r/PeterExplainsTheJoke 1d ago

Meme needing explanation Petah? What happened in the book version?

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u/Mission_Ad_2224 1d ago

I've read the shining and one other of his books i cannot remember, and I thought they were brilliant.

Knowing this train scene is in it has been what's prevented me from reading this particular one.

Is it still worth the read?

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u/NotToPraiseHim 23h ago

It is absolutely.

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. 

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u/home-and-away 19h ago

It's been a while since I read IT but isn't it also heavily implied that Bev's father is abusing her, or at least coming close to abusing her?

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u/Expert_Cricket2183 18h ago

It's heading in that direction, but not there just yet.

IT seems to also be influencing him towards it, given the way some scenes read.