The IT Spot: Rereading part 40

 Minor news note: Pennsylvania cops are anticipating more creepy clown sightings with IT coming out on Friday. Be aware, I guess.

 So.

I really don't want to talk about this, so it's gonna be brief.

While the kids are getting out of the sewers, they get lost, and the ka-tet begins to break down. So as both a literal and symbolic way to link them, and move them from childhood to adulthood, Bev has sex with each boy. It's all framed from Bev's perspective as she holds the adult/dead Eddie. I suppose it's as tasteful as it can possibly be, with eroticism taken out of it. It's still not a comfortable read, even if child Bev is fine with it.

The only, ONLY thing I can say, again, is that King was really deep into his drug and alcohol abuse at this point. That's the only reason this probably seem viable. How and why the editor let it go I'll never know. I really don't want to research into this a lot further.

I will say that as a child the same age reading this book for the first time, I osculated between a few reactions: confusion (I'd only had a little sex ed), some revulsion (not that they were kids, but that they were having sex at all: the same way I'd felt during the adult scenes), and some curiosity. It's been almost 20 years since my first readthrough, and that's what stuck with me. Yaaaaay.

On to easier things: above ground the destruction continues as the town dies with IT, the standpipe falling over at nearly the climax. Below, Bill and Ritchie find it, and Bill reaches into a hole and squeezes IT's heart until it explodes.

There's a lot more of them struggling above ground, and everything above ground going to shit (ending with the streets collapsing into the canal, and a lot more people dying) but we've reached the climax. They take the still alove but catatonic Audra and flee to the surface.

And unlike most other King books, we get a denouement that's the exact right length, and unspeakably  beautiful. But I'll try my best to wrap it all up next time.

The IT Spot: Rereading part 39

When we last left, adult Bill had failed to mentally bite into IT, and gone skidding towards the deadlights, aka the macroverse, aka insanity and permanent residency in IT's mind.

The other realize something is wrong, and it's Ritchie to the rescue. The man of 1000 voices jumps in, saves Bill, and gives IT severe hurt. He's turely Bill's right hand man, the strongest bond, and the second in command.

Eddie also seizes the moment. For a moment, his belief that medicine could solve anything was strong enough to make it so: he sets acid into IT's eye and down IT's throat. So, all is well, right?

No. Eddie gets his arm bit off for his trouble.

Yep, this arm.

Bev holds him and he manages to reply to tell Ritchie not to call him Eds one last time before he dies of bloodloss.

He is at peace as he dies. And while I'm always unhappy that he dies, and that they have to leave his body behind, I get it. There was no scenario where all of them survived. But he died in the arms of a loved one, happy and fufilled. That's more than most King characters get, let along real people.

Above ground, the storm is getting worse, and people are getting decapitated by flying manhole covers. It's a...nice break...after Eddie's death, I guess.

This is directly contrasted with child Eddie trying to lead them out of the sewers and getting lost. This is also the lead up to the infamous sex scene. But before we get there, there's one last hurrah with the adults. Bev stays with Eddie's body while Bill, Ritchie, and Ben go to finally finish IT. IT is bleeding from the mental wounds inflicted by Ritchie (cosmological shit at work).

And here we come to one detail I forgot to mention: something that slipped past in the last blog. Remember Audra's realization that IT was female?

IT was also pregnant. And as they chase IT, they spot miscarried eggs all along the stone floor.

Ben elects to stay behind, stomping eggs and half-formed baby spiders. Over a hundred. IT feels them killing IT's young, and screams,  getting ready to fight. And when everything is said and done they're never really sure they got every egg.

There are a few other IT-like creatures in King's work. There's on in the novella 'The Library Policeman' and in the last book in the main series of 'The Dark Tower.' Are these two survivors of the egg massacre? They are both killed in their own appearances, so we'll never know for sure.

We'll end here, because I do NOT have the wherewithal to discuss the sex scene. That'll be for next time, and it'll be brief.

The IT Spot: News & Rereading part 38

I've officially bought my ticket to see IT! I'll be seeing IT on 9/8/17, so expect my review on the following Monday, unless something crazy happens, like me actually getting rest on Sunday.

I'm as happy as a clown in a sewer!

As for the reread,we've begun the ritual of the Chud, both in the 50s and the 80s. In the 80s, adult Bill thinks one of the best lines I've ever read in a horror novel upon seeing IT: "No wonder Stan committed suicide! Oh God, I wish I had!'

I mean, Jesus.

