o is for the overlook

the overlook hotel, ladies and gentlemen. jean-lucien really should be the one writing this; i've said as much before. i just hooked this shot tonight. i had several screen captures to choose from, but for some reason, this one seemed to indicate the surrounding surreal hotel better than most of them. the sophisticated 'sit down' with a sage, fellow clairvoyant, the almost-royal silver dish of chocolate ice cream, complete with a silver spoon... all of it tastes like an official 'changing of the guard.' and perhaps that is not unintentional. i've read the book, and although purists might disgaree, it seems to me as if halloran (scatman crothers) was interviewing young, angelic danny for the position of 'caretaker' in much the same way that ullmann was interviewing his father, jack. he seems to be asking danny, as best he can, if he can 'handle the workload,' ... an unconventional workload that incorporates the psychological stress of isolation, the burdens of personal responsibility, and the lonely bewilderment that results from the supernatural perception of past grizzly acts.

j is for jack

...saucy jack torrance. my mate jean-lucien is the authority on 'the shining.' i remember the school year where he walked around with a hardcover copy of that book. he read it over and over until he knew it so well he could complete any quote he was cued with. it IS an incredible book. i think i read it once myself. i found myself oddly drawn to 'carrie.' i read 'carrie' over and over again. i'd never read anything like it, and i still marvel at its simple delivery and its complex construction. it makes sense, now that i think of it; that i should gravitate to a King book so steeped in the carnal cruelties of girlhood and the bullish will of telekenises, and jean-lucien should embrace a tale of such ethereal boyish innocence. a boy captured in a helpless waltz with the reluctant revalations of Extrasensory Perception and the unbending demands of Society. my darling brother had one hand in mine, and the other in the fast cold palm of Fear. i want him to know my hands were similarly tied. either way you go, its a path too rich with Knowledge to be entirely comfortable.