The Caul – the old wives tale (click here)
Then the doctor told her quite sternly that she must PUSH, and she did, and then she felt something being taken from her. It was a clear and distinct feeling, one she would never forget-the thing taken. Then the doctor held her son up by the legs-she had seen his tiny sex and known he was a boy immediately- and as the doctor groped for the air mask, she had seen something else, something so horrible that she found the strength to scream again after she had thought all screams were used up:
He has no face!
But of course there had been a face, Danny's own sweet face, and the caul that had covered it at birth now resided in a small jar, which she had kept, almost shamefully. She did not hold with old superstition, but she had kept the caul nevertheless. She did not hold with wives' tales, but the boy had been unusual from the first. She did not believe in second sight but —
Did Daddy have an accident? I dreamed Daddy had an accident.
Something had changed him. She didn't believe it was just her getting ready to ask for a divorce that had done it. Something had happened before that morning. Something that had happened while she slept uneasily. Al Shockley said that nothing had happened, nothing at all, but he had averted his eyes when he said it, and if you believed faculty gossip, Al had also climbed aboard the fabled wagon.
Did Daddy have an accident?
Maybe a chance collision with fate, surely nothing much more concrete. She had read that day's paper and the next day's with a closer eye than usual, but she saw nothing she could connect with Jack. God help her, she had been looking for a hit-and-run accident or a barroom brawl that had resulted in serious injuries
or ... who knew? Who wanted to? But no policeman came to call, either to ask questions or with a warrant empowering him to take paint scrapings from the WV's bumpers. Nothing. Only her husband's one hundred and eighty degree change and her son's sleepy question on waking:
Did Daddy have an accident? I dreamed ...
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
The Black and White Photo in the Film.
Stanley Kubrick has Jack posed in the final photo of "The Shining",
as the devil.
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as the devil.
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The Black and White Photo in Stephen Kings Novel.
Here is the only clue to the final July 4th picture you can find in the novel. It's mentioned on page 191 (Chapter 33).
“In that instant, kneeling there, everything came clear to him… In those few seconds [Jack] understood everything. There was a certain black-and-white picture he remembered seeing as a child, in catechism class… a jumble of whites and blacks… Then one of the children in the third row had gasped, "It's Jesus!" …. "I see Him! I see Him!" … Everyone had seen the face of Jesus in the jumble of blacks and whites except Jacky… when everyone else had tumbled their way up from the church basement and out onto the street he had lingered behind… He hated it… It was a big fake… [But] as he turned to go he had seen the face of Jesus from the corner of his eye… He turned back, his heart in his throat. Everything had suddenly clicked into place and he had stared at the picture with fearful wonder, unable to believe he had missed it… Looking at Jack Torrance. What had only been a meaningless sprawl had suddenly been transformed into a stark black-and-white etching of the face of Christ Our Lord. Fearful wonder became terror. He had cussed in front of a picture of Jesus. He would be damned. He would be in hell with the sinners. The face of Christ had been in the picture all along. All along.”
He's describing this very popular black & white photo that floated around in the seventies where you have to find the hidden image of Jesus. Either you see it or you don't.
.
“In that instant, kneeling there, everything came clear to him… In those few seconds [Jack] understood everything. There was a certain black-and-white picture he remembered seeing as a child, in catechism class… a jumble of whites and blacks… Then one of the children in the third row had gasped, "It's Jesus!" …. "I see Him! I see Him!" … Everyone had seen the face of Jesus in the jumble of blacks and whites except Jacky… when everyone else had tumbled their way up from the church basement and out onto the street he had lingered behind… He hated it… It was a big fake… [But] as he turned to go he had seen the face of Jesus from the corner of his eye… He turned back, his heart in his throat. Everything had suddenly clicked into place and he had stared at the picture with fearful wonder, unable to believe he had missed it… Looking at Jack Torrance. What had only been a meaningless sprawl had suddenly been transformed into a stark black-and-white etching of the face of Christ Our Lord. Fearful wonder became terror. He had cussed in front of a picture of Jesus. He would be damned. He would be in hell with the sinners. The face of Christ had been in the picture all along. All along.”
He's describing this very popular black & white photo that floated around in the seventies where you have to find the hidden image of Jesus. Either you see it or you don't.
.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
A13
Jack has no business in that final picture, as he's an utter failure in all of his endeavors. The Overlook's walls are reserved for, “all the best people” and him being in the center of the July 4th photo is the opposite of what you would expect. He didn't "correct" his family the same way Grady did.
What we are looking at in the July 4th photo is another vision like Grady's daughters, “Remember what Mr. Hallorann said. It's just like pictures in a book, Danny. It isn't real.”
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What we are looking at in the July 4th photo is another vision like Grady's daughters, “Remember what Mr. Hallorann said. It's just like pictures in a book, Danny. It isn't real.”
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