Not too long ago I read Ghosts of My Life by Mark Fisher which contains an excellent essay about The Shining. Very typical of Mark Fisher his ideas in that book, along with my own ghosts, have dogged me ever since and so disclaimer, picking up this novel I had this man in mind with every page.

The song I'll Try Anything Once by The Strokes has a lyric which makes me feel queasy whenever I hear it—

Ten decisions shape your life
You'll be aware of five about

And The Shining reminded me of this sick feeling when I read it. There is an excellent passage in the opening describing Jack Torrence breaking his son's arm in a moment of anger: after a very tactile snap, there was a 'clean sound with the past on one side of it and all the future on the other, a sound like a breaking pencil lead or a small piece of kindling when you brought it down over your knee. A moment of utter silence on the other side, in respect to the beginning future maybe, all the rest of his life.' I really felt the pain in this quotation. More so than the breaking of the bone, the previous abuse that fuelled Jack's anger, despite doing all he can to move on, with a simple snap, a decision made quickly to act with violence against his own son, Jack Torrence sets life in motion and seals his own fate. He proves he is unable to escape his own past and is condemned forever to suffer for it.

Stephen King to his credit recreates that queasy feeling so well in The Shining, transforming those anxieties and fears into genuinely horrifying supernatural scenes.

The novel follows Jack Torrence's plan was to take his family away from the things that had hurt them before; the friends who had proved to be a bad influence, the alcohol that had clouded Jack's mind and the worry of money that all had been pushing the family apart and hampering Jack's writing career. Here in this secluded hotel, in isolation, things would be different. But bared naked it would be discovered that everything that had held Jack and his family back was inside of him and his own doing.

This is really the core of the horror in The Shining. I think one of the things that I liked so much about this book is the banality of it all. Of course the supernatural is fantastical but really doesn't everyone have this fantastic idea of themselves? Talking to any random person on the street you'll find that every single one has some kind of sob story to tell— some kind of trauma, abuse or huge obstacle they've had to overcome. The story always has to have romance and tragedy. Jack's is one where a hotel revolts with ghosts and ghouls to kill him, he thinks the world is conspiring against him, that everyone who loves him actually hates him, but the reality is simply that he is a tired loser who beats his kid. Nevertheless the failure is still brutal and violent. The fact that Jack is a loser doesn't make his downfall any less painful to him and his family. I read the novel as allegory, but still I don't dispute that the bludgeoning mallet is an unfit metaphor.

What Jack gives his life up for is similarly dull. The Overlook hotel is stuck in the past with the hope and grittiness of the 1920s and the relieving post war ball dances of the 1940s with lots of sex, romance and mystery. And really how gauche! But with plenty of women and alcohol, Jack ostensibly wants to rot here and endlessly pursue tarts and drink martinis.

With strong foreshadowing it is implied that Jack will pass on this horror to his son Danny to repeat the cycle over and over again.

I think the way Stephen King handled Danny's precognition was really well done too. Danny knows what his parents are thinking intimately but struggles to understand fully. Danny has his own thoughts besides that and of course visions of the future. Despite this knowing, he is ultimately helpless to save his father from the single track road he is heading down. On top of the helplessness, this knowing causes Danny physical pain every time it rears its head:

'His breath was racing now, and the panic was like a rat behind his forehead, twisting and gnawing... Little by little it began to come, but with the rhythm came an awareness of just how tired he was, how much his fear had exhausted him. The tendons of his thighs and calves and ankles were hot and trembly.'

For Danny, his little habit of thinking and knowing too much is a disease carrying rodent eating away at his brain, exhausting him. Again, I really appreciate the tactility and the physicality to the description. How awful to have this disgusting thing inside your head desperate to escape, writhing and and clawing away at you. The irony being that the more Danny knows the more it eats away at him, chewing, gnawing and scurrying in the fashion of rodent. No amount of thinking, self-analysis or therapy will ever quieten this rat. He could read a million self-help books, he could tidy his room and wash his penis but it would not help him escape his past or himself.

I really enjoyed this book. I had a low opinion of Stephen King going into the book (see my Carrie review) but I was surprised by how much I liked this. He captured the dread of the past and future and the terror of regret and hope so well.

He brought the mallet back for a final whistling downstroke and it was fully launched before he saw that the supplicating face below him was not George's but Danny's. It was the face of his son.

'Daddy-'

And then the mallet crashed home, striking Danny right between the eyes, closing them forever.

Forever :(

One last note I will say I think the movie handled the ending better than the book and King does lay on the drama a bit thick sometimes. A more sober telling of the story without the theatrics would make it better but I still liked it.

With credit to Mark Fisher too... </3

Book theme song~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yllZVbDgulU

You ain't ever gonna win the game
Hell kid you don't even know the coach's name
And everything you ever looked up to
Now it's all looking down on you
Trying to see if you can get back up
Out of that hole you climbed into
But they're not expecting much