I bumped into a few Stephen King quotes about the Shining that I had not previously seen. Both were in an older booked called Stephen King Goes To Hollywood, by Tim Underwood.
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I intend to someday write up a review on the Shining, but I'll just start by typing up some notes. The book is complex, I think, and absolutely Stephen King at his best. This is not the book that got me started reading Stephen King, but it is certainly the kind of read that makes the fan say, "Ahh, yes, that's why I read King!"
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This first note is the most interesting to me since it reveals a different original ending for the Shining:
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"The Shining' was open right until the end. I didn't know what was going to happen until the very end. The shows in the book. The original plan was for them all to die up there and for Danny to become the controlling force o the hotel after he died. And the psychic force of the hotel would go up exponentially. . . But I got connected with the kid. In the first draft of the book Jack beats his wife to death with the mallet and it was blood and brains and everything. It was really just terrible and I ouldn't do it. I coudln't leave it that way." S.K. Goes To Hollywood, p.76
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I'm glad that's not how the book ends -- but I sure would like to read that draft! Sounds like fun. It is interesting that King writes without an outline.
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