The Shining

As far as '[insert type of media here] as art' goes I tend to be a pretty big sucker. If you can convince me that you put something of yourself into a task, and can make me feel a certain way when I experience it, then you have accomplished 'art' in its simplest form.

This is NOT to say that just because the vague description of 'art' above fits any particular item, that I have positive feelings towards the item.

Case in point, Stanley Kubrick. I've never been a fan of him at all, I think his style is gaudy and goofy. However, I respect him for what he accomplished in film and for never taking the easy way out.

Out of all of his films, the only one I can re-watch and only one I would ever consider owning, is 'The Shining'. Watching Nicholson completely command the camera in that film will always intrigue me. But there are many elements of the story that never made sense to me, the story itself seemed to be undecided as to whether it was about cabin fever or ghosts and supernatural temptations. After being frustrated with the end of the film for the 10th or so time I decided it was time to see if reading the book would solve the mysteries.

There are 2 aspects of the book that stood out to me as being outstanding. The first is character development and completely trumps the characters in the film. The characters in the film are the definition of one-dimensional. Jack acts crazy. Wendy is the protective and terrified mother. Danny is the messed up creepy kid.

Throughout the story I truly felt sympathy for the father the whole time for what he was going through. Anger is something that everyone has to deal with, and King just shows you a person who's cap on anger is just slightly higher than it should be, resulting in his own slow self destruction.

I felt proud of the mother and how she starts as an overprotective boring stereotypical frightened young mother, to a women of strength and wisdom.

I felt terrified for the child as he began to realize what was truly going on around him, that it was in a way his fault, and that there was little he could do to stop it.

And, surprisingly, the character I felt the strongest emotion for in this book was the Overlook Hotel. It has such a monstrous presence in this book and there is no moral qualms that exist within it. It IS evil. Not as in 'it is acting evil', but more like 'the definition of evil'. To me this is a very impressive set of emotions to invoke from an individual about a building and continues to surprise me as I think about the book in writing this post.

The other interesting aspect in the story is a feeling of true drive from King as an author. I've read a few other King books (Cell, and all the Dark Tower books) and I've noticed that he doesn't seem to mind meandering around to get to the point. But in 'The Shining' he puts all that aside. Every paragraph, sentence and word is exactly where it needs to be and there should be no more and no less than there is.

In a world of 'Heroes', 'Lost', and 'Saw' its refreshing to experience a story (albeit one from 1977) that relies on the author's confidence in a solid plot rather than their ability to keep information from you until released in a deluge of cleverness.

I feel that it should be my job as a reviewer to also express the negative aspects, but I honestly cannot come up with anything at all worth mentioning. I just can't say enough good things about this story.

Info/First Post

In an attempt to become a better writer and speaker I intend to keep up with this blog by reviewing songs, movies, books or any other kind of media that catches my eye.

The title of the blog is in reference to the famous parental remark of 'because I said so!'. Sometimes, in my own mind, this is how I hear myself when describing something that I have categorized as 'good' or 'bad' and I don't want to become someone who doesn't understand their own motivations.

I'm not sure what I will review first but I'm nearing the end of the famous (or possibly infamous) Stephen King's The Shining so that might be a place to start.