From JFR
The Q is the clue!
What's the most powerful piece in chess? What's the most vulnerable? Just as the all-seeing eye shines down to let the weed patch below grow high, so does K leave magic boxes around lying low. Check lower quadrants for crystal, fire and ash.
In North Right I, JFR
Also: actor who plays Durkin, Tony Burton is a heavyweight boxer, appeared in all six Rocky movies, AND beat Kubrick in chess. Publish press myths find Tony stayed on the set long after he shot his scenes just to play chess with Stanley. He was also allowed to reveal the "secrets" of the elevator scene to the press. Kubrick saw this man as his mate, his equal. In the film, Durkin has the power as a car-man to move things around, an position comparable to film directing ... or chess-playing ... or boxing!
1. Six Rocky movies form another CUBE.
2. Shining takes place in the Rockies.
3. Shining stedicam man Garrett Brown also worked on 3 Rocky movies, including "Rocky II" during Shining schedule.
4. Burton plays the "CORNER MAN" in the Rocky movies.
5. Burton's name in the Rocky flicks is "DUKE" (highest rank below the Crown, the knockout fist)
6. Which calls to mind the famous "Battle of the Blues" rivalry between Duke University and Univeristy of North Carolina... The Blue Devils vs. the Tar-Heels ... the Eye against the Pyramid...
And from Matte
wizard, in the event that you're correct about this boxing/cube theory, and you are making a good case for it, note the other omnipresent box in the film, the boob tube. was stanley tipping his hat when jack says "it's ok, he saw it on the television"? that line is pregnant with meaning. (note also that a woman's "private" area is also known as her "box".
i looked at your cubes and am reminded of film frames -- stanley is nothing if not self-reflexive. jack's manuscript is not a novel or a screenplay but the film itself, complete with cryptic kubrickian code. is jack holding a frame of film?
wizard, your box....the cube....it's in mulholland drive. holy shit!
Jack in the Box and a Stone in the Hand
...I will give him a white stone, and a new name written upon the stone which no one knows but he who receives it. - Rev 2:17
Because I am going to talk about some clues in the Bible I offer a caveat. I am not a Christian, Jew, Muslim, or Buddhist. I reject all forms of worship, be they systematic or otherwise. To me, the very idea of The Sacred is anathema. Like silver to a werewolf. I behold the Bible and other eldritch texts not as sacred but as cryptographic and possibly hostile technologies.
Now then, there are many references in the Bible, both Old and New Testament, to mysterious stones. A survey of a good concordance will illustrate that along the historical curvature of the Bible, these stones shrink from colossally monolithic to hand size. Sharpies are sure to accuse that we are not told that these are the same stones. I am making an inference that it might just be the same stone, and I am aware that this is likely to be controversial.
Consider Matte's read that in the final photo, it is a frame of film that Jack holds in his palm. I can confirm this possibility from personal experience. You can too, if you are old enough, or if you possess some very old film negative. Until fairly recently, photo film negative was usually delivered in a folded piece of waxy paper. The item Jack holds does seem a little small to be a piece of negative, but I'm too intrigued to let it drop without consideration.
Our next connect comes from the now well worn observation that the Monolith from 2001 is a film screen turned sideways. If one accepts this formula, then it is a simple matter to imagine the Monolith as the surface of a filmic negative, either photo or cinematic.
Deep Kubrick readers will remember multiple descriptions of the Monolith as a smooth black stone. I can not site sources here, as I don't remember exactly where I happened upon it, but the smooth black stone reference is out there somewhere. As I write this, it occurs that maybe the smooth stone reference is from the Clarke's 2001 novel, but I'm not quite sure and I don't own a copy.
So we have now a meta pun. Stone = Monolith = Small Stone = filmic image in Jack's hand for final photo = Jack holds the Monolith!!!.
To this recipe I add a dash of madness. Isn't it so that in King's novel, The Overlook burns down. Perhaps this is a clue to the removal of the famous missing scene from the end of The Shining. Without the Ullman hospital visit, Kubrick can leave the final fate of the Hotel up to the viewer. Perhaps, if Kubrick had let us look at the photo even longer, we would see flames licking up around its frame.
And from Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Merry pick's up (holds) a stone which is The Eye of Sauron. The connection of an eye to a stone takes us right back to Durkin's Garage. The Monoltih is The Box is the Stone and bears an Eye.
Added here are the riffs from JFR, above, about boxing and chess. This guy takes ideas from everywhere and makes them a hundred times more clear and cool and cogent. He is like Japan or something.
The series of boxing meta-puns, and even moreso in the light of JFR's additions, ought to convince at least one or two hardcore skeptics of what we're at here.
