Faith, courage, and action: A faith- based review of my latest encounter with 'It.'

Hi, and welcome back to the Nightcrawler Experience!

For this entry, I will be re- examining as both a pop- culture fan and a follower of Christ  something from my boyhood that I felt the need to return to: Stephen King's famous 1986 novel 'It.'

DISCLAIMER! This book is very explicit in many different ways, with a lot, and I mean A LOT, of content not suitable at all for kids and sensitive audiences. Exercise extreme caution before reading it yourselves.
Also, SPOILER WARNING! There will be a few spoilers in this article.

The story of 'It,' boiled down to its core, can be best summed up as this: An ancient, pure- evil being has taken up residence beneath a small Maine town called Derry (Inspired by King's real- life hometown of Bangor). Every twenty- seven years or so, It emerges from hibernation to kill and eat children and teens for a year or two before then settling back into hibernation in Its lair in the town's labyrinthine sewer system. It most often appears to them in the form of a clown named Pennywise, but is capable of taking the form of whatever scares its would- be prey the most (Over the course of the story, we see It taking on the forms of a movie werewolf, a hideous leper, a mummy, a swarm of grotesque flying leeches, the town's tacky giant Paul Bunyan statue come to life, and many others). During one of these periods, a group of outcast neighborhood kids who come to call themselves "The Losers' Club" fight and defeat It, vowing to return and finish the job if It ever came back. Sure enough, twenty- seven years later, It does indeed come back and resumes killing kids, and the Losers' Club, almost all of whom have become rich and successful adults who have almost completely forgotten what had happened to them as kids, return to Derry determined to destroy It once and for all.

I read the original book for the first time nineteen years ago when I was about 14 years old (I had seen the 1990 TV miniseries a few years earlier), and was blown away with it! It's truly King in his prime, long before he jumped the shark in the mid- 90's, as I mentioned in my comparison between him and Dean Koontz a couple years ago.

The story goes into magnificent detail in describing the town of Derry, the characters, and all the various moments that help to shape the plot. The "Past" segments and the "Present" segments transition into each other perfectly.
'It' also obviously has a lot of extremely scary moments. Many of the scenes involving Pennywise and the other forms It takes are genuinely frightening and unsettling, the sorts of things that'll stick with you for quite a while afterwards. In addition, good scares can also be found in a lot of the more natural/ human threats that our heroes have to contend with, such as demented school bully Henry Bowers (He gets my vote for being the best/ most threatening "bully" character in all of fiction), abusive father Al Marsh, and neighborhood sociopath Patrick Hockstetter (The chapter in which we learn more about him and witness his death is, to me, easily one of the scariest and most disturbing segments of the entire book; A gruesome fate for a gruesome character).

In contrast, the seven members of the Losers' Club make for a great, very likable group of heroes that are quite easy to root for. My favorite of them is Ben Hanscom, a lonely, overweight boy who starts out shy and afraid, but finds his courage that summer when he makes his new friends (Implied to be the first friends he's ever had), shows it through standing up to first Henry and then It, and keeps up that courage as an adult. Ben's a marvelous example of a "From Zero to Hero" character, and this transition fits perfectly.
All of this is not to say that 'It' is a perfect book, by any means. First and foremost, it's a VERY long book, over 1,000 pages in length. So, it obviously requires a huge investment of time. Also, some of the segments (Especially the "Interlude" segments in which we learn through interviews about some of the tragedies and horrors that Derry has been through) tend to drag on at times, they would have benefited from being trimmed a bit, in my opinion. Also, in the book's climax, I felt things got a little hard to follow at times, with some of the bizarre imagery and actions in that segment.
Still, these flaws were easy to get past, considering how great the rest of the book was.

 In anticipation of the upcoming new movie of 'It' they are doing, I decided to re-read the book. Problem was, my copy of 'It' was so old and battered that it wouldn't be very good for in- depth reading. Fortunately, I had heard of a very well- received audiobook version of 'It,' read by the actor Steven Weber (Best known for playing Brian Hackett on the old sitcom 'Wings'), and even more fortunately, a library near me had a copy of that audiobook. I checked it out, and over the course of two weeks (Due to the length of the book, the audio drama was about 42 hours long), I rediscovered 'It.' Now that I think about it, it's actually rather funny; I was sort of in a sense following in the Losers' footsteps, experiencing a horror as a kid, and then returning to it as an adult.

