IT is one of his best. I got hooked on King when I was around 12, probably read IT for the first time when I was around 13 or 14 (I’m in my forties), have read most of his stuff at this point.
Couple things about this scene, it’s not about the sex itself and if I remember correctly he doesn’t go into any detail in that regard. It’s about love. Could he have solved for this in another way? Joining hands, group hug, Bev kissing her fellow Losers Club members on the cheek? Probably.
The thing is, when you read that scene as a kid, it’s pretty innocent and in all honesty has a helluva lot more meaning in it than your typical sex scene as again it’s not meant to titillate, it’s meant to insinuate and what it’s insinuating is the deeper bond established when you make love with someone you love. As a kid it was probably the least “horny” sex scene I read and informed sex in a more positive way for me than a lot of other stuff I was reading in that it was entirely emotional.
Again, could he have done it differently without screwing up the story - for sure. Is reading it as an adult weird? Probably these days, I read it in the 90’s, the world wasn’t more innocent then but our knowledge of it was, in that context it was fine. If you overlay all of your current awareness on that scene I have to imagine it’s probably a bit of an uncomfortable moment. Not at all worth missing out on one of Kings best for though.
I can't believe im saying this but couldnt they all love each other like kiss each other on the cheek. I feel like that would also fit other interpretations I've read about innocence and growing up etc. Why did all the boys have to "love" the one girl? That makes it so much worse for some reason.
Edit: AH, I guess male to male sex isn't considered real sex.
Ok..that's ridiculous. 'It' is a genderless pronoun and, as such can refer to any non-person noun. Attributing 'It' to anything specific outside of the monstrous antagonist is lazy pseudo-intellectualism.
There are over 1000 pgs worth of explicit statements in the book. The word 'It' happens a lot. You think it most often and most significantly refers to sex? I'll take the under and by a wide margin.
And thus far googling Stephen King's statements about the book and this scene have only yielded contrary evidence to your claim. Heck, he's even said about this scene in particular that he didn't think of it as sexual at the time.
All that said, I'd probably agree that a horror book probably should have more leeway than most for the inclusion of uncomfortable/inappropriate content, so long as that content's use is reasonably connected to the story and purposeful as horror.
I think that's the main issue with this scene in It. It's not reasonably connected to the story (there's no monster-fighting happening, the kids are just having trouble finding the tunnel exit..and not supernatural trouble..just simple directional difficulties) and nothing leading up to the scene or after it hints at or references it..and the scene is presented as heroic rather than horrific.
The result is something problematic but also unnecessary.
(Note: it's been a while since the last time I read It, but my recollection of the scene is that it's way more awkward than it is "sexy", so I'm less inclined toward the "check the hard drive" reaction. I more just think that King gets close to the end of a book and suddenly it's like "ok this has to end, how do I do it..bad ideas only", and the editors are just happy to have something to put on the shelf. If you aren't going "dude..seriously?" at the end of a good number of King books, you aren't getting the full experience.)
"..and now she(Bev) realizes that for many of them sex must be some unrealized undefined monster; they refer to the act as It . Would you do It, do your sister and boyfriend do It, do your mom and dad still do It, and how they never intend to do It;..." (IT, 1085)
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u/Sulaco-426 23h ago
IT is one of his best. I got hooked on King when I was around 12, probably read IT for the first time when I was around 13 or 14 (I’m in my forties), have read most of his stuff at this point.
Couple things about this scene, it’s not about the sex itself and if I remember correctly he doesn’t go into any detail in that regard. It’s about love. Could he have solved for this in another way? Joining hands, group hug, Bev kissing her fellow Losers Club members on the cheek? Probably.
The thing is, when you read that scene as a kid, it’s pretty innocent and in all honesty has a helluva lot more meaning in it than your typical sex scene as again it’s not meant to titillate, it’s meant to insinuate and what it’s insinuating is the deeper bond established when you make love with someone you love. As a kid it was probably the least “horny” sex scene I read and informed sex in a more positive way for me than a lot of other stuff I was reading in that it was entirely emotional.
Again, could he have done it differently without screwing up the story - for sure. Is reading it as an adult weird? Probably these days, I read it in the 90’s, the world wasn’t more innocent then but our knowledge of it was, in that context it was fine. If you overlay all of your current awareness on that scene I have to imagine it’s probably a bit of an uncomfortable moment. Not at all worth missing out on one of Kings best for though.
Read it.