Stephen King: The Shining (1978, Signet)
Published Oct. 1, 1978 by Signet.
Jack Torrance, his wife Wendy, and their young son Danny move into the Overlook Hotel, where Jack has been hired as the winter caretaker. Cut off from civilization for months, Jack hopes to battle alcoholism and uncontrolled rage while writing a play. Evil forces residing in the Overlook – which has a long and violent history – covet young Danny for his precognitive powers and exploit Jack’s weaknesses to try to claim the boy. ([source][1])
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Jack Torrance, his wife Wendy, and their young son Danny move into the Overlook Hotel, where Jack has been hired as the winter caretaker. Cut off from civilization for months, Jack hopes to battle alcoholism and uncontrolled rage while writing a play. Evil forces residing in the Overlook – which has a long and violent history – covet young Danny for his precognitive powers and exploit Jack’s weaknesses to try to claim the boy. ([source][1])
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Como la mayoría de libros de King. Los mejores rasgos de la humanidad luchando a muerte contra los peores hacen de esta historia algo con lo que cualquiera puede conectar.
Content warning Very minor spoilers of foreshadowing elements early on in the book
Has the makings for a real good horror novel, but it just overexplains too much. For example, the wasps nest could've been really good symbolism/foreshadowing but then the meaning is literally explained to the reader. Same with Jack sleepwalking initially and the Medoc poem, it could be good but he repeats the relevant poem line later on and ruins the subtlety.
And for the obligatory film/book comparison, they're really not the same at all, the only similarity is the general premise and a few details and that's about it. I prefer Hallorann's character in the book, and wish it was like that in the film, because him just dying right away and having no character in the film sucks. I love the ambiguousness of the film though, the book is 100% guaranteed to be the evil hotel, while the film could've been purely Jack going crazy other than the one singular hint in the concluding shot.
Content warning The Shining Movie/Book Spoilers
Loved the Kubrick version since forever, my spouse needled me into finally reading the novel. Very well executed, very Stephen King-y horror.
One thing I found interesting is how the movie and book treat differently the moral agency of Jack Torrance as he descends into murder and mayhem. The Kubrick film, to me, commits to an ambiguity of whether we are seeing the actions of "Jack Torrance", perhaps amplified by the evil spirits in the Overlook. It feels like the horror we are seeing is part of Jack, that he is at least somewhat responsible for what he does.
Whereas the novel tells us very explicitly that Wendy and Danny believe they are no longer seeing Jack, but "The Hotel" in Jack's body is menacing them. I have a longer harebrained theory about what this means for Jack's character, but it's an interesting difference either way
La verdad es que durante la lectura he tenido muy presente la película de Kubrick, incluso la versión-parodia de Los Simpson (El Resplandior) cuya frase: "sin tele y sin cerveza Homer pierde la chaveta", no me he podido quitar de la cabeza y quieras que no acaba influyendo en la lectura.
Con esta lectura me ha pasado como con algunas de Stephen King, mejor dicho solo me ha pasado también con IT, que acababa por agobiarme y no por la ambientación, sino porque, hasta llegar al meollo de la acción se extiende mucho detallando, en este caso, la vida de los personajes. Y al final acababa perdiendo el interés en la novela.
Es cierto que la película de Kubrick "ha hecho daño" en el sentido en que tengo más en mente la historia de El Resplandor que cuenta Kubrick que la que cuenta King. Y también porque refleja muy bien …
La verdad es que durante la lectura he tenido muy presente la película de Kubrick, incluso la versión-parodia de Los Simpson (El Resplandior) cuya frase: "sin tele y sin cerveza Homer pierde la chaveta", no me he podido quitar de la cabeza y quieras que no acaba influyendo en la lectura.
Con esta lectura me ha pasado como con algunas de Stephen King, mejor dicho solo me ha pasado también con IT, que acababa por agobiarme y no por la ambientación, sino porque, hasta llegar al meollo de la acción se extiende mucho detallando, en este caso, la vida de los personajes. Y al final acababa perdiendo el interés en la novela.
Es cierto que la película de Kubrick "ha hecho daño" en el sentido en que tengo más en mente la historia de El Resplandor que cuenta Kubrick que la que cuenta King. Y también porque refleja muy bien el ambiente claustrofóbico y de terror que se supone que narra la novela. Además de convertirse en un icono del terror cinematográfico.
En sí la novela no está tan mal. Pero, en este caso el debate de "si pelicula o novela" para mi lo ganaría la pelicula o la version-parodia.
With a debut novel this exciting, disturbing, featuring such rich social commentary, and some of the most sympathetic characters in modern horror, it is no surprise why Stephen King is a household name.
I read this in college when I was staying in the dorm, that was converted hotel in Chicago, over winter break. It seems Chicago, it was cold and snowy. It being that it was winter break, it was almost empty. What I mean to say is that the surrounding was perfect for fitting the story. I had actually seen the movie, but, as usual, the book was quite different – although the theme and overall feeling was very much the same. I am not a Stephen King in, for the most part, but this was a good book. I do wish that it had been a little closer to the movie which added some things that the book did not. Overall, a reasonable experience.