(Here's what the library copy of the audiobook looked like; I understand the more widely- seen cover for it looks a lot different)

I actually got more enjoyment out of it now than I did back then. I believe this is for two reasons:

The first is my own enhanced level of understanding. As an adult, I can understand the references, subplots, themes, and so on that were present in 'It' a lot better than I could when I was 14. The second reason is the wonderful work that the audiobook's narrator did.

Steven Weber's performance in this audiobook, both his voice- acting for the characters and his general narration, are absolutely brilliant! He injected all the right emotions into all the right moments, and helped certain scenes become even more intense than I remember feeling they were when I first read them. I'd say the character that Weber was probably best at voicing would be Richie Tozier, the bespectacled comedian of the Losers' Club. Right off the bat, I knew that an actor like Steven Weber who's mainly known for his comedic roles would be able to nail a frequently- comedic character like Richie, but it's more than that: What makes his work as Richie's voice especially good is that one of Richie's trademarks in the story was how often he does different funny voices, accents, and impressions, and Weber makes each of them sound amazing. I was genuinely surprised that he could have such a gift for voices. This was especially prominent for me during a scene in which the Losers have a brief conversation with Mr. Nell, a friendly Irish cop in town. During the scene, Richie at times thinks it's funny to try out his "Irish cop" voice on Mr. Nell, though nobody is terribly amused by it. When narrating this scene, Weber provides a wonderful contrast between Richie's over- the- top "Irish cop" voice and Mr. Nell's actual Irish accent.

Another particularly great scene handled by him involves when our heroes are adults, and the one female member of the Losers' Club, Beverly, pays a visit to her old childhood apartment, which let's just say doesn't go as she expected. Through Weber's narration and voice acting (Especially his performance as the voice of Mrs. Kersh, the apartment's current occupant), he takes a scene which was rather scary and disturbing for me when I read it in the book as a teen, and turns it into truly the stuff of nightmares.

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't mention how Weber did as the voice of Pennywise the Clown in this audiobook. He was AMAZING! He makes Pennywise sound jolly, charming, and yet unbelievably creepy at the same time (In other words, like how a "Scary clown" character should sound). An online review of the audiobook I read at the website into-the-dark.com said that his version of Pennywise sounded like "A hellish take on Richard Nixon," and I suppose I can hear a little of that, but it most reminds me personally of the voice of the classic Disney/ Mickey Mouse villain Pete. Weber makes It's other forms sound quite scary and distinctive as well (i.e. the voice he uses for when the Paul Bunyan statue apparently comes to life has an awesome "Evil fairy- tale giant" feel to it).

So,  I'd say the Steven Weber audiobook of 'It' ranks up with the likes of Gary Sinise's take on 'Of Mice and Men' and the Focus on the Family audio drama of C.S. Lewis's 'The Screwtape Letters' as among the best audiobooks I've ever come across, which got me even more excited for the movie due to be released this September. If you're interested in discovering 'It' for the first time (Keeping in mind the disclaimer I posted in the beginning) or revisiting it like I did, check it out.

Of course, now that I've examined 'It' as a pop culture fanboy, I must also examine it as a Christian. Believe it or not, there are actually quite a few Scriptural messages that I was able to find in 'It' (Made easier by the fact that 'It' is one of King's works in which he DOESN'T rely on his vile trope of insulting and stereotyping Christians that I noted in my 'King vs. Koontz' article), once you get past the graphic content.

One message I noticed is on the nature of aging, on looking at things as a child and as an adult, and retaining the best parts of both. It's of course important to grow up, mature, and lose the short- sightedness and irresponsibility we tend to have as children, but it's also important to maintain the humility, imagination and sense of wonder at the world that we gain in childhood. The character in 'It' who best sums this up is the Losers' Club leader, "Stuttering" Bill Denbrough. Even as he grows up, he maintains that balance between childhood and adulthood, and puts it to good use in his career as a writer. In the end of the book, when Bill's wife Audra is kidnapped by It and put into a catatonic state, Bill's reconnecting with his childlike wonder is what saves her, as he takes her on a wild ride through Derry's streets on his beloved childhood bike, Silver, which snaps her out of it. Scripture is equally clear on the importance of both learning to grow up and retaining a bit of childhood. On the one hand, 1 Corinthians 13:11 says "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things." On the other hand, Jesus Himself said in Matthew 18:3-4 that "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the Kingdom of Heaven." The key is finding a balance between the two, gaining the best elements of both, and using them to become the most effective, most fruitful servant of Christ you can be.

