Writing 101: Why Do So Many Authors Commit Suicide?

Suicide. It's certainly a dark topic, but to ignore it completely would be an injustice to literature. Many authors have written poignantly about suicide from a variety of different angles. And many more authors have actually killed themselves. In fact, the number of authors who have is rather startling. So today I have to ask, why do so many authors commit suicide...and are we more at risk than people with non-writing careers? 

Gone, Not Forgotten

Some of the most brilliant authors committed suicide. The list includes Virginia Woolf, who filled her pockets with rocks before she walked into the river at age 59. Edgar Allen Poe clearly thought about death a great deal, as evidenced by his work, and tried to kill himself at least once before he died under mysterious circumstances in 1849 at age 40.

Novelist Cesare Pavese was disillusioned by politics and overdosed on pills in his hotel room. In a bizarre twist, the suicide mirrored a scene depicted in his book Among Women Only. He was 41. Paul Celan, who wrote poetry, was 49 when he threw himself into the Seine.

One of the most notable author suicides is that of Sylvia Plath. It's notable because she wrote about suicide in The Bell Jar, a book that continues to be studied and shared all over the world. The dark tale details a young woman's thoughts about suicide. The work is largely autobiographical, though Plath changed all the names. She did commit suicide shortly after the book was written and died at age 30. 

Are you a danger to yourself if you're an author? 

Books on Film: The Bell Jar

Lots of readers make the argument that books, which are so rich and full, cannot possibly fit into a movie that offers only a few hours of entertainment at best. There is perhaps one book that makes this argument more eloquently than any other: The Bell Jar. The trouble is, someone did try to turn it into a movie...and all the book fans just hated it.

The Book

The only book Sylvia Plath ever wrote, The Bell Jar was published very close to the time of her suicide in 1963. From what we know about Plath's short life, most critics speculate that she was writing about many of the personal experiences she had during the summer of 1953.

That's the setting of the book. It's hot in New York City, and Esther Greenwood is a young writer full of dreams. The story opens as Esther is thinking about the execution of the Rosenbergs, convicted communists. She's in the big city for the first time, seemingly with the world at her feet...and she's terrified. She's one of several girls who have won the joy of working at a women's magazine (loosely based on Mademoiselle, for which Plath did intern). 

There's Doreen, who always has a quick quip. And there's Betsy, nicknamed "Pollyanna Cowgirl," a bubbly sorority girl. And there are others, but Esther hasn't really made any close friendships during her internship as an editor. She's uncomfortable at the final banquet and her mind is scattered -- filled with thoughts of home and thoughts of the Rosenbergs. 

She's hoping for something wonderful to happen during the internship...but the only thing that happens is the execution. She returns home to Massachusetts instead, feeling defeated. Esther is a writer, so she decides to start writing a book. 

But what will she write about? Esther has spent her life being a student, not actually living, so she ends up staring at blank pages for hours and hours. What will she do instead of writing? She's a woman, it's the 1950s, and Esther has absolutely no idea. She has no interest in being married, which is what women are expected to do, and traditional "womanly" careers (like being a stenographer) don't really appeal to her. 

She is sinking ever-deeper into mind-numbing depression, and her mother begins to notice. She forces Esther to begin seeing Dr. Gordon, whom Esther immediately dislikes. He prescribes electroconvulsive therapy, also known as electric shock. It makes her think, of course, of the Rosenbergs being electrified to death.

Things get worse. Esther begins to obsess about suicide, and even makes some fledgling attempts toward this end. Finally her attempts get more serious, and she swallows a bottle of sleeping pills after leaving a good-bye note. She's discovered under her own house, survives, and is sent to a mental hospital. This is where she meets Dr. Nolan. At the hospital, Esther receives therapy and more shock treatments.

At the end of the book, Esther is preparing herself to walk into the interview room of the hospital where it will be decided if she may return back home.

This book is about suicide, but it's about a whole lot more. Esther is too smart for her own good, too filled with dreams and too eager to prove herself. She puts so much pressure on herself, the weight of it begins to crush her. I can identify with that, and I think many authors can also identify with it. Esther is also a product of her times, and trapped by her gender. What she wants feels impossible in 1953: sex without children, men without marriage, career without boundaries.

It's not possible to talk about The Bell Jar without talking about Sylvia Plath. It was her only book and by all accounts it was semi-autobiographical. We know, now, that Plath finally succumbed to the madness she found in the bell jar -- that stifling, trapped feeling where thoughts and emotions swirl around and around in your head without end. 

It's a well-loved book, but lots of readers agree that it's just not filmable. Filmmakers, naturally, are inclined to disagree. 

The Film

 Many readers have a great love for The Bell Jar, but very few have love for the 1979 film. It is, to date, the only feature-length film adaptation of the book...but there is reason to hope that may change.

And you should, because by all accounts the film is fairly terrible if you try to compare it against the book. As a novel, The Bell Jar is largely considered to be an epic narrative of teen angst. Marilyn Hassett, who played Esther Greenwood in the '79 flick, was 32. This immediately throws off the film.

 She's not the biggest name, and I am not a fan of 70s-era movies, so I've never seen any of her other work. She may, in fact, be a brilliant actress. She is not so convincing as Esther. In the film, Esther isn't depressed -- she's more manic than anything, and there's even some suggestion that she might be schizophrenic. No one seems to have a real clear grasp on Esther's mental trouble, least of all the lead actress. She goes from high to low like it's nothing, and might be giddy one second and furious in the next. In the book, Esther is very quietly suffering and doing her very best to remain self-contained (that's why she's in a bell jar, after all).

What Got Adapted?

The film adds quite a bit of dialogue and several scenes that don't occur in the book. Throughout the film, a voice-over quotes some of Sylvia Plath's most famous poetry, an addition that many readers have found offensive and, at best, distracting. The character of Joan, whom Esther meets in the hospital, tries to convince Esther to strike up a suicide pact. This doesn't happen in the book.

Casual reviewers and critics have all panned the film, but some credit has to go to the cast and the crew for attempting to adapt the book in the first place. Plum Pictures has been laboring for years to do the same. They announced a Bell Jar project in 2008 with Julia Stiles starring as Esther and Rose McGowan as her outgoing friend Doreen. We're still waiting.

