I was just 12 years old when I read the very long and very rich IT by Stephen King. I remember watching the mini-series on t.v. when I was only 7 and not being too affected by Tim Curry's absolutely stunning performance of the titular villain. By not affected I mean not scared out of small mind. Instead I fell in love with Pennywise and IT quickly became my favorite movie to watch on a boring day. And now I am 16 and I have read the book about ten times. I always go back and read it about once a year. Sometimes more and I always watch the mini-series again as well.
I was a huge King fan at a young age due to my best friend's grandma being one and through her did I become interested in the strange and scary world of King. It so happened that my dad was also a Stephen King fan and one of my first books I read by him was IT. And it was a book that scared me to death through and through. I was very young and thus my imagination too strong for my own good which contributed to many sleepless nights wondering if the nightmare creature would get me should I dare close my eyes.
I finished the book in a week and I think I rushed because I was too eager. Every time I have read this masterpiece I understand a little better. Pick things up I didn't notice before and ultimately come to better understand the struggle of good vs evil that was manifested into a 1,000+ page book. Having reread IT again on a road trip in mid June of this year and having discovered this neat site, I decided to review and give my thoughts on the book I call my favorite of all time.
This is by no means an easy book to read. It is so immensely thick and full of such great material that it may take many times of rereading to digest it all. I myself only began to understand the basis of this book when I was nearing fifteen. I have always gone back to Derry to try to understand what this book is about. And many have speculated and others have eloquently tied beautiful metaphors to this book. It is a very good coming of age story. One about childhood and growing up and coming to face the fears of growing up. I am not one to put into a metaphorical box and say beautiful philosophical things about it. I take it at face value of which is provided.
That is not to say there isn't any metaphors throughout the long adventure, because there certainly is. It can be argued that the book is one giant metaphor about the nature of humanity and how growing up can be the scariest thing in the world. The greatest thing about this novel is the characters. They are very well developed and highly easy to relate to and in my opinion I think this is due to the fact that every human can relate to the simplest of childhood fears and those who have been burdened by them.
Easily my favorite character among the children is Bill. To me he is an ideal person who understands far more than he should at age 11 and this enables him to lead this kamikaze mission against the ancient being that stalks Derry. I say it is a suicidal mission because of the fact of the creature's attributes and strengths. Obviously those who have read the novel in its entirety know that IT is truly not invincible. While I do truly love each and every child character for they are all rich and wholesome characters, I simply love IT the most.
Yes the creature is, in my opinion, the best and well developed character.Throughout the book we see IT as this evil being who only seeks to destroy and eat. And upon nearing the end we come to understand that IT will not change if IT is not stopped. The way it operates, the cycle it abides by is ingrained in the very essence of this creature. IT lacks empathy and compassion for IT is obviously above humans or so IT so narcissisticly believes. To me IT is the personification of evil within our world. And that drives home a meaning deeper than the surface of this book implies. You could say IT represents all the bad things in humanity. Hate, anger, death, murder, etc.
But getting back to the book, I think IT is truly King's greatest villain next to greats like Randall Flagg and the Crimson King. Throughout the novel there were some parts that disturbed me. Parts like the ever so brutal death of Georgie and subsequently the introduction of IT. This really shocked me the first time I read the book. The fact that something so innocent and child-like was used to complete a horrendous deed. By innocent and child-like I mean the clown. Ah, yes everyone's favorite circus dweller: Pennywise The Dancing Clown. And of course everyone's cause of Coulrophobia thanks to Tim Curry.
One of my favorite forms of IT due to the creepiness and utter horror of the things this clown does. Of course I love other forms of IT, but this one is one of my favorites. Another part that scared the life out of me was the death of Adrian Mellon. This went home a little deeper due to the fact that I am a gay man myself. It really horrified me to think that this could happen to any gay person. Other notable parts for me were the blood in the sink(Utterly terrifying to me), Stan's tale of the dead boys, Eddie's leper, and the final form of IT. No, I am not referencing the giant spider that everyone gets bent out of shape about. No I am talking about the shape behind the shape: The Deadlights. I will tell you why I think this true form of IT is horrifying.
I fear the deadlights because you can't kill what isn't physical. One of the first thoughts I had when I realized what IT truly was, was that IT would truly never die. There is a sense of fear if I were to see a giant spider before me, but not as scary as something that could kill me instantly that I couldn't touch. I happen to like King's ending of IT and I know that isn't popular opinion around the fan base. But I think the giant spider is quite brilliant. The fact that humans only see the spider because they can't truly see what IT is, is terribly frightening. Many say that a big spider isn't scary and that it was a lame ending, but I say differently. Yes, the spider in the mini-series was cheap and not scary. But I feel many would cower in fear of the spider described in the book.
The spider IT takes the shape of is very closely comparable to the black widow. Minus the stinger and only having two eyes. A fifteen foot tall version of that would have most fainting in horror. But I think humans see the spider because in society spiders are considered gross or nefarious. They are given bad raps that say they bite and are ugly and alien and are shunned. I think because humanity has dubbed that so, IT was forced to take on that form. That what most consider disgusting and terrifying is what IT truly represents. And maybe that is because we as humans have made it so. Made it where monsters eat people and so IT does as well. The Macroverse and the deadlights are enough to leave me scared to death.
