IT Journal 1

Well, I'm off and running on this long narrative called IT. Actually, I'm listening to the book on my computer, read by Steven Weber. I think this is the same actor who starred in The Shining. The reading is very good. He gives Pennywise a great voice!

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Already King shows that he is the master of characters. And these are not easy characters -- they're children. But with ease, King takes us back to a world we had forgotten. He resurrects thoughts and fears long buried; the thing in the cellar, arguments about who's the biggest a-hole, and the love/hate tension with siblings. What's amazing is that he so skillfully does this in just the opening pages.

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George's death sets the stage for everything that's going to follow. He is the first of the terrible killings, and King gives us a front row seat. I could smell that drainage ditch -- and I swear I saw teeth -- yellow eyes for sure. There's no messing around in this novel. No wondering if maybe it's the work of a serial killer; King shows us right up front who enemy is. He pulls back the curtain quick, giving us a long hard look at Pennywise before moving on. That face will haunt the reader as they proceed.

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I was wondering if you could do that:

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King's narration is a college course of its own. He is the master of his craft, and this book stands as one of his strongest.

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First, notice King's ability to speak to the reader outside of the time period the story is set in. I was working today on a story set in the 30's. I wanted to reference something from the 40's in my narration. Could I do that? This lead to a family discussion. Wife said yes, friends said yes, mother-in-law said no. Could I mention Roadrunner, even though it was the wrong decade? Well, Stephen King answered my question. "If George had been inhabiting a later year, he would have surely thought of Ronald McDonald before Bozo or Clarabell." p.13 Ah, thank you Mr. King.

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Second, even when writing in third person, there are times King himself speaks directly to the reader. Note the opening of IT, "The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years -- if it ever did end -- began so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain." Those prose are beautiful, by the way. He sets the stage for a true horror story, promises a beginning, middle and maybe an end. But did you catch the "I"? There it is, boldly at the very beginning of the novel. I wonder if he had to fend off some editor telling him you can't use "I" in a third person narrative.

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He done it again! Check this out, "The boat dipped and swayed and sometimes took on water, but it did not sink; the two brothers had waterproofed it well. I do not know where it finally fetched up, if ever it did; perhaps it reached the sea and sails there forever, like a magic boat in a fairytale. All I know is that it was still afloat and stilling running on the breast of the flood when it passed the incorporated town limits of Derry Maine, and there it passed out of this tale forever."

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Again, he speaks directly to the reader. Also notice that he takes ownership of tieing some knots int he story. For instance, he doesn't let some college professor make a symbol out of the toy boat. . . he does it himself! I like that a lot.

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Of course, there's a whole world of publishing out there that will warn you not to take your cues from Stephen King. As one published writer told me, "Stephen King can do what he wants because he's Stephen King. You need to play by the rules." But, I want to object, we read Stephen King, don't we?! Why not write what that inner-voice says is true?

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IT and Me

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This is a strange novel to me. I was born in 1973, so the stories about the children happened sixteen years before I knew this world. I grew up in the 80's. This means that things feel a little reversed in this novel to me. the 80's in the book are supposed to represent the harsh reality of today's world. But I have fond, tender memories of the 80's because that was my childhood! And don't knock the 80's, they gave us the best of the Star Wars films, Michael Jackson, Atari, and Sam the Eagle. All I'm saying is that the "now" portion of the book, the section that is supposed to represent harsh modern reality, is romanticised in my own heart.

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One of the things I didn't like when I heard about the upcoming IT movie was that they changed the time frames -- moving everything by 20 years. So the children's scenes take place in the 80's. But, as I listen to this novel, I understand why that change would be made. The 50's weren't my generation -- I can't identify with that world; that world belonged to my parents.