Steve's explanation for Losers' sex scene

[ChickenStu]

Twas weird. Really didn't understand how this part of the book was supposed to make me feel. Good to get a satisfying explanation!

[broadwaygonnabe]

I've also somehow liked this scene as well. I never saw it as a group of 12 year olds in a group orgy (since that's how a lot of people probably saw it, hence their repulsion) because there was an actual meaning that King was trying to get across. But instead of the connection from childhood to adulthood, I got the basic idea that she was just trying to strengthen their bond (because everyone knows that after sex you always feel closer to the person you had sex with. It's basic biology)

At the same time I also agree with the relation to Bev's feminine power, as well as her father's fear of Bev realizing that power. He kept a really tight leash on her and was obsessed with keeping her a virgin and away from other boys, because he knew that once she realized what she was capable of doing, and more importantly what she was capable of having (AKA better than him) he would lose his control over her, and she would leave. So I guess in a way it does help Bev grow up, especially considering she's the one that called the shots in this part of the book.

But I did think this was a good part. Could it have been handled differently, maybe, but I don't think that it would have had the same effect. And considering that it was only the kids, instead of an adult having sex with a kid, I didn't think it was that bad. It was just an intimate.

[weetee]

I always thought it was a very important part of the story, not the sexual element but the connection of the losers as both children and adults, they had to be both in order to do what they did

[riverdog]

Thanks for explanation. I have thought versions of all these comments and always thought people who were upset with it were missing the point. I also thought that you kind of needed that scene to help resolve a lot of sexual tension that had built up around Beverly, particularly with Ben and Bill and her father.

The Losers spent all summer battling this horrific nightmare and were faced daily with a level of terror and gore that most 'adults' couldn't handle -- by the time of this scene, they were hardly the maturity level of your average 11 year old. The scene made total sense to me when I was only a few years older than the characters and it still makes sense now, even with a daughter that exact age.

Haters gonna hate.

[bluesology]

Thank you for seeking out that information and sharing it with us. It was very enlightening to read Mr. King's thoughts as this certainly has been a controversial scene. This is a fantastic forum and I'm glad I found it.

It's also interesting to think of the glass tunnel between the two libraries in this way - I hadn't considered this before. My recollection from the book is that at some point, that glass tunnel is destroyed is it not? If so, that would give the event interesting metaphorical significance from the perspective of how everyone's childhood becomes harder to find once left behind.

[jchanic]

In the book, the tunnel between the two libraries was destroyed in the storm.

John

[Jo Johnson]

It never actually struck me how young they were, I was too wrapped up in the scene ... sadly, perhaps this is more realistic an age for such things than we would like to believe ... and all of them had been propelled by their life circumstances to "old before their time", or old souls. That being said, I felt gut-punched when my kids became sexually active, and happily, they were older than eleven.


It just totally felt like it was about love, and not about sex. And when I was eleven, that's all we thought about because we knew nothing about it!
Which made us think about it more ...