Michael Kindt's Blog, page 460
October 22, 2011
I'm looking at those photos now and totally cracking up. I can't handle that vehicle - I never could.
So that's your vehicle? Holy shit! Me, I got a little Corolla. hahahaha. It's fucking funny though :)
A Feast For The Eyes:
You're welcome.
"The book was WAY better than the movie."
Not in the case of The Shining, oh, no it wasn't. Full disclosure: I'm not much of a Stephen King fan. I think many of his story ideas are brilliant, but his prolixity, obsession with character and historical background of setting, event, and participant, bores the shit out of me. Additionally, I find his writing a bit hokey and simplistic, a criticism I could levy against virtually any current "big" writer. They all sound to me like they're so obviously writing it's hard to get lost in the flow.
Keep in mind these are only my opinions, and as such, are the most important ones in the world.
I will say that I do enjoy King's short stories. He simply doesn't have time in them to bore me and therefore is more exciting and enrapturing. I also enjoyed most of his work as Richard Bachman as well. He tried pretty hard not to sound like Stephen King when he was writing as Richard Bachman, and this made him a better writer. For my money, from a sheer writing standpoint, The Running Man is the best thing King ever did.
The Shining—the movie—is sheer brilliance. It is 3:13 am Mountain time as I write this and I just finished it up. I watch it once a year, every Halloween season, and it scares me every time, mainly because so much is left unexplained. The isolation, the atmosphere, the rise of the haunting in correlation with the breakdown of Jack Torrence, all of it works together to make perhaps the best horror film ever made.
Much is left off the table, however, and this is GOOD. I hate when a story, whether on film or in words, tries to clunkily explain itself to an audience it clearly doesn't respect. Another good horror flick, Jeepers Creepers, does this. When the "psychic" lady approaches Dary and Trisha in the police station and tells them all about what the Creeper is and what he's up to, the movie goes from an A in my book to a C+, which is still pretty good for a genre that's usually busy sucking ass.
Kubrick doesn't do this at all. He loves us too much and knows we can handle uncertainty. I have created an entire backstory in my brain to explain The Shining as a result of Kubrick's hands-off approach to telling a tale.
I know why, for example, the booze appeared, and I know who is paying for the drinks. I know why Delbert Grady, a former caretaker, told Jack that he's "always been the caretaker." Excuse me, I should say "Caretaker." Perhaps most importantly, I know why, at the end of the film, Jack was shown to be in an old photograph from the 20s when he froze to death in 1980, a man in his 30s.
In my story, he was always in that photo. If he had scrutinized the dozens of old photos hanging on the walls of the Overlook, he would have seen himself, probably more than once.
He was there that night of the ball, some 60 years earlier, when the photo was taken and the deal was struck with darkness and death to keep the party rolling forever.
Thank you, Mr. Kubrick.
October 21, 2011
I hate the word 'antics'.
I give my solemn pledge to never describe any activity as 'antics'.
dougsnewtumblelog:
reblog this……please share
I do hope this...
reblog this……please share
I do hope this reaches all my friends, I'm too stoned on morphine to remember everybody…
but here is the news, be strong
I have terminal cancer
bummer eh?
I'm strong, I have my wife and my sons, all my family and you guys
fuck cancer!!!!!!
Fuck it indeed. Fight the good fight, Doug…
"War is God's way of teaching Americans geography."
- Ambrose Bierce
"All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusions is called a philosopher."
- Ambrose Bierce
