The Blog In Yellow

I've been thinking about this for about five minutes so, of course, I have to write it down. I was thinking about Stephen King's sequesl to "The Shinning," which is called "Dr. Sleep." It's not a bad book but there's one thing in particular that rubs me the wrong way and that's how the Shining is used. In the original novel, the Shining is a form of empathy. It allows young Danny Torrence to be influenced by the ghosts in the hotel. But it's not a power, if anything it's a weakness. The hotel wants Danny for some malevolent purpose that is never truly explained. Danny, a child, is at the mercy of the whims of the hotel and his parents are unable to do anything about it, or in Jack's case, becomes complicit. Skip to the sequel and the Shining is just another word for "telepath." A girl with the Shining pops up in adult Danny's life who not only has more power than him but can use it like hands or forces that can push peop...

I suppose I have to get to this one sooner or later. I've read or listened to Stephen King's Duma Key about three times. I remember getting the book from a book shop before my folks and I went on a vacation. The book still stands in my collection with the cover half ripped off. It's a paperback and one of the first books of King's that I read once I was old enough. My parents recently told me that the reason they didn't let me read King is because I tend to scare myself. Maybe scare isn't the right word-haunt. That's a better word. Given my autism I tend to focus on dark ideas and King is full of them. I found the key to horror is to balance it with humor. After dwelling in the dark I try to find some comedy to make me laugh again.  Anyway, onto the book. Duma Key is about a man who survived a terrible work accident, loses his old life and moves onto his new life in Florida on Duma Key. Our protagonist Edgar Freemantel makes friends with Wireman, a caretaker...