Books on Film: It's a Wonderful Life

In celebration of the season, today I've got a special edition of Books on Film, featuring my very favorite holiday movie It's a Wonderful Life. It's a wonderful movie, but you probably don't know it's also a great short story. It's one of those rare tales that's got it all: angels, romance, Christmas, shattered dreams, scandal, money...even Jimmy Stewart. 

The Book

One of the most beloved and most-watched Christmas classics of all time is based on a little-known short story called The Greatest Gift. It was written in 1943 by Phillip Van Doren Stern, revolving around a main character named George Pratt. The story opens on Pratt standing on a bridge, ready to commit suicide. He's approached by a bizarre little man in worn clothing. George tells the man that really, he wishes he had never even been born.

So the weird little man grants George Pratt his wish. The man gives George a bag he's carrying, and tells him to use it as part of a cover story that he's a door-to-door brush salesman (seriously). So George does it. He leaves the bridge and goes back home, only to learn that no one knows who the heck he is. His wife doesn't know him, and everyone he has ever known is different and strange. They are not the same people he knows, having made different choices in their lives than they did in George's reality. And tragically, his little brother, whom George saved in a pond accident, died at a young age instead.

George returns to the bridge to talk to the weird little man, who explains that life is the greatest gift of all. George asks the man to put everything back to normal. The man does, and George goes back home to see that everything's okay now.

The author of the story, Phillip Van Doren Stern, couldn't get it published. He printed 200 copies himself in booklet form, and sent them to friends as Christmas presents in 1943. He published it again in 1945, without much success.

Somehow, an RKO Pictures producer got ahold of the short story and showed it to Cary Grant, who was interested in playing the lead. RKO bought the rights and let several screenwriters kick it around before the studio sold the story to Frank Capra, one of the best storytellers film has ever known. He turned the 4,100-word story into a full-length film bordering on epic. Your life will be truly incomplete if you don't watch it at least once.

The Film

It's possible that Cary Grant could have played George Pratt, the leading man of The Greatest Gift. He could not have played George Bailey, the main character of It's a Wonderful Life. This is only one of many ways in which the original story was changed in Capra's hands.

James Stewart played George instead, and did an amazing job of it. Stewart's "everyman" quality made him perfect as George Bailey, and many actors study his performance when they film holiday-themed movies. The story doesn't open with suicide this time...it opens with God. 

At the top, Wonderful Life, shows us the stars. We hear speaking, presumably it's God and His angels; discussion of a man named George Bailey. Something important is happening in George's life, and that gives a failed angel named Clarence yet another chance to earn his wings. 

But he can't get the job done unless he knows a little something about this George Bailey, so we go back in time to his childhood. We see young boys playing around in the ice and snow, sledding down a hill. George's little brother, Harry, goes farther than anyone...straight into the thin ice over the pond. He falls in! George dives in and saves Harry's life, but it costs him an ear. He loses his hearing on that side permanently.

We see more of George's life unfold on film, and meet an entire cast of characters that includes little girls Violet and Mary, little boys like Sam Wainwright, and of course Ma and Pa Bailey. We even see Mr. Potter, the meanest and richest man in town, brilliantly played by Lionel Barrymore (Drew's great-uncle). As a boy, George Bailey longs to be an explorer, a traveler, anything to get himself out of Bedford Falls. That's the little town where George lives. He's got big dreams and big plans, and everyone knows he'll reach them. George is smart, ambitious and hard-working.

And when he's all grown up, about an hour into the film, he's Jimmy Stewart. Non-threateningly attractive, adorably uncertain of himself and completely sincere, Jimmy Stewart was made to be George Bailey. Donna Reed is gorgeous as grown-up Mary, and the romantic scenes between the two of them are just about as good as what you'll find anywhere. 

Things don't always turn out the way we plan. They didn't turn out the way George Bailey had planned it. As it turns out, George didn't leave Bedford Falls at all. He didn't even go off to fight in the war, like so many others, because of his bum ear. George lived and worked in Bedford Falls, taking over the good old Bailey Building and Loan after his father's heart attack. It's the only reasonable option for owning a home in the town, because old man Potter is still alive and kicking and he runs the bank with an iron fist. 

George hates the Bailey Building and Loan. He hates Bedford Falls. He hates his old house that's perpetually in need of fixing up. When silly old Uncle Billy makes another of his mistakes, this one a real whopper, George thinks about giving up. He goes to the bridge, in the snow, and prays.

That's when a weird, small, old man jumps into the water below. George jumps in after to pull the man out, and something strange happens. The little old man says that he jumped into the water to save George! He then grants George's wish, to never have been born. 

Along with the two of them, we re-visit Bedford Falls. The town is now known as Pottersville, and it's totally not the place that George remembers at all. Old Man Gowers is all messed up, Harry is dead, Ma Bailey and Uncle Billy are in just awful shape, and Mary...Mary is a spinster who works in the library. It's almost too much to bear. It's certainly too much for George to bear. 

Did I mention that all this is happening on Christmas Eve? Because of Uncle Billy's mistake, George is probably going to jail. The Bailey Building and Loan is going to close for sure, and Potter is going to win. He's going to win, and there's no telling what's going to happen to everyone else in the town once the Baileys go out of business. 

But even so, George is ecstatic when the angel Clarence puts everything back to rights. The scene where Jimmy Stewart runs through Main Street, screaming "Merry Christmas" at various buildings along the way, is a cinematic event. And when he returns home...well, you're just going to have to watch it.

What Got Adapted?

The basic plot of It's a Wonderful Life is clearly based on the short story, but to turn this small tale into a big feature film Capra had to do a whole lot of expanding. He shifts the story to a third-person focus; we know that we are casual observers in this tale, seeing everything through the angel Clarence's eyes.

Capra had to name the town and the angel, and he had to invent the entire sub-plot involving the Bailey family business. Characters like Violet, Bert and Ernie were added entirely, as were many of the events of George's childhood. But if you read the story, you'll see the clear parallels. It's a short read, and perfect for the holiday season. When you're done, watch the story on film. It's a wonderful way to spend your time.

Maybe Sylvia Plath Was Onto Something....

