I never noticed this before in my previous reads of the book, but now I can’t help but find it hilarious that Richie ‘I fucked your mom’ Tozier, who we now see as the king of your mom jokes thanks to the 2017/19 films, has absolutely no idea what a your mom joke even means in the books 😂 It’s all Mike. Once again Mike Hanlon is amazing and underrated
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Rising from the dead to express a thought I had at the gym the other day while listening to IT again. I don’t know if anyone is still around to read this, and this post will probably be a bit incoherent, but - here it goes:
Okay, so we all know that Eddie feels a ‘rot’ inside him and that’s why he relates to the leper and goes back to Neibolt to put himself in the leper’s shoes before IT shows up.
I’ve written about this a few times over the years, so I don’t need to get too deep into it, but Eddie’s fascination with Neibolt only begins after he finds out that the leper doesn’t actually have leprosy but syphilis, at least according to Richie, and that the STD can be transmitted between men, not just men and women. It’s only then that his experience with the hobo transforms from a scary encounter with sexual overtones to something he identifies with in a way that’s confusing to him. He takes the feeling of ‘badness’ he’s had his whole life (see: church/toilet anecdote and shoplifting sign anecdote) and applies it to something he can actually visualize - physical rot, like he witnessed on the leper. He subconsciously associates the sexual nature of the leper’s disease with his own feelings - the rot is tied to sexuality, which IT used to target Eddie. The reason all this is relevant to THIS post is that Eddie is never able to express his thoughts and feelings in a way that is helpful or healing for him - he spends his entire life subconsciously repressing his sexuality, and thus is never able to rid himself of that ‘rotting from the inside’ feeling.
Which brings me to the scene I want to actually write about: the scene where Bill and Richie talk about Georgie’s death.
Like Eddie, Bill is weighed down by something rotting inside him - his feeling of guilt over Georgie’s death and thinking he’s responsible because he’s the one who made the paper boat. Unlike Eddie, Bill is able to voice his feelings, and voicing them allows him to let them go. He unloads on Richie, and subsequently receives some comfort, albeit not the best comfort because Richie is not very nurturing. Specifically, Bill feels clean after that release, which I’ll come back to in a bit.
On the same page, still on the subject of Georgie, Bill expresses that maybe Georgie didn’t know that Bill never meant for him to die, to which Richie responds:
This idea that death is like a window and everything becomes clear when you die, including knowing what others think and feel, seems like a relatively unimportant line at first glance. It definitely seems like Richie is making shit up - the closest line I could find to what he’s talking about is in Corinthians I, but that verse isn’t about death, it is about love and doesn’t mention any windows, only a mirror. Richie is just talking out of his ass. To be honest, I never paid this quote any mind any other time I’ve read or listened to the book. This time it jumped out to me because —
The concept returns upon Eddie’s death! Now, obviously Eddie’s death is incredibly important and meaningful because it symbolizes self acceptance in his last moments, but I never realized before that the window imagery had come up in the text previously.
As Eddie’s dying, both the ‘clean’ feeling Bill felt and the clarity Richie described come into play. This is the first time in Eddie’s life that he feels the ‘impurities’ leaving him. His death is cleansing him of his rot, allowing him to accept himself in a way he never has before. In addition, he’s able to see through a clear window and bask in the light of it, which, if what Richie said is true, means that he now has a true understanding of what others think and feel about him. This adds another layer to Eddie’s death that I never realized before - he is suddenly aware that the other Losers love and accept him for who he is, because he has that death clarity, and not only does that allow him to let go of his own pain and confusion (the rot), it almost allows him to voice his own feelings.
Richie loves him. The other Losers do too, but Richie is the one talking to him, the one he’s looking at in this moment, the one whose face he touches before he dies. He wants to voice his own love, because now that he’s let go of his self doubt he finally CAN, but dies before he’s able to.
The full Corinthians verse Richie MAY have been referring to before is often read at weddings:
Now, Richie was obviously inventing shit when he was comforting Bill, but there is something to be said for this verse re: Eddie’s death. It was not just about self acceptance, it was about accepting love from others and giving it in return.
After the fight is over, after ‘but he knew well enough’, when the Losers are back outside, this moment occurs:
Love overcomes everything, it’s the only thing that lasts, the thing that allows for full clarity and ‘knowing’.
All this dot connecting is to say that Eddie was going to say ‘you know I love you’, not ‘you know I hate that’.
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The It miniseries being forced to have to censor its gay by having Eddie come out as a “virgin” and then having Richie make some repressed little I-grew-up-in-the-50s-and-must-boast-my-heterosexuality comment but still going super hard and:
Having Richie and Eddie almost leave Derry in one car. Together.
Have Richie literally take Eddie’s body out of the sewers (he’s alive-coded, I’ll prove it another time, I’m too tired rn) and Mike say at the end that Richie’s working with some guy “who everyone would say looks a lot like Eddie Kaspbrak.”
Have Sonia Kaspbrak further queer-code Eddie by forcing him “not to shower with the other boys” in case he gets sick. (This part was set in the 50s but the film came out in 1990 so it’s very easy to tie that to AIDS)
Having some “coworker” who seems boyfriend-coded pick angry little spaghetti-head up from Sonia’s to drive him to the train station and then just wait there as it pulls away like a lover watching his partner leave to go to his death
Make Eds the cutest little thing you’ve ever seen in your life. (Okay that’s not really GAY but he’s just so adorable)
Baby ⬆️
And of course, while the five remaining/able losers are down in the sewers as adults having Reddie mirrored with Benverly, the canon couple, in almost every shot.
(With Bill in the front as the leader because his ponytail gives him power I guess. At least he’s not bald like in the book. What the hell was the point of making him bald Stephen King. I don’t even care about bill to begin with, don’t make him worse!)
And then there’s whatever Bill and Mike got going on. Just fruity my boys…
✨ 🍉 🍎 🍌 ✨
Plus a bit of villain queering (with the “kiss me fat boy” scene, it’s Tim Curry, literal Dr. Frank N Furter, they knew what they were doing), which I don’t think I have to explain why that can be harmful.
Also they give Eddie, our main queer-coded blond-haired beauty a very fun fashion sense. He’s got a color palate and some fun sweatervests. He also gets to make fun of Richie’s strange shirt-thing. I wish he got to make fun of the mustache, like, Harry Andersen was great but that mustache was so ugly.
Anyway, goodnight Tumblr. I am deep into my many It-thoughts again.
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