Thursday, 2 December 2021

Mouths




If you look at the mature form of The Xenomorph,
it’s ALL MOUTH — even though we are made to understand that it no-longer actually 
Has to Survive by Eating  People.

Geiger was obsessed the image of a mouth,
a mouth with teeth and without eyes, such as are found in the nightmarish hellscapes of Heironymous Bosch —

You see this also in Red Dragon, with Francis Dolarhyde, 
The Tooth Fairy.



A mouth that bites, but cannot see,
that eats, blindly, but cannot speak

In particular, he took direct inspiration from a triptych painted by Francis Bacon in the aftermath of The Imagery of World War II and The Concentration Camp System entitled (and he was an atheist), 
Three Figures Descending 
at The Foot of The Cruxifixction.  



In The Shining, to the best of My Recollection,
Jack Torrance is never shown or seen eating —
Whereas Danny is seen eating a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich, and then later some chocolate ice-cream, and
Wendy, Darling is seen to have prepared him a (VERY) late Breakfast of Toast and Eggs (sunny side up), Jack is never shown actually eating them —
Much like Bruce Wayne, 
he forgets to eat all the time, 
and ignores food when in His Cave.

Which really does play into the whole Minotaur angle,
because in that interpretation, if The Overlook is His Labyrinth / Mind, with His Wife and Son unwittingly trapped inside of it, then that would certainly follow, seeing as how that would make the both of them sacrifices sent in by those outside to provide for  him some fresh food.








Wendy, Darling :
Boy — We must really be high up.
The Air feels so different.

Jack :
Mm-hm.

Danny, Champion of The World :
Dad?

Jack :
Yes?

Danny, Champion of The World :
I'm Hungry

Jack :
Well, you should've 
eaten Your Breakfast.

Wendy, Darling :
We'll get you something
as soon as we get to The Hotel.
[ Chocolate Ice Cream. ]


Danny, Champion of The World :
Okay, Mom.

Wendy, Darling :
Wasn't it around here that
The Donner Party got snowbound?

Jack :
…No, I think that was farther West, 
in The Sierras.

Wendy, Darling :
Oh.

Danny, Champion of The World :
What was The Donner party?

Jack :
They were a party of settlers in covered wagon times.
They got snowbound one winter in the mountains.
They had to resort to cannibalism
in order to Stay Alive.

Danny, Champion of The World :
You mean, They ate each other up?

Jack :
They had to — in order To Survive.

Wendy, Darling :

Jack.

Danny, Champion of The World :
Don't worry, Mom.
I know all about Cannibalism. 
I saw it on TV.

Jack :
See, it's okay —
He saw it on The Television.












Jack : 

Slow night, Mr. Torrance.


Not for long, I imagine.


MAN: 

You're a whiskey man, are you not?


I was, most of the time.


Jack : 

On the house.


This was Your Brand.

Jack Daniel's.


I used to see the bottles in our home.

Our real home, before all this.


I smelled one once. It smelled like something on fire, which I suppose it was.


Jack

I'm afraid you've confused me with Someone Else.


It's Lloyd.


Lloyd.


I apologize, Mr. Torrance.


I don't know where everyone is, but it'll pick up.


Oh, I know where they are.


And you're right... it'll pick up.


If you don't mind my saying, Mr. Torrance, you seem... put upon.


Put upon?


Ain't that the way.


Man just living his life, trying to do his work.


He gets put upon.


Pulled into other people's problems.


I see it all the time, if you don't mind my saying.


So we lived in Florida.


I'm sorry?


Mom and I.


I'm afraid I don't know who you mean.


We never wanted to see snow again, so we lived in Florida.


Tiny place, but it was comfortable, and we were happy.


I mean, we were grieving.


We were traumatized, but there was happiness too.


She...


She would look away.


She'd look at me, but she'd always look away after a second or two.


It took me a while to notice it.


But after the Overlook, she wouldn't look me in the eyes, not for long.


Couldn't figure it out.


But it...


It was you.


She saw your eyes in me, and she'd have to look away.


It tortured her to have to do that.


So, I fixed it.


I fixed it for her, and it was the last time I ever used it.


So that she wouldn't see you anymore when she looked at me.


I was 20 when she died.


And back then, I saw when someone was gonna die.


I saw flies. Black flies.


"Death flies," I called them, circling people's faces.


And in those last weeks, she was covered...


Her whole face.


I could barely see her eyes.


And I... I tried to comfort her, but I could hardly look at her.


And she saw that.


She just lay there dying, with her son who couldn't look at her.


Maybe something warm to push away such unpleasantries.


Don't you wanna hear about it? She was your wife.


I think you've mistaken me for someone else.


I'm just a bartender. Oh, yeah?


Just Lloyd The Bartender, pouring joy at the Overlook Hotel.


I'll pour whatever you like, Mr. Torrance.


Oh, Dad.


This drink will cost an awful lot.


Your money is no good here.


Orders from the house.


It'll cost more than money.

It'll cost me eight years.


Eight behind me, 

and who knows how many 

in front of me.


Your Credit is fine, Mr. Torrance.


Man takes A Drink, 

The Drink takes A Drink, and then 

The Drink takes A Man.


Ain't it so, Dad?


Medicine.


Medicine is What It Is.

Bona fide cure-all.

Depression, stress, remorse, failure, wipes it all away.


The Mind is a blackboard.

And this is The Eraser.


A Man tries.

He provides.


But he's surrounded 

by mouths.


That eat, and scream

and cry, and nag.


So, he asks for one thing, 

just one thing for him.


To warm him up... 

to take the sting out of those days of the mouths, eating

and eating, and eating 

everything he makes

everything he has.


And A Family.

A Wife, A Kid.

Those mouths eat Time.


They eat Your Days on Earth.

They just gobble them up.

It's enough to make A Man sick.


And this... is The Medicine.


So, tell me, pup —

Are you gonna take 

Your Medicine?


I'm Not.


(GLASS SHATTERS)


Oh.


Look at that. I'm sorry.


Clumsy old me, Mr. Torrance. Forgive me.


Let's get you cleaned up.


Management is concerned.


Concerned?


It's horrible what she's done to you.


Pulled you into her mess.


A smart man?


He'd let her handle it.


Let things unfold as they're meant to.


Why should you pay her tab, Doc?

And for what?


For this little girl who started all this trouble?


And what would Management have me do about that?


Nothing.

Easiest Thing in The World to Do, Son —

Just bring her inside.


And then, well —

You accept the things 

you cannot change.


ABRA:

Dan! She's here.


DAN: 

Okay.


This place is sick.

Sick like my momo was sick.

It's Cancer, only worse.


(ELECTRICITY HUMMING)


What do we do now?


We head inside. She'll find us.


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