The Shining (1977)

1976, it would turn out, was the last year to date not to feature some kind of Stephen King release. Sure, there have been some close calls (1985 was just Skeleton Crew, a story collection, and 1988 had only the photo-book Nightmares in the Sky), but in 1976, unless you count the Carrie movie, it was The Year Without a King. I'd like to think that this had something to do with making his third book his best one to date, something special and a giant leap forward from 'Salem's Lot. While The Shining, especially in light (no pun intended) of a critically acclaimed adaptation a few years later, enjoys a reputation of being one of King's finest books, it isn't completely perfect. However, I'll save the nitpicks for further down.

Can a place that has witnessed decades of horrors and atrocities absorb them all and become "infected" itself with ghosts? According to Stephen King, that would be a strong affirmative. It isn't really clear if the place had always been that way and was a magnet for trouble, or if the stain of a corrupt past made the Overlook an evil place. Either way, by the time Wendy and Jack Torrance and their son Danny show up, the place has developed a nasty reputation. Furthermore, as the plot unfolds, it appears the Overlook has a mind of its own and it feeds off psychic energy. Danny has "The Shine", an overpowering psychic energy. Not everyone has this or in the same amount. According to the narrative, Dick Halloran, the Overlook chef cook, has a decent amount, while Wendy has very little, and Jack has none at all. It is clear that Danny is who the hotel wants - for what exactly, I can't say. The different characters react differently to the Overlook's nightly assaults. Wendy, for example, doesn't seem to pick up an anything ethereal, but can see the "physical" manifestations of the Overlook's ghosts: the streamers and confetti, and the alcohol that Jack somehow managed to ingest. Jack, on the other hand, is more susceptible to the Overlook than any other character. Although Halloran can detect no shine in Jack, his tortured past, his guilt, and craving for recognition make him the perfect "host" that the hotel can pour all of its darkness into. Danny falls somewhere in the middle, attacked by the hotel (in room 217 and the playground), but not consumed by it. By the end of the novel, Jack is obliterated by the Overlook, and Danny's recognition of this ends up being what saves him. While he is unswerving loyal to his father, in spite of all his faults, when he is finally able to separate Overlook Monster Jack from his father, he is able to rebuff him.

Although there is an extensive chain of events that bring Jack and his family to the Overlook, King leaves the question open as to if it was all predestined. As the novel clearly indicates, someone with a good "shine" need not be in the same room, city, or state to communicate it to others. So it isn't completely implausible that the Overlook, as a center of darkness, could "detect" Danny and put a plan in motion to draw him in, using Jack as its primary vessel. Jack, of course, is the most vulnerable character of the three and easily exploited by the Overlook, to the point that by the end it has completely eclipsed his identity, as Danny rightly notes. If this is all the case, it lays out of a very deterministic model of life, where everything has been scripted out for us by more powerful entities, and we merely follow along the path laid out for us. Having studied some philosophy this fall, it is not an unfamiliar concern of great thinkers throughout history. How much free will do we think we have?

The Shining heralded numerous improvements in Stephen King's writing and marked the beginning of new territory. In the mid-1970's King and his family moved to Boulder, Colorado, providing him with a new backdrop for his writing. While the previous two novels were almost exclusively set in Maine, this book is entirely in Colorado except for the flashbacks. Colorado, of course, would also provide a home base for the good guys in the next novel, The Stand, which continued the trend of expansiveness in King's writing. Just as King "gets" Maine pretty well in his novels, based on my recent trip to Colorado, he really picks up the flavor of the remote Rockies quite well in his prose.

The novel also pulls a reverse on the tone of 'Salem's Lot in that the writer is no longer the hero, but instead the villain, albeit a sympathetic one (or perhaps even just pathetic at times). Ben is the writer as hero, the returning warrior who wisely investigates evil and acts upon it to the best of his ability. He's had a tough go of it previous to his return to Jerusalem's Lot, but appears to have put the past behind him and is capable of facing new challenges with a clear mind. Jack, on the other hand, is a broken man, vainly trying to put the pieces back together. In Danny's mind, it seems like getting to the Overlook is the first step in his father's restoration. Unfortunately, unlike Ben, all of Jack's demons are instead conjured out of him by the cursed hotel, and instead of rising up, he fatally falls apart. While it isn't all that unusual for writers to make their author-characters more potent and heroic than life, it is a bold move for King to pull an about-face and effectively reveal his own dark side in novel form. Whether or not he's trying to also explain that his own dark side was beyond his control, I will leave up to serious lit-crit people to decide.

Finally, some writing problems that are prominent in Stephen King's early works still persist in The Shining. Female characters remain problematic. Wendy is a doormat of a character, trapped between her possessed husband and psychic child. As previously noted, she seems the most oblivious to any haunting other than the most physical manifestations, as well as the impacts on the other two. At least this time the lead female character did not end up turning into vampire fodder or straight up dying. Almost the entire rest of the novel's (non-ghost) cast is male, so Wendy is pretty much all there is. Racial diversity isn't exactly in King's wheelhouse either at this time, but Halloran is a major development and a surprisingly major figure in the book that I didn't expect based on my Kubrick-level understanding of the novel prior to now. And let's be honest, this is the guy who gave us The Shawshank Redemption, so, as they tell the gay teens, it gets better, if this is your biggest concern about Stephen King.

There is a lot more that can be said, but much of it has to do with comparing the movie and the miniseries to the novel, so more will be examined soon!