e it had seemed simple enough。 Denker; in a
fit of rage; seizes the poker from beside the fireplace and beats saintly Gary
to death。 Then; standing spread…legged over the body; the bloody poker in one
hand; he screams at the audience: 〃It's here somewhere and I will find it!〃
Then; as the lights dim and the curtain is slowly drawn; the audience sees
Gary's body face down on the forestage as Denker strides to the upstage bookcase
and feverishly begins pulling books from the shelves; looking at them; throwing
them aside。 He had thought it was something old enough to be new; a play whose
novelty alone might be enough to see it through a successful Broadway run: a
tragedy in five acts。
But; in addition to his sudden diversion of interest to the Overlooks
history; something else had happened。 He had developed opposing feelings about
his characters。 This was something quite new。 Ordinarily he liked all of his
characters; the good and the bad。 He was glad he did。 It allowed him to try to
see all of their sides and understand their motivations more clearly。 His
favorite story; sold to a small southern Maine magazine called Contraband for
copies; had been a piece called 〃The Monkey Is Here; Paul DeLong。〃 It had been
about a child molester about to mit suicide in his furnished room。 The child
molester's name had been Paul DeLong; Monkey to his friends。 Jack had liked
Monkey very much。 He sympathized with Monkey's bizarre needs; knowing that
Monkey was not the only one to blame for the three rape…murders in his past。
There had been bad parents; the father a beater as his own father had been; the
mother a limp and silent dishrag a