JFR also invokes The Q - and I think it is key. Jay Weidner points out the interesting pun upon Kubrick. A Cube Brick or a Brick Cubed. Just play with three bricks and you can arrange at least a few different models of the Monolith. And as you suggest, JFR, we seem to be talking about a very fragile and yet very great power.
To that power I offer my respect and my fear, but never, of my own will, worship.
And a quick take of Matte's observation that box is a vulgarity for the female genitalia. I think you are on the simolians, and it relates directly to Wendy's riffle through Jack's novel. Seen through Rorschach blot, the words 'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy' could easily be read as 'My wife doesn't fuck me anymore and I'm starting to get pissed about it'. Wendy is an true Oedipal UberMom. After bearing a Son, her box is off limits. Jack wants entrance into the cosmic vagina, where he might find a muse. Because he is denied this muse he can only stack page upon page of nothingness, a hyper-cube to the heavens.
The Pax is in the Mail.
P.S. Readers intrigued by the appearance of the stone in the Bible and it's connection to modern eschatology should take a look at the lectures, online, of David Flynn.
15 comments:
Wizard, let me start out with a gratuitous compliment -- finding a new kubrick essay from you is like discovering a new album has been released from a favorite band.... Now onto business. I was very content with my brilliant observation that jack is holding a frame of film in the final shot of The Shining. It perfectly fits my thesis -- in the business, films are called "pictures"; the last shot is a picture, so jack should be holding a film frame. Only it doesn't really look like one. Oh well....I'm not throwing in the towel just yet.
As for the stone -- I think your theory is solid. There is something fitting about kubrick morphing his large black monolith into a tiny white stone. Not long ago I had a thought which I discarded for lack of evidence, but will mention here in light of your analysis. I must first note how many writers find religion in this film, which on the surface is entirely bereft of it. The idea of Danny as a Christ figure was absurd to me not long ago, but now I entirely buy it. Halloran spells it out when he says "you like lamb doc"....Christ is called the lamb of god, Danny is like a Christ figure. Anyway, getting back to stones, it occurred to me that the Grady twins resemble the two tablets upon which moses received the 10 commandments from God. Moses smashed the tablets, thus we have the alternating images of the girls standing still as stones and then in pieces on the ground. Moses threw down and broke the tablets due to his people's worship of the golden calf, aka mammon. Thus we have the gold ball room and "your money is no good here". The secret of The Shining is uncovered. It's sunday school!
I am right there with you, that it is a frame of film. I didn't include the following idea because I thought it was a bit too much...
so consider this...
Jack is a giant. The old testament is replete with description of giant people. I would suggest that these Giants are actually from another time. Probably the future.
Take a look at the animated tesseract at the wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesseract
If we imagine the tesseract as a cube escaping from a cube, we must allow that the escaping cube is some ways bigger than the previous. Hence, the future is bigger than the past. So as a piece of film, Jack's palm indicates the projection of imagery from a very small cube onto increasingly larger cubes forever.
The size of Jack's object, stone, film image, could conceivably be infinitely small.
Jack the Giant... Killer
And 'Sunday School' is right on too.
'...you like lamb Doc' has the quality of a lallation, like it is spoken by a Chinese speaker of English. This trick is also used on Closing Day, when Jack says '...I'll have to collect my family first'. As a lallation, 'collect' could be heard as 'correct'.
I wonder if there are more of these in the movie. I'll watch it again tonight and see if I can find some other.
As for your read of the twins being tablets throw down, bow does it make sense, a lot of sense. Wow, I think it is worth a whole post that I must begin poste haste.
This is sort of OT to this thread, but want to bring some thoughts over here.
One being about the synch up of Pink Floyd with 2001, as you written a nice detailed post on - I have yet to try it though, but intend to. But in the meantime, I noticed that Weidner has one on his site, I suppose it's been circulated for awhile, but since I'm new to all this, it's new to me. I thought it was very cool though. I don't know who produced this, whether Weidner or if it's just on his site. It's the Floyd Odyssey one
http://www.jayweidner.com/KubrickFloyd.htm
And speaking of Weidner, and as I've posted over on Rob's forum, I really believe that Weidner is onto something when he talks about the monolith in 2001 as the Philosopher's Stone. It's transformative and is able to impart immortality. The last scene of Dave in bed when he's reaching out (in that Michelangelo pose, with pointed finger) he touches the stone and poof rebirth.
As for the thing in Jack's hand in the final photo, whether it's material or not, I believe that it was only Jack's face that was incorporated into that photo, which may mean that the thing in the hand was not deliberate - or at least Kubrick had no control over what was actually in the hand. I have a feeling that he did this to drive us nuts trying to figure out what it is and what it means. I sort of wonder if it was drugs of some sort, because that's also what it looks like. Plus, the guy behind him looks like he's trying to grab it.
daka,
I like your idea that it might be drugs. Great thinking!
