Libby’s Comments (group member since Jan 09, 2019)

Libby’s comments from the Stranger Things group.

A Shining Star is Born
Stranger Things exemplifies weird in many different ways and reveals super natural powers throughout the first four episodes. The disappearance of two kids in the town of Hawkins and the presence of a monster that is haunting the town highlights the supernatural that can cause unease to viewers. Eleven possesses supernatural powers that cause the people around her unease. The weird encounters illustrate to the reader the significance of weird in the world.
Stephen King is known for his strange yet entertaining writing, and one of his most popular novels is “The Shining.” From the beginning, the weird is encountered with a young boy named Danny and his imaginary friend. Danny explains, “Just Tony beckoning and then darkness and a few minutes later he had come back to real things with a few vague fragments of memory, like a jumbled dream” (41). It is evident that Danny is different from others and the introduction to Tony is the beginning of the weird. Later on Danny is asleep and he is woken up by what he believes is Tony, but we learn that it is not. Danny saw a dark shadow, “he watched the shadows...that wanted only to slip around him, squeeze the life out of him, and drag him down into a blackness where one sinister word flashed out red: REDRUM” (82). Danny evidently possesses super powers and can see things that normal people cannot. Danny and the chef of the hotel, Hollarann, spark a very tight bond and are able to connect because of their supernatural powers. Hollarann specifies Danny’s super power, “What you got, son, I call it shinin on, the Bible calls it having visions” (121). The strange relationship reveals that Danny has “The Shining.” Another weird element that is introduced in the first part of the book is Danny’s alcoholic father. Early in Danny’s life, his father Jack broke his arm, “their screaming boy wedged in the crook of her arm and Jack did not go after her...smelling beer and thinking...you lost your temper” (25). The weirdness of Jack, Danny, and the Overlook hotel will continue throughout the novel and will illustrate the importance of supernatural powers in the world.