My only complaint.

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Mar 9, 2018
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why did the losers forget again after the second encounter with IT? i fell like since they defeated It twice and the last time for good?? that they should not have forgotten the experience. even if they forget It, why would they start to forget each other? this part really released all the sads in me. i just wanted my loser friends to stay connected.

also seems like i need to read other SK novels that have Derry and some of the
Losers in it which ones do y'all recommend? i had no idea SK novels were kinda loosely related until this MB.
 

ThomasWinter

Member
Jun 2, 2017
15
49
44
Maybe I’m a glutton for (emotional) punishment, but I like the idea of them losing their memories of each other even though it’s incredibly sad (but still, shame on them for leaving poor Eddie’s body). Ironically, that ending makes the book more memorable for me.


I don’t recall the losers being in any other book besides 11-22-63 (and that’s only for a very brief moment). Insomnia mentions Mike Hanlon, but he is never seen. A lot of the books are so good on their own that you won’t even think about how the worlds are related. The Dark Tower series ties all the worlds together, but I wouldn’t suggest reading that series until you’ve made a decent dent in King’s catalogue.
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
87,651
358,754
62
Cambridge, Ohio
why did the losers forget again after the second encounter with IT? i fell like since they defeated It twice and the last time for good?? that they should not have forgotten the experience. even if they forget It, why would they start to forget each other? this part really released all the sads in me. i just wanted my loser friends to stay connected.

also seems like i need to read other SK novels that have Derry and some of the
Losers in it which ones do y'all recommend? i had no idea SK novels were kinda loosely related until this MB.
....there are threads that bind a large percentage of his Universe together, found nearly everywhere in his works....
 

Neesy

#1 fan (Annie Wilkes cousin) 1st cousin Mom's side
May 24, 2012
61,289
239,271
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
why did the losers forget again after the second encounter with IT? i fell like since they defeated It twice and the last time for good?? that they should not have forgotten the experience. even if they forget It, why would they start to forget each other? this part really released all the sads in me. i just wanted my loser friends to stay connected.

also seems like i need to read other SK novels that have Derry and some of the
Losers in it which ones do y'all recommend? i had no idea SK novels were kinda loosely related until this MB.


https://stephenking.com/the_library.html

There's a good listing of his books in the link above. I enjoyed pretty much all of the books of his that I've read. At first it was hard to get into Lisey's Story but eventually I started becoming immersed and then it was easy to read.
 

Robert Gray

Well-Known Member
why did the losers forget again after the second encounter with IT? i fell like since they defeated It twice and the last time for good?? that they should not have forgotten the experience. even if they forget It, why would they start to forget each other? this part really released all the sads in me. i just wanted my loser friends to stay connected.

I would say they were granted a release from those memories as a gift, a return to the natural progression. Not many people remember their childhood friends, at least not vividly. Moreover, there is too much pain and insanity in those memories. Consider Stan Uris. He never forgot, not fully. I can prove it in the text. When he saw Bill's book he recognized Bill's name. He picked it up and read it. His wife even commented about how it gave him bad dreams. Stan, who is the one who actually made the others promise to return, knew he wouldn't (or more correctly couldn't). Stan didn't forget everything. He held on to just enough that when he got the call too much came back. It killed him.

Now consider the Losers that survived. They lost friends. They saw things beyond imagining. Would they ever really get a good night's sleep again? Could they have a normal, happy life? I think they earned the blissful peace of ignorance. The monster that haunted Derry was a stain on reality, something from outside of everything. Mike Hanlon realized that it wasn't just his memories of it that would fade. He suspected even the things he wrote down would end up fading or erased. Purged of It, reality was cleansing itself of all trace. Whether you believe this is the will of the Other, the Tower, or simply the natural healing properties of the world the end result is the same.

It also seems like i need to read other SK novels that have Derry and some of the
Losers in it which ones do y'all recommend? i had no idea SK novels were kinda loosely related until this MB.

