I had never read Stephen King before, so reading It last year I didn’t really know what to expect. In fact I have to admit that in school I never understood the kids I saw carrying around tomes from the library with "Stephen King" written on the cover. I didn't much like horror movies and couldn't imaging reading the book version for fun. However, based on the fact King literally wrote the book On Writing, I had high hopes for a great novel. It did not disappoint. The characters feel super real, very alive and relatable. By the end of the book, characters I found really annoying I grew to love and I felt sympathy for the psychopathic school yard bully.
(WARNING: Spoilers below this point)
As I mentioned, King’s character development in It is amazing. Even the seemingly tangential characters have personal details and deep backstories. Probably the best example of this I can think of is Stan Uris’s wife Patricia. Most of one chapter is spent describing her experiences growing up as a jewish girl in New York and her marriage to Stan. Despite the fact that her whole existence is limited to this one chapter — knowing the details of her life makes finding bloodied Stan in the bathtub that much more chilling.
Likewise the setting, fictional Derry Maine, is so well detailed it feels real. This is done mainly through the “Derry Interludes,” diary entries from Mike that detail his historical research on the town in an effort to find out what It is.
There are so many themes covered in It, it would seem nearly impossible to list them all. It is a book about childhood, religion, friendship, racism, anti-semitism, faith and growing up, all muddled up with a whole lot of supernatural. One of the themes that stuck out most to me is society’s lukewarm acceptance of violence. This town has major spikes in murder every few years and has horrific violent episodes that the locals simply shrugs off. “Who cares, it happened in Derry.”
When Beverly is being chased through town by her maniacal (It possessed?) father, all the adults in town turned away and pretended like nothing was happening. These grownups cowardice and lack of care is on full display, and I believe it paints a portrait of much of the attitude towards violence in the United States (historically especially violence against women and girls). We’d rather turn a blind eye than get our hands dirty stopping what we know is wrong. This plus all of the race hate motivated slaughter in The Derry Interludes makes It a very timely piece of fiction, even now thirty-some years after being published.
If you’ve read It (and know me) you might be able to guess which scene I like absolutely least of all. I really just did not need a prepubescent multi-partner sex scene. I really really didn’t need it. I’ve tried to rack my brain as to why King would include this scene at all. It happens near the end of the book. The adult versions of the characters involved don’t even remember it until very late in the story. Late enough for it to have no impact on the outcome of the plot. Even if they did remember it, it really doesn't matter anyway. It adds almost nothing to character development. I can see that this scene demonstrates the closeness of their childhood friendship, the transition to adulthood and is Beverly’s desperate effort to keep the group together. However, this whole scene was totally unnecessary and at the end felt very unimportant and just plain gross.
In contrast, earlier in the book there is a similarly sexually uncomfortable scene between two of the antagonists Henry Bowers and Patrick Hockstetter. In this scene we get to see another side of the crazier-than-Henry Patrick Hockstetter’s psychopathic life. We don’t have a lot of time to get to know Patrick before he is removed from our tale by It. So, every little detail builds his character. This homosexual experience also leaves Henry conflicted and confused driving his own insanity deeper and ultimately firming his position as It’s pawn.
There are similarly graphic scenes of murders and horrifying deaths of children. When Derry is collapsing and the building falls on what’s-his-face. This scene is so pointless I don’t even remember the characters involved. It's similarly needless and gross (violent), yet it bothers me a lot less than the kiddy sex scene... It would seem my mind is much more accepting of grotesque violence than sexual impropriety. Maybe there is a little bit of Derry in me, and maybe that’s the point of this otherwise pointless scene.
P.S. I haven't seen the movie yet, though I hear it is very good. I also hear it is missing the most controversial scene in the book as well as bunch of other changes. Also, I don't know how they are going to make an entertaining movie out of just the adult timeline scenes from It, but I'm sure I'll be proven wrong...
(WARNING: Spoilers below this point)
What I liked
Likewise the setting, fictional Derry Maine, is so well detailed it feels real. This is done mainly through the “Derry Interludes,” diary entries from Mike that detail his historical research on the town in an effort to find out what It is.
There are so many themes covered in It, it would seem nearly impossible to list them all. It is a book about childhood, religion, friendship, racism, anti-semitism, faith and growing up, all muddled up with a whole lot of supernatural. One of the themes that stuck out most to me is society’s lukewarm acceptance of violence. This town has major spikes in murder every few years and has horrific violent episodes that the locals simply shrugs off. “Who cares, it happened in Derry.”
When Beverly is being chased through town by her maniacal (It possessed?) father, all the adults in town turned away and pretended like nothing was happening. These grownups cowardice and lack of care is on full display, and I believe it paints a portrait of much of the attitude towards violence in the United States (historically especially violence against women and girls). We’d rather turn a blind eye than get our hands dirty stopping what we know is wrong. This plus all of the race hate motivated slaughter in The Derry Interludes makes It a very timely piece of fiction, even now thirty-some years after being published.
What I didn’t like
If you’ve read It (and know me) you might be able to guess which scene I like absolutely least of all. I really just did not need a prepubescent multi-partner sex scene. I really really didn’t need it. I’ve tried to rack my brain as to why King would include this scene at all. It happens near the end of the book. The adult versions of the characters involved don’t even remember it until very late in the story. Late enough for it to have no impact on the outcome of the plot. Even if they did remember it, it really doesn't matter anyway. It adds almost nothing to character development. I can see that this scene demonstrates the closeness of their childhood friendship, the transition to adulthood and is Beverly’s desperate effort to keep the group together. However, this whole scene was totally unnecessary and at the end felt very unimportant and just plain gross.
In contrast, earlier in the book there is a similarly sexually uncomfortable scene between two of the antagonists Henry Bowers and Patrick Hockstetter. In this scene we get to see another side of the crazier-than-Henry Patrick Hockstetter’s psychopathic life. We don’t have a lot of time to get to know Patrick before he is removed from our tale by It. So, every little detail builds his character. This homosexual experience also leaves Henry conflicted and confused driving his own insanity deeper and ultimately firming his position as It’s pawn.
There are similarly graphic scenes of murders and horrifying deaths of children. When Derry is collapsing and the building falls on what’s-his-face. This scene is so pointless I don’t even remember the characters involved. It's similarly needless and gross (violent), yet it bothers me a lot less than the kiddy sex scene... It would seem my mind is much more accepting of grotesque violence than sexual impropriety. Maybe there is a little bit of Derry in me, and maybe that’s the point of this otherwise pointless scene.
P.S. I haven't seen the movie yet, though I hear it is very good. I also hear it is missing the most controversial scene in the book as well as bunch of other changes. Also, I don't know how they are going to make an entertaining movie out of just the adult timeline scenes from It, but I'm sure I'll be proven wrong...
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