I've caught my husband's cold, a week late. I made it to work today, but I'm too fuzzy to write the proper IT Spot blog that going into IT's mind deserves. So enjoy some Friday crap, and I'll see you next week.
Friday, August 25, 2017
Wednesday, August 23, 2017
The IT Spot: Rereading part 34
"The Circle Closes" takes the subtext (and outright text) of the past reincarnating in the present of the 1980s and brings it, well, full circle.
We begin with Bev's POS husband, Tom Rogan. He's dreaming about chasing kids through a sewer with two others beside him. But not before dreaming of killing his father with a switchblade to the neck. Because in for a Pennywise, in for a a pound!
Anyway, Tom is guided forwards by Pennywise's voice. Pennywise advises him that it doesn't amtter where or even who either of them are: all that matters is that Tom is chasing Bev, and she needs to be beaten. Also, she fucked Bill. It's really creepy that Pennywise knows that.
Tom eventually wakes up after seeing that Belch and Victor are rotting corpses, only to find a large, moonish, glowing balloon in his room, and Pennywise's voice still in his head. Pennywise then swiftly brings Tom under his control: much like Bev's dad, it barely took anything. Plus, Tom wasn't too sane to begin with, so being in Derry isn't helping.
We then cut to Audra's dream. Yeah, remember Bill's famous wife who looks a lot like Bev, and happens to be staying in the same hotel as Tom? Well, she's dreaming of a black sewer. She's following young Bill as Bev, and they happen upon a little wooden door with a mark (more on that later). When she awakens she gets her own song and Dance from Pennywise: voices in her bathroom, rotting clowns on the TV, the works. And true to her terrible luck (and IT's manipulations), as she flees into the night, she falls right into the arms of Tom.
It's a little hard to return to a character that we haven't seen for hundreds of pages. Even harder when it's right after her husband cheated on her. She truly doesn't deserve everything that's about to happen to her. I think her closest approximation with the time doubling is of Georgie: someone close to Bill, who is hurt by Pennywise and doesn't deserve any of it: it is simply bad luck, and IT's hunger.
No time for that now, because it's back to Eddie's room where the remaining losers have gathered. Bev calls the library and finds out that Mike is alive (barely). They all realize that if they involve the town at theis point, they'll be killed, either by IT or by IT's minions. The only option is to head down into the sewers.
Too bad when they get there Bill finds Audra's purse, and realizes they're even more fucked than before.
Next time, we fin ally get that look into IT's mind that I've been promising all this time. Oh boy!
We begin with Bev's POS husband, Tom Rogan. He's dreaming about chasing kids through a sewer with two others beside him. But not before dreaming of killing his father with a switchblade to the neck. Because in for a Pennywise, in for a a pound!
Anyway, Tom is guided forwards by Pennywise's voice. Pennywise advises him that it doesn't amtter where or even who either of them are: all that matters is that Tom is chasing Bev, and she needs to be beaten. Also, she fucked Bill. It's really creepy that Pennywise knows that.
Tom eventually wakes up after seeing that Belch and Victor are rotting corpses, only to find a large, moonish, glowing balloon in his room, and Pennywise's voice still in his head. Pennywise then swiftly brings Tom under his control: much like Bev's dad, it barely took anything. Plus, Tom wasn't too sane to begin with, so being in Derry isn't helping.
We then cut to Audra's dream. Yeah, remember Bill's famous wife who looks a lot like Bev, and happens to be staying in the same hotel as Tom? Well, she's dreaming of a black sewer. She's following young Bill as Bev, and they happen upon a little wooden door with a mark (more on that later). When she awakens she gets her own song and Dance from Pennywise: voices in her bathroom, rotting clowns on the TV, the works. And true to her terrible luck (and IT's manipulations), as she flees into the night, she falls right into the arms of Tom.
It's a little hard to return to a character that we haven't seen for hundreds of pages. Even harder when it's right after her husband cheated on her. She truly doesn't deserve everything that's about to happen to her. I think her closest approximation with the time doubling is of Georgie: someone close to Bill, who is hurt by Pennywise and doesn't deserve any of it: it is simply bad luck, and IT's hunger.
No time for that now, because it's back to Eddie's room where the remaining losers have gathered. Bev calls the library and finds out that Mike is alive (barely). They all realize that if they involve the town at theis point, they'll be killed, either by IT or by IT's minions. The only option is to head down into the sewers.
Too bad when they get there Bill finds Audra's purse, and realizes they're even more fucked than before.
Next time, we fin ally get that look into IT's mind that I've been promising all this time. Oh boy!
Tuesday, August 22, 2017
The IT Spot: Rereading part 33
So, we start off with a fresh batch of murder: Eddie kills Henry Bowers with a broken Perrier bottle to the belly. But not before Henry re-breaks his arm!
The flips between the past and present aren't as divided here, as everyone, new and old, finds themselves falling into roles preset for them, by fate, IT, or perhaps even the Turtle.
Eddie calls Bill and as Bill is about to instruct him we flip back to past Bill instructing the others. They discuss what's happening while Bill ruminates on things. He stutters but manages to get out that no matter where they go today, IT will kill them, or have them killed. The adults won't see, and they're already halfway to being ghosts. Derry just got even more haunted.
Yeah, remember that all the way from the beginning? When Mike defined haunt as a place where an animal comes to feed? That imagery has been running along the whole of the novel, with figurative and literal ghosts. Now the children have become living ghosts, as their parents don't notice them as they make their last lunches before fleeing into the sewers. The Bowers gang is after them, throwing rocks yet again.
Ben leads them to the same pumping station he hid in the first time he was chased by Bowers. They make it into the darkness, and Bill thinks for a few moments about how they are meant to die, and none of them may ever make it out of the sewers. Of course, we know they do, but it seems impossible. They're fighting both mortal and essentially immortal forces. How can seven kids hope to defeat either?
Well, we won't find out in the next chapter, entitled 'The Circle Closes'. We'll be busy remembering that Tom and Audra exist.
Eddie calls Bill and as Bill is about to instruct him we flip back to past Bill instructing the others. They discuss what's happening while Bill ruminates on things. He stutters but manages to get out that no matter where they go today, IT will kill them, or have them killed. The adults won't see, and they're already halfway to being ghosts. Derry just got even more haunted.
Yeah, remember that all the way from the beginning? When Mike defined haunt as a place where an animal comes to feed? That imagery has been running along the whole of the novel, with figurative and literal ghosts. Now the children have become living ghosts, as their parents don't notice them as they make their last lunches before fleeing into the sewers. The Bowers gang is after them, throwing rocks yet again.
Ben leads them to the same pumping station he hid in the first time he was chased by Bowers. They make it into the darkness, and Bill thinks for a few moments about how they are meant to die, and none of them may ever make it out of the sewers. Of course, we know they do, but it seems impossible. They're fighting both mortal and essentially immortal forces. How can seven kids hope to defeat either?
Well, we won't find out in the next chapter, entitled 'The Circle Closes'. We'll be busy remembering that Tom and Audra exist.
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.
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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