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# 'The Shining' in Emoji Is Pretty Great
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/the-shining-in-emoji-is-pretty-great/
- Published: 2014-07-07T21:58:45.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:44:13.000Z
- Description: Emoji translation is a fine art. The first masterpiece of the genre was undoubtedly Emoji Dick (aka Moby Dick in emoji) by Fred Benenson, but since then there have been varying degrees of success at translating the true essence of a text into a string of mostly adorable symbols.
- Author: Hrag Vartanian
- Tags: In Brief, Emoji, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:03 (2014, 2015, part 1)

![shinfeb12emoji-640](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/07/shinfeb12emoji-640.jpg)

(image by Hrag Vartanian/Hyperallergic)

Emoji translation is a fine art. The first *masterpiece* of the genre was undoubtedly [*Emoji Dick*](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fred/emoji-dick?ref=hyperallergic.com) (aka *Moby Dick* in emoji) by Fred Benenson, but since then there have been varying degrees of success at translating the true essence of a text into a string of mostly adorable symbols.

For instance, there have been attempts to translate the classic 1980 horror flick [*The Shining*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FShining%5F%28film%29?ref=hyperallergic.com):

[![tumblr_ltg3prHZhF1r54uwlo1_500](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/07/tumblr_ltg3prhzhf1r54uwlo1_500.png)](http://narrativesinemoji.tumblr.com/post/11756921378/the-shining?ref=hyperallergic.com)

… but this, by actor and comedian Jordan Peele, is the best yet. I give it a

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/07/thumbsup-icon.jpg)

:

[![jordanpeale-BIG](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/07/jordanpeale-big.jpg)](https://twitter.com/JordanPeele/status/484153672369061888?ref=hyperallergic.com)