If I told you that I'm about to write a book about a suicidal girl with writer’s block who obsesses about the execution of strangers, you might decide right away that you aren't going to read that book because it sounds depressing. Well, the fact is that this is already a book,and you are absolutely right. It's one of the most depressing books ever written, and everyone knows it. Sylvia Plath was depressed and suicidal, and she wrote the book about it. 

When it Shouldn't Work

Seriously, "The Bell Jar" is $&@!ing dark. At one point in the story, the main character goes around asking people how they would kill themselves. The book is so linked with depression, "bell jar" has becomes synonym for being depressed. And from a publishing standpoint, that really doesn't sound like a story that should work. But it did. Sylvia Plath's book is a big bestseller that's still read today. I own two copies of the damn thing, in fact. And I know exactly why this totally depressing book worked so well.

Books on Film: Girl, Interrupted

Susanna Kaysen published Girl, Interrupted in 1993. The book is based on her own life, experiences she had during the 1960s as a young woman. The best-selling book gained even more fame later in the decade when Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie, among an ensemble cast, made a movie about it.

The Book

Girl, Interrupted is well-written, but it's a bit hard to follow because it doesn't follow a linear story. The book details Susanna's stay in a mental hospital after receiving a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. She lived for nearly two years at McLean, and later obtained her file from the hospital. 

The book is a collection of stories about her life in the hospital and before her admittance. The theme of freedom is a running thread throughout. She was 18 in 1967, a tumultuous time for many people in the United States. She was admitted to the hospital after a suicide attempt, and a stay that was meant to be a couple of weeks extended to 18 months.

Writing 101: How Scary is Your Search History?

It’s possible I’ve been flagged as a serial killer.

I’m really not one of those conspiracy theorists who believes the government is secretly behind every major event, but sometimes I do worry about my search engine history. I know that Google keeps track of the stuff I’m looking up, so it feels totally within the realm of possibility that the government may also have this sort of power. The government probably doesn’t have as much money as Google, or anything, but I’m pretty sure they can make Google give them information. 

Getting Weird with Google

And if they can, it’s possible that my name is on somebody’s list somewhere…because I look up extremely strange stuff on Google.

I got to thinking about it the other day when I looked for authors who committed suicide, the same night I was searching for information about electronic toys. I've searched for information about legal proceedings, how to get blood out of leather, Christmas decorations, and Will Ferrell in the same week.

From the Trenches: Depressing Rejection

Few things can create as much pressure as being given the label "promising." One success usually isn't enough for any author. Phrases like what have you done for me lately? and you're only as good as your last book leap to mind. Once you achieve something in the world of publishing, you may expect all the doors to fall open for you. So when they stay closed, it can be a pretty brutal letdown. 

This was the case for one very promising poet, flush with potential, who discovered that success doesn't immediately lead to more success...in an very harsh way. 

Sylvia Plath was a very promising and talented poet, and she proved it with the publication of her poetry collection, The Colossus. The book was made up of 44 poems, and it didn't exactly set the world on fire right away...but it did give Plath the motivation to begin her first fiction novel. 

Reportedly, Plath began writing the book in 1961 after being awarded the Eugene F. Saxton Fellowship. It was a rather prestigious grant attached to publishers Harper & Row, and it gave Plath the freedom to work furiously at her literary endeavors.

She was no stranger to awards. Plath went to Smith, where she edited The Smith Review, and won a position as a guest editor at Mademoiselle magazine. She even won a grant to attend Cambridge, and traveled around Europe when classes weren't in session. 

So, after spending many months of working on her first (and what would be only) novel, Sylvia Plath sent a copy to Harper & Row, the benefactors of her Fellowship. 

They hated it. They deemed the book "disappointing, juvenile and overwrought," and pulled her Fellowship.

Still determined to succeed, Plath submitted it to a different publishing house -- this time, under a pen name. The response? Another harsh rejection. The editor who read her work commented "there certainly isn't enough genuine talent for us to take notice." 

Plath quickly responded, this time with the revelation of her real name. "I have now re-read --or rather read more thoroughly-- [the manuscript] with the knowledge that it is by Sylvia Plath which has added considerably to its interest," the editor wrote. "But it still is not much of a novel...there is no viewpoint." Of the plot itself, the editor wrote that "one feels simply that Miss Plath is writing of them because [these] things did happen to her and the incidents are in themselves good for a story, but throw them together and they don't necessarily add up to a novel."

Harsh...and stupid. The novel that Plath wrote was, of course, The Bell Jar. Today it is considered a classic, and it's been indelibly ingrained into popular culture as a representation of depression, suicide and teen angst, among other themes that deal in femininity and the pressures of having potential. It's still selling on Amazon to this day, and it's required reading in many high schools and institutes of higher learning. Plath's own sad story is hopelessly entangled with the book, of course...she died by her own hand very shortly after it was first published. Since The Bell Jar is about suicide, the parallels are inescapable. But Plath's voice lives on in the book, and it happens to be one of my very favorites. 

Many brilliant minds struggle with emotions; genius and raw feeling do not make for happy bedfellows. Sylvia Plath worked in the fiction trenches and battled depression the best way she knew how: by writing about it. In the end, she couldn't overcome her own demons...but lucky for the rest of us, she managed to put them down on paper quite beautifully before she left. She weathered harsh rejection and suffered staggering defeats, and even after she died she was still winning awards for her brilliant work.

From the Trenches: Fortunate Son

One of America's most well-loved writers is also one of the unluckiest. Jack London faced rather miserable circumstances early in life, and before he found fame and fortune he had a mailbox stuffed full of ugly rejection letters. You can still see some of them today, on display at his famous estate. There are almost enough, in fact, to use as wallpaper. 

Jack London was born illegitimately in California to a single mother. As a child, London was raised by an ex-slave and worked in a cannery. As a teen, London worked on fishing and sealing boats before he returned to land to attend high school at 19. 

He loved to read, and as a natural extension of his love of words began to write when he wasn't working in the canning factory. London submitted many early poems, short stories and poems to publications throughout California in his early years of writing, but received rejection in return. His mother committed suicide when he was 21. Devastated by this and by his biological father's subsequent rejection, Jack London decided to quit school and went into the wilds of the Klondike. 

It would change him, and his writing, for ever.

