MAIN PAGE ⎔ SECTION PAGE ⎔ SITE MAP ⎔ GLOSSARY
MIRRORFORM ANALYSIS – SKIP TO A SECTION
INTRO ⎔ THE INTERVIEW ⎔ CLOSING DAY ⎔ A MONTH LATER ⎔ TUESDAY
THURSDAY ⎔ SATURDAY ⎔ MONDAY ⎔ WEDNESDAY
SPECIALS: GREAT PARTY ⎔ GINGERBREAD HOUSE ⎔ SHINED & CONFUSED
MIDWAY ⎔ MIDDLE-END
This moment of transition, the zoom in and zoom out that trade hands here, is the very centre of the film (is that why it features a centrefold…?), but Kubrick wasn’t content to let it be something so static as an instant in time. The book on Dick’s right side table, seen for 15 seconds-worth of overlapping time, is Mary Roberts Reinhart’s The Door (1930). The book that originated the phrase “The butler did it!” and continued the concept known popularly in mystery writing as Had-I-But-Known, which came from her novel, The Circular Staircase (1908) (and The Shining (1980) does feature a few staircases of its own). Basically, these are books where things start out with a narrator saying “If I’d known how combustible those severed clown heads were, I never would’ve gone to work for the Clown Assassins Club”, and then the rest of the story leads you to the payoff.
As we’ve already seen, this book is also seen in the Torrance living room during the doctor scene, so Wendy and Dick share this interesting onus, it seems, with regard to Jack’s madness, and the nature of the hotel on shiners. We see Wendy’s/Jack’s copy after Tony has told Wendy he doesn’t want to go to the hotel, and it’s beside her while she’s describing Jack’s violence to the doctor. Here, we’re seeing it right beside Dick in his next scene following his reprimand to Danny to stay out of 237. So, Danny’s guardian and would-be guardian, this book’s appearance suggests, had a kind of foreknowledge of what would happen when this particular family was left alone under the watchful eye of the shiner death house (both Wendy and Hallorann are shown to have shine powers too, so perhaps its a reprimand to shiners to watch out for other shiners). In other words, here at the end of the total net narrative of the mirrorform story (we’ve seen how both halves play out at this point), nobody is completely innocent of what transpires, it seems.
If you think of this middle-end, this joining of the halves as a kind of narrative vanishing point, that’s kind of a devastating note to go out on. Especially after witnessing Dick’s selflessness. But the film does begin with Dies Irae, so that’s consistent, at least.
But Had-I-But-Known could also suggest that people should regard this as the start, and to walk back to the chronological beginning/ending simultaneously, which is just what the mirrorform forces us to do (I originally wrote this analysis to be readable in both directions, in fact, but you can probably tell that’s changed a bit). In which case, the Dies Irae bit becomes something of a “true” end.
One last thing: I’ve wondered if Dick’s mirror-spattered shirt here doesn’t resemble the sheets and curtains in 237. If so, it would seem fitting that he has his shine of 237 from bed. As Jack passes through the room, and we find out that it is Jack, there’s a retroactive sense that Dick was in the room psychically too. Seeing Danny’s shine version of his experience.
Alright! I hope you enjoyed my tour of the most complicated narrative symmetry ever achieved (that I know of). But there is a part two to this section where we zoom out to look at the big picture, to see how certain areas of the Overlook and certain of the film’s major themes are affected by the mirrorform, creating what I call interlocks and piggybacks. Don’t worry, it’s ten times shorter than this sequence. I promise.
I did also notice that King’s novel has a mirrorformity to it, and mapped its backwards-forwards nature here.
And if this analysis broadened your mind at all, or if you just want to show your appreciation, you can head over to my donation page and do whatever feels right. Thanks for going on this journey with me.
Click here to continue on to
Through the Mirrorform, Part 2: Interlocks and Piggybacks
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 