IT, who they see as a colossal monster spider, seizes on Bill to lead the ritual, both in the past and present. Think a gigantic tarantula with a stinger.

 And don't think about this stupidity.

The important thing is that even this spider isn't really IT: this is the closest human minds can come to understanding the Lovcraftian abomination within our universe. IT really exists outside of our universe, in the Deadlights. Any human seeing IT's true form, as Tom and Georgie did, is then rendered irrevocable insane. At least, I assume Tom was insane in the second before his brain LITERALLY EXPLODED.

Child Bill starts the ritual by staring at IT, and this is where the deep cosomological shit begins. Bill finds himself outside of his body, outside of this universe, skidding towards the macroverse, the deadlights, were IT really resides. He and IT have a talk, of sorts, where they taunt each other. Bill's time is short: if he goes into the Macroverse, he's worse than dead. He'll be trapped there, even in death, with IT forever.

The he sees The Turtle.

The above poem is from The Dark Tower book series, where Maturin is the name of the turtle, and he is nearly a God. He guards beams holding up The Dark Tower. Fun fact, Aslan is another guardian.

Anyway, The Turtle gives Bill some advise as Bill goes past, to keep thrusting his fists, etc. The Turtle "takes no stand in these matters" but he does seem to want to help. He's an agent of the final other that Bill now senses, and IT fears, AKA God.

As he's flying off, Bill realizes that IT is scared of the Losers. And with this, he realizes he can fight, and bites in to IT's tongue, mentally. Now Chud has really begun.

IT loses IT's shit, starts screaming and freaking out. IT has almost never had any pain, so the reaction is understandable. Bill comes back to his body, where he sees IT dying "So he honestly believed." and they take the fuck off as the spider webs around them come down. Again, they are 12, and fair enough.

Bill argues that IT might not be dead, but the others convince him IT is. And they marvel for a few moments about how Bill has temporarily lost his stutter.

Remember, Stephen King was deep into his drug and alcohol abuse at this time. I'm not sure a sober man would have invented a turtle who vomited up the universe. Then again, sober King wrote Revival which is one of the bleakest books I've ever read, so who knows.

Then it's back to the adult Bill, who is also flying through space, and thinks again about how now that he's an adult he can't really do this again. And surprise: he's right.

Bill tries to get a grip on IT, and he misses. He goes flying towards the deadlights, and is about to die.

And that is enough for this blog. See you tomorrow.

The IT Spot: Rereading part 37

The 80's Losers muse on how Audra was able to follow Bill to Derry, and how she got taken below the city. The conclusions are easily reached: Bill mentioned the place, and Bev knows her shithead husband is still after her. This is a common King trope: tiny flakes of information leading to an avalance of bad luck.

While this is happening, the Destruction of the above Derry has begin. In IT's fear, IT is literally shaking the town. A clock that failed to chime when the explosion on Easter happened fails to chime again, and the old-timers know what's up. The people who are open to speak willingly of IT in some cases. I think it's because by that stage in their lives, they (or at least some) are beyond giving a shit. Younger people who have prospered in the town are actively fearful; one knows all he's worked for is in danger.

More comes later: toilets exploding, electrocutions, flooding, and fires, all in that amazing King style.

Then, below the sewers, Georgie shows up.

True to Bill's demons, "Georgie" starts screaming that Bill killed him, it's his fault, etc. The others know what the reader knows: this is IT playing on Bill's guilt. Just as Georgie is about to go in for the kill, Bill manages to recite a talismanic phrase without stuttering: "He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts."

This is more than Bill wounding IT. This is him shedding most of the guilt for something he was not at fault for, screaming that his parents were wrong to stop blaming him, to stop loving him, and for a moment reclaiming his words. It's a big deal. IT flees and Bill cries in the dark that he's sorry. Even with that, he can't quite let go.

In ANOTHER aside, Mike is still alive in the hospital. So IT sends a drugged out orderly to finish the job. The others sense it an send him enough power to kick the guy's ass. So that's nice.

What's not nice is that they finally FINALLY on page 1005 of 1093 they make it to the door as adults, to finally see and remember what IT really is.

But that's a blog for tomorrow.

The IT Spot: Rereading part 36

Back in the present, Bill is racing ahead of the others, due to being so worried about Audra. As anyone who's watched a horror movie can tell you, this is a stupid idea. Bill, being a horror writer, actually stops and waits for the others. Disaster averted?

They find the bodies of Victor and Criss (the dead boys who helped Henry get to Mike), and it's a little fatiguing. We and they have known those boys were dead for quite some time. Same with Patrick. We need something new to fear.

