Review: "It," by Stephen King
Where does one start...? This is going to be long-winded. 43 days - the number of days it took me to complete this adventure. Because, for me, this book is more an adventure novel than a horror novel. I didn't start reading Stephen King novels until I was in my mid-twenties, so they've never really been scary to me. I think, had I begun them as a child, they'd have frightened me more. Perhaps the closest thing to a horror novel of King's has been Pet Sematary. As for IT: there were troubling parts, for sure, but this book was sooooo much more than just a classic novel of terror.
Let's call this book what it is: AWE-SOME. Awesome in the truest sense of the word. I thought the opening of the novel was captivating. The opening may perhaps have been even more captivating to me, given that I'm a gay man, and the opening portion of the novel deals very openly with homosexuality. In fact, I was stunned to learn that this book talks about homosexuality quite often. Given that this book was written in the mid 80's shows that King had balls - courage even - to tackle what at the time was a very touchy subject in America (remember, the 80's was when we saw the beginnings of HIV's introduction into broader society with the belief that gay men were solely to blame for its spread). The most touching part of homosexuality as a topic in this novel is just how relevant it remains. The gay men in this novel are quite literally ridiculed and tortured to death for their sexuality, and this feeling echoes today still in many parts of the world, and right here in Canada and the US. Yet, underlying the brutality was this feeling of hope, and it's that feeling of hope that courses its way through the entire novel. Hope is what keeps the Losers' Club alive. And while I'm speaking on controversial topics in the novel, I have to talk about race. Race is a central focal point in this book as well. I saw the N-word used in IT more than I think any novel I've ever read. To some, these words don't deserve a place in fiction, especially when written by a white writer. I disagree, though. I think to avoid the darker areas of hatred is to give fuel to that hatred. You cannot sweep something under the carpet and think it will simply disappear. So, bringing it into the light and examining the effects of it (in this case, racial slurs) creates a dialogue on what is acceptable and not acceptable. Good literature makes you feel something, and I felt sick and horrified with the way the black people in the novel were treated, just as I'd hope you were sickened by the way the gay men were treated. You may not be black or gay, but great literature can open your eyes up to it in a way you may never have been able to experience prior. Now, taking a look at a more central theme - the theme of childhood, or what it is to be a child. Damn does King know how to get this right. One of the things I love most was how King captured how different home life is from life in the playground. This was especially true of Beverly. We see her abusive father in the home, but outside her home Bev is just another girl roaming the street with her friends. Looking at her, you'd never know what's going on at home. Such a sad yet common reality for millions of kids today. And, with the exception of a few bad seeds (bad seeds being those children who had poor parent figures) we see that children are far more astute than adults. This is something I've said myself over the years. Children see other human beings far differently than adults do. Children are more open minded, they tend not to see concepts like race or sexuality as being abnormal, unless taught otherwise. It goes to show how important it is for children to have educated, open-minded adult figures after whom they can model their behaviour as they grow up. Because in IT, we see that the children who are little assholes are assholes because their parents were. They learned that behaviour. And even when children do notice things (like Bill's severe stutter) they are almost never cruel about it; they joke around with one another about it, they accept it, and they accept Bill regardless of it. Touching, and true. Let's talk about IT. IT is quite simply whatever scares you most. And when it comes to the collective terror of the children, IT takes the form of Pennywise the Clown. But IT is really just a metaphor for the powers of the human imagination. The human imagination often scares us more than the real and tangible horrors of life. It's the unknown factor that causes us to want to sleep with the lights on at night. But what I liked was that King chose to carry this into adulthood. After all, adults too have nightmares... And a quick moment to touch on that bizarre scene with the boys and Bev, the sexual scene (y'all know which one I'm referring to). I did not see that coming, and I'm not sure I saw the relevance, even though it was sort of explained. I suppose it may have been, in part, to show that children of their age have a powerful curiosity about the human body, and the sexual desires they begin to experience. It brings to the forefront that children have misunderstanding about certain things when they have only heard snippets of information from adults who try hard to shield their children from reality by talking around certain subjects. Reality check: children have sexual desires, and ought to be educated about why it happens. Lastly, I have to talk about the ending, after IT was finished off. I wept like a baby at the end. I don't know if it was the sudden realisation that I was coming to the end of my 43 day journey, or if it was an overwhelming wave of nostalgia finally catching up to. Take this final diary passage from Mike:
My heart's with you Bill, no matter how it turns out. My heart is with all of them, and it think that, even if we forget each other we'll remember in our dreams. I'm almost done with this diary now - and I suppose a diary is all that it will ever be, and that the story of Derry's old scandals and eccentricities has no place outside these pages. That's fine with me; I think that, when they let me out of here tomorrow, it might finally be time to start thinking about some sort of new life...although just what that might be is unclear to me. I loved you guys, you know. I loved you so much.
Cue the tears. This passage conjured in me my own childhood memories, all the old children I walked the streets of town with, goofed around with, loved and lost, and I realised just how much someone touches your life, even if they're no longer around. To me, this is one of the great beautiful passages of any fictional literature I've read. IT takes its seat atop my top 5 King reads without question. What a journey it was!
