One of my favortie reads was The Shining! I was less of a fan of the movie versions... they were fine in their own rights, but didn't match up to the book.
Comments?
One of my favortie reads was The Shining! I was less of a fan of the movie versions... they were fine in their own rights, but didn't match up to the book.
Comments?
Last edited by Erin; 12-07-2007 at 02:44 PM. Reason: added spoiler icon to the thread
Buddy, you think you look strong? You’re wearing a cape.
The Shining's up there in my Top Ten favorite Stephen King books. Jack Torrance is also one my favorite SK characters.
I dislike both adaptations, though. Kubrick's pissed me off and King's just embarrassed me.
The Shining was the first Steven King book I ever read. My highschool girlfriend got me into it. The rest is kinda history.
The Shining is the only Stephen King novel that I've actually found frightening. It's just do damn creepy (imo).
I like the Kubrick movie version mainly because I thought it captured the isolation of the Overlook Hotel as well Torrance's growing madness.
The Shining was my first King book as well. I read it when I was thirteen and it scared the crap out of me.
I liked the Kubrik version, but King's didn't do a thing for me. It was fun to watch for the scenery - I live about 45 minutes from the Stanley and was cracking up at how they did some of the camera angles to hide what was really there - if you only knew that a giant parking lot was behind those actors on some of those mountain view shots.
"People, especially children, aren't measured by their IQ. What's important about them is whether they're good or bad, and these children are bad." ~ Alan Bernard
"You needn't die happy when your day comes, but you must die satisfied, for you have lived your life from beginning to end and ka is always served." ~ Roland Deschain
The Shining was my first King novel also. I read it circa 1978.
Here is some information I've gathered:
The Shining
The Shining was published in 1977 by Doubleday with an issue price of $8.95.” First Edition” stated on the Copyright page, on page 447 is the gutter code R49
Current price for a F/F 1st edition (IMHO): $400-$500.
To date the book has sold over 4 million copies.
The following is loosely plagiarized from Stephen King: The Art of Darkness.
After completing the manuscript for ‘Salem’s Lot, King wrote the novella “The Body” (later published in Different Seasons). He and his family moved to Colorado in the late summer of 1974 for an extended vacation. He began to write a novel loosely based on the Patricia Hearst kidnapping., tentatively titled The House on Value Street, and destined ultimately to become The Stand. The book was not progressing well and one night in the early fall the setting for The Shining presented itself:
QUOTE
In late September of 1974 Tabby and I spent a night at a grand old Hotel in Estes Park, The Stanley. We were the only guests as the following day the place closed for the winter. Wandering through its corridors, I thought that it seemed to be the perfect-maybe the archetypical –setting for a ghost story.
From wikipedia The Shining novel:
•Originally there was a prologue titled "Before the Play" that chronicled earlier events in the Overlook's nightmarish history and a disturbing interlude in which a young Jack Torrance is abused and has his arm broken by his alcoholic father, while a voice tells him that "what you see is what you'll be". It was removed from the finished manuscript, although it was later published in the magazines Whisper and TV Guide (the latter to promote King's new miniseries adaptation of the novel).
Shining was great. Loved aspects of the Kubrick version more (axe instead of mallet, maze ending) but both were great. The book explained more of the history and the hotel as a living entity and a gateway than just an evil place.
I kind of found the book to be more of a mystery... learning the history of the hotel. That was missing in the movies.
Buddy, you think you look strong? You’re wearing a cape.
If I can EVER find my Stanley Hotel pics...I'll scan and post here. You'll love them!
"People, especially children, aren't measured by their IQ. What's important about them is whether they're good or bad, and these children are bad." ~ Alan Bernard
"You needn't die happy when your day comes, but you must die satisfied, for you have lived your life from beginning to end and ka is always served." ~ Roland Deschain
CAN'T WAIT!
Buddy, you think you look strong? You’re wearing a cape.
Those are the best kind of remakes. I've heard 'The Thing' and 'The Fly' vary greatly from the original but I've yet to see them. All the remakes nowadays (if I've seen the original) are close to shot for shot remakes. I'd love to see a remake of Nightmare on Elm Street, done right...unlike Halloween.
