Line #9 Headscratchers/DoctorSleep


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3	Note: [[Headscratchers/HomePage Headscratchers pages]] are "sincere questions, and discussing Fridge Logic," not complaints.
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8	[[folder:Hallorann's Knowledge of Harmful Ghosts]]
9	* The Doylist explanation is obviously that when the original novel was published, shining didn't have the same rules as it does in the sequel - but is there a Watsonian reason Hallorann would not mention to a five-year-old who he is leaving in a hotel full of restless spirits that sometimes bad people who are afraid to move on will attach to someone who shines and need to be dealt with? Hallorann had an encounter with the woman in room 217 (237 in the movie) and knew she was powerful enough to get up from the tub and come after him with conscious intent to harm when near (and presumably feeding from) him, let alone Danny, who shone the hardest of anyone Dick had ever met. The parallels with his evil grandfather's postmortem attempts to harm him are clear, but there is no attempt to lockbox Mrs. Massey, and he never even thinks of the process when prepping Danny for the Overlook's dangers. Afterward, he does not mention it until Danny gets a spirit attachment of his own - and a hefty dose of trauma to boot. This isn't addressed in the novel, so any answers will be WMG, but I'm curious if anyone has a good one. Dick is supposed to like Danny. This retcon means he knows sometimes the bad things you see are NOT "like pictures in a book," so during their heart-to-heart in the car he is actually setting Danny up to fail. The thing where Danny was winding up the Overlook like a key in a clock was something Danny was left to figure out for himself - a plot point. Dick now has/has had a reason to suspect something like that might happen, and a way to combat it, but it never came up. How do you square that in-universe?
10	** It is handwaved in the book as Dick didn't explain it to Danny because Danny was too young, at five, to understand. It's a fair assumption that this includes both the abuse Dick experienced as a young boy and the complexities of putting the ghosts in a box.
11	** Doesn't he explain this specifically in the film, that he knew Danny shone but didn't know ''how'' brightly until things at the Overlook went to hell? I think the assumption was he was hoping the ghosts would leave Danny alone, but Danny shines like a million-watt bulb which drew the bad things in like moths to a flame?
12	** Yes, in the film he's explicit that the ghosts at the Overlook had always just been like pictures to him, and he didn't predict the effect Danny's Shine would have upon them. Presumably he either assumed the ones at Overlook were a different and more innocuous type of entity than his grandfather's spirit, or that they were only truly dangerous to a person they had a connection to in life.
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15	[[folder:Shiny cat]]
16	Well, pretty straightforward question: Did that cat in the hospice have the Shining?
17	* It's hard to know for certain or not. But, there have been some reports in real life, whether if they are true or not is hard to tell, that have reported that animals have noticed when someone is ill before the person is diagnosed. Reports of cats who live at nursing homes going into the bedroom of a resident who is about to pass is one such common story that it's hard to know if it's TruthInTelevision or an urban legend.
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21	[[folder:Steam canisters]]
22	* Who invented the canisters The True Knot stored steam in? How did THAT get figured out? It's kind of interesting that technology and the supernatural kind of intersect there.
23	** The True Knot probably pulled on all those resources and connections they have a while back. By modern-day, it's plausible they have a friend in some engineering company that could facilitate the canisters.

Context Headscratchers / DoctorSleep