Steve's Explanation For Loser's Sex Scene

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GREG27

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Oct 3, 2016
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Well I wasn't expecting that
Just finished IT and have to say the Losers sex scene was one of the most uncomfortable things I have read .
I understand what king says about the explanation but I certainly did not feel that the scene fitted or worked . In a lot of his books there are disturbing scenes pet sematary is full of them . However in this case the scene is deeply disturbing and it is not intended to be . He is not intending to shock the reader as I think Bevs act is intended to be selfless and giving and not at all pornographic but boy it just feels so wrong to a modern audience . I have a daughter not much older and it definitely jarred with me . I didn't feel it added to the plot . I didn't feel it was a necessary device to bring them together . I didn't think it was in character for Bev either .
Maybe reading this in 2016 for first time as a father I am reading it in a certain context and maybe thirty years ago it would have seemed less unacceptable. It just seemed wrong on every level to me
 

Dana Jean

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Well I wasn't expecting that
Just finished IT and have to say the Losers sex scene was one of the most uncomfortable things I have read .
I understand what king says about the explanation but I certainly did not feel that the scene fitted or worked . In a lot of his books there are disturbing scenes pet sematary is full of them . However in this case the scene is deeply disturbing and it is not intended to be . He is not intending to shock the reader as I think Bevs act is intended to be selfless and giving and not at all pornographic but boy it just feels so wrong to a modern audience . I have a daughter not much older and it definitely jarred with me . I didn't feel it added to the plot . I didn't feel it was a necessary device to bring them together . I didn't think it was in character for Bev either .
Maybe reading this in 2016 for first time as a father I am reading it in a certain context and maybe thirty years ago it would have seemed less unacceptable. It just seemed wrong on every level to me
Welcome Greg! I agree with you, and I read it 30 years ago. That scene took me completely out of the story. Unnecessary in my opinion.
 

GREG27

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Oct 3, 2016
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I suspect that if King was writing the novel today that scene would not be in it. I was disturbed by the way that what she did seemed to validate what her father had accused her of , whatever her motives . Also the idea that it is ever a good idea for an eleven year old girl to coax six unwilling boys into having sex with her and that this somehow empowers her or them is very dubious
Maybe if I was a twelve year old reading that I would see it differently but as an adult it raises issues which are very uncomfortable.
The idea that an eleven year old giving comfort through sex and with several people is ever a good idea is something I struggle with. The author seems to endorse this and asks the reader to sympathise with this and I couldn't and instead of enjoying the end of the book I was thinking about the author and what on earth he was thinking of .
Anyway these are just my thoughts on reading this for the first time and maybe over time I will have a different perspective . This scene did however at least for me spoil the ending of a book that I had spent a long time investing in on the back of reading all seven books of the dark tower and The Stand recently . I did feel that King had let himself down with this but again maybe I am judging it by 2016 sensibilities
 

César Hernández-Meraz

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May 19, 2015
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Maybe if I was a twelve year old reading that I would see it differently but as an adult it raises issues which are very uncomfortable.

I think that must be very close to what this book is intended to make us feel. There is this distance between what we believe when we are kids and what we believe when we grow up.
 

Nomik

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Jun 19, 2016
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I suspect that if King was writing the novel today that scene would not be in it. I was disturbed by the way that what she did seemed to validate what her father had accused her of , whatever her motives . Also the idea that it is ever a good idea for an eleven year old girl to coax six unwilling boys into having sex with her and that this somehow empowers her or them is very dubious
Maybe if I was a twelve year old reading that I would see it differently but as an adult it raises issues which are very uncomfortable.
The idea that an eleven year old giving comfort through sex and with several people is ever a good idea is something I struggle with. The author seems to endorse this and asks the reader to sympathise with this and I couldn't and instead of enjoying the end of the book I was thinking about the author and what on earth he was thinking of .
Anyway these are just my thoughts on reading this for the first time and maybe over time I will have a different perspective . This scene did however at least for me spoil the ending of a book that I had spent a long time investing in on the back of reading all seven books of the dark tower and The Stand recently . I did feel that King had let himself down with this but again maybe I am judging it by 2016 sensibilities
Hello and thank you for that perspective. Welcome! Normally, I would contest parts of this. No need-you developed the idea so substantially that I
I tend to agree, despite my fierce loyalty to that particular book.
 

jonjon358

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Oct 23, 2016
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I also joined just now specifically to comment on this.

