"Ronnie Moron and Phyllis Housefly"

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Auturgist

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Apr 4, 2017
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Adrian Mellon, the gay man thrown over the bridge and subsequently killed by It in chapter 2, makes reference to "the era of Ronnie Moron and Phyllis Housefly" when talking to his partner Don about the homophobic contingent of the town of Derry. I was fairly certain that Ronnie Moron was a reference to Ronald Reagan, but it took a quick search to learn that Phyllis Housefly is a reference to Phyllis Schlafly [Phyllis Schlafly - Wikipedia], a conservative activist and constitutional lawyer. This was probably common knowledge to adult readers when the book was published, but to anyone picking it up for the first time now who wasn't born yet or wasn't old enough back then to know as much, it might help for the list of characters on the website to indicate as much, rather than say "mentioned in passing" as if they were actual characters. Just a thought!
 

Auturgist

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Apr 4, 2017
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Well, I'm 37. I was born in '80... so I remember Reagan, but I was way too young to have known or cared who Phyllis Schlafly was. I first attempted reading IT in 5th grade, and only got about halfway through before I had to put it down to read other things for school, and never picked it back up. I just decided to give it another go before the new film adaptation is released. Looking forward to finishing what I started roughly 27 years ago... :p
 

Dana Jean

Dirty Pirate Hooker, The Return
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Apr 11, 2006
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Well, I'm 37. I was born in '80... so I remember Reagan, but I was way too young to have known or cared who Phyllis Schlafly was. I first attempted reading IT in 5th grade, and only got about halfway through before I had to put it down to read other things for school, and never picked it back up. I just decided to give it another go before the new film adaptation is released. Looking forward to finishing what I started roughly 27 years ago... :p
Welcome Auturgist!
 

recitador

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Sep 3, 2016
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Adrian Mellon, the gay man thrown over the bridge and subsequently killed by It in chapter 2, makes reference to "the era of Ronnie Moron and Phyllis Housefly" when talking to his partner Don about the homophobic contingent of the town of Derry. I was fairly certain that Ronnie Moron was a reference to Ronald Reagan, but it took a quick search to learn that Phyllis Housefly is a reference to Phyllis Schlafly [Phyllis Schlafly - Wikipedia], a conservative activist and constitutional lawyer. This was probably common knowledge to adult readers when the book was published, but to anyone picking it up for the first time now who wasn't born yet or wasn't old enough back then to know as much, it might help for the list of characters on the website to indicate as much, rather than say "mentioned in passing" as if they were actual characters. Just a thought!

this is a problem with any novel written outside your own time frame really. there's always gonna be references you don't understand. at least now we have the internet to make them easier to look up lol. before it would have been much more difficult
 

Auturgist

Member
Apr 4, 2017
6
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Oh, definitely true, but you still usually need someone to point out these things for the sake of others.