IT
There are certain books I come back to over and over again, not just because they're great stories with characters I've come to know and love, but because they're so tightly tied to a bittersweet nostalgia for my youth.
JAWS is one of those books, and Clive Barker's Books of Blood rank high on the list as well. Peter Straub's novels call me back from time to time--Mystery, Koko, The Throat... Mostly, however, it's Stephen King's novels from the late 70s and early 80s that I revisit over and over. And none so frequently as IT.
When people reference IT, their main point of focus always seems to be a caulrophobic fascination with Pennywise the dancing clown. "That's the one with the clown, right?" they say, and you can see they're thinking about Tim Curry's turn in the otherwise terrible miniseries from the 90s . But it was never Pennywise, or any of the so-called "horrific" aspects of the novel, that drew me in. No, it was the kids. Bill, Ben, Bev, Stan, Ritchie, Mike, and Eddie.
I was a bullied kid. More to the point, I was a fat kid with huge glasses, and bullies set their sights on me at school, on the playground, and while I was playing with my friends in the woods. So when I read IT for the first time as a young teen and met Ben Hanscom, it was a revelation. Here was a fat kid who figured out how to fight back, who lost the weight,It who turned out alright in the end. And I had a mild lisp the cool kids at school tore me apart for, much the way the bullies rag on Stuttering Bill for his speech impediment. But he grew up to be an author, a success.
Although I hadn't processed all of that so clearly at the time, I know it's what keeps me coming back to the book. The way the kids--The Loser's Club--care for one another. They way they come together for strength. It gave me hope, and it still does.
I can't wait to see the new movies. If they can capture just a little of the book's magic, it will be a miracle, but I'm still all in. For now, I'm listening once again to Steven Weber's perfect reading of the novel. It's nice to be spending my commute with old friends again.
JAWS is one of those books, and Clive Barker's Books of Blood rank high on the list as well. Peter Straub's novels call me back from time to time--Mystery, Koko, The Throat... Mostly, however, it's Stephen King's novels from the late 70s and early 80s that I revisit over and over. And none so frequently as IT.
When people reference IT, their main point of focus always seems to be a caulrophobic fascination with Pennywise the dancing clown. "That's the one with the clown, right?" they say, and you can see they're thinking about Tim Curry's turn in the otherwise terrible miniseries from the 90s . But it was never Pennywise, or any of the so-called "horrific" aspects of the novel, that drew me in. No, it was the kids. Bill, Ben, Bev, Stan, Ritchie, Mike, and Eddie.
I was a bullied kid. More to the point, I was a fat kid with huge glasses, and bullies set their sights on me at school, on the playground, and while I was playing with my friends in the woods. So when I read IT for the first time as a young teen and met Ben Hanscom, it was a revelation. Here was a fat kid who figured out how to fight back, who lost the weight,It who turned out alright in the end. And I had a mild lisp the cool kids at school tore me apart for, much the way the bullies rag on Stuttering Bill for his speech impediment. But he grew up to be an author, a success.
Although I hadn't processed all of that so clearly at the time, I know it's what keeps me coming back to the book. The way the kids--The Loser's Club--care for one another. They way they come together for strength. It gave me hope, and it still does.
I can't wait to see the new movies. If they can capture just a little of the book's magic, it will be a miracle, but I'm still all in. For now, I'm listening once again to Steven Weber's perfect reading of the novel. It's nice to be spending my commute with old friends again.
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