Being Wild

Jack London joined the Gold Rush in 1897, sailing to the Klondike with his sister's husband. When he returned to California a year later, he was motivated to become a successful writer -- and now, he had the perfect setting to give him a good start. Using the backdrop of the Klondike, London began to write his first novel. He was offered 5 dollars for it from The Overland Monthly, and almost decided to give up on writing.

But he didn't. He received much more money for this story "A Thousand Deaths" and began writing more. It was a lucky coincidence that new printing technologies were also available for the first time, creating a magazine boom and a huge need for lots and lots of words. In 1900, London made thousands of dollars from his writing.

He sold his iconic work, The Call of the Wild, to the The Saturday Evening Post and Macmillan in 1903, and it cemented his career. As planned, Jack London became a successful working writer. Jack London was the highest-paid and most popular author and short story writer of his day, drawing on his own exciting experiences out in nature to craft vivid tales the public still devours. His book The Sea-Wolf was used as the basis for the first full-length American movie ever made.

Jack London didn't commit suicide, as urban myth would have readers believe. He developed kidney disease, possibly stemming from his days in the Klondike when his health was quite poor, and died of renal failure. He wanted to be a writer, and he was -- it's a story with a happy ending, not a sad one. 

You can see Jack London's history if you visit the House of Happy Walls, a museum decided to London established shortly after his death. Here, there are almost 600 rejection letters on display that London received from editors and other literary types during his career. Many writers could use that many letters to completely cover their workspace in wall-to-wall rejection. It didn't stop Jack London, who worked in the writing trenches with ambition firing his brain...and proved them all wrong. 

Movie Review: Petals on the Wind

In case you haven't noticed, I've been making a big deal about the Petals on the Wind adaptation for a few days now. Last night it finally aired. So how does this long-awaited movie match up to its book?

Not very well. In case you weren't enjoying my live Twitter session last night while the movie was on, I ought to warn you: I'm pretty angry about the adaptation. 

Faded Buttercups 

The movie begins 10 years after the events of Flowers in the Attic, which is already wrong. The book actually begins right where Flowers left off. Seriously, the reader misses a few hours (at best) of Cathy's life. Cathy is 15 when she leaves the attic.

This means that in the advanced timeline, Cathy is already 25. And in the movie, Paul Sheffield is dead. This is an insult to the fans, because Paul figures prominently in Cathy's adult life. She marries him, after all. As a girl just meeting Paul, Cathy sets out to seduce him almost immediately. She's already all messed up, and desperate to explore her femininity with someone who isn't related to her. So her relationship with Paul is very complex, and affects many other relationships. To cut him out is an injustice.

Writing 101: Being An Author Will Drive You Crazy

For some reason, a certain amount of eccentricity is tolerated in artistic people. It’s weird and gross that Vincent Van Gogh cut off his ear, but he was an artist. You know how artists are. Some authors famously did really weird things, and people just accept it. But being an author can potentially drive you crazy...as in, actually insane. After all, I’m pretty sure it’s happened before…

The Crazy Ones
If you believe that you must be mad in order to be a genius, there are some authors who were most certainly geniuses. Were they mad to begin with, or did being authors drive them insane?

Writing 101: Authors and Substance Abuse

"Write drunk, edit sober."

 – Ernest Hemingway

I giggled when I first saw that quote from Hemingway. I stopped smiling when I remembered that alcoholism eventually destroyed him...and lots of other great authors. When it comes to authors and substance abuse, this profession seems to have more than its fair share of drunks. And no matter how amazing these addicted authors are or were, no one should attempt to follow their soggy footsteps. 

Losing the Battle

Start looking for authors who spent too much time looking at the bottom of a bottle, and you're going to find them. Hemingway battled alcoholism (and lost) for much of his life. He eventually took his own life despite his success and fame. Edgar Allen Poe, often regarded as the master of modern horror, had a serious alcohol problem. He died mysteriously, and the substance abuse definitely didn't help to prevent his untimely demise.

 

Hunter S. Thompson was famously an addict. You can see something of what his life was like in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. There was probably no drug he did not try, and one day he shot himself in the head with a gun. Is the substance abuse linked to the suicide? Fans can only speculate, but going though the highs and lows of drug use surely did not help him with any emotional problems he may or may not have been experiencing.

Playwright Tennessee Williams, famous for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and a whole host of other stories, also had issues with alcohol. Even Stephen King indulged, and things got so bad his friends and family staged an intervention to bring him back from the brink of substance abuse.

Authors and substance abuse have been linked a lot throughout history, and it's not a pattern that should be repeated. All due respect to Hemingway, but writing drunk or otherwise compromised is never a good idea. You're likely to spit out a bunch of words and plot that make no sense, and wading through that nonsense later will be a huge headache. Always write clear-headed. It's fine to indulge in a little alcohol with friends during a special event, but if you feel that you need to drink on a daily basis then you have a problem. Please get help for it. There is lots of help available.

Many of the authors who suffered from substance abuse died with very little money or happiness, often all alone, in very undignified ways. You don't want to leave that sort of legacy behind, to be a sad footnote in someone's blog post, to spend your talent swimming around inside of a whiskey bottle. Authors may turn to substances in order to combat the loneliness and the strong emotions that come with the job, but there are better ways to cope. Substance abuse will destroy you in the end, just as it destroyed so many other talented writers.

Author, Interrupted

It was the second of July in the year 1961, and Ernest Hemingway was famous. He was a well-loved, bestselling American novelist and one of the world's most celebrated storytellers. This is why so many people cannot fathom why Hemingway woke from his bed that morning at 7, walked to his storage room and took out a shotgun. He placed the barrel of the gun against his forehead, and fired. It was a tragic ending to the story of an adored author.

The Hemingway Curse

At first, his wife claimed the gunshot was accidental. He'd been cleaning the weapon, she said. Finally, she admitted that she believed he had intentionally killed himself. It didn't make any sense. Hemingway was larger than life. He was a world traveler, a bullfighter, a hunter of big game, a man's man and an amazing writer. Why would such a man end it all when he was so successful and so admired by the world?

Writing 101: Is It Creative, or Just Crazy?

