Stanley Kubrick: Shine on You Crazy Diamond

Photo credit: https://consequenceofsound.net/2018/04/ranking-every-stanley-kubrick-film-from-worst-to-best/

There are many speculations, analysis and theories of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, with many including the belief that Kubrick made use of this project as an outlet to subtly inform the viewer that he was involved in producing the fake moon landing film that was shown to the public as a truth and reality. In order to be able to let his wife know, since it was, of course, information that he could not reveal to anybody. He could not explain to his wife what he was working on that could have possibly taken up several, to almost all, hours a day, for an inestimable period of time. He could not let his family know why he possibly wasn’t home for dinner or why he could not join them for family events. There is nothing he could answer during the time it took to film, what was supposed to mark as, a momentous and history-changing event. Throughout the evidence of visual cues, such as the famous scene of Danny standing in his Apollo 11 sweater, that were presented through the analysis of theorist, Jay Wiedner, there is a very important aspect that seems to have been overlooked. There is a link between the influence of lyrics of popular Pink Floyd songs, Shine on You Crazy Diamond and Brain Damage, and Stephen King’s book, The Shining, and Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of this book that encouraged him to share his involvement in the filming of the fake moon landing. First, it is important to address the elephant in the room: did Stanley Kubrick assist in faking the moon landing?

Kubrick intentionally packs codes into nooks and crannies in his movies and uses these codes as an outlet of personal expression that leaves the door wide open for analysis and interpretations. When discovered, we can truly understand that, when it comes to Kubrick, they are no mistake. There is usually a meaning for everything we see left behind; there is a reason for it to occupy time and space in a Stanley Kubrick film. One of the most popular theories in film and pop-culture, that I believe to be true, is the belief that Kubrick left behind clues that hint at his involvement in providing his expertise that helped fake the Apollo 11 moon landing with quite a bit of evidence to back up this claim. I will present a few of these that I believe are the most undeniable that were analyzed by Wiedner in his documentary, Room 237. The following pieces of evidence to support this theory were noted in a collection by Robert Lamb in the article Fake Moon Landings and Kubric's 'The Shining', and Spencer Peterson's article Exploring the Fan Theories Inspired by 'The Shining's' Décor.

The six most notable pieces of evidence that have been unearthed occur within a one minute and nineteen second interval that relays a lot of information in a short amount of time.

[if !supportLists]The scene starts off with little Danny Lloyd who is playing on the carpet with his toy cars. The hexagonal pattern on the carpet was intentionally used because it resembled the overhead shape of Launchpad 39A, which was the starting point of America's moon landing mission (Exploring the Fan Theories Inspired by The Shining's Décor, Peterson).
[if !supportLists][endif]The cars and trucks that were the focal point of the camera that Danny was playing with are said to represent the vehicles that were involved in setting Apollo 11 up for takeoff.
[if !supportLists][endif]When Danny stands up, he is wearing an Apollo 11 sweater. This is one of the most substantial clues that we witness and was intended to represent the launching of Apollo 11, as Danny rises from the ground and up to the sky.
[if !supportLists]Shortly after, Danny walks over to the Room 217, in which King detailed as the room Danny is to avoid, due to the evil still creeping within. Here is where we find that the room number Kubrick used was Room 237. This was another clue that, at the time, represented the thousands of miles the moon is from earth.
[if !supportLists]The key tag hanging from the key in the door of Room 237 reads "Room No 237" which, when rearranged, can also spell "Moon Room" (Exploring the Fan Theories Inspired by The Shining's Décor, Peterson).
[if !supportLists]Room 237 was proposed by Wiedner to be a direct representation of the filming of the moon landing itself. This is contextualized in King's novel when Dick Halloran explains to Danny that the visions he may encounter in this haunted room cannot hurt him, "It's just like pictures in a book, Danny. It isn't real." Of course, we find out later in the book and film, that the reality does, in fact, hurt him.

While there is extensive evidence that supports the claim of Kubrick using his film adaptation as a means of an outlet of the moon landing secret, these are simply a few that occur in succession, in a short amount of time. While I agree with the staggering clues gathered by Wiedner, Peterson and Lamb, I am going to provide further evidence to the theory that Kubrick assisted in the fake Apollo 11 moon landing footage through a link of inspiration derived from Pink Floyd's music that resonated in King and Kubrick.

