So you knew it was coming and it is the proper season. As I've mentioned before I picked up It in 8th grade, to read about that click here. As I was blazing through Stephen King's canon this magnum opus became one of my faves. I think it emphasizes what King as a writer does best.
King as a storyteller has two major strengths. He is able to take the fears that we all have and give them a physicality. His monsters are really metaphors for those things that we cannot control in the world and our own selves. I think that King also excels at building a world. In It that world is Derry Maine. Derry is not a real place, but King manages to give it a rich history that goes back 300 years. Whether it is The Barrens or the Black Spot King fills this place with a physical geography that is Tolkienesque. BTW Derry also appears in Insomnia, Dreamcatcher, and Lisey's Story, among others.
Admittedly I fell away from King's writing after The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. I think that I either grew out of the genre and Stephen started needing an editor. Yes, the man can churn out the books. I think that he peaked creatively around the mid-80s with The Stand and It. I haven't really seen anything that interested me enough to pick up in his latest offerings. We'll see what comes up in the future. Apparently Stephen's going to die at the typewriter with over a 1000 novels to his name.
So hold on to your seats kids because it's another edition of:
Lessons from Literature: It written by Stephen King
1. Adults cannot be counted on. Each of the members of Loser's Club have either been abandoned by their parents, or their parents are harmful to them. Beverly's father is flat out abusive, while Eddie's mother is overprotective. Ben's single mother tries to overcompensate with food and guilt. In a powerful scene Beverly is being attacked by hoodlums and she watches as multiple adults turn a blind eye. However, ultimately Bev is saved by an elderly woman who stops her car and scares off the boys. In the world of Derry it is the kids who have to step up and fight the monsters.
2. Kids are stronger than we think. King sets up each of his characters with a weakness which makes them a social outcast. Bill is a stutterer, Bev is poor, Mike is black, etc. But also they have a strength which allows them to battle the monster that preys on other children.
3. Good will win over evil. These kids are able to battle unimaginable evil. Later on when they are called back as adults to finish the job some of them are filled with fear. However they rise to the occasion because this evil must be stopped. It's not cool to prey on children.
4. It's valuable to learn a town's history. Mike, the only man who stays behind in Derry, becomes a historian as a result. His research makes up The Interlude chapters in between each Month chapter. It's easy to skip these chapters but if you do so you are missing out. Again here's King doing his patently world-building which makes this story Epic. By knowing the over-arching history of his town, Mike is able to see the bigger picture. He is able to rally the Loser's Club by showing them what heroes they really are.
5. Your local bully may be a budding psychopathic/sociopathic killer. I'm just saying.
6. Being the lone girl in a group of social outcasts means they will all have a crush on you. Yep I'm looking at you Beverly Marsh.
7. Haiku's can be romantic. Ben is able to put all his longing into 17 syllabyls. Man some people can't do that in a hundred pages.
8. 7 is a magical number. Listen to Richie, he knows that you need seven members for The Losers Club: Bill, Richie, Ben, Stan, Eddie, Beverly, and Mike. These kids find friendship in each other over the course of a summer. When you're a kid that stuff can happen and it's awesome.
9. In a fight against evil there will always be noble sacrifices. Not telling who, but at least one loss was shocking.
10. Clowns are damn scary. Seriously folks.
Have a great week! Book Slave.
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