Another Scriptural message is on the power of faith. One character who sums this up is Losers' Club member Eddie Kaspbrak. He's a scrawny hypochondriac boy (Largely due to the influence of his unbearably overprotective mother) with severe asthma, but we eventually learn his asthma is in fact psychosomatic. His pharmacist in one scene rather bluntly tells him that his aspirator, which he inhales from multiple times a day to clear his throat and keep his asthma under control, is really just water. While Eddie soon comes to accept this hard fact, he still finds that even if his aspirator is just a placebo, it still does help him largely for the simple reason that he believes it does, so for the rest of his life he uses it as regularly as he did before. In fact, in a couple of the Losers' encounters with It, Eddie even uses his aspirator as a weapon by believing it's spraying acid, and it works! Jesus, of course, had plenty to say about faith. In Matthew 17:14-20, Jesus is asked to drive a demon out of a man's son that His disciples had tried and failed to drive out. After He does so, the disciples ask why they weren't able to drive it out, and Jesus responds, "Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Faith, demonstrated through coming to God with your requests in prayer and trusting in Him throughout your everyday lives, is a cornerstone of walking with Christ.

Another message to 'It' I found was on the subject of divine providence. Several times when the Losers are kids, we find them getting unseen yet obvious help in ways that could only be described as miraculous. For instance, when It attempts to subtly influence Eddie's overprotective mom to split up the Losers after Eddie's arm is broken, the normally quite timid Eddie seemingly out of nowhere finds the strength to respectfully yet assertively stand up to her and make it clear that he's done letting her baby him and keep him from living his life. Later, when It attacks Beverly in the town dump in one of Its most horrifying forms (A form It had just minutes earlier used to kill a kid), she shoots at It with her slingshot. The shot clearly misses, yet then out of nowhere it just as clearly curves back in midair and hits It, saving Bev's life. Near the book's climax, Bill eventually realizes that, as ancient and powerful as It is, there is another infinitely more powerful being, a Creator of the world, who was guiding him and his friends in their struggle against It and miraculously helping them when needed. I'd say the theological connection to that is pretty obvious. The Lord Jesus Christ is always there to lead and guide His children, and has at times done so in pretty miraculous ways. God's providence was what led Joseph through all his various trials in the book of Genesis, such as being sold into slavery and thrown into prison, so he could eventually be put into the position to help save Egypt from being wiped out by famine. Then, of course, there's all the wonders and miracles that the Lord did in Exodus to free the Jews from slavery.  I've also personally witnessed examples of God's miraculous deliverance a few times in my life.Through trusting in Jesus to lead our path, He can guide and protect us, at times in truly amazing ways.

A final theological message I found in 'It' dealt with responding to evil. See, the character Mike Hanlon, the only member of the Loser's Club who continued to live in Derry even as an adult, has done a lot of research into the town's history, and learned that It has been involved in a behind- the- scenes sort of way in a wide variety of awful tragedies and acts of death and destruction that have hit the town over decades if not centuries. The strange thing is, the people of Derry have a tendency to kind of subtly ignore these tragedies, or at least pay them the minimum amount of attention without acknowledging the "Elephant in the room," that It is involved in each one of them in some way. Not all of them do, though. The Losers' Club know they can't turn a blind eye to what's happening, that they must stand up to It to save themselves and the other kids in town. As adults, they all (All but one, that is) return to Derry for the same reason. Refusing to do what's right and turning a blind eye to evil are, quite frankly, sinful. In the early chapters of the book of Samuel, the high priest Eli learns he will die soon because he knew his own sons, fellow priests, were unbelievably corrupt and abused their positions, and yet he did little if anything to try and stop them. James 4:17 says that "So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin." Furthermore, in Romans 2:6-8, it says that "He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury." This passage is especially relevant because, in the climax and ending of 'It,' what eventually happens to Derry and much of its people can indeed be easily seen as divine "Wrath and fury" upon a town whose people largely sought after themselves and did nothing about the evil lurking under their streets. I'd say this is an especially relevant point now, considering that in the last few weeks, we've seen terrorist attacks, the attempted assassination of a congressman, and countless other acts of evil in the world. We cannot ignore evil, it must be confronted.

So, through balancing our child natures and adult natures, keeping our strong faith in God, trusting in His providence, and courageously standing against evil in everyday ways, we'll have nothing to fear from whatever forms the Devil might take, be it lurking in the sewers or right out in broad daylight.

That's all for this edition of the Nightcrawler Experience. Hopefully I'll have a new entry up soon. Until then, God bless you all!