Don't we all have an image of the brilliant genius? The Vincent Van Gogh, locked away in a room, painting masterpieces furiously in order to work through all this issues? The Sylvia Plath, writing brilliantly of suicide just before ending her own life? But at some point, doesn't behavior take a step beyond the eccentric and into the insane? Is it creative...or is it just crazy? 

There Are Quirks, and Then There Are Quirks

T.S. Eliot was a highly successful writer, best known as a critic, poet and playwright. He was somewhat less well-known as an incredible eccentric. Allegedly, Eliot lived above a publishing house but rented a room at another business. Here, he answered only to the name "the Captain" and once inside his room painted his face green so he would resemble a corpse.

Books on Film: The Shining

Some books on film become so monumental in the movie industry, it's easy to forget that once upon a time, the story existed only on a printed page. The Shining is so iconic that Jack Nicholson is still famous for it 30 years later, and it's still one of the most frightening films ever made. But as a novel, Stephen King's famous book tells a very different tale. 

The Book

The Shining is one of Stephen King's earliest novels, and one of his most beloved. The book was a turning point in his career, solidifying him as a top-notch horror author -- a reputation he still holds today. The famous film version of the book focuses on Jack Torrance, but the novel is more oriented on his young son, Danny, who has an unusual talent. 

Danny is the only child for either of his parents, who are trapped in a bad marriage. He's often haunted by the dark thoughts he senses swirling in his father's head, thoughts of suicide and divorce. Jack Torrance is an aspirin addict and a drinker with a bad temper. He broke Danny's arm in a drunken rage, an event that brought Jack back to sobriety -- though not soon enough to save his prestigious prep school job. Out of work and struggling to make good on his responsibilities, Jack accepts a job at a Colorado establishment named the Overlook Hotel working as a winter caretaker. 

The long winter will give him time to work on his play, his pet project, and spend more time with his wife and son. In the book, Danny is 5 years old and incredibly gifted, speaking and thinking like a boy much older and wiser. Danny meets the hotel chef Dick Hallorann soon after their arrival a the Overlook, and they engage in a secret mental conversation.

Soon, Danny becomes haunted by frightening images and ghosts inside the Overlook. The longer he spends in the hotel, the more dangerous it becomes; the building is feeding off of his abilities. It begins to use Jack to get to Danny, slowly driving him into madness. Jack finds the hotel bar miraculously stocked with liquor after a fight with his wife Wendy and falls off the wagon. The hotel begins to tell him to kill them both

Jack and Wendy have a vicious fight after she learns that he's disabled their transportation and communication. He beats her savagely with a mallet and she delivers a mortal stab to him with a butcher knife. She locks herself in a bathroom, and Jack tries to smash the door open with the mallet before he simply unlocks it. By this time, Dick Hallorann has heard Danny's mental call for help and makes his way back to the hotel. But Jack finds Dick first and brutally attacks him before he goes after Danny. 

Jack beats his own face in, so Danny won't recognize him, but the trick doesn't work because the kid can read minds. Danny convinces Jack to go look after the hotel's boiler system. Wendy and Danny find each other, then Dick, and leave the hotel together. Jack is left alone in the basement with the boiler, which explodes. The Overlook, and Jack, are both destroyed. Danny and Wendy end up in (where else?) Maine with Dick Hallorann.

The Film

The film version of The Shining was released only three years after the book hit the shelves. The players and the setting are all the same in the film: Jack, Wendy and Danny are still a family on the outs and still isolated at the eerie Overlook.

This time, the story is more focused on Jack and his descent into madness. Jack falls off the wagon, just like he does in the book, and begins to see the ghosts that populate the hotel. In the film, Hallorann begins to sense what's going on and starts to make his way to the hotel all on his own. Danny begins to freak out visibly, screaming out "redrum" and talking about himself as someone named "Tony."

Wendy discovers that the play Jack has been working on is little more than gibberish, something which does not happen in the book. In the book, Wendy reads Jack's play after he's already dead and it's not altogether bad. She ends up attacking Jack with a bat and locking him in a pantry, from which he is freed by the ghost of the hotel's former caretaker.

Jack goes after his family, breaking through the door with an axe in the movie's most famous scene -- a scene which happens rather differently in the book. In the film, Jack kills Hallorann when he arrives and begins chasing his wife and son around the hotel. Wendy and Danny escape on a snowmobile, leaving Jack to freeze to death in the hotel's hedge maze. The hotel is never destroyed, and its ghost-riddled presence remains intact...with Jack Torrance now happily among them.

What Got Adapted? 

There are so many little differences between the book and movie version of The Shining, I could drive myself crazy trying to list them all. Some big changes were made, some of which seem pretty inexplicable. In the movie, Tony is inside of Danny -- an extension of himself, perhaps. In the novel, Tony exists outside of Danny, and Danny can actually see him. 

It's Danny, not Wendy, who locks Jack up in the book. Danny's character is greatly changed in the film adaptation of the book. In the novel, he's a very precocious 5-year-old child with an extensive vocabulary. On film, he's 7 and fairly normal -- except for the psychic thing, of course. But in the film, his psychic abilities are toned down somewhat. Danny can actually read minds and can find out whatever his parents are thinking when he wants too.

The hedge maze is added for the movie. Instead, there's a topiary garden full of animals that end up coming alive and terrorizing Jack. By the way, Jack doesn't ever use an ax in the book.

The book reveals who Tony actually is. Tony is a very important character in the book, and he's changed thoroughly (and in my opinion, badly) for the film. The finger-talking nonsense is fabricated for film as well, and frankly makes light of Tony's true power and intentions. I've never been one to defend Stephen King (that's right, I'll say it: I'm not a fan), but I do think he deserved a bit better. However, at the end of the day, the film version of The Shining is iconic, and terrifying, and it gives us an incredibly fine performance from Jack Nicholson. Kubrick got a lot of stuff wrong, and many of the changes were just silly (not to mention, I actually root for Jack to kill Wendy in the movie because she's tortuously annoying), but tell me that The Shining is on cable and I'm going to flip to that channel anyway.

10 Times Egyptian Pharaohs Straight Up Lied About History

The might of the Egyptian pharaohs continues to resonate throughout history, with many of their names remaining famous and highly revered even centuries after the fact. Egyptians concerned themselves with preserving their bodies, their spirits and their legacies for all eternity…and in many respects, they succeeded. But the legend of the Egyptian pharaohs isn’t so much a gift of the gods as it is the result of very well-thought-out propaganda campaigns, clever lies and positively brilliant marketing.