It scares me so bad to know that IT can be in two places at once. In the Macroverse where it lives immortally and also on Earth to wreak havoc on the human population. To feed and drink. I could honestly go on about this book endlessly, for it is truly magnificent in every way. Whether it be the novel, mini-series, or the newest film of IT looming ahead it is surely a tale for the ages. I have rambled on long enough and if you read this all I thank you. Tell me what some of your favorite parts are or your opinion is on what I have talked about.
I was a huge King fan at a young age due to my best friend's grandma being one and through her did I become interested in the strange and scary world of King. It so happened that my dad was also a Stephen King fan and one of my first books I read by him was IT. And it was a book that scared me to death through and through. I was very young and thus my imagination too strong for my own good which contributed to many sleepless nights wondering if the nightmare creature would get me should I dare close my eyes.
I finished the book in a week and I think I rushed because I was too eager. Every time I have read this masterpiece I understand a little better. Pick things up I didn't notice before and ultimately come to better understand the struggle of good vs evil that was manifested into a 1,000+ page book. Having reread IT again on a road trip in mid June of this year and having discovered this neat site, I decided to review and give my thoughts on the book I call my favorite of all time.
This is by no means an easy book to read. It is so immensely thick and full of such great material that it may take many times of rereading to digest it all. I myself only began to understand the basis of this book when I was nearing fifteen. I have always gone back to Derry to try to understand what this book is about. And many have speculated and others have eloquently tied beautiful metaphors to this book. It is a very good coming of age story. One about childhood and growing up and coming to face the fears of growing up. I am not one to put into a metaphorical box and say beautiful philosophical things about it. I take it at face value of which is provided.
That is not to say there isn't any metaphors throughout the long adventure, because there certainly is. It can be argued that the book is one giant metaphor about the nature of humanity and how growing up can be the scariest thing in the world. The greatest thing about this novel is the characters. They are very well developed and highly easy to relate to and in my opinion I think this is due to the fact that every human can relate to the simplest of childhood fears and those who have been burdened by them.
Easily my favorite character among the children is Bill. To me he is an ideal person who understands far more than he should at age 11 and this enables him to lead this kamikaze mission against the ancient being that stalks Derry. I say it is a suicidal mission because of the fact of the creature's attributes and strengths. Obviously those who have read the novel in its entirety know that IT is truly not invincible. While I do truly love each and every child character for they are all rich and wholesome characters, I simply love IT the most.
Yes the creature is, in my opinion, the best and well developed character.Throughout the book we see IT as this evil being who only seeks to destroy and eat. And upon nearing the end we come to understand that IT will not change if IT is not stopped. The way it operates, the cycle it abides by is ingrained in the very essence of this creature. IT lacks empathy and compassion for IT is obviously above humans or so IT so narcissisticly believes. To me IT is the personification of evil within our world. And that drives home a meaning deeper than the surface of this book implies. You could say IT represents all the bad things in humanity. Hate, anger, death, murder, etc.
But getting back to the book, I think IT is truly King's greatest villain next to greats like Randall Flagg and the Crimson King. Throughout the novel there were some parts that disturbed me. Parts like the ever so brutal death of Georgie and subsequently the introduction of IT. This really shocked me the first time I read the book. The fact that something so innocent and child-like was used to complete a horrendous deed. By innocent and child-like I mean the clown. Ah, yes everyone's favorite circus dweller: Pennywise The Dancing Clown. And of course everyone's cause of Coulrophobia thanks to Tim Curry.
One of my favorite forms of IT due to the creepiness and utter horror of the things this clown does. Of course I love other forms of IT, but this one is one of my favorites. Another part that scared the life out of me was the death of Adrian Mellon. This went home a little deeper due to the fact that I am a gay man myself. It really horrified me to think that this could happen to any gay person. Other notable parts for me were the blood in the sink(Utterly terrifying to me), Stan's tale of the dead boys, Eddie's leper, and the final form of IT. No, I am not referencing the giant spider that everyone gets bent out of shape about. No I am talking about the shape behind the shape: The Deadlights. I will tell you why I think this true form of IT is horrifying.
I fear the deadlights because you can't kill what isn't physical. One of the first thoughts I had when I realized what IT truly was, was that IT would truly never die. There is a sense of fear if I were to see a giant spider before me, but not as scary as something that could kill me instantly that I couldn't touch. I happen to like King's ending of IT and I know that isn't popular opinion around the fan base. But I think the giant spider is quite brilliant. The fact that humans only see the spider because they can't truly see what IT is, is terribly frightening. Many say that a big spider isn't scary and that it was a lame ending, but I say differently. Yes, the spider in the mini-series was cheap and not scary. But I feel many would cower in fear of the spider described in the book.
The spider IT takes the shape of is very closely comparable to the black widow. Minus the stinger and only having two eyes. A fifteen foot tall version of that would have most fainting in horror. But I think humans see the spider because in society spiders are considered gross or nefarious. They are given bad raps that say they bite and are ugly and alien and are shunned. I think because humanity has dubbed that so, IT was forced to take on that form. That what most consider disgusting and terrifying is what IT truly represents. And maybe that is because we as humans have made it so. Made it where monsters eat people and so IT does as well. The Macroverse and the deadlights are enough to leave me scared to death.
It scares me so bad to know that IT can be in two places at once. In the Macroverse where it lives immortally and also on Earth to wreak havoc on the human population. To feed and drink. I could honestly go on about this book endlessly, for it is truly magnificent in every way. Whether it be the novel, mini-series, or the newest film of IT looming ahead it is surely a tale for the ages. I have rambled on long enough and if you read this all I thank you. Tell me what some of your favorite parts are or your opinion is on what I have talked about.
