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HALLORANN LITERATURE – SKIP TO A PAGE
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APPEARANCE
76:31-76:37; 81:50-81:53; 81:57-82:06; 95:09-95:19; 95:32-95:37
IDENTITY
Hallorann walks over to this mag three times, and it’s the same every time (though other, unidentifiable mags shift in the second of the three scenes).
SYMBOLIC SIGNIFICANCE
As you can see, this issue makes reference to 911 (Hallorann is making a distress call), Mercury (a messenger god, who is otherwise referenced in the film; and least one Mercury is known to appear in the film), Zephyr (named for Zephyrus, the Greek god of the West Wind, husband of Iris, who helped cause Herakles to murder his family) and VW (makers of the Torrances’ infamous beetle).
There’s also an album featured in the Boulder apartment by the band Stomu Yamash’ta’s East Wind, so it’s interesting, since Boulder is way west to Miami’s east, that the west apartment would have an “East Wind” and the east apartment would have a “West Wind”.
Another inversion: between each of the three scenes of Hallorann passing this magazine is a scene of Wendy in Suite 3. In the second of those scenes (of Wendy plotting escape from the hotel and Jack), we can easily see the Scientific American with the Tower of Babel on the cover, which implies that it was there, out of view in the first sequence. The tower of babel takes 9 verses of chapter 11 to tell. Christians would likely write this as 11:1-9, but even if we think of it like 11:9, that’s simply a backwards 911. Jack escapes room 237 at exactly 1:16:00 (which is like 00:91:1 upside down and backwards), quickly leading to the fade into the first of the Hallorann distress calls. The last of his distress calls features him arriving beside the magazine for the last time at 1:35:11, and 1 + 3 + 5 = 9. All the numeric stuff might be purest coincidence, but this 911/11:9 business feels deliberate to me, especially since they’re both coming off magazine covers. Also, Genesis 9:11 is god telling Noah that there’ll never be another omnicidal flood thanks to their arrangement. This would seem to be an odd comment on the blood flood that follows Hallorann’s sacrifice, but of course that flood was hardly omnicidal.
Also, there may be connections between the featured cars on the cover and the other cars in the film; I’m the furthest thing from a car guy, and the Internet Movie Car Database has only ID’d so many of the vehicles seen in the film. Although I recently noticed that the Camaro Z28 features in an episode of Mad Men, where Pete Campbell drives it into a pole at GM headquarters (or some such) featuring 1969s. I would not be surprised if Matthew Weiner was an eye screamer.
Next literary reference: Travel Holiday Magazine
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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 