a recovering alcoholic with an enormous temper.  Wendy has serious self esteem issues (whether she's aware of it or not) stemming from her very judgmental (and generally awful) mother.  And Danny just "knows things."  And can read thoughts.  Kind of.

Danny shines.

I won't bore you with a blow by blow of this book, since it's so well known.  Basically, Jack's drinking and self destructive behavior (he got himself fired from a promising teaching job) and abusive behavior (he "accidentally" broke Danny's arm two years earlier) has strained their marriage to the breaking point.

He's given one last shot at redemption: become the winter caretaker for the Overlook hotel, a destination so secluded in the mountains that it's unreachable about 4 months of the year.  The isolation would give him plenty of time to finally finish his play as well as patch things up with Wendy.  All their eggs were in this one final basket.

But the Overlook has plans of it's own.

As I was reading, I found myself trying to "figure out" the Overlook. One thing that really sets this book apart from other haunted house type stories is the Overlook itself has an agenda.  It isn't just a screaming phantasm, or an old spirit that has lost its way.

It seems to be a living entity.  And it's hungry.  Best I can figure, is it feeds off of psychic energy.  Off of those that Shine.  So when Danny, who is described as shining like a spotlight rather than a mere flashlight or candle, is confined to the Overlook for the winter, the hotel begins to awaken...into something terrible.

The hotel works your mind.  Really gets into you and preys on your greatest fears.

The novel was deliberately paced and once the set pieces are established and things begin clicking in the final act...I could barely put the book down.

A couple nitpicks.  First...King's portrayal of the hotel is very scary and menacing...but at time's just bizarre.  There seems to be a gigantic party from the early 20s that keeps replaying within the hotel.  It's never really explained what's so special about this particular party.  Or maybe it's not the party that keeps "replaying" so much as the hotel is permanently "stuck" in a certain time.  Those things aren't fully explored.

And...while it's not fair, I'm going to mention it anyway.  I was disappointed that the phrase "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" isn't in the novel.  Not even once.  It was wholly a creation of the movie.  Oh well.  Enough nitpicking.

I know that Stephen King to this day hates the Kubrick film adaptation, but there's plenty enough room in my heart for love of both.  I can see why King, something of a perfectionist, would have issues with the film version: for one thing, the final act is very different.

But also, the character of Jack, despite the legendary Nicholson performance, is a one note caricature performance in the movie. He show's up, kind of eccentric (hey, it is Nicholson only a few years removed from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) and then boom, he's crazy and tries to kill everybody.

There's a lot more going on with him in the book.  And there's something of a redemption for Jack, in the novel, in that he doesn't go crazy so much as he's possessed by the spirit of the hotel.  This leads to a very cool, tender moment at the end when Jack regains control of himself for just a moment...long enough to tell Danny he loves him and to RUN!...before his consciousness is gone forever.

This was a great one.  Well worth the hype, even nearly 40 years later.

Book #4: Rage (1977)

Well, four books in, and I've finally gotten to one that I am not familiar with at all.
Rage.

Well, I'm familiar with its reputation.  I know that, due to the content, King has chosen to let it go permanently out of print.  I don't know exactly why (I've chosen to not find out prior to reading) but I seem to recall it having to do with a school shooting.

So, lets get to it.


Historical Context
Publication Date: September 13, 1977
President: Jimmy Carter

World Series Winner 1977: New York Yankees over the Los Angeles Dodgers
Boston Red Sox Record 1977: 97-64

Cost of a new home:  $54,200.00  Cost of a new car:  $  Median Household Income:  $13,572.00  Cost of a first-class stamp:  $0.13  Cost of a gallon of regular gas:  $0.62  Cost of a dozen eggs:  $0.82  Cost of a gallon of Milk:  $1.68  Source Top #10 songs in the USA The Emotions - Best Of My Love Andy Gibb - I Just Want To Be Your Everything KC and the Sunshine Band - Keep It Comin' Love The Floaters - Float On Fleetwood Mac - Don't Stop James Taylor - Handy Man The Brothers Johnson - Strawberry Letter 23 Electric Light Orchestra - Telephone Line The Sanford/Townsend Band - Smoke From A Distant Fire The London Symphony Orchestra - Star Wars Main Title Source $1 in 1977 dollars = $4.06 in 2016 dollars Source

A question on the Meta side of things...

