Trapeze


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ANGELL, PEARL & LITTLE GODBEACH GIRLSBOOCAESARCHINA FLIGHTCHRISTMAS BOOKSDEATH DEALERSDENVER POSTDR. NYETEUROPEFOURTH GHOST BOOKGINGERBREAD MANGOLF LIKE THE GREATSGOOD NEWS BIBLEHOLDING ONIN THIS HOUSE OF BREDEKING OILMANIPULATORMY NAME IS ASHER LEV ⎔ NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS (RED & BLUE) ⎔ NO END TO THE WAYORANGE WEDNESDAYPEANUTSSQUARESVILLETEENY WEENY ADVENTURESTIGER OF THE SNOWSTOWERTRAPEZEWISH CHILDYOUNG JETHROUNIDENTIFIED


APPEARANCE

14:38-14:45

IDENTITY

There’s a newspaper in the bottom left of this image with the word TRAPEZE on it. I don’t know if we’re meant to ID this, but I have three contending thoughts:

SYMBOLIC SIGNIFICANCE

  • Alex Colville has a painting called Circus Woman (1959), which you can see bears some similarity to the image on the cover of the paper. There’s two Colvilles in this room already, so why not a third? That said, a sole aerialist (even with her(?) feet possibly in a similar hoop) does not a direct connection make.
  • The 1978 album Hold On, the last by the British rock band Trapeze, featured a scary yellow VW on the cover (like Jack’s), with a hand sticking against the glass in the ajar back seat. The Hold On name reminds of the book Holding On, in the book stack beside. This album also had an alternate German cover and name (it was changed to Running, a different track on the album), which featured a nude woman in various stages of running through darkness.
  • And it could be a reference to the 1956 film Trapeze, which was based on a novel by Max Catto called The Killing Frost; Jack is killed by frost (and Hallorann hears on the news about three people dying due to exposure to “freezing winds”) and there’s a Max Catto novel elsewhere in this room called King Oil, as we’ll soon see. Trapeze also starred a Kubrick alum, Tony Curtis (of Spartacus (1960) fame).

It’s also possible it means all three of these references, or none of them. It’s hard to say for sure, but these were the most relatable things I could uncover, and it really doesn’t seem like anything else in this room was included on a whim.


Next literary reference: In This House of Brede


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