It is no secret that music inspires many aspects of our lives. Cameron Mackey provides many ways people find inspiration in music in the blog post, How Listening to Music can Inspire Your Creativity. Music increases focus, lifts your mood or bring forth emotion, creates inspiration through lyrics, but Mackey details that music can also act as a powerful anchor, "Likely, there’s music from your past that each time you hear it brings you back to a particular moment, person or experience." Mackey elaborates, "This is called an anchor and can be used to transition you to a place in time that can help you with conjuring up ideas or feelings for a scene or character in your writing." These anchors are quite apparent in both King's and Kubrick's work in their versions of The Shining.

In order to evaluate the connection of influence that the lyrics of these songs had on Stanley Kubrick, it is important to first look at the evidence of their influence on Stephen King. First, it is necessary to state the dates in which the book and the songs were released to be able to see how this connection is possible. Pink Floyd released their album, Dark Side of the Moon, which contains the song, Brain Damage, which we will be dissecting, in 1973. The other song that we will be analyzing, Shine on You Crazy Diamond, was released on their album, Wish You Were Here, in 1975 (Pink Floyd, Discogs). King published The Shining in 1977. King was obviously a fan of rock bands of that time period, as other songs of this time and genre made their way into King’s books, with the inclusion of a portion of lyrics from Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Bad Moon Rising which was released in 1969 (292).

Rather than proceeding evidence in the story's sequential order, I will be presenting the groundwork as it relates to each song, accordingly. It is best to begin this analysis with some lines from Pink Floyd's, Brain Damage, to recognize the significance of the inspiration of the creation of Jack Torrance, in other words, the anchor. The song repeatedly references a lunatic in different places. He moves from a hall, to the narrator's hall and ventures on until he finds his final destination in the narrator's mind. “The lunatic is in the hall; the lunatics are in my hall.” The lyrics continue, “The lunatic is in my head.” Once the lunatic reaches this destination, the lyrics that proceed are a direct layout of events that Wendy takes in The Shining: “You raise the blade; you make the change; you rearrange me ‘til I’m sane” and “You lock the door and throw away the key. There’s someone in my head, but it’s not me.”

The notion of "rearranging" the lunatic with a blade until he is sane eludes to the notion of relief of insanity through death. While Jack does not die from the blade, it is still a prominent scene depicted in the book and Kubrick decided to keep it in the movie, along with Wendy locking Jack in the pantry. The person in Jack's head at that moment was not the man that he was known to be by his wife and his son: Jack, before the mask came off.

A turning point in Jack's story is when he stumbles upon the scrapbook in the boiler room. Finding as much information about The Overlook becomes his new addiction, a sort of scratching-at-an-itch that he cannot shake. He finds a bundle of newspapers that contain articles that detail gruesome murders that took place in the hotel as it was passed through the hands of crime overlords. “The paper holds their folded faces to the floor and every day the paperboy brings more” (Brain Damage, Pink Floyd). This is connected to the book where King wrote, "The clipping on the next page was so large that it had been folded. Jack unfolded it and gasped harshly" (240). We can look at the interpretation of the paperboy as two different individuals. We could see this represented in Jack, who is bringing more of these visions of people to life from the continual research that he does that allows him to unearth a chain of individuals linked to The Overlook, or we can see the representation as an actual paperboy who keeps bringing these newspapers that are added to the scrapbook before Jack finds it- linking the present to the past: to the hotel’s history.

“And if the dam breaks open many years too soon and if there is no room upon the hill,” was used as another reference to Jack’s mental disturbance. There were many times in which he could have completely “lost his marbles” prior to their stay at The Overlook, but it was the hotel in which this occurrence needed to happen. Mr. Ullman made it very clear to Jack that he would not have gotten the job if his close friend and member of the hotel’s Board of Directors, Al Shockley, made sure that Mr. Ullman hired him. What would have happened to Jack if he didn’t get this job: if there was “no room upon the hill”?

Seeing that there is a clear influence drawn by King, we see this must have noticed by Kubrick because the same songs link to his involvement in the fake moon landing theory and present themselves in the movie, The Shining. A prominent line in Brain Damage states, “And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too, I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon.” The dark side of the moon is, of course, the side that is not visible from earth. The side that is shadowed with secrets. This is a direct connection to his dark secret of the fake moon landing.

The last line to analyze from this song is, “You shout and no one seems to hear.” This is a reference that can most definitely go back to King as it describes a means of attempted escape from one engulfed in the strangling strands of his mind. This could also be connected to Wendy’s inability to call for help due to the seclusion of staying at the hotel. I see this details Kubrick's mental exhaustion of holding in a secret of such importance from the world.