Well Bev and Richie have a cameo in 11/22/63. :) Personally, I suggest just reading other King novels for their own merits. Don't seek them out based on a quest to find the Losers or to revisit Derry. That will happen in good time. I know it is hard to let them go after having come so far with them, but do it we must. My own personal rule is "seek not sequels lest ye find them." When you need the Losers again, reread It. The great works of fiction can be read over and over again and never lose anything for the repetition. I long, always, to rejoin...

The Losers of Derry
The Rabbits of Watership Down
The Fellowship of the Ring

And by a strange quirk of this life... I can... always.
 

Pop Rocks

Member
Aug 14, 2017
14
52
33
Sometimes I feel like Robert Gray takes my thoughts and feelings about this novel and expresses them in a way I agree with 100%.

If I may add, I do agree that it was a mercy that they forgot about each other even though it is sad. Look what happened to Mike when he had to live with the memories during the interim of the 2 timelines: Bill notes that he looks prematurely old, and the Interludes give a glimpse into his shaky grasp on his own sanity. I think the Losers would be haunted by the memories and wouldn't get to enjoy the rest of their lives if they didn't forget. And I feel like they deserve happy lives for what they managed to accomplish.
 

RichardX

Well-Known Member
Sep 26, 2006
1,737
4,434
The memory loss in the book seemed odd to me for the longest time but I have a better understanding of it now. By the time you are 50 or so, if you wrote down every specific memory you can recall from childhood it would be a surprisingly short list. Try remembering the names of kids you knew in elementary school etc.
 
Mar 9, 2018
9
41
39
I would say they were granted a release from those memories as a gift, a return to the natural progression. Not many people remember their childhood friends, at least not vividly. Moreover, there is too much pain and insanity in those memories. Consider Stan Uris. He never forgot, not fully. I can prove it in the text. When he saw Bill's book he recognized Bill's name. He picked it up and read it. His wife even commented about how it gave him bad dreams. Stan, who is the one who actually made the others promise to return, knew he wouldn't (or more correctly couldn't). Stan didn't forget everything. He held on to just enough that when he got the call too much came back. It killed him.

Now consider the Losers that survived. They lost friends. They saw things beyond imagining. Would they ever really get a good night's sleep again? Could they have a normal, happy life? I think they earned the blissful peace of ignorance. The monster that haunted Derry was a stain on reality, something from outside of everything. Mike Hanlon realized that it wasn't just his memories of it that would fade. He suspected even the things he wrote down would end up fading or erased. Purged of It, reality was cleansing itself of all trace. Whether you believe this is the will of the Other, the Tower, or simply the natural healing properties of the world the end result is the same.



Well Bev and Richie have a cameo in 11/22/63. :) Personally, I suggest just reading other King novels for their own merits. Don't seek them out based on a quest to find the Losers or to revisit Derry. That will happen in good time. I know it is hard to let them go after having come so far with them, but do it we must. My own personal rule is "seek not sequels lest ye find them." When you need the Losers again, reread It. The great works of fiction can be read over and over again and never lose anything for the repetition. I long, always, to rejoin...

The Losers of Derry
The Rabbits of Watership Down
The Fellowship of the Ring

And by a strange quirk of this life... I can... always.
beautifully put my new friend beautifully put....
i also long to be with the fellowship quite often.
i haven't read watership down but i saw the movie when i was a kid (might need to pick that up)
i picked up Neil Gaiman's American Gods book, mostly because i didn't think i could do another King book right away. It took something from me, that i gave willingly but took it nonetheless. i'll get back to King shortly IT was too good not to read his other works. i think i might read the Shining (mostly cause i love the movie) Kubrick is life...
 
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Mar 9, 2018
9
41
39
Sometimes I feel like Robert Gray takes my thoughts and feelings about this novel and expresses them in a way I agree with 100%.

