Semiotic Splice

The splice here is the "Is there something bad here" after being set up with the "I guess you could say the Overlook Hotel here has something about it that's like shining".

From No.6, we see that Danny sees past incidents in relation to the hotel, but the "bad thing" is shown No.41. The warning is shown No.6, No.12, No.38.

So the true fatalism is that there IS something bad here, it's Jack and it was brought here.

Simultaneously it is false fatalism because the "ghosts" that we see are not here to harm the Torrances but serve other functions: In Danny's case the Grady Girls warn him of the true danger, in Jack's case they serve to protect and serve Jack's ego in regard to his hatred for his family and his desire to be famous and "great", in Wendy's case they shove in her face the truth that she's been avoiding by various distractions/indulgences (books, television, smoking, outright denial)

The splice here is Danny showing awareness of a specific room and that it’s something to be scared of. No.19 is the first we hear about Room 237. In No.6, we’re shown a sequence of events in Danny’s mind, but Room 237, its interior, its key, and anything indicating that this specific room scares him are absent.

Danny’s question creates the gap, and Kubrick asks us to fill it. The false fatalism is that because Danny can see information about future and past events, we accept that Room 237 must have been included, that we missed it, or that we should simply assume his knowledge as a fact. We supply a connection we were never shown.

The true fatalism of Danny asking “what’s in Room 237?” is that Danny is aware of specific HARM but can only see the room.

When Danny trikes around Room 237, he walks up to the door and touches the doorknob. Kubrick doubles up on his use of “image as thought,” falsely connecting the Grady Girls of No.6 and No.38, in the West Wing Living Quarters, within the space of Room 237.

As we see in No.48, this space looks nothing like where the Grady Girls are seen in No.38 and No.6, with the separate appearance in No.12.

The important factor of Room 237 is where Danny will be led, invited by a rolled tennis ball to an open door.

The semiotic equivalent to this action is No.41, where Danny is invited to sit on Jack’s lap. This follows Wendy and Danny watching Summer of 42, a film about a young boy losing his virginity inappropriately.

The focal point of Room 237 is not necessarily the room itself, but the inappropriate relationship between Jack and Danny.

So yes, Danny should stay out, but stay away from Jack and his work. Danny cannot. Danny and Jack’s work are inseparable.

A three way connection between American History, Ghost Story, and Domestic Violence; the gushing river of blood is tied directly to Jack’s rage and how that is unleashed on the family.

In the Ghost Story Narrative, the blood symbolizes the amount of death housed within The Overlook and its history. In the Domestic Abuse Narrative, the blood symbolizes the rage of men against those who they’ve promised to love and protect, and in the lager American History Narrative it symbolizes the overarching symbol of culture, power, and will onto others through violent means.

The elevator blood is shown first through a disconnected sequences of images communicated to Danny from his inner protection mechanism, Tony. As the film progresses, the blood is tied directly to Jack’s rage as Danny is shown witnessing/experiencing his parent’s arguing. The final showing has Jack lumbering around the maze to kill his son with Wendy still inside the hotel viewing the actual blood from the elevator. It is here that the messaging is cemented: she, as the viewer, is seeing the reality of the situation; be it supernatural, the state of her marriage, or the country she lives in.

When one takes into the larger view of American History, it’s a landscape of pain, violence, control, and ambivalence to those lost to the group in control.

View No.5.

“Well, maybe things that happened... leave other kinds of traces behind.”

In this view, the semiotic splice deals with the truth about America. For some, there are terrifically bad things here. For others, no bad will be seen.

Within the American History narrative, the semiotic splice is that Halloran is more of a father than Jack, and we should look at why that is.

On one level, they share a spiritual connection (Magical Negro trope). However, it can also speak to the history of white families depending on Black people to care for their children while treating those same people as inferior.

Uncle Remus, the Sambo caricature, and the cultural reduction of Uncle Tom belong in this examination of care, service, and racial hierarchy.

Halloran is doing what Jack should be doing: protecting Danny. But protecting Danny means protecting him FROM Jack, and Jack treats that care as interference. The person helping his child becomes his enemy.