8 Comments

Thank you for the courage to discuss the difficulty, particularly with the first born child who has cholic. My children also suffered through as did myself and my husband. I can relate to your feelings and often felt guilt for them but it is all part of being a parent. I, like you ,wouldn't give it up for anything.

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"But I remember one night. 4am. I’d been awake with him already for who knows how long, pacing the house, rocking him while he screamed. And in my head came a terrible thought." This is so honest--I love it. Those early days are a real test. It's really easy to feel like a monster when those thoughts creep in. Glad you had that support system. <3

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Aug 13Liked by radicaledward

Shout out to Jayson!! I actually got Jayson into King.

I love his books (for the most part).

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Aug 14Liked by radicaledward

Beautiful as always. And congrats on the pregnancy! You may have mentioned it before, but I believe this is my first time to learn about it.

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Never read the novel but it's interesting to hear how Jack seems to have been turned by a lot of things. Usually, when I hear about the differences between the source and the adaptation, it's more like - "Jack was ruined by alcohol in the book, but Jack was evil from the start in the movie."

Btw, speaking of House of Leaves, which I haven't read admittedly, have you by any chance played the Doom mod MyHouse? I've been watching playthroughs and it seems to have been an experimental, dread-inducing true horror game and a House of Leaves homage made in the Doom engine.

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I have not! But that sounds awesome.

I disagree that Jack was evil from the start of the movie, too. I think that's a misviewing or at least misunderstanding of the movie. In both the book and movie, Jack is clearly someone who has had a rough go of things and the hotel just pushed him over the edge.

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One of the best things about Kubrick is how much he leaves up to the imagination/interpretation but that can sometimes maybe prevent people from seeing some of the nuance. Like, I can definitely see film Jack as someone that is corrupted by the hotel. There's that wonderful scene where he wakes up after a nightmare and it seems like his humanity is breaking through but it doesn't last.

I also love how The Dr. Sleep film brought to the foreground the notion that Jack was buckling under the pressures of personal and professional responsibility and saw alcohol as his medicine.

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I think King really likes empowering kids and teenagers with supernatural abilities. From "Carrie" (not on your list), "Firestarter" and "The Shining" up to more recent works like "The Institute", it's always been a sort of motif throughout his canon.

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