The Shining

The Shining
by Stephen King
Prince Frederick, MD: Recorded Books
2005
Read by Campbell Scott
14 sound discs (16 hours)


Every winter, I listen to the audiobook of The Shining on my long drive back and forth to work. It has become a ritual of mine, as has listening to Duma Key, also by Stephen King, in the summer.  I really hate winter and especially driving in it, and you would think that listening to a story about a family at a secluded and hauntingly evil hotel in the winter is pretty weird for a person who doesn't like snow, winter, and being cold. Actually, listening to the description of the howling winds around the Overlook Hotel, and about Mr. Hallorann's terrible drive up the canyon on that last day, makes my drive seem less onerous, and I find both a sense of sympathy and understanding for the Torrance family and also a sense of relief that I don't have to face what they do in the story. Besides, I also really like haunted house stories and this one is probably the ultimate!

In this year's listening, I was struck by the descriptions of the wasps' nest and the images of destroying it. We encounter the wasps several times:

1. Jack finds a wasps' nest in the roof of the Overlook when he is re-shingling. The wasps are sluggish and he is able to kill them and remove the nest for Danny to see.
2. The wasps somehow return to the nest and life when the nest is in Danny's room. They come out to sting Danny while he is vulnerable in sleep, and this is the first stage in driving doubt into the relationship Jack has with his wife and son.
3. Jack recalls the occasion when he and his brothers watched his father burn a wasps' nest with gasoline. The event seems like it could have been dangerous, not just to the wasps, but to the young boys, and shows the cruelty of Jack's father as he obviously enjoys the destruction.
4. Danny tries to read the mind of the Woman in Room 217 but finds out it is like "sticking your hand in a wasps' nest". She only has thoughts to sting and hurt, like the wasps he encountered earlier.
5. The descriptions of the snowmobile in the tool shed compare it to a wasp. Its colors and sounds resemble a wasp, and Jack's reaction is a desire to destroy it so that it can't hurt him and his plans to leave the Overlook.
6. The black cloud of evil spirits leaving the Overlook as it is burning is likened to wasps swarming from a nest.
7. Mr. Hallorann also has an experience as a youth with a wasps' nest when he was a boy and recalls the he experience, which is quite similar to Jack's.

What is the best way to remove a wasps' nest anyway? Besides calling an exterminator, that is. Is dousing the nest with gasoline and burning it up really a good idea? 

Several websites advise no, burning the actual nest can only cause the wasps to leave quickly and angrily. Using  smoke can be effective, however, because it makes them sluggish when they fly away and then you can remove the nest.Several websites mention insecticides like Jack's bug bomb, but they also say there are better, more natural ways of removing them. Water, dish soap, or a shop vac are also mentioned as methods. Waiting until evening to use any method is also a good idea because the wasps will also be more lethargic. And always wear your protective gear!

The explosive burning of the Overlook at the end, like dousing the wasps' nest by Jack's father, causes the ghosts there to leave hurriedly, but they are not obviously harmed. Mr. Hallorann encounters them in the tool shed where they desperately attempt to make him complete their mission, but Dick gets away and the shed burns, too. We are then supposing that this might be the end of the ghosts as they have no home to fasten on to, but for those of you who go on to read Doctor Sleep, we find out that the ghosts of the Overlook are far-reaching and still very much a danger to Danny and others as they search for new places to build nests.

Most people have an instinctive fear of flying insects that sting. Our natural reaction is to run and swat. As we see with the ghosts at the Overlook, running and swatting doesn't work either. Danny, despite his young age, has to use his intelligence and insightful powers to out-think the Hotel mastermind, employing patience in the face of fear if he and his mother are going to have a chance to survive.

One last word about the audio version, Campbell Scott. Campbell Scott is the son of famous actors, George C. Scott and Colleen Dewhurst. He also is the reader/performer for another classic Stephen King book, The Cell. I find his voice clear, soothing but not soporific, engaging, and one of the main reasons I listen to the audiobook version rather than reading the book myself.