Dick Halloran continuously tells Danny to "shine on". The repetitive reference of "shine on" in the book is connected to Pink Floyd's song, Shine on You Crazy Diamond. This song was an inspiration for King because “shine on” is usually utilized to articulate a positive aspect of a glowing, inner light or a golden aspect of oneself that shines from within. King utilized it as an uncanny means: a way to see events of another time, past or future, or as a way of having a conversation, or readings another’s, without the requirement of movement of the lips.

Pink Floyd wrote the song, Shine on You Crazy Diamond, for their former and founding member, Syd Barrett, who struggled from mental illness and a severe and damaging drug addiction that forever left Barrett in a drugged and vegetative state due to excessive use. We see this struggle represented in The Shining's main character, Jack Torrance. Jack struggles heavily with an alcohol addition, as well as mental illness. Throughout the novel, we witness Jack's physical and mental agitations of "being on the wagon". Looking deeper into the song's lyrics, we can see eerie similarities in Jack and the muse for the song, Syd Barrett.

“Remember when you were young? You shone like the sun. Shine on you crazy diamond.” This could be easily linked to both Jack and Danny, however, due to the fact that it addresses being young in the past tense, all signs of this connection point to Jack. Again, keeping in mind the similar struggle shared by both Jack Torrance and Syd Barrett, they are both considered the "crazy diamond" in their own respective way. The song links the addictions by stating, “Now there’s a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.” The connection made between eyes and black holes in the sky is due to the pupils being dilated when someone is on drugs, appearing black, rather than the natural color of the eyes. Linking these lines together, Syd and Jack's shine got diluted in time, due to a disturbance that clouds it – mental illnesses and addictions.

It was rumored that Kubrick approached Pink Floyd about writing the soundtrack for his movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, (Investigating the myths around the 2001'-Pink Floyd connection). Other versions of this rumor indicate that it was the other way around: Pink Floyd asked Kubrick declined. In either instance, his eldest daughter answered a similar inquiry on a Q&A Reddit session by stating, "I was aware that Stanley listened to anything and everything that might be useful in his movie," she continued, "It is entirely within the realms of possibility that he considered Pink Floyd at some point." It has also been stated that Kubrick asked the group to feature their album, Atom Heart Mother, in his movie, Clockwork Orange, but since he didn't give exact details in which it would be used, Roger Waters, front man for Pink Floyd at the time declined the request stating:

He just phoned up and said that he wanted it. [...] we said "Well, what do you want to do? and he didn't know. He [said he] wanted to use it 'how I want, when I want'." [...] and we said right away "Right, you can't use it".

The cover was noted to be shown in the movie twice, regardless of the decline (Investigating the myths around the 2001'-Pink Floyd connection).

It is apparent that Stephen King drew from inspiration rock and roll bands of his generation. We saw evidence that supports this in his use of lyrics from Creedence Clearwater Revival in The Shining. He utilized Bob Dylan songs in Carrie, along with The Doors and Neil Young in It. We can find many references, however Pink Floyd struck a chord in King and inspired him to create the main character of The Shining, Jack Torrance. Realizing this, Stanley Kubrick was also motivated by the same Pink Floyd songs, Brain Damage and Shine on You Crazy Diamond, to recreate King's novel of The Shining to tell an even bigger story, one that he used as an outlet to share clues of his involvement in the fake Apollo 11 moon landing footage. Jack Torrance had a dark secret he hid and so did Stanley Kubrick.

Works Cited

Ascher, R. (Director). Room 237 [Documentary]

How Listening to Music can Inspire Your Creativity. (2014, October 31). Retrieved April 10, 2018, from http://www.vorongo.com/listening-music-can-inspire-creativity/

Investigating the myths around the '2001'-Pink Floyd connection. (n.d.). Retrieved April 10, 2018, from http://www.2001italia.it/2014/12/investigating-myths-around-2oo1-pink.html

King, S. (1977). The Shining. New York. Anchor Books.

Kubrick, S. (Director). The Shining [Motion Picture].

Lamb, R. (2010, January 21). Faked Moon Landings and Kubrick's 'The Shining'. Retrieved April 10, 2018, from https://www.seeker.com/faked-moon-landings-and-kubricks-the-shining-1765004443.html

Peterson, S. (2014, March 27). Exploring the Fan Theories Inspired by The Shining's Decor. Retrieved from https://www.curbed.com/2014/3/27/10124982/exploring-the-fan-theories-inspired-by-the-shinings-decor

Pink Floyd. (n.d.). Retrieved April 10, 2018, from http://www.discogs.com/artist/45467-Pink-Floyd