Monday, August 21, 2017

The IT Spot: Rereading part 32

Adult Henry's rampage continues as he heads for the Derry Townhouse. He's half-dead from Mike's attack, so IT sends him a ride. Belch, who's face was torn off by the Frankenstein monster. Even as crazed as he is, Henry knows that isn't right. He still gets in, and reflects on the day he chased the Losers into the sewers.

After losing track of Bev (she's hiding in the clubhouse with Ben) Henry and his gang wait, on the advise of Pennywise. Kid Henry then reflects on how he got the switch knife (as it's called in the novel) in the mail that morning. The mailbox was festooned with ballons with the losers faces, because of fucking course it was.



He then murdered his father by putting the blade in his neck as he slept. An ignoble end for a terrible, terrible man.

If I had to put a metaphorical meaning on the act, I'd say Henry was casting off the last link to his childhood. But it may just have been that Butch was evil and crazy, and Henry was done as well.

They watch Ben and Bev emerge from the sewers, and follow them, hoping to catch all 7. In the present Belch drops Henry at the hotel (with a helpful Pennywise memo listing room numbers). He goes after Eddie, who now gets his own perspective flip, back to he and Stan and Ritchie talking religion.

Everything is going well, with talks of how being Kosher works, and not eating meat on Fridays, when they all meet up, hearing about how Henry has totally lost it, and how they're waiting in the barrens.

Bill, Eddie sees, is not totally in control of himself when he states that they're ending this, and the Barrens don't belong to Henry. Unlike the tools of IT, Eddie can see Bill is still there too.

That ultimately is the biggest difference between IT and The Turtle using people as their tools. IT just fills them up, usually totally blinding them to what's happening. The Turtle nudges, influences, steers, but the people are still people inside. The only exception to this rule seems to be when IT went into Bev's father: He was still there, one with IT in his hatred and suspicion. That may be why that section was so much harder to read.

Next time, Adult Eddie fights off (or tries to) Adult Henry.

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