Mapping Project: A look into the Playground in ‘The Shining’

Selected Scene

I mulled over various scenes from books that we read to reproduce in my mapping project but I ultimately deciding on the playground of The Shining for many reasons. The playground is a very unimaginable place of importance in the book. While it is easy to imagine what it could look like, its very existence contradicts an imaginative place of happiness. When we think of a playground, we think of fun times that include swinging on a swing, sliding down a slide and playing. This playground is out of the ordinary and seems to be a playground designed for the topiary animal’s entertainment – their ground to frolic about in amusement.

The playground is highly detailed in two chapters in The Shining. Stephen King used this specific place to show the contradiction of happiness and dread. Chapter 23 shares Jack’s time in the playground. While he was supposed to be trimming the animal-shaped topiaries, he walks across to the playground and opened the gate to go in and play, which is accompanied by an uncanny encounter with the topiary animals. Chapter 34 takes the reader back to the playground, except it is covered in snow and focuses on Danny’s experience. While Jack was in the playground, he avoided the cement rings because he would not fit in them, but King takes us through the rings with Danny and this is where we witness Danny’s encounter with the topiary animals. In both instances, they are in different positions every time Jack and Danny look back at them, but this is the first time in which these topiary animals are shown attacking the Torrance family.

I selected this scene for my project because it weighed heavily on my mind. Not only does it offer a contradiction in happiness and despair, but it also presents these contrasts in another comparison to analyze: old and young. When Jack is trying to have fun in the playground, his amusement is lackluster from what he recalls as fun in a playground as child. He jests at the Overlook replica and is underwhelmed by the entire experience as an adult. When Danny goes to play, he is having fun and using his imagination to enhance his experience. There is also a difference in the encounter with the topiary animals, in which they physically harm Danny. King utilized this setting in his story to show the contrast of mental capacities of both father and son. The father dismisses what he sees the topiary animals doing and stays to get his job done, whereas Danny is more in-tune with his perception and runs away.

Aesthetic and Interpretive Choices

I decided to recreate the playground in Photoshop and looked up a video on how to make a three-dimensional blueprint. Using the video, Photoshop 3D Isometric Map Manipulation Tutorial, by YouTube channel Arunz Creation, I created the base of my map and found various elements to add to the top to replicate the playground. I also found an image of the Stanley Hotel, which is the hotel that inspired Stephen King to write The Shining.

Although I am not very artistically inclined, I wanted to bring to life this setting in an inviting way. To make it inviting, I chose to have the scenery green, rather than in the snow. While it was more appealing to Danny in the snow because it looked like a “fairyland sculpture” (King, 420), this also proved to be more challenging to recreate with detail. I included the swing set, slide, cement rings, jungle gym, the Overlook replica and the topiary animals. While the playground is surrounded by a gate in the book, I intentionally omitted it. This is where I wanted to show that the topiary animals had free-range over the area. After all, this was their playground, too – their place to folic and play.

It was challenging to replicate the elements of the playground to match those that we would have seen in the 1970s, I feel like I was able to capture it fairly well by using very basic swings and the slide. The area that I struggled with was the jungle gym. I tried researching what a jungle gym would have looked like. Using pictures that I found and my own memory of this, I remembered them to mainly include a series of monkey bars; so I decided on using a monkey bar dome.

I tried to keep the elements shaped proportionally to each other. The Overlook, itself, was difficult because I had to use an image I found and size it down to what could be the height of Jack’s knee. Unable to find cement rings, I had to do quite a bit of Photoshop work on the ones that I did find in order to make them work.

I reread the chapters that detailed the playground and didn’t find where the elements are listed in a specific manner, upon entering the gates to the playground. This was fine because I had to make sure that they fit on the 3D base that I was creating. I made sure that I put the topiary animals directly across the playground to maintain the accuracy of the description in The Shining.

I had a lot of fun recreating this setting. This is the way I envisioned it and I wanted to add an artistic twist on it. I also wanted to omit the gates for the simple reason that the playground belonged to them and so did anyone that played there.

Works Cited

Arunz Creation, director. Photoshop 3D Isometric Map Manipulation Tutorial. 17 Mar. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypx8cJ3AReI.

Cement Rings. Digital Image. Pinterest. Web. 16 April 2018. https://www.pinterest.com/ICS50/utahs-unique-concrete-structures/

Dog Topiary. Digital Image. Garden Artisans.Com. Web. 15 April 2018. https://gardenartisans.com/products/garden-decor/boston-terrier-topiary/

King, Stephen. The Shining. Anchor Books, 2012.

Lion Topiary. Digital Image. FooPets. Web. 15 April 2018. http://www.foopets.com/mart?pid=1107&ncid=483&userid=

Playground Accessories. Digital Image. LIFETIME. Web. 15 April 2018. https://www.lifetime.com/swing-sets-playsets-playground-equipment

Rabbit Topiary. Digital Image. Amazon. Web. 15 April 2018. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gardensity-Topiary-Animals-Artificial-Garden/dp/B010QSKPG4

Stanley Hotel. Digital Image. Daily Mail. Web. 16 April 2018. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3286487/Colorado-hotel-inspired-Stephen-King-s-Shining-talks-build-horror-museum.html