 

The Divine Birth of Queen Hatshepsut


Hatshepsut was probably the first female pharaoh of Egypt to rule the kingdom in her own right. And in a patriarchal society like ancient Egypt, this was a tough task. She did many things during her time on the throne to show that she was capable of being the leader of the empire and had many works of art created that would depict her this way.

Many pharaohs linked themselves to the gods in various works of art. Hatshepsut really drove this point home to make it quite clear that was divinely ordained to rule over Egypt. Her temple is carved with many scenes, including a birth scene in which the king of all gods, Amun, impregnants Hatshepsut's mother. This made Hatshepsut the daughter of the king of gods himself. Not a bad lineage.

This clearly made her a legit pharaoh and one with the backing of the gods, no less. Of course, this was all a lie. Hatshepsut was certainly a mortal woman and probably not the result of a divine birth or godly conception.

Amenemhet I Biography


In the real story, Amenemhet was not born royal. He was a vizier, which is sort of like being a prime minister, for the guy who was pharaoh before him. But you know how rumors work. Once you plant the right one and it takes root, it spreads like weeds. Such is the story of Amenemhet, which was quite a clever bit of self-marketing.

The story was written out on a papyrus that begins with a prophecy, which is always a great place to begin a story. According to the prophecy, Amenemhet was going to be a king. The prophecy went on to say that life would be terrible in Egypt but then, a king would come from the south. His name would be Ameny.

According to the prophecy that was written after all these events actually transpired, Ameny would take both the red and white crown of Egypt and unify the Upper and Lower kingdoms. And though he was common-born, or born of the people, his name would cause the people to rejoice.

It's a great story but it's an even greater way to self-promote and it's a great example of how Egyptian pharaohs loved to write their own lie-strewn legends.

Battle of Kadesh


The Battle of Kadesh was probably the biggest battle the world had known up to that point, which specifically was the year 1274 B.C.E. Upon returning from battle, Ramses II ordered a huge mural carved on the walls of his memorial temple to commemorate the great battle.

What a site it is. The mural shows the mighty pharaoh Ramees himself crushing Egypt's sworn enemy, the Hittites, like the bugs they are. The mural depicts the pharaoh, and Egypt, as the grad victors of the battle. It is awe-inspiring stuff. And it's basically all a lie.

The Egyptian and Hittite empires were trading friends and sometimes foes, often battling each other and fighting for the rich Levant region and its natural resources. This led to an all-out war in 1274, when things came to a head in the huge battle of Kadesh.

The artifacts uncovered in the Hittite empire relating to the battle tell a different tale than the story Ramses sold to his own people, and to history. The Treaty of Kadesh, the oldest peace treaty ever discovered so far, shows that Egypt actually made a great many concessions to the Hittite empire. The Hittites gained a number of new cities and lands and the treaty is clearly a better deal for their empire than for Egypt.

There's no mention of signing the treaty on the great wall Ramses commissioned, of course.

Ramses the Not So Great


Ramses II, known in history as Ramses the Great, ruled Egypt from 1279 to 1300. And according to all the art about him, he was an incredible warrior-king. With the might of a god, Ramses led his people to victory after victory as he quelled the Libyans nearby. He claimed their lands for Egypt because he was a glorious pharaoh.

It's a big whopper of a lie, as is a lot of the image of Ramses the Great. Most of his greatness is just for show and in reality, his reign was far more nuanced. One of his biggest lies concerned neighboring Libya, which Ramses claimed to have subjugated. Evidence shows that actually, Ramses maintained a peaceful relationship with the neighboring kingdom and even relied on their knowledge. It was a much more symbiotic relationship, though in Egypt the monuments all proclaimed that great Ramses had basically annexed this land.

Amenhotep III is Favored by the Gods


Amenhotep III arguably didn't have the most stunning reign during his tenure as pharaoh. But you wouldn't know that to look at his fabulous mortuary temple. First, it's decorated with two enormous statues of the pharaoh himself guarding the entrance to the temple.

That's not all. There's also the god, Hapi, bringing two symbols of Egypt together. All this represents Amenhotep III bringing together the two parts of Egypt, Upper and Lower. Amenhotep III actually lost control over these kingdoms during his reign. But as the temple shows, his reign over both was actually ordained by the gods.

Of course, it was just a great sculpture. The fantastic imagery doesn't at all represent the reality of his reign. Which isn't really such a bad way to do things. If you tell everyone you were awesome after you die, it's not like they can really argue with you.

The Battle of the Delta


The Battle of the Delta is recorded in the longest hieroglyphic inscription ever found, at least so far. The battle was waged around the year 1175 B.C.E. when Egypt was under the rule of Ramses III. This is the day the Sea Peoples came to the shores of Egypt.

History is quite unsure who these people were, where they came from or precisely what they were so upset about. What is known is that they burned and pillaged their way across the known world, razing the main cities of Mycenean Greece to the ground. The great city of Troy was looted and burned and the Hittite empire was attacked so savagely that nothing of the great empire remained by the time the marauders were done with them.

This is the terrifying force that descended upon Egypt. Two battles took place, one by land and one by sea. But it was the battle on the sea that proved decisive. And according to the huge inscription Ramses ordered to be created, he totally kicked butt. He drove the Sea Peoples back into the sea, soundly defeating them in the name of Egypt.

And his version of events almost certainly is not true. Historically, the aftermath of the battle does not represent a time of strength and success for Egypt. In fact, Egypt was never the same after that battle and remained greatly weakened for the ensuing centuries. Meanwhile, the so-called survivors of the battle settled in the Levant, the most desirable and hotly contested land in the entire Egyptian empire. That doesn't seem like much of a defeat.

From Zero to Hero


Reigning as pharaoh from 1872 to 1854 B.C.E., Senusret III was an extremely young pharaoh when he first was crowned. Luckily, he reigned over a highly artistic time in Egypt and he had the support of wealthy patrons. Lots of art was created celebrating the young king and in a few years, he had become an idealized warrior-king, with monuments and artwork and depictions of his prowess in battle appearing throughout the Egyptian kingdom.

