by Christian Meier (possibly inaccurate)
MAIN PAGE ⎔ SECTION PAGE ⎔ SITE MAP ⎔ GLOSSARY
BOULDER LITERATURE – SKIP TO A PAGE
ANGELL, PEARL & LITTLE GOD ⎔ BEACH GIRLS ⎔ BOO ⎔ CAESAR ⎔ CHINA FLIGHT ⎔ CHRISTMAS BOOKS ⎔ DEATH DEALERS ⎔ DENVER POST ⎔ DR. NYET ⎔ EUROPE ⎔ FOURTH GHOST BOOK ⎔ GINGERBREAD MAN ⎔ GOLF LIKE THE GREATS ⎔ GOOD NEWS BIBLE ⎔ HOLDING ON ⎔ IN THIS HOUSE OF BREDE ⎔ KING OIL ⎔ MANIPULATOR ⎔ MY NAME IS ASHER LEV ⎔ NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS (RED & BLUE) ⎔ NO END TO THE WAY ⎔ ORANGE WEDNESDAY ⎔ PEANUTS ⎔ SQUARESVILLE ⎔ TEENY WEENY ADVENTURES ⎔ TIGER OF THE SNOWS ⎔ TOWER ⎔ TRAPEZE ⎔ WISH CHILD ⎔ YOUNG JETHRO ⎔ UNIDENTIFIED
I’m not entirely certain about this one’s author. The size and the colour of the first edition look right, and later editions did just have the name CAESAR on the spine, minus the author, like this one. The only odd thing is that the first English translation (according to a Goodreads commenter) was in 1982. I can’t find a strong indication that Kubrick was multilingual at all, but his wife and brother-in-law, Jan Harlan, who acted as producer on many of his films, were both native speakers, and could’ve translated it to him. It’s also possible Kubrick simply wanted the name on the spine, and didn’t know or care about the book’s esteem. As we’ll see later, Jack owns a copy of the Russian biography of William Shakespeare in Cyrillic, so it’s entirely possible that Jack is meant to be multilingual, or that he’s a pompous idiot who collects books in languages he can’t read.
What’s apparently interesting about the book is that Meier doesn’t use a lot of annotations and proof of his assertions (like with Black Odyssey), but also doesn’t pretend that what he’s saying is necessarily authoritative. What’s odd about that is that the book’s description says that it’s “Christian Meier’s authoritative and accessible biography” and that it’s “the definitive modern account of Caesar’s life story against the rich political and social background of the Late Roman Republic.” I can imagine Kubrick being down with the fast-and-loose approach to history. Readers say Meier’s assumptions and motives “rings true”. I can’t find any articles online readily that tell much about the writer/historian. He’s a professor emeritus of history, so he’s no fool. One thing he wrote (just after Kubrick’s death) was a book called From Athens to Auschwitz: The Uses of History, which seems like the sort of thing that would catch Kubrick’s eye, had he the time. Consider this passage from its description: “What does history mean today? What is its relevance to the modern world?” In the end he “contemplates the enormity of the Holocaust, which he sees as a test of ‘understanding’ history. If it is part of the whole arc of the Western legacy, how do we fit it with the rest?”
Special Note: there might intentionally be numerous references to Julius Caesar throughout the film. The basketball player seen on a large poster in the radio room is Dr. Julius Erving. Photo Jack is forever trapped in July 4th, 1921, and July was named for Julius Caesar. Jack’s preferred brand of cigarettes, Marlboro, always came with Caesar’s famous phrase “Veni, Vidi, Vici” (“I came, I saw, I conquered”) printed on the pack, and almost every shot of the cigarettes aims the brand directly at the audience. A really obscure one is how one of the last projects by the director of Carson City (the movie that plays behind Wendy early on) was called Gold for the Caesars (the tagline for which was “The slave seized Rome’s greatest treasure…and it’s wickedest woman!!!”). Probably the most profound example is how, in the mirrorform, a copy of the complete works of Shakespeare almost mirrors over the appearance of this book, which, for me, strongly implies that Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar is being invoked, and sure enough there are interesting similarities between that play’s stylistic nature and the nature of Kubrick’s film.
Also: the middle book on this shelf, I feel, is possible to ID, but hasn’t been so yet. The name, to me, looks something like Awful Truth. Actually, I’ll do a section at the end of this scene for all the unidentified books, and my best guesses. There aren’t many.
Next literary reference: Christmas Books
MAIN PAGE ⎔ SECTION PAGE ⎔ SITE MAP ⎔ GLOSSARY
OTHER MAIN PAGES FOR SHINING ANALYSIS
THE MIRRORFORM ⎔ THE BEATLES ⎔ THE RUM AND THE RED
BACKGROUND ART ⎔ OVERLOOK PHOTOGRAPHS ⎔ GOLDEN SPIRALS
PHI GRIDS ⎔ PATTERNS ⎔ VIOLENCE AND INDIGENA ⎔ ABSURDITIES
THE STORY ROOM ⎔ ANIMAL SYMBOLS ⎔ THE ANNOTATED SHINING
EYE SCREAM 