National Network for Equitable Library Service

"Simon Roy first saw The Shining when he was ten years old. Roy encountered the movie by chance while idly flipping through the channels on the television, but one scene in particular in which the hotel's chef speaks telepathically to young Danny Torrence left an indelible mark upon him: "The doubling of Chef Hallorann's voice created in me such a powerful unease that I can still feel it, intact, thirty years later. ... I felt like Hallorann had for a moment drawn back from his role as the guide of the Overlook Hotel to establish a direct relationship with me and reveal something hidden." Roy has since seen the movie for over forty-two times, and the bond he's forged with this story of evil has given him a path to absorb the disquieting traits of his own family's "macabre" lineage." Analysis of the film, and the many parallels to his own family's troubled history, have allowed him to gain insight into the nature of violence, mass murder, and brought him face to face with the "banality of evil."