The artwork essentially lifted him to god status, turning him into an epic and legendary figure even in his own time...in spite of the fact that he was incredibly young and had achieved very little in his reign when this image was first cultivated. That's some seriously good propaganda.

The So Called Hyksos Invasion


It all happened around 1800 B.C.E. But what happened depends on who told the story. According to Egyptian pharaohs, the land was invaded by the awful Hyksos people. They were ruthless invaders, foreigners who wrested control of northern Egypt away from the rightful rulers by force. They created chaos, disaster, terror in the streets.

Evidence strongly suggests that the Hyksos were more immigrants than invaders and may have even invented the Egyptian alphabet. The archeological record suggests that they came to Egypt quite peacefully and ruled their area of the empire in relative quiet until Egyptian pharaohs seized the land...after a rather extensive mud-slinging campaign that painted them as violent offenders.

Cleopatra Was the Descendant of a Goddess


Cleopatra's name has become synonymous with sex appeal, cleverness, seduction and power. But that's the modern version of good old Cleo, Egypt's very last pharaoh. She was not popular in her own time among her people and had to murder quite a few relatives before she managed to reign as pharaoh, more often co-ruling with one of her husband-brothers at her side instead.

The Egyptian people weren't quite sure how to take Cleopatra and they weren't exactly chanting her name when she arrived in Alexandria with Caesar, who forcibly reinstated her as pharaoh over the land. She started to strongly associate herself with the goddess Isis, using images and symbols of the goddess to inform her own portraits. She was incredibly careful about her image and made the association between herself and Egypt's most powerful goddess clear as a way to prove she was a worthy pharaoh.

Though Cleopatra's image and legend would continue to grow, the goddess Isis suffered guilt by association. The Isis cult in Rome became incredibly unpopular after Cleopatra's suicide, particularly in Rome.

 The Greatest Pharaoh of Them All


You've heard of names like Ramses the Great and Tutankhamun, Nefertiti and Cleopatra. But who was the greatest pharaoh of them all? If you take a look around Egypt, or if you ever did in the last 5,000 years, you might draw the conclusion that the greatest of all rulers of this land was clearly the guy who built that really massive, really impressive pyramid.

To get specific, that pharaoh was (probably) Khufu. Historians believe he is the one who had the great pyramid itself built, the largest ever constructed in the world and the tallest building in the entire world for thousands of years.

Greatness achieved. But Khufu was far from Egypt's greatest pharaohs by most standards. He certainly wasn't the first, the last, the richest or the most powerful. And while the Great Pyramid is certainly impressive, it's not the biggest building ever built in Egypt.

Most of Khufu's reign can be summed up in that pyramid, which was strictly a monument to him. There are no public spaces for the people to use and no practical service areas provided by the massive structure. It serves no purpose other than to announce to Egypt, and all of history, that Khufu was the greatest of them all.

But today, most people have no idea who Khufu was or know of anything he did other than use up a ton of resources on building a giant monument for his own acclaim.

Brooklyn Museum - Hatshepsut

DBPedia - Battle of the Delta

Gale - Archaeology: Propaganda of the pyramids

Gettysburg College - Androgyny in the Ancient World: The Intersection of Politics,

Religion and Gender in the Art of Hatshepsut

History - Cleopatra

Institutional Scholarship - Isis and Cleopatra in Rome : how one of history’s most famous queens influenced an Egyptian cult in the heart of the Roman Empire

Judith Starkston - Propaganda and Reality: Hittites vs Pharaoh Ramesses

Morehead State - Cleopatra as the Goddess Isis

Osirisnet - Senusret III

PBS - Ramesses II

Penfield - The New Kingdom - Part Two and the Age of Decline

The School For Excellence - Ancient History

Science - ‘Invasion' of ancient Egypt may have actually been immigrant uprising

The University of Manchester - New evidence shows might of Pharaoh Ramses is fake news

U.S. Naval Institute - The Last Great Pharaoh vs. The Sea Peoples

Wondrium Daily - Germination of Effective Propaganda: The Egyptian Dynasty XII

World History Encyclopedia - Senusret III

Blog Tour Stop: Why Twitter Matters, from Annalisa Crawford

It's been a year since my novella Cat and The Dreamer was published! There have been lots of changes in my own life in that time, and I started to wonder what else had changed...

Thank you Jade for inviting me over today!

Today's topic: Twitter!

When Cat and The Dreamer was published I didn't have a Twitter account - everyone else in the world did, everyone else used their accounts to tell each other about their new book releases... I relied on a solitary tweet by Hubby. I was on Facebook, I had a blog - why did I need Twitter too?

I succumbed in June, and it wasn't even with professional reasons in mind. I'm not sure what swayed me, but I've been having a blast ever since. I can now tell the world all those witty things I think during the day that would be otherwise lost. I can (and did) share my thoughts about the Olympic opening ceremony, along with the rest of the world. In fact, it was that was the evening I unfollowed my first person, because he insisted on tweeting about his book release while everyone else was talking Olympics.

Best of all was watching TOTP2 over Christmas. I was alone, but I took to Twitter and shared my thoughts about Wizzard, The Pogues and Kirsty McColl, and some rather strange dancing snowmen #TOTP2, yeah! And it was fantastic. Lots of people all thinking the same as me, how great is that!

It was because of a Twitter conversation that I took part in NaNoWriMo this year, and now have a great new project to work on.

It was because of Twitter that I've met some great new people, and have a heavy metal guitarist following me. (I wish Blogger would support cheesy-grin smileys because I really want to put one here!)

It's also very useful for those silly little research questions you have and can't find the answer to on Google. For one story recently, my character was being poisoned and I'd already written his symptoms when I realised I didn't know what would cause them. I got my answer via Twitter because the question was retweeted until I found the expert I needed. I think it was an expert, it might just have been someone who'd poisoned people!

Are you on Twitter? Has it changed your life?

Please follow me, using the link below!

About Cat and The Dreamer

As a teenager, Julia survived a suicide pact, while her best friend Rachel died. Julia’s only escape from her guilt, and her mother’s over-protection, is her imagination. When Adam arrives in the office, Julia’s world takes a startling turn as she realises reality can be much more fun than fantasy. Finally she has someone who can help her make the most of her life. But can she allow herself to be truly happy?

