Steve's explanation for Losers' sex scene

[Moderator]

I've been meaning to ask Steve for years now to give his explanation for why the sex scene was included in IT. Better late than never as the saying goes, so here it is at long last in his own words:

I wasn't really thinking of the sexual aspect of it. The book dealt with childhood and adulthood --1958 and Grown Ups. The grown ups don't remember their childhood. None of us remember what we did as children--we think we do, but we don't remember it as it really happened. Intuitively, the Losers knew they had to be together again. The sexual act connected childhood and adulthood. It's another version of the glass tunnel that connects the children's library and the adult library. Times have changed since I wrote that scene and there is now more sensitivity to those issues.

[Unfound1]

I love the referance to the childrens library and the adults library... so true. Thank you!

[ItFan]

Thank you so much Ms Mod, I always knew the act itself was designed to bring the Losers Club together again and unite them so they could escape the sewer but I never fully understood why exactly SK chose that way to bring them together; my friend didn't enjoy that part of the story as she thought it wasn't right for the children to be engaging in such an act, but I always thought of it as a beatiful (not to sound too corny!) moment in the story.

[Doc Wilson]

Gems like this are why this board is such a valuable resource for King junkies.

Thanks, Ms. Mod!

[TriggerHappy]

You're gonna think I'm perverted, but I've always loved that scene.... It's so unexpected, and yet - to me, at least - so integral to the whole story. In fact, I tend to find the palm-cutting scene cornier than the group sex. Also, Beverly was about sex from the start (remember the ankle-bracelet Ben notices on the last day of school?). I think it was her way of pitching in.

[frisbee]

Thanks, Ms. Mod. I've had to explain this to others who thought the children/sex part was too, shall we say, icky. I thought it was a way to bring them together but could not say it as well.

[Robert Gray]

I appreciate that you took the time to get that from the man himself. I always thought it was kind of self evident. The Losers were only able to fight It because they became more than children. They became both adults and children at the same time. After their first battle with It, the "other" ...the force which resided in them retreated as well. They were reverting to a more natural, child-like state. It wasn't a good time for it. Sexuality is an adult thing and through it Beverly was able to help them all hang on to that adult mindset long enough to get out.

The reverse was also true. As merely adults they had no chance against it. They had to reconnect to their childhood. The adult Beverly needed to reconnect to a healthy, pure love like she new as a child. That did not, of course, require all the Losers. It has always surprised me how much angst there is over that scene.

[GeorgiesArm]

I always felt the scene wat to connect childhood and adulthood, as if it was sort of necessary for them to be kid and adult at once in order to beat IT both in '58 and '85

[Spooky Chick]

Thanks to Mrs Mod and SK for taking the time to post this explanation. It makes perfect sense that there needed to be some kind of adult act.

Steve said: "Times have changed since I wrote that scene and there is now more sensitivity to those issues." and this made me curious if he was writing the same story now what else could he use to connect them to adulthood?

[GNTLGNT]

I understand the parallel, but I also viewed it as written-love and passion, nothing real and good can happen without them...