IT by Stephen King (1986)

AE35Unit

AE35Unit

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First things first this is a big book, just over 1100 pages, and for years now this book has sat on the shelf taunting me, and I wanted to read it but it's size kept putting me off. I don't have a great deal of reading time so it just sat there, waiting.
Recently I watched both versions of the movie (the new one is just fantastic, especially in the dark of the cinema!) and I finally answered the call...and I was surprised by how easy it flowed. The story is engaging, and the characters are (mostly) very likeable. I guess I could relate to it because I was picked on and bullied when I was a school kid.(I kind of had my own Henry Bowers gang to deal with) Only difference is I didn't have cool friends to hang out with...Anyway the book flowed on, with all its twists and turns, it's mini-stories incorporated into the whole, and I just couldn't put it down.( I found the ending, the big result of all that they'd gone through quite sad)
In some ways it's similar to the movie Stand By Me, which is based a story by King, a bunch of friends hanging out, having a Big Adventure, and I got the impression that Stephen King had similar Big Adventures when he was a kid-you get the impression that he really understands what it's like to be a kid. When we grow up we forget so much of what it's like to be a kid, how different we are back then, and as much as IT is a horror story its also a story about friendship, about belonging and I did not want to stop reading it. Yes it's a big book but it's a big story, and definitely one worth exploring. Especially when it's cold and dark out, and you're under the covers...
Beep Beep...

Open the pod-bay doors...: IT by Stephen King

IMG_20171018_094526-600x672.jpg
 
Still one of my favourite books after all of these years.

I struggled with the ending, though and thought it was a bit of a cop out.
 
How did the first movie version compare with the second? Wish now I'd seen the remake in the theatre when it was here a while back.
 
dask said:
How did the first movie version compare with the second? Wish now I'd seen the remake in the theatre when it was here a while back.
Click to expand...
The remake is far better I think. Tim Curry did a great job in the original but this new Pennywise is far creepier. And I can honestly say its closer to the book so far (waiting for Part 2:Grownups)
 
19" pre-flat screen. Have a 24" HD still in the box but haven't set it up yet. Maybe after the New Year I'll get serious about hooking it up.
 
I think our brains adjust to the size of the screen we watch anything on with the exception that for games, a big screen is a real help.

Most nights I fall asleep watching a film on my iPad and I've never thought it too small - and I need glasses, too - so I think you'll be fine. Even watching out for Easter Eggs in the Star Wars flms I can still make out Dash Rendars ship, the MF docking at Naboo and so on. I think you'll be fine.

When I went to see it at the huge O2 cinema in London I bought what I thought were deluxe seats - they were, but they were also D-BOX which are the seats that rumble and jerk along with the film. I managed perhaps three or four minutes into the film before switching it off; far too distracting and inappropriate for a creepy film. Maybe for Star Wars or a VR 3D film it might be better, but for a horror...very ill-advised. I also now have my own opinions of what the D stands for, but I would get my fingers slapped for typing it on a family friendly forum ;)

pH
 
AE35Unit said:
First things first this is a big book, just over 1100 pages, and for years now this book has sat on the shelf taunting me, and I wanted to read it but it's size kept putting me off. I don't have a great deal of reading time so it just sat there, waiting.
Recently I watched both versions of the movie (the new one is just fantastic, especially in the dark of the cinema!) and I finally answered the call...and I was surprised by how easy it flowed. The story is engaging, and the characters are (mostly) very likeable. I guess I could relate to it because I was picked on and bullied when I was a school kid.(I kind of had my own Henry Bowers gang to deal with) Only difference is I didn't have cool friends to hang out with...Anyway the book flowed on, with all its twists and turns, it's mini-stories incorporated into the whole, and I just couldn't put it down.( I found the ending, the big result of all that they'd gone through quite sad)
In some ways it's similar to the movie Stand By Me, which is based a story by King, a bunch of friends hanging out, having a Big Adventure, and I got the impression that Stephen King had similar Big Adventures when he was a kid-you get the impression that he really understands what it's like to be a kid. When we grow up we forget so much of what it's like to be a kid, how different we are back then, and as much as IT is a horror story its also a story about friendship, about belonging and I did not want to stop reading it. Yes it's a big book but it's a big story, and definitely one worth exploring. Especially when it's cold and dark out, and you're under the covers...
Beep Beep...

Open the pod-bay doors...: IT by Stephen King

View attachment 41060
Click to expand...


Epic horror with fiction's scariest Clown.
 
The only Clown ive ever seen in Literature or anywhere else's that came in any way close to Pennywise in terms nastiness was the evil clown Horrabin in Tim Powers novel The Anubis Gates.
 
I first listened to It in audiobook, then read it. It's probably the longest book I've ever read. Some parts, like the kid being chased by It in the form of his dead brother, and when another is left bloodless by flying leeches. I watched the miniseries long before I read the book. I prefer the miniseries to the recent film adaptations. I know that's controversial, but I honestly don't find the new Pennywise to be scary at all. Tim Curry all the way.
 
this is an old thread, but i want to express my opinion about this novel. "It" has always bugged me because i feel that if SK had of had a real editor "It" would have been a great book. the themes and situations (about bullying and small town horrors) are something King writes well and knowingly about. but this book is hugely overwritten. scenes go on and on for pages - pages of small print. and i got pretty frustrated trying to read it.

King wrote this novel back in his coke, pot, and liquor days. i understand: get high and rattle them keys! he wrote amazingly coherently for someone that stoned, but he wrote too much. and somebody should have chopped it in half.

i have no opinion about the movies.
 
I understand where you are coming from, but i tend to be in the camp that enjoyed the loquacious nature of this particular book. I felt that the extra time spent going into the minutia of the gang's lives was time well spent and that i knew them all quite intimately. At the risk of sounding melodramatic, i almost felt like i had to say goodbye to some friends when i finished it.

I've yet to see the recent movies, but they're on my list. I didn't enjoy the first version at all.
 
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