THE SHINING
a reading by Alan Ewing
The Shining novel differs in many aspects from the Stanley Kubrick movie. In the book there are scenes that are different or unused in the film. The wasps’ nest scenes are only in the book, while the maze in Kubrick’s cinematic have no place in the written work which instead has a series of animal hedges that move..
The character of Jack Torrance is the biggest difference between the works, in the movie Jack is driven solely by the ghouls and monsters that haunt The Overlook Hotel. In the novel it is his own monstrous thoughts about violence in his childhood which carries over into his adult life that hounds him King says in his introduction that in his only conversation with Kubrick that they discussed whether our thoughts are the monsters that give us or is it supernatural forces. For Kubrick, says King, it was clearly the latter that came out in his version of “The Shining.” It is psychological horror that King deals with, with hallucinations arising from that.
Jack is a deeper character in the book. A school teacher/writer whose career goes wrong following a violent incident with a pupil. He is an avid reader writer. Violence flares again though when he breaks his son’s arm in chastisement. The threat of divorce lingers in the air from his way Wendy. Jack is remorseful about what he did to Danny, He lives in terror of being caught out by his father’s violence and how it has crossed into him. He loved his father though the beatings in childhood caused damage to him, his siblings and their mother.
The supernatural element to the novel chiefly lies in Danny, with his gift of the shine, it is clear that Jack has no ability in this, while Wendy only has a little. Only Danny can see what is happening. The rest is psychological violence and the input of violent people into our lives. The thoughts and emotions that are left behind are like those of ghosts of the past. The whole point of the novel lies within this.
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