*spoilers* What Is Your Favorite Part Of It?

  • This message board permanently closed on June 30th, 2020 at 4PM EDT and is no longer accepting new members.

My favorite part of IT is the little subplot early in the book that I call "The Tale of the Accidental Gay Bar." A guy named Elmer Curtie set up a bar called the Falcon in 1973 next to the Derry bus depot with the hope that it would attract lots of business from bus riders on rest stops. Well, that didn't work out to well. By 1977, Elmer was so deep in debt that he was seriously considering just taking off on a bus to Florida.

Then business started to pick up and "an amazing quiet sort of prosperity came to the bar". The patrons were mostly polite young men, "Many of them dressed outrageously". Soon the Falcon became known as the local gay bar, but it took Elmer until 1981 to figure that out. By then, the bar was doing so well that he didn't care. Business was good and the Falcon was the only bar in town that wasn't regularly smashed up by drunken brawlers.

I always wondered whether this sub-plot was based on real-life events, because that would be cool.
 

blunthead

Well-Known Member
Aug 2, 2006
80,755
195,461
Atlanta GA
My favorite part in IT is when those two boys
- I don't remember which ones they were - after sitting in The Losers' little underground lair, breathing the smoke from that fire, go back to a prehistoric time right before the spaceship carrying IT starts landing in the jungle.It was written so beautifully, the imagery was intense and compelling, and the action was truly scary.
 

Kurben

The Fool on the Hill
Apr 12, 2014
9,682
65,192
59
sweden
My favorite part in IT is when those two boys
- I don't remember which ones they were - after sitting in The Losers' little underground lair, breathing the smoke from that fire, go back to a prehistoric time right before the spaceship carrying IT starts landing in the jungle.It was written so beautifully, the imagery was intense and compelling, and the action was truly scary.
Mike Hanlon and Richie Tozier.
 
  • Like
Reactions: GNTLGNT and Neesy

masterjedi343

Member
Jul 20, 2013
17
37
I am almost through my 2nd read through of it and up to the point of the Ritual. The way King describes it is so amazing and puts a clear image in my head to see Bill racing through the Out(side) Space/Macroverse. Reading it a 2nd time now I understand more than I did when I first read it. I'd also recommend the Audio Book read by Steven Webber, who does a fantastic job, for a completely different experience.
 

sarahg123

Well-Known Member
Sep 12, 2015
57
188
Favorite part was when Richie yells at the version of IT he saw as the werewolf when he and Bill went to the house on Neibolt street. It said he yelled at it no using a voice, but the voice of Officer Nell. It just came across as so powerful to me. Then the part right after when he and Bill are in the street hugging and crying. It just reaffirmed how vulnerable the characters are, since they're just kids.
 

sarahg123

Well-Known Member
Sep 12, 2015
57
188
...the Barrens...I too was a lonely wanderer as a child, and that placed called to me...only without the balloons and clown suit...
I found a place out driving today that reminded me of the barrens and made me think about my childhood. I grew up in northern Maine & there weren't a lot of kids close to my or my brother's age, so we mostly just had each other or ourselves, our imaginations keeping us company. I guess why I like this book so much, reminds me of the vivid imagination I had when I was little!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Neesy and GNTLGNT

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
87,651
358,754
62
Cambridge, Ohio
I found a place out driving today that reminded me of the barrens and made me think about my childhood. I grew up in northern Maine & there weren't a lot of kids close to my or my brother's age, so we mostly just had each other or ourselves, our imaginations keeping us company. I guess why I like this book so much, reminds me of the vivid imagination I had when I was little!
...I am fortunate to have never lost that sense of wonder and imagination...it's dulled at times by life's grinding wheel...but never sheared away...
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
87,651
358,754
62
Cambridge, Ohio
That's wonderful. Mine is still there, although I stopped talking to fairies a long time ago haha :0:
Talking-to-Fairies-54770359621.jpeg
...if they look like this, I'll chit the chat all day long...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Neesy

Robert Gray

Well-Known Member
I would be hard pressed to pick any particular part as my absolute favorite. If my back was to a wall I guess I might choose Ben's flashback to the last day of school where we follow him through town and eventually into the Barrens where he falls with Bowers in hot pursuit. That short story within a larger story introduces so many of the key characters and in a way where you truly know them in the most fundamental way. I think our look into how Ben thinks, his loves, his fears, and his weaknesses is one of the best depictions of a child that exists in fiction. That whole section of the book could be taken out and given its own binding and people could read it from start to finish and feel they have read a successful short story.
 

sarahg123

Well-Known Member
Sep 12, 2015
57
188
I would be hard pressed to pick any particular part as my absolute favorite. If my back was to a wall I guess I might choose Ben's flashback to the last day of school where we follow him through town and eventually into the Barrens where he falls with Bowers in hot pursuit. That short story within a larger story introduces so many of the key characters and in a way where you truly know them in the most fundamental way. I think our look into how Ben thinks, his loves, his fears, and his weaknesses is one of the best depictions of a child that exists in fiction. That whole section of the book could be taken out and given its own binding and people could read it from start to finish and feel they have read a successful short story.

That really is a great part. It's incredible how many stories within a story SK weaves in this book.
 
  • Like
Reactions: GNTLGNT