On Tuesday’s we enter the Videodrome where I present a couple of choice clips from the wastelands of YouTube and elsewhere. These will typically be related to the craft of writing specifically (from actual, real, full-time writer’s you can trust) or be tangentially about what I’m reading or writing myself on that given day. Now, that’s the intent, but I just know I won’t be able to resist the utterly random video from time to time.
In the lead up to my podcast debut in mid-October, I wanted to kick-start the blog side of things here at “The Werewolf” with my first daily post (Daily not counting the weekend, of course. Who do you people think I am?). Each weekday I’ll bring you something on the quick but with a theme. Of course, I may write an entry with some substance every once and a while if I get a wild hair, but in order to keep on task with my daily writing and keep the procrastination at a bare minimum these entries will be mostly on the pithy side; odds and ends really. But, odds and ends that I’ll run under blanket categories such as this first entry in Tuesday’s Videodrome.
KUBRICK, THE KING AND YOU
So, after a couple decades of reading Stephen King novels, I’m finally getting around to reading “The Shining” for the first time. Please, hold your gasps. You’ll have much more to shake your head in disgust at as you get to know me.
Anyway, I never got around to reading the darn thing and that probably has everything to do with the impression that the Kubrick movie made on me at an early age. Since then, I’ve resisted going to the book because I couldn’t imagine anything that would equal my reaction to that movie.
But, I’ve just had way too many people extol it’s virtues to me over the years and been told too many times how the film betrays King’s novel that I’m finally ready to read it and decide for myself. (Of course, I’ve mostly erased from my memory the Steven Weber starring TV adaptation that King wrote as an attempt to make a more faithful rendering of the novel and which unfortunately just contributed more to my reluctance to read it.)
I’m barely into the book now, so I’ll have to save my impressions for another day. But, naturally, it’s got me thinking of Kubrick and King and that’s led me to this handful of video nuggets…
KING ON KUBRICK:
In which Stephen King relates his first encounter with the late Kubrick. A great story if not the best audio quality…
KING ON YOU:
That is, assuming you’re a struggling writer like me. Of course, if you’re like me, you’ve already read Stephen King’s “On Writing” and have heard this advice in its expanded form…
This advice is not earth-shattering, nor is it exclusive to King. But, the utter simplicity of it is what makes it worth hearing. And, it’s the main reason I’m starting “The Werewolf” to begin with. Perhaps you recall the mantra of Billy Crystal’s character in “Throw Momma From the Train” (a flawed, but thoroughly watchable film) – “A writer writes…always.” Well, he could have also easily said – “A writer reads…always.”
Near as I can tell, you can’t have one without the other.
THE SHINING ON YOU:
Again, assuming you’re a writer, you spend a lot of lonely hours in quiet rooms going slowly insane. This clip from the Kubrick film, split in two, gives us a dramatic interpretation of this struggle and also illustrates why the dedication page at the front of novels where writers sing the praises of their spouses should always include the sentence “I’m sorry I’ve been such an asshole.” Of course, the Torrance’s here don’t ever get to that stage in the process as you’ll no doubt remember…
And, that’s it for Videodrome today. If you have 30 extra minutes on your hands and you haven’t seen the brilliant documentary by Stanley Kubrick’s daughter Vivian filmed during the making of “The Shining” you should do yourself a favor and click on these convenient links. You will not be sorry. All I’ll say is, poor, poor Shelley Duvall…
THE WEREWOLF 