Sad Danny

I have begun Doctor Sleep. And it is sad.

It begins right where The Shining left off, with Danny and his mother, Wendy, trying to start a new life. And we learn that not all of the souls at the Overlook died with the hotel.

King is very good at keeping his characters true to life. And poor Danny Torrance, with his ability to "shine" (or see things that no one else can), has turned to booze to help dull the shine. One can see how someone with this ability could certainly be driven to the bottle, if not entirely mad, by seeing what humans weren't meant to see.

There is a subplot happening with what may be a vampire-type cult, but it is barely explored and hasn't crossed Danny's path yet. I'm curious to see what happens there, however.

All in all, so far, King is still doing what he does best - creating a world that feels so real, I feel like I'm friends with these people. And I can't put the book down!

Sidenote regarding bad guys

In The Shining, there are hedge animals just past the playground on the hotel grounds. Jack and Danny both have a terrifying (even to read) experience with them, wherein the animals never move while you're looking at them, but if you turn your back, you may here a rustle of leaves and turn around to see the hedge lion 5 feet closer to you, and the hedge dog crouched instead of sitting up, ready to pounce.

This reminded me of one of the scariest villains in my husband's favorite show, Doctor Who - the weeping angels. These terrifying statues move lightning-fast when no one is looking at them, which is why the initial episode featuring them was called, "Don't Blink."

Anyways, it just made me wonder if maybe Steven Moffat, head writer on Who, wasn't influenced (consciously or not) by King's book.

Are we there yet?

I'm nearly done with The Shining. And it feels like it's taken forever.

Maybe because I watched the movie halfway through my reading. Maybe because I keep comparing what I'm reading to the movie that has been a part of my Halloween routine for two decades. Maybe because every night my husband asks, "So where are you now? Like, what part does it correlate to in the movie?" Maybe because I keep falling asleep after about 45 minutes of reading and my husband has to remove my Kindle from my limp hand and turn the lamp off.

But the stories are very different. VERY different. I understand now why Stephen King has always hated this movie that I've found endlessly fascinating - because the spirit is not quite the same.

Of course, there are details that are different, little setting tweaks and minor plot points adjusted. But the soul of the story just isn't the same. But the thing is, I love both. I love the way Kubrick used the most tooth-cracking, jarring music to create an atmosphere. I love the way King can make something as simple as a hedge animal make me grab my husband's hand across the bed for comfort. I love the way Kubrick's Jack seems completely insane, and I love the way King's Jack battles so hard to keep his fingertip-grip on his sanity, just to lose it in the end.

I love this story. However it's told.

I am, though, excited to finish up and move on to another book. Likely, it will be King's follow up featuring a grown-up Danny Torrance, Doctor Sleep.

Because once you've been touched by The Shining, you just can't let it go.

Kubrick does dialogue like King

My husband has never seen The Shining. Ever.

How he made it to 30 without experiencing this masterpiece, I'll never know. But last weekend I set about to remedy that.

I have never watched a movie in the middle of reading the same book. It goes against everything I believe about separating film and page. But I really really really wanted him to watch it. So we did.

Strangely enough, about a quarter of the way in, JD (my husband) commented about the dialogue.

"It almost feels like Kubrick directed these guys to be stiff and weird with their lines. It's unnatural, and I know, at the very least, Jack Nicholson is a better actor than this."

I had to pause the movie. I couldn't believe he had noticed the same thing I had noticed in the book. We talked about it for a little bit, and decided maybe it was to make Jack's psychotic 180 later in the story be that much more shocking.

He ended up loving the movie, both visually and as an amazing story. And he hates horror. So I'm counting this one as a win.

It was strange going back to the book, though. I had to backtrack a bit to remember exactly where I was in the book. I'm interested to see how things play out differently. The hedge maze, which is so crucial to the climax of the movie, doesn't exist in the book. There are hedge animals instead, which I'm anticipating will be much more frightening.

It's just unnatural

As I believe I may have mentioned, I am a lifelong King fan. His characters are always well-developed, dialogue is always believable, and, frankly, he scares the hell out of me.

I'm about 25% through The Shining (no more quotes around titles - that just got obnoxious in the last post), and I haven't been scared yet. I know it's coming, so I'm ok being patient.

However, I'm struggling with the Torrances. They just don't seem like real people to me. I think part of the problem is that King is telling this story from more of a strict third-person perspective, rather than from each of the characters' perspectives. Additionally, I just read the most junky, clunky, awkward bit of dialogue between Jack and Wendy that made me stop, look up, and say right out loud, "Man, ol' Steve was definitely just getting started when he wrote this book." 

Little Danny, with all his telepathic "shining," is still a lovely character, and I know King will use my love of children against me later in the book.

Finally, an excuse.

I love reading. I have been doing it since I was three, and my mother got me a subscription to "Barbie Magazine."

I also love talking about what I'm reading. So guess how jazzed I was to learn that my grade depends on doing just that!

Right now I am reading "The Shining" by Stephen King.

I have been a King fan since I finished all of my mother's V.C. Andrews books (remember "Flowers in the Attic?") in 4th grade. She handed me "Rose Madder" and I was hooked. In sixth grade I got to sit outside of King's house in Maine, imagining all the genius happening behind that wrought-iron fence, inside those deep maroon walls. And I have loved the movie version of  "The Shining" for almost as long. But I have never read the book.

King just released "Doctor Sleep," a sequel to "The Shining" with Danny Torrance ("REDRUM!") as an adult. I knew I would be remiss to skip the first book, and I'm desperate to read the second, so now, every night, I find myself confined in The Overlook in Colorado with Danny, Wendy and Jack.

It's suffocating, but fascinating.