Mario the lone bookwolf's Reviews > The Shining

When MC Johnny is in the haunted mountain hotel house, twins can raise their axes and sway to the beat of the barkeepers´ whispering background vibe

Maybe just so popular because of the movie
I´ve read a ton of Kings´ novels, some already 2 times, and must say that this is a good, but by far not one of his best works. It has some freaking labyrinth, bathroom, parenting, and insanity axe murder moments, but besides that, there is much less terror, paranormal activity, and horror than one would expect and hope for. One could call it subtle and slowly accelerating in suspense and action, but subjectively it´s just not unleashing its full potential. Its close to only focus is on going insane in an isolated place and thereby facing ones´ demons, talking with ghosts, and self-doubt. I honestly even was a bit disappointed, because I know the better, harder, and far cooler King who switches perspectives, has big picture scenes, and much more badass characters than just stumbling fathers with alcohol problems.

Many autobiographical undertones in the horror hotel
There is so much personal King in this, his fear of wasps, not liking a kid, being a writer and substance abuser, probably even some relationship problems, especially in combination with the mentioned bad parenting and being high as heck tendencies. Not sure about that, he mentioned other inspirations in interviews, prefaces, and lectures, but because of his tendency to kind of use writing as a self reflection and therapy session, one can assume that there might have been the one or other epic Tabitha vs Stephen battle or King vs his kids, especially his son, that laid the groundwork.

Psi powers penetrate mental sanity
Going insane in the membrane on a wacky holiday trip has never been so much fun, especially because the issues and frustrations of the main protagonist are the foundation for escalation towards total bonkers status. A stable, happy person might have found a better way to deal with career and relationship problems, but that would have been a pretty boring attempt and not half as cool as good old letting the anger out before it hurts the hater, instead leaving everyone else as a victim or dead. That´s much better for the salvation of the ones that also caused the whole mess.

Alternative family therapy, anger management, bonding, and teambuilding methods
No matter what the friendlier, calmer approaches might tell, some in you face methods of innovative, new therapeutic schools recommend just unleashing ones´ anger, maybe accompanied by visualizing ones´ demons until they manifest as if they are real and give more, even greater tips and tricks to handle the situation.

How much could be real?
With all that quantum, parallel universe, time travel, extra dimension stuff, one really doesn´t know what will come out in centuries or millennia when 4567 scientists will use their instruments to find correlations between physics, death, haunted place, and possibly even souls, demons, and damned sex succubi. Maybe we just haven´t figured out how to construct the right equipment to see that we are surrounded by myriads of emanating reminiscences of billions of years of evolution and trillions of immortal, multi dimensional consciences that are created with each physical body.

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique
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