(also, possibly a postcard for the Ana Cross of Spaunton Moor)
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ART OF BOULDER
BOY AND GIRL KNITTING ⎔ HORSE AND TRAIN ⎔ MYSTERIES ⎔ NAPOLITANO POSTCARD ⎔ NEIL THE FROG ⎔ OLD RALPH POSTCARD ⎔ WOMAN AND TERRIER
I put in the red bars so you could understand my confusion as to which cross this is exactly. It could be trick photography of a sort. The Ana Cross (left) looks almost too short, and Old Ralph’s Cross (Right) looks too tall. The slope of land to the right of Ralph’s looks more like the slope in the photo. There’s many such crosses in that region, so it’s possible it’s simply meant to invoke that part of England, and the phenomenon of these crosses. But I like to think it would be a specific cross for the reasons we’ll discuss.
APPEARANCE
Seen only once, for 11 seconds, between Tony telling Danny about Jack’s looming phone call, and Wendy hearing the call.
IDENTITY/SYMBOLISM – FOR RALPH’S CROSS
The folklore around the Ralph Cross would be apt, given that the cross is thought to mark the meeting place for the forbidden love between a monk and a nun (Wendy’s about to cross to the Woman and Terrier painting, which is symbolic of her relationship to Danny, and was, according to Alex Colville, inspired by “Madonna and Child” (religious) kinds of paintings). The sinful lovers are thought to have been slaughtered for their indiscretion, which goes well with the mirrorform image of Jack standing at the 2nd entrance, in the frosty outdoors, axe in hand, ready to slay the boy who came between him and Wendy.
There’s another explanation worth mentioning: a farmer named Ralph set up the cross to mark the place where an impoverished traveller had starved to death, penniless. Jack is penniless the first time he talks to Lloyd, and that’s right before he goes to room 237, with all its Ralph Thompson paintings. This farmer Ralph was Ralph of Danby.
IDENTITY/SYMBOLISM – FOR ANA CROSS
The Ana Cross (from the same county as the Ralph Cross) of Spaunton moor replaced the medieval Ain Howe cross that used to sit there. If you haven’t read my section on Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are, Howard and More are the last names of the main characters, who are doing a sight-seeing tour of the English countryside.
In case you’re not psyched to go read about that other theory just yet, there’s only three seconds between when the Ana/Ralph cross flies off screen, and the next shot, which shows the woman (I believe) who played Cathy More walking behind Jack in the lobby. That will mean more to you later.
There’s also the fact that King’s novel was openly inspired by The Masque of the Red Death, a short story that was itself inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s very similar tale, Howe’s Masquerade, which uses some identical phrases. In that story, Howe is a British general (Sir William Howe) throwing a masque in conquered Boston, which is interrupted by the ghosts of defeated British military figures, to Howe’s horror, foreshadowing the eventual ousting of British conquest.
Next art reference: One By One
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 