Cat and The Dreamer is available on Kindle UK, Kindle US, Kobo, Nook, iTunes/iBooks, and via Vagabondage Press.

Annalisa Crawford lives and writes in Cornwall with a good supply of beaches and moorland to keep her inspired. She finds endless possibilities in the relationships between people. Several new projects are on the cards for 2013.

Find her on her blog, Twitter, Facebook and Goodreads.

Writing 101: The Unreliable Narrator

In books, we often trust the narrator of the story and accept the secrets they reveal. But not all narrators are trustworthy. Have you ever considered using an unreliable narrator to spin lies for the readers of your books? 

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

Some narrators are unreliable. It's a rarely-used but quite effective literary technique. When it's done well, it will lead to a shocking twist ending that takes readers by surprise. One of the best examples of this technique is The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, by Agatha Christie.

Books on Film: Thinner

October is swiftly approaching, and with it Halloween. It's one of my favorite holidays, and it's all about being scared. That's why I'm going to (attempt to) feature only scary books on film all month long. The first installment begins with, of course, Stephen King. After a fashion, anyway. King wrote Thinner as Richard Bachman, the worst-kept secret pen name in the entire history of the written word. But the jig is definitely up, and the novel moved easily to film.

Was it any better in the second medium?

The Book

When King first started in the writing biz, many publishers believed that authors shouldn't release more than one book a year; they thought it might over-saturate the market. According to literary legend, King invented his pseudonym Richard Bachman for this reason -- and because he wanted to see if readers were buying his words, or his name.

Supposedly. As I've mentioned, the secret wasn't kept very well, and fans aren't dumb. They quickly caught on to the fact that horror novelist Richard Bachman wrote with the exact same style as horror novelist Stephen King.

The public still didn't have wide knowledge of who Bachman really was when his book Thinner was released. Only 28,000 books sold in the novel's first publication. But some fans had already sniffed him out by the time he published Thinner, the third Bachman book, so King dedicated it to Bachman's fictitious wife and included a photograph of the author (actually an insurance agent). A suspicious bookstore clerk in Washington, D. C. searched Library of Congress records and found proof that King and Bachman were actually the same man. After he mailed a letter to King's publishers, King personally called the clerk and told him to go ahead and break the story.

He did, and in its next run Thinner sold hundreds of thousands of copies.

The novel is clearly written in King's signature style. It's set in New England, like most of his books, and it's about a fat lawyer named Billy Halleck. He's recently stood trial for vehicular manslaughter, having hit and killed an old woman while his wife was performing a sexual act on him. The old woman was part of a group of gypsies, and King-as-Bachman draws attention to this right away; it's very important. Halleck is acquitted, mainly because he's good friends with the judge. 

While leaving the courthouse, the ancient father of the old woman appears on the courthouse steps. He steps close to Halleck and strokes his cheek, whispering "thinner."

Rapid weight loss begins at once. He loses weight by startling degrees, and soon realizes that the aged gypsy cursed him. When he speaks to his judge friend, he learns that the judge has also been cursed. His skin is turning into scales. The town police chief, also part of the cover-up, has been stricken with a horrifying skin condition. Both commit suicide before the book ends.

Billy's not going down without a fight. Now pitifully emaciated, he tracks the gypsies all the way to Maine (hey! This book was written by Stephen King!). Finally, he manages to strike up a deal with the gypsy, who gives Billy a pie baked with his own blood. Whoever eats the pie will also get the curse, because it can be transferred but not destroyed. The old gypsy tells Billy to eat the pie himself, and die with some dignity.

But he's not going to do that. He takes his pie home instead to give to his wife. This whole thing is her fault, anyway. He puts it away for the night, and gets himself some rest. When he wakes, he discovers that he made a mistake: his wife and his daughter both ate from the pie while he was sleeping soundly. 

Billy cuts himself a slice of the pie as well because he feels so terrible about killing his own daughter, and that's the end. Surprisingly, the story is re-told pretty well on film.

The Film

 Thinner became a film in 1996, but this time it carried Stephen King's name. To this day, the film is Stephen King's Thinner, which technically is wrong (but let's not get back into all that). Robert John Burke stars as Billy Halleck, and this time the story is moved entirely to Maine. This time, the movie actually shows the manslaughter incident that's already past-tense by the time the book begins. We see the gypsy carnival first, and the accident is shown in second-by-second detail. The sex act Heidi was performing was changed on film, but that's neither here nor there. 

The sham of a trial is glossed over quickly, and the moment when the curse is given is agonizingly drawn out. To make Heidi a little more unlikable, a handsome doctor is introduced to the story in the movie. He makes house calls, and comes to check on Billy's terrible weight loss. The doctor is good-looking and fit, and the implication that he would like to be with Heidi is pretty loud and clear.

The horrible condition of the judge and the police chief is revealed next. Like he did in the book, Billy searches out the traveling gypsy carnival. This experience is drawn out on film, and Billy suffers nightmares and setbacks before he eventually locates them.

A deadly strawberry pie, enriched with blood, is eventually made. Again, the gypsy begs Billy to eat his own pie and die a clean death. Again, this isn't Billy's plan. He goes home and puts the pie away, believing that his daughter is spending the night at a friend's house.

He wakes up next to Heidi's dead body, and feels pretty gleeful with himself. The curse is broken, that cheating no-good wife is dead, and all is right with the world...until he goes down to the kitchen. Here, he learns that Linda has eaten some of the pie for breakfast. That's when Billy eats some of the pie himself, overcome with grief and guilt at what he's done.

What Got Adapted?

For what it's worth, Thinner is a faithful film adaptation of the book. But without any banner actors and too much extra plot in the second and third Acts, Thinner isn't a very good movie. The effects and costuming are great, but the dialogue is rough and the lead actor is thoroughly unbelievable. Don't blame the film for this; blame the book. The novel doesn't have a lot of meat to it, like its main character, and one assumes this is why King hid behind the Bachman moniker in the first place. You can skip this one on the page and on the screen. You won't find a whole lot of substance in this one, but there are a few cheap thrills that may please die-hard King and horror fans.