What Is IT? Caution - Spoilers.

**Fidget** · August 16th, 2011

Okay so this thread may have been done but I've done a couple of searches and I haven't found any topic like this which is strange! Mods feel free to kick my butt if I'm wrong!

IT has always been my favourite SK story, because it was the very first SK novel I read and it got me hooked, but I've always wondered exactly what IT is and I'm sure I'm not the only one so I thought I would start this thread so everybody could put their own theories forward.
I always thought of IT as being part of a race of higher beings, that race being opposite to the race of The White. I.E The Turtle. Pennywise is a shape-shifting vampire that feeds off of emotions, the same as Dandelo in DT and Ardelia Lortz in The Library Policeman. (I'm racking my brains trying to think of others right now but unfortunately my SK collection is back at my Mum's house at the moment!) The very fact that Pennywise is a female and reproduces (or at least tries to) surely shows that IT is part of a race and not a 'one-off'. Also, the closest association the human mind can make with her truest form is insectile, much like Ardelia and Dandelo. I would speculate that the Crimson King is the leader of this race, as his truest form is seen as a spider, the same as his son Mordred. (I can't for the life of me remember where the quote backing this up came from, but I know I've seen it and I'll have to just go through all my books when I get back to Mum's and find it!)

Okay, so there's my theory. Any thoughts?

**bluesology** · August 16th, 2011

I think your suggestion is certainly possible. I definitely think you are on the right track connecting different books together in this way. My personal opinion is that IT was a creature that was left behind in the beginning of time when the Prim receded. My theory regarding Dandelo is that he was one of IT's offspring - one that managed to escape from Ben's bootheel.

**dsurrett** · August 16th, 2011

Maybe I'd be wrong, but I'd bet that Mr. King didn't know exactly what Pennywise was as he wrote book, but that the creature grew and evolved as the story did.

**Robert Gray** · August 16th, 2011

While these suppositions all have a certain internal logic, they overlook several things. The first (and most important) fact is we get a direct look into the mind of It within the book itself. The God/Demon/Monster clearly considers itself unique and one of only two entities of roughly similar nature. It has a sneaking suspicion that there might be an "Other" but that is irrelevant to this discussion. There is a powerful dichotomy in the novel, wherein beings very small on the cosmic scale (human children) vie with an entity so vast an ancient that it existed somewhere in the void before the Earth even started spinning. In that context, debates about the Crimson King and other spider-like beings of far lesser power are kind of Moot.

Consider the Crimson King. This being lusts for power and control. He intends to bring down reality and master it, for all intents and purposes to do the same thing that Roland intends (climb to the top of the Tower), albeit for different reasons. This entity is a manipulator, a planner. He plots and schemes. It, by stark contrast, has no interest in such things. The monster enjoys feeding and sleeping. It doesn't plot to control the universe. It already believes it is master of all things and as such is largely above them. The realization that it isn't the only being of vast cosmic power (besides the impotent turtle) upsets It greatly. The novel seems to imply that It is the Deadlights. The immortal part of It remains forever spinning and glittering out there in the void, utterly alien. Only as it worms its way into the world can it take more solid, specific form.

I would suggest (as I do not claim to know all) that the barrier beyond which the Deadlights blaze has cracks and holes. These fissures aren't big enough for the Deadlights (It) to come forth, but are just large enough to allow part of It (far reduced in power) to slip into the world to amuse itself.

**CarrieJo** · August 16th, 2011

I honestly never connected any of these. But you have my wheels turning and I think you have a very good point about Dandelo and Ardelia Lortz. I will ponder.

**GNTLGNT** · August 16th, 2011

Yah, it was something the Prim coughed up...

**Silhouette86** · August 16th, 2011

Some things are creepier when you don't know, I beleive. Maybe everything that is intended to scare you.

**omm poppa mow mow** · August 16th, 2011

you covered all the bases, Fidget! The only thing left is to go play in right field... and I think that It is like the Obama-meister....or maybe..and yeah, this is scairy, maybe It is like Maybell, next door. You have no lived until you are sweating in your long johns on the garage roof and the neighbor lady, Maybell, is doing the sister-act next door, shaking her fist at you, and George, you remember George, right? George comes out and tells you, "you'll never work in this town again."

Heh.

oh fock me running.

have you read Under the Dome, as yet? If not, a reading is in order. It, was also the 1s I ever read from the bard-miester from Maine.

We need more shee-ite like that, like what he writes. There's not enough out there, for truly.

Here's one back atcha...what was the green man, from Insomnia...good? bad? otherwise? you figure out that one as yet?

**Carlos Solrac** · August 17th, 2011

IT is the deadlights, a destructive light that can manifest itself into whatever it reads in the human mind. (which is why

Show Spoiler

) IT came in the prehistorian era and murdered off the settlers of Derry (like roanoke but without Legion). IT is harder to kill than anything, so

Show Spoiler

, which explains his appearances in INSOMNIA, THE TOMMYKNOCKERS, DREAMCATCHER, etc. IT is all you fear and nothing at all. i hope this answered your question.