Snow and mirrors

 

Wendy and Danny both make their first appearance seated at the dining table at the Torrance apartment in Boulder, Colorado. Wendy is smoking a cigarette. Stacks of books are seen to the left of screen, and a few dozen also on the shelf in the upper background. Wendy is holding a copy of J.D. Salinger's classic coming-of-age novel The Catcher in the Rye. There are a few interesting things going on here. 

First, the particular copy of the novel Wendy is holding has almost identical front and back covers. 

This symmetry or "mirror" theme ties back to the introduction shot of the mountains and lake. Later, we will see Jack looking left into a bathroom mirror on two different occasions as the shot dissolves (shown below). Later still, the "Murder/Redrum" reversal Danny sees in a literal mirror, and, Jack being "assaulted" by his reflection in the three mirrors approaching the Gold Room reinforce the mirror theme, and speak to symmetry/asymmetry. There are countless other examples I won't mention which nonetheless render this small detail somewhat interesting. 

Next, with a quick analysis of characters or letters, we find that "The Catcher In The Rye" is spelled with 18 letters. 18, as a number, also divides (mirrors) into a set of two 9s. If we combine the two 18s we get 36, which then divides into two pairs of 9. If we take (9x9) + (9x9) we get 81+81=162. 162 can also be 1+6+2=9. Or, we can take 36 and say that 3+6=9, which is interesting, as is the fact that 3x6=18. 3x6, expressed in terms of addition, is 6+6+6, which is a portent of evil, i.e., the "number of the beast."  Supposedly, the number is a cypher for the Roman dictator Nero, and is alluded to in the Book of Revelations. To make things circular, 18 can be 1+8=9. Two 18s, then, could be two 9s, which would yield... 18, or, 9x9=81, the visual reversal of 18. 18 or 81, expressed as addition problems, could give us 9 once again. So we've arrived at a point of infinite circularity in examining these arbitrary (or not) numbers. 

Now, I will note that "J.D. Salinger" also appears on front and back covers of these vintage editions. "J.D. Salinger" is 10 letters. So, 10 on front and 10 on back - these "two tens" could tie us back to Jack's comment to Lloyd the bartender about the "two twenties and two tens" in his wallet. Jack says he's afraid they would be there until next April. During the interview Ullman says the hotel's season runs from May 15 to October 30th. That's about five months. Jack's position, taking care of the hotel during the winter, would run seven months, from November to May. Yet, Jack says "five months of peace is just what I want." It seems that Jack has misunderstood Ullman. Still, if we take Jack's misunderstood idea of a five-month job and Ullman's statement about the official five-month season, we have 5 and 5. Though the 7 is absent here, it will appear in Eyes Wide Shut. Instead, we have the notion, maybe, of a 10-month year. Written as dates, the hotel operates from 05/15 through 10/30. Written as 515 and 1030, it is clear that 515 is one half of 1030. These numbers don't imply a duodecimal (numeral 12) system. 

For some trivia, we can look to none other than Christopher Clavius. The German Jesuit astronomer sat on the Vatican commission that accepted a reformed Julian calendar that ultimately became the Gregorian calendar still used today in the US, Europe, Russia, China, and much of the world. "Clavius" is the name of a crater on the moon. In 2001: A Space Odyssey, the monolith is buried within the Clavius Crater, which has become the Clavius Base. It is fitting that the mysterious monolith is buried in a mysterious crater named after a proponent of the "monolithic" modern calendar. We have to wonder whether the monolith pummeled into the moon, and if that was how the Clavius crater was formed. There are a few shots of floating monoliths in the latter part of the film which seems to suggest that that monolith, or other similar monoliths, were floating in space, like alien, or, man-made asteroids. 

Going back to the Salinger novel, we have 18/10 and 18/10. This could be written 9/5 and 9/5. 9/5 is also 9-5, as in the typical American Job, 9am-5pm, five days per week. Jack used to be a teacher, but that was more a way of "making ends meet." We also have the obvious insanity of "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." We discover that Danny began talking to Tony some time after Jack injured him. In the story, Jack is out drinking one night and comes home three hours late. Angered by a mess of Danny's school papers, Jack grabs Danny and ends up dislocating his shoulder. Then we learn Jack has been sober for five months. In other words, we have a "___ months later" scenario; that is, five months after Jack's sobriety and Danny's injury, the Torrances will inhabit the Overlook Hotel. This, again, is a reference to 5 months, not to mention Jack's first monologue with Lloyd when he makes a toast: "here's to five miserable months on the wagon, and all the irreparable harm that its caused me." 

Five months is an unusual unit of time. Since 6 months is one half of a year, any 5 month period will always be an irregular period of time measured against the 12-month year. At best, these periods reduce back to 5/6. But, take a period of three 5-month spans, and we have 15 months. We measure this against the closest familiar unit - 18 months, or, 1 1/2 years. 15/18 does not reduce neatly. Measured against a two-year period, we have 15/24, which similarly, is ugly and irregular. Yet the "10-month year" possibly implied in Ullman and Jack's conversation, in fact, has roots in Ancient Rome. Those extra two months tie us back to "two tens." 

It is of some interest that the number 18 also ties back to 2001: A Space Odyssey. The second part of the film is indicated by a title card that reads "Jupiter Mission: Eighteen Months Later." This comes just after we see Heywood Floyd and the other astronauts taking a look at the buried monolith. Just before the third sequence, "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite," Dave Bowman dismantles HAL's memory, only to "trigger" a pre-recorded video. It almost seems intended for Bowman's viewing alone. The speaker says that eighteen months ago the first evidence of intelligent life beyond earth was discovered. Put simply, we have another reference to a pair of 18s. 

Interestingly too, though this is better suited for a discussion of 2001, is that this pair of 18s form the beginning and end of a sequence. So, this pair of 18s is also symmetrical. Also symmetrical is the introductory "Dawn of Man" sequence. The monolith is discovered first by the hominids, then later discovered or rediscovered by Homo sapiens, or people, ostensibly tens of millions of years later, in what appears to be our near future (or recent past). The irony and tragedy is that this dual discovery occurs in the same "Dawn of Man" sequence, and forms a mirror: the monolith appears near the beginning, and again at the end. While this sequence or chapter spans maybe a hundred million years, the middle chapter runs about 63 minutes (1 hour), much of the action happening in "real time." 

There are at least two more examples of 18 in 2001, just to reiterate the strange appearance of the number. The space-ship the five astronauts occupy has a rear structure with three hexagonal booster-type pads. Also, in the space station, the lobby desk features a check-in area with 18 clearly-numbered computer-based "documentation" booths.