Book Four: The Shining

Note: I had read “The Shining” before, but it was in German that time…

Imagine yourself on a overstuffed couch in the middle of the living room. There are double doors next to you leading outside. The sun is shining in and you are bathed in its comforting glow. You can hear family and friends moving around the house but they don’t intrude. This is how I first read “The Shining” and it still scared me. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to re-read the book at night when it was storming outside…

“The Shining” is one of the few books that genuinely scared me. Most horror novels intrigue, or titillate, or amuse me; this one made me want to leave all the lights on. And yet, it’s also a very sad story. The Torrances – Jack, Wendy, and their son Danny – move into the Overlook Hotel as winter caretakers. They will be stranded alone there as soon as the first snowstorm hits, with very limited contact with the outer world (hey, it’s 1977 and there’s no internet.) What they don’t know is that they aren’t really alone in the hotel, and what’s there really really wants to get its teeth into Danny. If that synopsis doesn’t put your hackles up, just take a look at the cover.

Warren Beatty is attacked by fluffy dogs and zombie boys

This book explores a couple different ideas that I found interesting. One is how children interact with the world. Danny is only five when the story takes place, but in some ways he is old for his age. His father is an abusive drunk who has gone on the wagon, so Danny is familiar with random acts of violence. Maybe this is the secret to his equanimity. Take the following excerpt for example. Danny has just been attacked by a firehouse:

“It was nothing to be afraid of. Why, he could go back and put that hose right into its frame, if he wanted to. he could, but he didn’t think he would. Because what if it had chased him and had gone back when it saw that it couldn’t…quite…catch him?” (p. 174)

This sequence is familiar to one from “Salem’s Lot” where the young boy is able to accept the vampire attack – and thus lives- while his father rejects the idea and perishes. Almost the entire novel of “IT” centers on that idea, too. King must realize that childish coping mechanisms, pulling the blanket under your feet so the monsters can’t get you, are more effective than adult ones.

I could go on and on, but instead here are some of my favorite quotes from the book.

“Still grinning, her huge marble eyes fixed on him, she was sitting up. Her dead palms made squittering noises on the porcelain. Her breasts swayed like ancient cracked punching bags.” (p. 217)

“Ordinarily he liked all of his characters, the good and the bad. he was glad he did. It allowed him to try to see all of their sides and understand their motivation more clearly.” (257)

“Medoc, are you here? I’ve been sleepwalking again, my dear…” (p.280)

“In his faded tartan bathrobe…he looked to her like an absurd twentieth-century Hamlet, an indecisive figure so mesmerized by onrushing tragedy that he was helpless to divert its course or alter it in any way.” (p297)

Lowdown:

Still a scary-ass book.

Bodycount: 1

Total bodycount: 500, 18 unaccounted for, one dog, and two towns burned down