The Legacy of Stephen King's

By Stephen Hohmann

     One day in 8th grade, at Chippewa Middle School, in the front row of seats in Mr. Hartson's Algebra 101 class, laying on the desk of one Mr. Andrew Goulette with its cover coming off was a book that impacted my life greatly. The book was . Stephen King's . Andy began reading and I asked him "What's that about?" He turned around fairly excited and began "'s about this kid, Stuttering Bill and this clown kills his brother and him and his friends have to fight the clown. 's such a good book, this is like the fifth time I've read ." He spoke with intensity and urgency, as if he was letting me in on a great secret. As I found out later, the secret was great indeed. He could tell I was fairly interested in what he was saying as he went on telling me about , so he offered to lend to me to see if I liked . I began reading and wow, yes... this book was cool as hell.
Ax was such a badass.

     At the time, my list of books read was largely the Animorphs books by K.A. Applegate. They were about a group of five young kids who are given power and in turn, great responsibility, to fight off an alien invasion. I went nuts over these books. They were short, easy reads and the kids seemed real. I could really relate to them and it made me a part of their adventures and quests. One of the great dynamics of the story is that the aliens can possess any human being so no one could be trusted but the core group of friends and eventually, Ax their andalite buddy. This created a great friendship between them and the reader because it was all written in first person, they trusted the reader, me, when they trusted no one else. For all these reasons, the stories became very immersive. The story of is in many, many ways very similar to the story of the Animorphs. I think this is one of the main reasons I took to liking so much right away. Upon my first reading, as I was only twelve or thirteen at the time, I really focused only on what was in front of me, the story. I hadn't learned to dissect everything or try and fit everything to some sort of allegorical puzzle so all I had and all I wanted, really was the story of the kids. Kids that grew up in a time decades before my own, yet I could still relate to them very well.
The fat kid. Classic loser.

     Like the Animorphs, Bill, Ben, Richie, Bev, Eddie, Mike and Stan were a tight-knit group of friends brought together because they had been chosen for a mission against an evil that no one else could face, that no one else had the power to conquer. Pennywise the Clown had terrorized each one of them but they overcame him seperately and then came together and nearly beat him once. As a reader, their fear became my own, as did their triumphs, hardships and laughs. I came to love the characters, especially Ben who I felt was my double, the "fat kid." I related to him most. I've always been the fat kid and I've almost always harbored a secret love for a girl society tells me I can never have. But, at the end of this story, Ben gets the girl. One girl and six guys in this novel and the fat kid rides off into the sunset with her on his arm. Whoa. I could relate to all the characters in some way, they were all losers in some shape or form. I've been a loser all my life, so when the Loser's Club was formed, I felt like a member.
So scary.
Image from InfiniteCoolness.com

     Pennywise the Clown facinates me very much. More than just Pennywise, as a being. The power to shape-shift has always been one I was facinated with first off. Secondly, he was unlike any villian I'd ever read about. Seemingly motivated only by hunger, yet as we see more and more of him, he becomes a conniving little bitch. Tricky and strange, scary and weird. Just some of the ways he scared the kids were friggin' out there... As a huge bird, as blood gushing from a sink drain, as monster blood suckers with wings puncturing holes in a kids face, the messed up fucking leper under the poarch of the house on Neibolt Street and of course the clown. Just the clown was scary enough. My first introduction to was during commercials for the mini-series. I just remember the clown and s giant teeth like razors. At the time I was only six, so just the image on the commercial alone gave me intense nightmares and insomnia for at least a few weeks. The image I remember from those days and the actual image from the movie are two very different things.
     During the summer after 8th grade, I spent a lot of time reading . I'd take when I worked with my dad, I'd take to the beach and I'd spend entire days reading . I finally finished on a day in the middle of August, fireworks were going off that night outside my window in the distance. "Good book... good book." The journey was over and wow... what a ride. After finishing , I tried to find the movie version. I found on VHS the day before my first day of high school. I started watching before going out to the bus stop and finished after getting home. The movie was great. The kids were perfect and captured the friendship aspect nicely. But, had a few fatal mistakes of Jar-Jarian destructivity... The big spider, for one. Yeah, they took out the Turtle and the Ritual of CHUD and replaced it with this googly-eyed gremlin thing. And apparently most of the films budget was spent on . Oh well, 's still decent and worth watching once a year.
     Last summer I read again, all the way through for the second time. I'd attempted it a few other times before but never got to the summer of '58... Reading again with 2+ years of college english courses made me see in an entirely new light. I saw a much bigger picture this time around and it only made me love the book that much more.
     's one of Stephen King's most popular novels, contested only by The Stand... which I have yet to read... So, go pick up from your local library!


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