Oh, how dare you. How can you even lump “The Shining” in with “mass market paper back” books? I know, I know. The thing is The Shining was Stephen King’s first best selling hard back novel. His first two novels, Carrie and Salem’s Lot were the epitome of the paper back novel in modern times some would argue.
King suffered a personal loss in the form of his Mother’s death to cancer and decided to move to Boulder Colorado. His stay in the Stanley hotel had inspired him to bring his idea of a boy with psychic powers, and dreams coming to life to complete idea, The Shining. Similar to our main example of mass market paper back novels it was not until the novels Thousand Sons, and Prospero Burns that the Horus Heresy start ranking in the top 20s of the New York Times Best sellers list. The Shining, much like those previous books put Stephen King not just on the map, but cemented Stephen King as one of the contemporary gods of the horror genre. Of course it needs to be mentioned that Stanley Kubrick’s movie adaptation of the book did no small part to increase King’s fame. Much like the popularity around Pet Cemetery however, King wasn’t exactly impressed with the pop culture abortion of his work in the form of adaptation.
The plot of The Shining in a nut shell is a family moves to a hotel to get away from their past difficulties(mainly the alcoholism of the father Jack). This hotel however is haunted by the malicious spirits of its own dark past. Jack’s son has what is referred to as the shining, a latent psychic set of abilities which allow Jack’s son Danny to basically “see dead people.”. Disturbed by the visions of the hotels dark forces it is this awareness that perhaps prevents the hotel from possessing Danny, along with his child like nature. Jack on the other hand is not so lucky, and finds his guilty past turned against him as a mental weapon of the dark forces to possess him. Over time Jack losses his mind and is turned towards harming his own family. I’ll leave my summary there so to not ruin the ending of this excellent novel.
Speaking on the main topic of this blog the book is full of allegory, but much like the Horus Heresy novels, is primarily just a thrilling/entertaining read. The main thing I’d like to point out though is the aspect of the importance of not “growing old.” “Growing old” is a concept that is separate from the reality of aging as it is the method of facing age with a defeatist attitude. Jack is borderline “growing old” when the novel opens, and it is the growing defeatism in his life that perhaps allows the dark forces to easily gain control of him. It plays on his poor attitude and creates a sense of no future for Jack that allows his mind to contemplate harming his own family. Danny on the other hand is saved literally by playing. Trapped in the hotel, and the only one capable of seeing the horrors of the hotel all the time due to his abilities, Danny is someone resistant to the forces due to his child like nature. His abilities leave him visually vulnerable, but as the book explains it are more of a catalyst for the dark forces, as if they’re feeding off his psychic abilities. Much like how chaos operates in Warhammer 40k, perhaps another slight influence in thinking for those novels here. Due to his presence the forces become powerful enough to propel the plot at all as they’re manifesting into reality with him as an anchor point, a bridge if you will allow me.
All in all The Shining is without a doubt one of King’s most influential works, and a cemented ‘house hold name’ in the horror genre much like Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. If you’re looking for a good psycho thriller to read in anticipation of All Hallows’ Eve I highly recommend it. If you don’t have time for the book, despite King’s reservation, I think it is a great scary movie to turn the lights down to as well.
unappliedsemantics 