Hair 'em Scare 'em

I have curly hair.

In other news, the sun is hot and water is wet.

I've been watching the American Crime Story OJ Simpson miniseries, and a strong B plot is the appearance, especially the hairstyle of Marcia Clark.

Seen here in reality, and as portrayed by Sarah Paulson.

Ms. Clark, like myself, is of Jewish heritage. Our hair is very similar, and if mine was cropped, I believe it would look nearly identical, both in style and color.

I've only had one person who employed me tell me my curls were unacceptable. That my hair was too 'bumpy' and had to be worn up while in the office: a policy that did not apply to the other women in the office with long, straight hair.  I have long since left that job, like many many others before me (and for a number of reasons), but the outrage remains.

I am not alone in my experience, or my understanding that there is a stigma against curly hair in the workplace.  I've gotten a number of inappropriate comments and reactions. Kids in middle school threw tape into my hair, so see me struggle and cry while removing it. People would tug my hair, both to hurt me and see the curls 'spring' back (they do). I still get requests to touch my hair to see how it feels.

It feels like hair.

Midge Wilson, Ph D., professor of psychology and women's and gender studies at DePaul University says "The '60s were tolerant of curly hair among whites as well as the Afro for African-Americans and Jews...it seemed loose, free-spirited, even wild...In pop culture, deranged women often have big, uncombed curls. Well-groomed hair is seen as no-nonsense and serious."

I have never been interesting in straightening my hair for daily life; it is both time consuming and difficult. To be done professionally is costly and painful.

For most special events, such as weddings and the prom, stylists choose to straighten and then style my hair.  The notable exception was at my recent friend's wedding, were I was surrounded by other curly haired women.

I am lucky that in my current position, my hair is only expected to be neat and clean. That doesn't mean straight, curly, or even a natural color. I can wear it loose, in a ponytail, clipped, bunned, or in any other way that doesn't look like a total rat's nest.

I reiterate: I AM LUCKY. I have been unlucky in the past, as are many women presently.

I often joke about being the oddball in my family, being vaguely ethnic looking and surrounded by blonds with blue eyes (both natural and faux). My hair is an afterthought usually, something to be brushed in the morning, pulled when I'm stressed, and detangled when I have the time. But when I give real thought to my identity and my hair, they both hurt.

I watch Sarah Paulson play Marcia Clark, knowing a tenth of a tenth of a tenth of what both women have experienced in their lives. I am no public figure, no celebrity or famed lawyer. I am just a regular woman who stops in the 'ethnic' section for her hairbrushes.

And you'd think twenty years after Ms. Clark went on trial in the court of the public for her curls, that I would feel like something had changed for the rest of us.

The IT Spot: News Round-up

So, before the movie comes out tomorrow, there's a few last minute things in the media I want to go over. First, Cracked did an article about that scene from blog #40. I'd hoped they had new insight into why King wrote it, but there's nothing that I didn't cover. Take that, much more popular website!

In other dumb news, the World Clown Association is getting ready for the release of IT be complaining about how they'll have less work, and how Pennywise isn't a real clown.

No shit. Next you'll be telling me Cujo is no Beethoven. Bastards. Stephen King had this to say:

In all seriousness, it's not like IT is the first or only portrayal of a scary clown. Just off the top of my head we have Killer Klowns, John Wayne Gacy, Twisty, Captain Spaulding, Evil Krusty, Killjoy, young Michael Myers, and the Zombie clown from Zombieland. Stephen King may have the most famous fictional evil clown, but he's not alone.

So, aside from gearing up for the movie tomorrow, I don't have much IT related news right now. There won't be anything new until Part 2 gets rolling. They haven't even announced the adult loser cast yet! So, there's still time to go with my casting choices...

I want these two to Chud it up. I want it baddddd.

Ooh, and in some nicer news, IT is now the biggest horror movie preseller of all time. The last record holder was "Hotel Transylvania 2" which I'm not even going to dignify with a response. That wasn't horror. It was fun, but it wasn't horror.

 So okay it's average.

And hey, did you skip all my blogs, or read all of them and still want more spoilery IT explantions? Look no further!

Anyway, the next time you see an IT spot, it'll be for the movie. Hooray!

Can we get back to shenanigans?

Okay, for all my non-horror readers (I'm looking at you, Gizmo) here's a fun, lighthearted blog with no horror elements whatsoever!

Speaking of non-horror, here's a picture of Rami Malek as Freddy Mercury:

You may recall that Borat creator Sacha Baron Cohen was originally cast as Freddy in the biopic. I'm not sure about why he's left, but I think Rami Malek is going to be a great Freddy.

Speaking of people taking over roles, Kate McKinnon is gonna play Ms. Frizzle's (now Professor Frizzle) little sister in the revival of The Magic Schoolbus.

I was a big fan of the OG School Bus, and this looks like a fun revamp. I probably won't be watching, but I'm thirty. I know how the water cycle works.

In other news, I've started reading the novel Ready Player One, just in time to not watch the trailer before it spoils anything.

Spoilers: I watched it before I started reading.

 I'm only a few chapters in, but I'll enjoy the journey/lambasting the movie/praising the movie.

Speaking of lambasting movies, The Death Note adaptation was shitty, and I don't want to talk about it.

Luckily, there's a watchMojo list for LITERALLY EVERYTHING.

Now I'm depressed. I'm gonna go watch a video about the Butterball Cenobite.

 Okay, I lied about the no-horror thing.

The IT Spot: Rereading part 41 (the end)

So, after 41 entries, I'm finally closing the IT rereading series. Thanks for sticking with me all this time. I mean, it's been going since 4/20/17. Wow, that is one loooooong reread.

The destruction above ground continues, with earthquakes and a glass corridor between the kid and adult library sections exploding for no reason. Well, no reason that the town knows of. As for the kids, we read as they escape and make their blood oath. Stan looks away, knowing even then he couldn't face IT again. I can't exactly blame him.

We read one last interlude with Mike, as he realizes that not only are all of them forgetting what happened, the words of the notebook are fading away. He makes peace with it, understanding this means IT is really dead. He spends some time lamenting the loss of his friends and the memories off his childhood, but he's wiser than to dwell on it.

Bill stays in Derry for a while, while Audra is still catatonic. He doesn't remember what caused her to be that way any longer, but knows how to restore her; for one last time, Bill rides Silver, rides to beat the devil. And he wins. They lost Eddie and Stan, but he wins Audra.

The novel closes detailing a dream Bill has of leaving Derry, even when he no longer can remember what it is, or why. He thinks of the immortality of childhood, of how he will write about the "sweet secrets" and morality of childhood; about how it's good to be young, but good to be an adult and ponder youth; about writing and stories and childhood and goodness.

'Or so Bill Denbrough sometimes thinks on those early mornings after dreaming, when he almost remembers his childhood, and the friends with whom he shared it.'

I've never read a final line that was so perfect, and stuck with me so well.

I don't think I can write anymore about the books themes, characters, or interpretations than I've already written. I'm still looking forward to the film in a few days, but it'll never capture the experience of reading this as a child the same age as the protagonists, or as an adult looking back almost as far as they did.

I hope you've enjoyed it.

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!