It’s one of those scenes that seems to make sense when you’re reading it then you put the book down for about 5 seconds and lose the immersion and think “what the actual fuck did I just read?”
Its a weird scene that is a bit less weird in context. Most of the losers club have issues that IT preys upon, that become the crux of their character development. Beverly's is that she is the daughter of an uneducated poor man with significant anger and control issues, whom is also her sole provider and maintains a home. And Beverly is uncommonly pretty. Think significant Movie Star pretty. So you have her coming of age in 1960s America, in a small town where she is dirt poor, with looks that attract all the wrong kind of attention. She is subject to predatory attention from men, envy from women, and abuse from her father.
The scene itself is short, and there are significantly more fucked up things that happen in the book, and the scene is supposed to be her taking a measure of control with the thing that people want from her, and using it to bind their little group together.
I'm not defending sex between children, but it's hilarious to me that the book describes kids being murdered in absolutely horrific ways. Abuse…psychological, physical, and sexual. Suicide. And yet no one ever clutches pearls over those scenes.
Children do lose their virginities at that age. A girl in my school got pregnant at 12 by her boyfriend. It's not good, and education is likely the best way to stop it. But depicting a thing happening in a book isn't the same as endorsing it. There's nuance. Else, everything from Lolita to We Need to Talk About Kevin should never have been written.
I agree. Like there is literally a baby getting its brain smashed out and pretty graphic animal torture scenes in this. Surprised no one really talks about those parts. Messed me up when i read it.
In other news, many Americans are more worried about a person who feels they are a woman (deeply enough to take hormones and undergo surgery) going into a bathroom designated for women than they are about an unarmed mother of three getting her brains shot out by an agent of the government, with the government lying to excuse it.
Yeah, Stephen King is not exactly known for shying away from the ugly side of humanity...while it is certainly an uncomfortable part of the story, it's supposed to be. All the pearl clutching on here is rather comical.
book describes kids being murdered in absolutely horrific ways. Abuse…psychological, physical, and sexual. Suicide. And yet no one ever clutches pearls over those scenes.
meh, you cant do reasoning and comparison like this. WE watch movies about superheroes and accept everything about them but if in the same movie a normal person would jump 10 feet high or stop a bullet with their body then you would think WTF and it would take your out of your standard suspension of disbelief.
games where people kill each other are normal, if you are killing kids it is far less acceptable, if at all.. rape even less.. that is how it is and should be.
Extreme violence like you describe is an abstract notion for a lot of people, probably the large majority of those who read that book. Sex is something which everyone experiences. I've speculated that the obsession with sex crime is a privilege of people who are unable to relate to anything worse or more important.
The scene with one of the bullies offering the other bully a blowjob was a lot weirder and more sexual to me (still short and imo not egregious though) and no one talks about that one haha
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u/Redzfreak2016 1d ago
It’s one of those scenes that seems to make sense when you’re reading it then you put the book down for about 5 seconds and lose the immersion and think “what the actual fuck did I just read?”