If I may add, I do agree that it was a mercy that they forgot about each other even though it is sad. Look what happened to Mike when he had to live with the memories during the interim of the 2 timelines: Bill notes that he looks prematurely old, and the Interludes give a glimpse into his shaky grasp on his own sanity. I think the Losers would be haunted by the memories and wouldn't get to enjoy the rest of their lives if they didn't forget. And I feel like they deserve happy lives for what they managed to accomplish.
Robert Gray did take my feelings and litterated them better than i could ever, and i thank you sir.
 

Nr8

New Member
Mar 18, 2018
4
24
37
I don't mind them losing their memories, it makes it sad and beautiful. What i find odd was how its not explained how the memories are erased from Mike's "book".

At this point The Turtle and IT are both dead right? Who's the magical creature that did it?
 

ThomasWinter

Member
Jun 2, 2017
15
49
44
I don't mind them losing their memories, it makes it sad and beautiful. What i find odd was how its not explained how the memories are erased from Mike's "book".

At this point The Turtle and IT are both dead right? Who's the magical creature that did it?

I don’t remember them being erased from his book, I remember him saying that he was forgetting what he was reading/why he kept writing it over and over. Maybe I’m mistaken, though.
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
87,651
358,754
62
Cambridge, Ohio
I don't mind them losing their memories, it makes it sad and beautiful. What i find odd was how its not explained how the memories are erased from Mike's "book".

At this point The Turtle and IT are both dead right? Who's the magical creature that did it?
...neither one was "dead" in the conventional sense.....
 

Robert Gray

Well-Known Member
I don't mind them losing their memories, it makes it sad and beautiful. What i find odd was how its not explained how the memories are erased from Mike's "book".

At this point The Turtle and IT are both dead right? Who's the magical creature that did it?

You can take your pick:

1. The natural, real world and reality as it should be rewrote itself once the unnatural influence was gone.
2. All things serve the Beam and the order of the Tower abides.
3. The Other which It began to fear existed did it. Gan or God is in the details.
 

MrChips

New Member
Apr 18, 2018
2
10
35
I don’t remember them being erased from his book, I remember him saying that he was forgetting what he was reading/why he kept writing it over and over. Maybe I’m mistaken, though.

Mike basically says that they fade and become illegible, which is...kind of erasing I guess?

I think instead of actually fading into blankness/illegibility, he just sees them as blank spots among the addresses that are actually visible. I'm definitely gonna piggyback on Robert Gray's first point - I took it as Mike finally slipping fully into the adult condition since he was kind of in limbo with his memories for a long while. I say adult condition in reference to adult characters' inability to see Pennywise and such. Unnatural v. natural/childhood v. adulthood and all.

...oh geez, maybe the addresses even get written over - bummer!

Weird thing about Beverly, though - "They walked into the Town House on a wave of laughter, and as Bill pushed through the glass door, Beverly caught sight of something which she never spoke of but never forgot." ...I do like the idea that they'll each keep different, random things like that. Maybe she'll only remember what she saw and not who they were/who she was with at the time...thoughts?

(Also, hi, I'm new here. Reasonable, objective conversation is hard to come by in...other communities...)
 

Neesy

#1 fan (Annie Wilkes cousin) 1st cousin Mom's side
May 24, 2012
61,289
239,271
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Mike basically says that they fade and become illegible, which is...kind of erasing I guess?

I think instead of actually fading into blankness/illegibility, he just sees them as blank spots among the addresses that are actually visible. I'm definitely gonna piggyback on Robert Gray's first point - I took it as Mike finally slipping fully into the adult condition since he was kind of in limbo with his memories for a long while. I say adult condition in reference to adult characters' inability to see Pennywise and such. Unnatural v. natural/childhood v. adulthood and all.

...oh geez, maybe the addresses even get written over - bummer!

Weird thing about Beverly, though - "They walked into the Town House on a wave of laughter, and as Bill pushed through the glass door, Beverly caught sight of something which she never spoke of but never forgot." ...I do like the idea that they'll each keep different, random things like that. Maybe she'll only remember what she saw and not who they were/who she was with at the time...thoughts?

(Also, hi, I'm new here. Reasonable, objective conversation is hard to come by in...other communities...)

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