King gives us just that as Bill almost falls apart over Audra. This is one of the few elements that isn't on cycle from the 50's encounter: an actual person needing to be saved. In the 50's, the person Bill loved was a year dead by the time he confronted IT. Maybe that made all the difference. More on that later.

Now we go back to the 50s, where the still-living Henry and company are chasing them. The kids are less worried about that, knowing the final confrontation with IT is coming. Much like how the reader knows those boys won't kill any of them. However, we do get a moment of terror when Ritchie conjures IT into The Crawling Eye.

I've seen The Crawling Eye. Not scary. But Ritchie is someone else, with more eye issues than me, and it really bothered him. The others, seeing an actual tentacled eye, are also drawn in. Except for Eddie. Eddie, who has the greatest quote of all time upon attacking: "Jesus Christ you fucking pussies I'm doing the Mashed Potatoes all over It AND I GOT A BROKEN ARM!"

He is a poet.

No surprise, this works (along with an 'acid spray' from his aspirator), and the kids make it past. But Bill knows now: they're really close to IT. He doesn't yet know how scared of them IT is, but he's getting closer to that truth as well.

There's another quick attack by a monster bird, but Stan gets rid of it, shouting that he believes a great many thing things, but not that IT is a real bird. Oh Stan. How I wish you could have had the strength to stand beside them as adults. But I get why you didn't. The adult others will too, very soon.

They come to a tiny fairy tale door, wherein IT is housed...or as much of the real 'IT' as our universe can hold. Remember how IT came from outside our universe entirely? Well, we're about to get deep into that cosomological shit. But that's a blog for next time.

The IT Spot: Rereading part 35

So, at long last, we see into the mind of IT, AKA Pennywise, Robert Gray, the eater of worlds and of children, who cam to this world to rob all the women, rape all the men, and learn to do the peppermint twist.

We first venture into IT's mind in 1958. The past losers are currently being chased into the sewers by the Bowers gang, getting close it IT. IT spends these moments musing about how something new is happening, and about the Turtle. The Turtle, IT muses, is probably dead, after having vomited up the universe. After that, IT came down, content to eat and sleep (IE cause horrible catrastophy and murder).

The newness is the Loser's club, and their ability to hurt IT. To make IT afraid, which had literally never happened before. To make IT angry, and actually hate them. Despite causing these emotions and feeding off them, IT never had them ITself. And surprise, IT doesn't like change.

IT muses on, wondering if because they were able to hurt IT, that implies the existence of Another being. A guiding being, not IT or the Turtle.

This unnamed horror is of course either God, or Stephen King's supreme guiding force of everything, The Dark Tower.

The Gunslinger, the first book in the series, came out prior to it, but the books that establish more about what the tower is, Ka-Tets, and make everything interconnected all followed IT. Here King is testing the waters, perhaps not even knowing the words for those terms yet. But the basic feeling is there.

IT shakily decides the possibility of another is too scary to contemplate, and besides it's impossible, and decides when the kids get there IT will drive them insane and cast them into IT's dealights (the universe IT hails from, or possibly a pocket universe IT now owns).

There's a slight rest were we follow the past losers further into the pit. Eddie has a talent for directions, so, that's nice. Also, they find Patrick Hockstetter's corpse.

We then get the 1980's IT's perspective. IT muses over how their numbers have dwindled, but are still causing IT fear, which IT is very upset about. IT then thinks on happier things: how the bird form IT used to attack Mike dated back to when a crow attacked him as a baby. And how Tom Rogan brought IT Audra, then his brain LITERALLY exploded from the terror.

Audra, for her part is still alive, but is very much insane/catatonic/in the deadlights. But IT reflects on her last thought: OH DEAR JESUS IT IS FEMALE.

Yes constant readers, IT is not a gender-less horror from beyond. IT is a female. And since I abandoned the spoiler warnings long ago, I'll tell you one more revelation: IT is pregnant. And laying eggs. Which the adult losers are about to find.

So, enjoy that thought.

IT finishes musing about how, no there can't be a guiding force (Wrong-o), and how now that the losers were adults IT would use their lack of believe in childish things to pick them off. Nothing new, it's just that we're seeing IT think these things. The Losers hit the nail on the head in a lot of ways.

There's more, but I'm exhausted. Next time, join me as the adult losers try to keep Bill from running into a monster while frantically searching for Audra. Whom we know is alive. Ish. Hooray!

The sick blog

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.

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!

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.

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.