The IT Spot: Rereading, part 14

So, the losers are walking around town, waiting for IT to come to them, and horrible memories to be unearthed. These sections are relatively short, but packed full of prose and psychological baggage. Let's get crackin'!

SPOILERS

Ben goes to the Library, the site of his positive (but solo) childhood memories. There's a lot of musing over the passage of time and how Ben now feels like an outsider before Pennywise shows up.

This scene plays a bit like the one in the mini series, despite Ritchie (for some reason) taking Ben's place.

Curry's Pennywise is spot on. What they don't get into is him becoming Dracula (hey, there's another Universal monster form I referenced before!). Ben is also not dumb enough to reply to Pennywise's taunts and come-hither words aloud. Also, there's no cloud of balloons, just one that constantly changes slogans.

Ben's holy ground being fouled by Pennywise, and by Dracula the unholiest of the Universal Monsters, isn't exactly deep, but it gets the job done.

What's more important is Pennywise's insistence (repeated insistence) that the Losers cannot stop him, as they're too old, and he will kill them if they try. These threats were present during the Loser's childhoods, but it wasn't insistant: IT was just telling them a fact. This time IT knows IT can be hurt, and the people that hurt IT have returned. IT is angry, and IT is sure...but not completely.

IT is scared. Not much, but the fact that IT can even feel fear is amazing. We'll get more on that later, when King delves into IT's mind.

IT uses a few more taunts, screaming that Ben killed the kids (of course, nobody else can hear), doing one of  Ritchie's voices, etc. IT even offers to talk it out with Ben, as the library is neutral ground. I'm sure if Ben went up Pennywise would have simply pushed him over the railing, but it's still weird that IT even offered. Out of character is serious business: IT is spooked.

SAFE

Next we'll walk with Eddie to a baseball diamond, and meet a few old horrors from his past.

Ashkia or Ashia?

I’ve had two strange dreams. Nightmares. Not sure what to make of them.

In the first one I was being stalked by a grudge-like Japanese ghost demon lady, called either Ashkia (aaaahhh-ski-uh) or Ashia (aaaahhh-shee-uh). 

I don’t remember much, but I had to let the thing come to me for 7 days, where it would rip off a piece of my soul while being generally creepy, then at the end pass the curse on to someone else or get killed. I did so and forgot all about it.

Then this week, in my dreams a little girl (again Japanese) come by my house, dropped a blue rubber ball, smiled at me (clearly an evil, taunting smile), whispered “Ashkia (or Ashia)” and left. I was angry: I just got rid of the curse, why was it back?

This time it was different. The demon ghost lady was an American teen girl. She spoke to me almost normally at times, but taunted me when I was too weak banish a random ghost head, still ripping away pieces of my soul. At the end of this dream one 'soul rip' had happened, and I had led her to my room to try and figure out how to help her, so she would move on. In the dream I was only a little older than the girl, and my bedroom was still arranged like it was in high school.

I recently watched a video about Japanese urban myths, so I’m not clueless about where the imagery came from. There were a lot of recurring dream demons in the 40 or so legends. 

What’s weird is I’m sure I’ve heard the name, Ashkia or Ashia, somewhere before. I thought it was from a World of Darkness RPG or Magic the Gathering, but my husband couldn’t identify it.

If I didn’t hear that name anywhere, I guess I could have conjured it from thin air. But I really think I’ve heard it elsewhere. Any thoughts, readers?

The IT Spot: rereading part 13

You'd think with the 13th part of this series, I'd get down to something really scary, right?

Bill takes a cab ride to have lunch with the surviving losers, and there's a lot of talk about how Ben lost the weight, how Ritchie's vasectomy reversed itself, and about how nine children have been murdered by IT.

SPOILERS

The section starts with Bill getting a call from Mike about lunch where Mike advises him that Stan is dead. He waits until the lunch to let everyone know it was a suicide, but Bill already suspects IT as a culprit. Not that that's big leap at this point.

 Most of this section boils down to change and similarity. Bill watches the altered streets of Derry go by, but can still spot landmarks buried beneath the exterior, much like how IT is buried below the town (both literally and figuratively, but more on that later).

The remains of the Losers club are the same: the remnants of childhood echo in their faces, and await excavation as time spent with each other goes on.

They all marvel at how the murders haven't been brought to national attention, except Mike. Mike postulates that IT feeds every 27 years or so, and in turn has made the town semi-prosperous. In turn, the citizens either leave, or sort of turn a blind eye (again, more on that later).

The section ends with they voting to actually kill IT this time, though without Stan it may not even be possible. In the Mini-series Ritchie holds out until the end, but here he agrees pretty quickly. As they agree to walk around town, their fortune cookies explode into gouts of blood, bugs, eyes, and anything else currently haunting them: IT is up to IT's old tricks.

Oh, and one other thing of note in the section: on the ride over, Bill half-heard about an escaped mental patient who was dangerous. Later, that person will turn out to be Henry Bowers. King really knew what he was doing with this one, folks.

SAFE

This is the first time the adult losers join up, and for the next large chunk of the book they'll be separate again, letting IT come to them. It's a nice echo back to their childhood circumstances.

So next, we go back with Ben to the library, and see Pennywise up close. Oh boy!

Kaiju!

So, apparently I have strong feelings about Godzilla.

 I've only seen the original, the one where he fights King Kong. the Godzilla in Name Only 90's film, and the newest one. Hardly a dent in the almost 30 total films.
 
But lately I find myself caring more, especially after watching the same-universe prequel, Kong: Skull Island. And if you haven't seen that, go see it.

Come for the cast, stay for the plot, effects, and general quality.

I realized I cared more about Godzilla than I thought when I read a  blog that in short order: (a) spelled lizard 'lizzard' repeatedly, (b) stated that Godzilla was "Kaiju" in Japanese, and (c) the author stated their favorite Godzilla movie was the 90s one. The one most of us call G.I.N.O. (Godzilla in Name Only), and the Japanese call Zilla, since the God was effectively removed.

Needless to say, I found myself getting ticked.

For an in-depth detailing of that films flaws, I refer you to the Nostalgia Critic.

It all got me pretty steamed. So apparently, I care about Godzilla. I had no idea.

But, there's a lot of good reasons to care! Firstly, I really liked the newer American movie.

Secondly,  Godzilla: King of the Monsters will have practical effects! It's been confirmed by director Michael Dougherty.

You may recall the director's names from such projects at Krampus, Trick r Treat, and X-Men 2. All excellent movies. So...as for my hopes...

And third, the Godzilla vs Kong movie that's coming has to be better than the original.

Whelp, now comes the time to try and convince myself I don't have to watch all the Kaiju movies to prep for this new universe...

At least I can watch MST3K handle a few.

Happy Memorial Day

 (Yes, I know where it's from, and that it's Mel Gibson. The man may be a horrible racist, but Damn, can he yell "Freedom")