Finished the Shining.  Review in the next day or so.

I have a couple of questions that I've been mulling over the last couple days.

While I have not yet read any of the Dark Tower books (and hardly know anything about them), I do know (or think I know) that "everything is connected".  I recently asked a friend at what point the interconnected nature of everything starts happening.  He answered that it was pretty much "from the very beginning.  You won't realize until later, but everything he's written is game."  I'm paraphrasing, but that was the jist.

With that said, I have a few questions.

Three books in, I've met scary telekenetics, scary vampires, and not-as-scary precog/mind readers (Shiners). Dick Hallorann would occasionally meet others with the Shine.  So at least in The Shining, people are aware of other special people.

So...
1) Are Carrie White's powers considered "The Shine", just a different flavor, than Danny?  Or is she an entirely different animal?
2) Are other people aware of people with these powers?  Shining appears to be somewhat common.  Carrie was suggested to be unique (although at the very end of the book it's suggested a small girl named Annie --in the year 1988--had the same powers as Carrie).
3) The Overlook seems to be a very scary, but supernaturally significant place.  Is it a "one-off" or are there other significant places and does it "mean anything more?"

I'm sure I'll think of more as I progress.  And I'll be sure to post my thoughts.  Will be fun to re-read these thoughts later and see how many of these things are answered.

Obviously, these questions are more rhetorical than anything else, so I don't require any answers.  Unless you *really* want to, go ahead and leave a comment.  I would prefer no overt spoilers though, if it can be avoided.

-B

The Depth of the horror...

So our three main characters are in the thick of it now.  The snows have really started and Danny, Jack and Wendy are confined to the Overlook.

But enough about that.  I wanted to point out how struck I am with the depth and the layers to the horrifying things that King is setting up.

So much of what passes for "horror" these days amounts to little more than cheap scares and shallow terror.  Hell, "jump scares" are part of any good horror movie, but it seems like these days, most horror movies have little more to offer than a combination of jump scares and gore.

What King is doing here is presenting us with an onion of horror...and slowly peeling back the layers for us.  Okay, horrible analogy, but I'm sticking with it.

The horror isn't just physical.  It's also spiritual and psychological.  And it's multi-dimensional:  each character has their own personal terrors they're bringing with them to the Overlook.  And the Overlook is hungry.

Danny is afraid his parents will get DIVORCE.  And that his daddy is contemplating SUICIDE.  And that if he talks too much about the Shining and the things "he just knows" he'll be declared to have "LOSTHISMARBLES" and sent to the SANNYTARIUM.

He's got this incredible gift of reading thoughts and sometimes seeing the future (or is it the past?  Or nothing?) but it is proving to be a double edged sword.  Because of the Shining, he's seeing things in the hotel most people wouldn't see.  But also, because of the same Shining, he's afraid to tell his parents what he's seeing.

Jack is afraid of being a failure, afraid of losing his wife and his son.  And he is afraid of becoming his father.

Likewise, Wendy.  Her mother was a daunting figure in her childhood and they hardly speak now.  And it bothers her how much of her mother she sees in herself.

And the Overlook is feeding off of all these fears, amplifying them, and adding a few of its own.

It's really fun to watch King work in this one.  It's a psychological horror story as much as anything else.

And I'm loving it.

Feels Good Man

Getting back into the flow.

I've restarted reading the Shining.  Currently on chapter 4.  Still trying to determine how I'll handle blog posts.  I'm thinking two or three per week on set days, but maybe I'll just let the spirit move me.

I'm hoping to be able to dedicate enough time to this project once again that I can finish a book every two weeks or so, on average.  That may be way off base, but I need to set some sort of goal/pace for myself.

Don't want to have another extended absence...(of two years)

Anyway, wish me luck, as I continue my journey.

--B

Hey...I'm not dead.

So it's been two years.  Crazy how this life thing works.

I don't want to get into it too deeply, but I started having massive health issues shortly after my last post back in April of 2014.  Multiple hospital stays and multiple surgeries over the next 18 months...

