The Shining Theory What Jack Was Actually Writing

The Shining Theory: What Jack Was Actually Writing

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The Shining’s Jack Torrance wrote a book as he went mad; one fan theory points to what that book was, but does the theory hold up?

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The Shining Theory What Jack Was Actually Writing

Jack Torrance was writing a book at The Overlook Hotel as he went mad in The Shining, and a clever theory points out the fact that details about what Jack was actually writing were left untouched. It continues by making the suggestion that Jack could have been writing Apt Pupil—a novella by none other than Stephen King. The movie relegated information on the book’s subject matter to mere background details, but the original source material has evidence to support this theory.

The Shining, based on Stephen King’s book of the same name, follows Jack Torrance and his family as they spend a winter as the caretakers of the abandoned Overlook Hotel. Jack takes the job as he hopes it will cure his writer’s block, but the hotel ends up causing him to lose his mind. As Jack’s violent, homicidal tendencies become more pronounced and dangerous, his young son, Danny, is plagued with psychic premonitions.

It’s well known that the vast majority of King’s novels are connected to one another as part of a larger universe; this makes it highly likely that Jack was, in fact, writing Apt Pupil. Unfortunately, that detail was not significant enough to be included in Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of The Shining, which was absolutely a missed opportunity. This particular fan theory supports itself by asserting that the gaps in the movie were expanded on in the book, and made an interesting connection to King’s greater universe.

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Was Jack Torrance Writing Apt Pupil?

Evidence in The Shining’s source material points to the fact that Jack was writing Apt Pupil. The strongest connection to support this is that Jack specifically mentions creating a character named Denker, which is a name featured in King’s novella. The theme’s of Apt Pupil also aligns with Jack’s backstory in The Shining. Apt Pupil tells the story of a truly terrible student. In The Shining, Jack is fired from his job as a teacher for beating a student who slashed his tires. The parallels are too coincidental for an author who loves to intertwine his work into a larger world—King even inserted himself into his own universe.

Assuming the theory is true, it was a missed opportunity on Stanley Kubrick’s part not to include this as an Easter egg in his film somehow. Much to King’s chagrin, Kubrick changed much of King’s story for his adaptation. For one, he thought King’s characterizations in the novel were too cluttered, so he aimed to focus that for his film. But by doing that, Kubrick robbed Stephen King fans of a fun connection to the original source material. Kubrick understandably wanted to make the film his own, and he did so in a very memorable way. The Shining is considered one of the best horror movies of all time. Even so, keeping up King’s trademark tendency of connecting his stories to one another would’ve been the perfect way to honor the source material for The Shining. While only a small detail, this theory holds up.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/shining-movie-theory-jack-torrance-writing-apt-pupil/

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