The Shining is also one of my fave King books... but you bring up the movies and I have not seen the King written TNT one...
I went to see the original with Nicholson way back when it first came out and I had read the book before I went. That was my lesson in why you don't do that. I went to that movie expecting to see what I had in my mind while reading the book on screen - and that - to say the least didn't happen. So for many many years I would not go see a movie based on a book I had read.
I can watch the original now and appreciate it (somewhat) - though Shelly Duval ruined it for me - then and now; Kubrick missed the essence of the story by not revisiting the hotel's past- that was one the best parts of the book to me - and the hedge animals - I remeber sitting in that movie theater - waiting to see those hedge animals go after Jack, Danny, Halloran - yep that was my biggest disappointment - I really wanted to see those hedge animals come to life on the Silver Screen.
Well, I went into the way-back machine, and I don't have as many Stanley pics as I thought I did. But I did find these two. I'm guessing these are circa 1995 because I'm pretty sure that dashboard you see is from our old pickup truck.
I guess I'll have to drive my lazy ass up there and take a few in the snow.
"People, especially children, aren't measured by their IQ. What's important about them is whether they're good or bad, and these children are bad." ~ Alan Bernard
"You needn't die happy when your day comes, but you must die satisfied, for you have lived your life from beginning to end and ka is always served." ~ Roland Deschain
You're welcome. Somewhere I had pics of the staircase on the inside, but I can't find them. Hmmm.
"People, especially children, aren't measured by their IQ. What's important about them is whether they're good or bad, and these children are bad." ~ Alan Bernard
"You needn't die happy when your day comes, but you must die satisfied, for you have lived your life from beginning to end and ka is always served." ~ Roland Deschain
I felt that Kubrick captured the essence of the story perfectly. The essence of The Shining was never the history of the hotel but the cabin fever and the denial of who you live with fading away. I never feld any of King's work was about anything except it's character(s). Each member of the family has to hide who they really are to co-exists and all it took as one of them to let a mask slide before everything went to hell.
I justed finished this book last night for the first time. The parts that freaked me out the most were the hedge animals slowly moving and changing their positions. *shiver*
I saw the movie version of the shining when I was a kid and it totally freaked me out. I'd seen the movie several times and so I didn't have a real hurry to read the book. I do not like seeing a movie before the book. It ruins it for me. Anyhoo, the shining the movie and the shining the book are very very different. I really loved the book
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sugarpop <3
I just finished watching the SK miniseries version.
One thing I did like about that version is the Jack Torrence character... in the miniseries, you have more sympathy for him. Also, I like how the hotel WANTS Danny and Jack wants the hotel to WANT him instead... a point very true to the book but not in the Kubrick version.
(don't get me wrong, Nicholson as Jack was creepy and scary... but his version of Jack is not really the same as the book's explanation of the character)
Buddy, you think you look strong? You’re wearing a cape.
The miniseries kicks the Kubrick's version's ass from here to next Wednesday. Kubrick's version hinges entirely on Jack Nicholson's personality and not on the story.
"It's his eyes, Roland thought. They were wide and terrible, the eyes of a dragon in human form" - Roland seeing the Crimson King for the first time.
"When the King comes and the Tower falls, sai, all such pretty things as yours will be broken. Then there will be darkness and nothing but the howl of Discordia and the cries of the can toi" - From Song of Susannah
Well, if you lived in Colorado you'd be spending too much time LMAO at the shots than paying attention to the movie.
Just sayin'.
And, I did not care for the miniseries. At all. I agree it was closer to the book, but I liked Kubrik's take better.
Just my 2 cents.
"People, especially children, aren't measured by their IQ. What's important about them is whether they're good or bad, and these children are bad." ~ Alan Bernard
"You needn't die happy when your day comes, but you must die satisfied, for you have lived your life from beginning to end and ka is always served." ~ Roland Deschain
I think the miniseries was better overall but I do like Kubrik's version because I thought it was scarier.
"It's his eyes, Roland thought. They were wide and terrible, the eyes of a dragon in human form" - Roland seeing the Crimson King for the first time.
"When the King comes and the Tower falls, sai, all such pretty things as yours will be broken. Then there will be darkness and nothing but the howl of Discordia and the cries of the can toi" - From Song of Susannah