What I'm basically saying is I put Stephen King (and this blog) away and focused on getting well.

I'm still not quite there (yeah, even 2 years later) but I'm ready to get back to it.

I'll probably start back up the beginning of The Shining, but I'll probably not blog until I've caught up to where I left off.

Bear with me as I get back into the swing, but updates will become a regular thing again.  I still intend to read through all of King.  But at this point...his writing is outpacing my reading.

So I better get cracking...

Alternate theory of who's really the "Bad Parent"

So Stephen King sets up this very troubled family.  They have been through some rough times, but now that Jack has stopped drinking, and as such, much of his violent and abusive behavior has stopped too.

We are really given no other conclusion to draw that Wendy is the Good Parent and that Jack, when he drank, was the Bad Parent.  Now that he's sober, he's on his way to proving he can also be the Good Parent, but boy, if he ever drinks again, it's Bad Parent City.

The main evidence presented is a horrible event when Danny spilled some of his daddy's beer on the play Jack had been writing.  Jack, in a drunken rage, grabs Danny by the arm with the intention of spanking him.  However, he ends up grabbing too hard and breaks Danny's arm.

This happens two years before the narrative begins, but its a fresh wound in everyone's memory.  Wendy, during her internal monologues goes so far as to call it an "accident".  In other words, she believes Jack actually intended to break Danny's arm.

Jack's internal monologue adds no hope either as he can't really remember what he intended or why it happened.

But something doesn't sit right with me.  Jack is described as grabbing his arm with one hand and spinning Danny around.  That action snaps his arm.  Has anybody ever tried to break an arm?  It's not easy to do.  Bodies are remarkably resilient, even three year old ones.  I submit that it would be nearly impossible to break Danny's arm with one hand in the manner described.

I'm no doctor, but a break requires considerable force or torsion (twisting).  To break an arm with one hand not intending to...I have a very hard time buying it.

Unless...
Crackpot Theory 1:  Danny has Osteogenesis Imperfecta, or Brittle Bone disease.  Not likely, since bone breakage seems to have been a one time occurrence.
Crackpot Theory 2: Jack is superhumanly strong.  Like Superman strong.  Not likely.
Crackpot Theory 3: Danny had a severe calcium deficiency due to poor diet/malnutrition.  Plausible.

Lets examine Theory #3 in more detail.  We know at the time Danny broke his arm that Jack was still working at the prep school making decent money, presumably.  It's never stated that they were doing well, only how badly they had been doing financially since he was fired.  I'm going to assume they were doing well enough to be able to afford proper nutrition for a three year old boy.

We also know that Wendy seems to be the primary caretaker for Danny.  She is shown several times buying groceries, preparing Danny's meals, feeding him, leaving him snacks.  Jack is never seen doing this.  (At least not as far as I've gotten--I'm about half way through).  It's also never expressly stated but strongly implied that Wendy is a full time stay at home mom, meaning that nobody else other than her or Jack would be in a position to be feeding Danny.

Many of the snacks Wendy is shown to feed Danny are of poor nutritional value (oreos, crackers, etc).

Given the assumption that the Torrances could have afforded to feed Danny well, and if his broken arm was due to a calcium deficiency, not excessive force on Jack's part, then it would appear that Wendy is indeed the Bad Parent here, not Jack.  Or at least neither of them are the Good Parent.

But she's so sanctimonious in her judgement of Jack in her head that I think that doubly qualifies her as the Bad Parent.



PS- Relax.  I'm joking.  I don't for a second think that Wendy is culpable here.  However, this injury, and the way it was described bothered me quite a bit because it would be very difficult to break an otherwise healthy child's arm in the manner described.

I think this is actually a product of King's writing that I have already noticed a few times: people that populate his books seem to be much more brittle than real people.  I noticed it a couple of times in 'salem's Lot.  Matt's sudden development of a heart condition due to confronting a vampire was something that seemed a bit forced but not enough to draw attention at the time.  I didn't notice it in Carrie, but I wasn't really looking for it.

If these sorts of things happen in further books, I'll have to give this phenomenon a name.  :)