by Ina Seidel
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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
Another book beside the doctor is Ina Seidel’s The Wish Child (1930), which was very popular in 1930’s Germany. It concerns the struggle of a widow and her child during the Napoleonic period in Prussia—she saves her child from one threat only to lose him in the Prussian wars (an apt reference for Wendy’s dawning revelation about Jack’s violence, and the coming 237 violence). This represented her breakthrough into mass popularity.
Seidel’s breakthrough as a writer was a book called Das Labyrinth (1922), a “somber Freudian study of the 18th-century naturalist Georg Forster; the novel’s main character, despite immense talent, dies in misery as he gropes through life’s labyrinth.” Who does that sound like? Well, we don’t really know what talent Jack has, but still.
“[The Wish Child] exposes the emotion attached to motherhood during war while investigating an endangered national inheritance.” And, “Although she was an early adherent of Hitler, her final novel, Michaela (1959) treated the guilt of middle-class, Christian Germans who had supported the Third Reich.” As to the former, there’s numerous touches about Wendy’s visual character to suggest that she’s blithely unaware of her own national inheritance, not least of which the numerous indigenous outfits and items on her person throughout the film, including in this scene, with her Navajo(?)-style belt (see below), but there are less incendiary things she’s forgotten as well, like the clew behind her head all through this scene (which foreshadows Danny’s Theseus-style self-rescue).
A few reviewers consider her interest in human psychology as integral to her work–a running theme among several of the writers in the room.
So, right next to Mr. Anti-Eugenics we have Ms. Gifted By God. What’s more, the Chesterton book and the Seidel book are about the same size, one a black slab, one a white slab. But the chain of Hitler references doesn’t end there.
Next literary reference: The Manipulator
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 