Cool Stuff: Lee Unkrich's Definitive Compendium For The Shining Is Up For Pre-Order, But It's Pricey

What is it about "The Shining" that induces such obsession? In the 43 years since its release, Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation of the book by Stephen King has inspired conspiratorial documentaries, tribute songs, countless fan theories, countless books, sequels both failed and succesful, and more. You're looking at someone who's always stuck by King's side in thinking the movie is an inferior rendering of the deep, psychological morass contained inside his chilling novel. But even I can't deny that there's something irresistible about Kubrick's film, something that beckons in the brief flashes of bizarre art hanging on the walls, the labyrinthine pattern of the hotel carpet, and the actual labyrinth outside the Overlook — the beguiling hedge maze.

It seems "The Shining" will never be fully plumbed of its mysteries, but lifelong Kubrick obsessive and noted animated film director Lee Unkrich has given it the best try in years. Luxury art book publisher TASCHEN has announced "Stanley Kubrick's The Shining," a limited edition run of 1,000 copies of the most comprehensive box set ever assembled on the film. Containing booklets totaling 2,198 total pages and weighing a whopping 43.8 pounds, *Stefon voice* this box set has everything: a 3-volume booklet authored by the late, great cinema book author J.W. Rinzler and introduced by none other than Steven Spielberg, original artwork booklets, an "ephemera set" containing facsimile reproductions, hundreds of never-before-seen production photos, and deep cuts from the Stanley Kubrick Archive including correspondence, script fragments, concept art, and exclusive looks at deleted scenes.

Reader beware: the set will cost you — a staggering $1,500 to be precise. But there is hope for those of us poor in cash but rich in dreams.

TASCHEN's description of the limited edition of "Stanley Kubrick's The Shining" promises that readers will be able to "witness Kubrick's endless rounds of script rewrites, his revolutionary use of the Steadicam, the mechanics behind the infamous blood elevator, the mysterious mid-filming fire at Elstree Studios, and the countless takes needed to satisfy the meticulous force that was Kubrick."

Sounds great! But is it worth an entire month's rent in an expensive city? The book's editor, Lee Unkrich, who as part of the senior creative team at Pixar has done everything from directing "Coco" to editing "Toy Story" to providing voices for "A Bug's Life," reassured "Shining"-heads on Reddit that this wouldn't be their only chance to get their hands on this unprecedented trove of new material. "Sorry about the initial price tag," he wrote on the r/StanleyKubrick sub, promising that "there will be a much more affordable edition in the future." He went on to explain that TASCHEN strategically markets these deluxe editions before a more accessible mass market release to "help pay for the deep amount of research and cost that goes into creating a project like this."

It's anyone's guess what the next iteration of the book will and won't include from this deluxe edition, or how much it will cost. Taking a look at TASCHEN's vault of Kubrick releases over the years, however, gives a good idea. They've released "making of" coffee table books on "Barry Lyndon," "2001: A Space Odyssey," and "A Clockwork Orange" at $40 a piece — this deluxe box set could easily be reformatted into the same style and sold at the same price point. Hey, at least it doesn't register the same sticker shock as their $3,500 limited run book on Kubrick's unmade epic "Napoleon."

Of his impenetrably modern tome "Ulysses," James Joyce once famously said, "I've put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that's the only way of ensuring one's immortality." Sometimes I think Kubrick went about making "The Shining" in the same way, and sometimes I'm inclined to the feeling of "Ulysses" skeptics that enigmas and puzzles are all that is there — no truths, and no answers.

But even looking at stills I can't deny the feeling of something deeper welling beneath the characteristically rigid and prismatic surface of the film. No film or fan theory or book, not even "Stanley Kubrick's The Shining," will ever be able to answer the unsettling existential questions that the film provokes in us. They're too deep, almost pre-verbal. But they can offer us the indispensable opportunity of extending the experience, like "hanging out" with the movie beyond the two hours we've all come to know inside and out.

Perhaps a book like "Stanley Kubrick's The Shining" shows us that the point of film obsession isn't to have our questions answered. The point is the digging, the researching, the asking of questions itself. Perhaps $1,500 isn't too high a price to put on passion after all.

Then again, $40 sounds like a nice compromise. The Limited Edition of "Stanley Kubrick's The Shining" is now available for pre-order.