I read IT on an international flight from Taipei to Tokyo to Houston - all 1,000+ pages. It was in perhaps my 13th hour of sitting in the Houston airport waiting on a standby that I reached the Beverly gang bang. Now look, I am no prig...lol...but I was like, WTF. It seemed to come out of nowhere, it made NO sense at all, and I still consider it a weird mistake and a flaw in the book. In general IT stands in need of some serious blue penciling; it's flabby and ponderous and would benefit by being shot of at least half of its bulk. King is an exuberant writer but something happened to his ability to self-edit, apparently.

But the gang bang...I mean, forget the fact that they were all 11 years old. They needed to "come together," so it dawned on Beverly that the best way to do that would be in the literal physical way, with them all taking turns screwing her right there in the sewer like she's Sasha Grey? And imagine being the last guy...

I'm not going to accuse people who have no problem with this scene of being into "child porn" or whatever, and nobody needs to defend it on grounds that "kids have sexual thoughts"...ugh. It just makes no sense in terms of the internal logic of the story, if you ask me. Sex creates a bond between the people having sex, but that would just mean they'd all bonded individually with Beverly, not with each other (except in the sense that, forgive me, it had to start getting pretty sloppy towards the end). And if anything that would tend to lead to jealousy and infighting. No, I just do not see how it "works" to make Beverly this apropos-of-nothing 11-year-old sexual initiatrix in the sewer, as a means of reestablishing group unity and getting them all unlost - it's a weird narrative choice that doesn't justify itself, period.
 
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GNTLGNT

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...OK, I'm not "liking" the above post.....that was just beyond the bounds of good taste or common sense.....King is the last author you'd point a finger at when it comes to writing graphic or even lukewarm sex scenes.....everybody that freaks out over this bit of plotting completely misses his point....and for someone to join simply to call our host on the carpet for writing about
gang bangs and sloppy seconds[\spoiler] as they term or imply, is unconscionable....
 

Dana Jean

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...OK, I'm not "liking" the above post.....that was just beyond the bounds of good taste or common sense.....King is the last author you'd point a finger at when it comes to writing graphic or even lukewarm sex scenes.....everybody that freaks out over this bit of plotting completely misses his point....and for someone to join simply to call our host on the carpet for writing about
gang bangs and sloppy seconds[\spoiler] as they term or imply, is unconscionable....
Just defending myself, not the OP, but, I am not freaked out by the scene, I just didn't think it was necessary. It just seemed out of place. I understand what Stephen says about the scene and why he felt it was needed, and it is his story. It's a great book, I just didn't think it was a has-to-be-there scene, IMO.
 

GNTLGNT

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Just defending myself, not the OP, but, I am not freaked out by the scene, I just didn't think it was necessary. It just seemed out of place. I understand what Stephen says about the scene and why he felt it was needed, and it is his story. It's a great book, I just didn't think it was a has-to-be-there scene, IMO.
...and your points are well reasoned-there was no implication towards you in there Deej, just the wingnuts who join to say nasty crap and then crawl back into Mom's basement....swooper poopers....
 

muskrat

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Nov 8, 2010
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...the wingnuts who join to say nasty crap and then crawl back into Mom's basement.

...or back onto Sasha Grey's website. That kinda reference says a little more about jonjon than it does King, heh heh.

Wait a minute: Bob Gray, Sasha Grey...could there be a connection?

Nah, just pervy ol Muskie makin a joke. And please, if you don't know who Ms. Grey is, you don't wanna Google. Trust me.
 

Maddie

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Jul 10, 2006
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...or back onto Sasha Grey's website. That kinda reference says a little more about jonjon than it does King, heh heh.

Wait a minute: Bob Gray, Sasha Grey...could there be a connection?

Nah, just pervy ol Muskie makin a joke. And please, if you don't know who Ms. Grey is, you don't wanna Google. Trust me.


uh oh, I better not google. I have a gray cat, and her name is 'Miss Gray', shes actually the mother of a beautiful black cat named 'Stephen'. :wow:
 

doowopgirl

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The losers sex scene always made me uncomfortable. The first time when I read it and later when I did get was going on. I think all well written books have to maake you uncomfortable at some stage. I do get why it was there and perhaps it wouldn't be there if written today. But is is there and make of it what you will, but it serves it's purpose and isn't there to shock.