Shining Inconsistencies

Being such a big Stephen King fan, you'd probably be surprised to know that The Shining was one of his books that I never got around to reading until recently (I still haven’t gotten to The Dead Zone yet either). While I knew Stanley Kubrick’s movie version was quite different from the book, I was surprised about how *really* different it turned out to be. And I can understand why... virtually all the conflict in the book is inside the character's heads. You get an even-handed view of what's going on from the vantage points of all four of the main characters, and there's virtually no way to translate that to the screen. I get what Kubrick was doing… he had to make someone the “bad guy”, because in the book it’s really the hotel itself and how it messes with people’s heads.

But what really bugged me most about it was this... remember that episode of Friends where Joey is reading The Shining and has to keep it in the freezer because it's so scary? Well, when he discusses it with the other characters, most of the things he talks about are references to the movie, not the book! For example:

- "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" is a phrase that Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson’s character) types obsessively in the movie... in the book Jack actually finishes a play, although he doesn't like the way it turns out.

- Joey mentions the two creepy girls/ghosts in the hallway... in the book, although it's mentioned that two little girls were previously killed in the hotel, they never actually show up.

- Joey also ineptly tries to keep his discussion spoiler-free and mentions when the father goes after the mother and kid with a "blank" but they get away at the last minute... he could mean "axe" like in the movie, or "oversize croquet mallet" like in the book, but what he doesn't mention is the big explosion that happens at the end of the book... the movie ending is much more low-key.

- He does get the dead woman in room 217 correct, but that's one of the few things that's in both the book and the movie. (Except that in the movie, the room number was changed to 237 because the hotel in which the movie was filmed actually had a room 217 and they didn’t want customers to freak out about that.)

I guess I’m just surprised about how the TV writers who created the episode managed to choose the movie version over the book for *every* plot specific detail that they mentioned. If it was just an oversight, it was a stunningly consistent one.

Okay, nerd rant over. You may all resume your lives.