Perhaps some magic mushrooms from nearby mountain groves.
You must try the 2001 DSOTM link up.
Be sure you turn on your all play Repeat and start at the right time, 4:23 on the DVD release.
I will be reposting my findings soon, here at Da WWWiz.
Peace
matte, interesting about the twin tablets - I was just watching the ending of 2001 a little bit ago, and believe it or not, there's a scene that spooked me when it came on the screen because it looked just like the twins-down-the-hallway shot, and at the same time looked like the Moses tablets
It starts at 3:58 in this clip:
http://www.jayweidner.com/KubrickFloyd.htm
There's the weak-but-vital King in chess, but don't forget the Queen is the super-powerful aggressor. It's Wendy who subdues and imprisons Jack. But the Queen is not gender-specific. Animal Mother is the Queen of Full Metal Jacket.
and
chew on this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doughboy
all war in no place makes jack a?
Dan Ackroyd's mistaken concept of the feminized fat boy as "harmless" nearly dooms Manhattan by the Stay Puft Marshmellow Man.
As underestimations of the feminized fat boy of Private Pyle doom Sgt. Hartman.
also:
Thinking about the two meanings of "slur" as both a "distortion of speech" and as an "insult" against a group of people, and how this relates to the different drawls of Nicholson, Duvall and Crothers. Using the American regional warping of language to both obscure and highlight the multiple meanings behind spoken words.
Also if we take the idea that the twins represent Jack's creative imagination, then the twins being killed represents Jack's "writer's block" and death of creativity / vital force. This would be terrifying to Danny on many levels, not the least of which because now Dad would be out of a job and the family would be out on the street. Jack is also copying the idea of the twins' story from Ullman and stuff he reads in the scrapbook: he is quickly losing any power of "originality" (take all meanings of that word into account!)
And regarding what's in Jack's hand, consider this picture:
http://cache4.asset-cache.net/xc/2668217.jpg?v=1&c=NewsMaker&k=2&d=6E41E83E90A345BD123B4BBAD73CB7C2
What's that slip there? Is Jackie K hiding her stash somewhere?
JFR,
You race ahead like a hair, I can only try to keep up, hacking and sputtering as we go.
Your double play on slur - nice, I get the message.
And that little slip of Full Metal Jackie Kennedy is just of the Monolith proportions, in 2d. But it is your reference to 'Ghostbusters' that gave me chills.
Please read the two articles (both short) for some chilling co-incidences.
http://wrongwaywizard.blogspot.com/2008/06/god-that-ate-manhattan.html
http://wrongwaywizard.blogspot.com/2007/12/ascorbic-acid.html
Hey JFR now that I think of it, just where and by how did you come upon this photo of Jackie K?
I got goosebumps.
That Jackie pic is from my place of work; it's been hanging in the main hallway for the past few months as part of a collection of photographs of high society (all the best people). So while I've been buzzing with shining mysteries, every day I pass that Jackie snap. For a while I was "what's she doing with a Rizzla spliff paper?" Then I began to think about the idea that Jack is holding a request slip in his hand. These would be at any formal dance. Her Satanic Majesty ...
Brillant stuff on Supertramp (The Beggar King?)
I skipped breakfast on 9/11 because when I emerged out of the A train at Canal at 9:11AM, it became instantly apparent that World War was underway. (I called my grandmom.)
Ackroyd's deep into it.
ref: http://crystalheadvodka.com/
While I was researching to see if Ackroyd had consciously modeled the Blues Brothers after the Men in Black I found a video of Dan telling the tale of how the Men threatened him while he was on the phone with Britney Spears: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3kAuNSI31w
I would gather that all Ackroyd synchronicities are the product of deliberate magickal effort on his part. Is the Dragnet remake his Eyes Wide Shut?
side note coincidences:
Barry Dennen, the actor who played Bill Watson, also appeared as Pontius Pilot in Jesus Christ Superstar.
He might have to wash his hands again!
JFR,
Your recollections of 9/11 have taken me back to my own memories.
I am going to post about it. I don't think we are talking about a world at war, but reality at war with itself.
And as for Dennen/Pilot, just what must he wash from his hands, blood or money? Is there a difference?
I had to look up "lallation" and consider myself the better for it...Wizard, I'm liking your "Jack the Giant...Killer" line. Right up there with "man hat tan".
It is one of the best information, I have been reading about this similar movies, I would like to be a filmmaker when I grow up!!22dd
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