Pennywise in Salem's Lot ?

[jkcrue]

Now before I get any criticism's to this connection I know that Salem's Lot was written well before IT and Pennywise came to be. Maybe King already had the idea of Pennywise when he was writing Salem's.

Near the end of the book during the scene with Father Callahan confronting Barlow in the Petrie's kitchen Callahan thinks the following

"Where had he seen this face before ? And it came to him, in this moment of the most extreme terror he had ever known. It was the face of Mr.Flip, his own personal bogeyman, the thing that hid in the closet during the days and came out after his mother closed the bedroom door. He was not allowed a night light-both his mother and father had agreed that the way to conquer these childish fears was to face them, and every night when the door snicked shut and his mother's footsteps padded off down the hall, the closet door slid open a crack and he could sense (or actually see?) the thin white face and burning eyes of Mr.Flip. And here he was again, out of the closet, staring over Mark's shoulder with his clown-white face and glowing eyes and red, sensual lips."

Did anyone else think of Pennywise when they red this part in the book ? Let me know what you all thought of this part.

[sam peebles]

Just seems like a basic archetype of a childhood fear (which sums up Pennywise pretty nicely). Reminds me more of Cujo than anything, though.

[dsurrett]

I haven't reread Salem's Lot since reading IT. Sounds like it could've been an early incarnation of Pennywise, even if SK had no idea about anything in IT at that point. But then again, a thin clown-white face, burning eyes, and red-sensual lips, all in a vampire book, probably means the face was as white as a clown's painted face, but belonged to a vampire. Good catch though, especially since so many of SK's books are connected.

[friend of Oye]

Don't we kinda see a little Penywise in a lot of SK's meanies?

[GNTLGNT]

I didn't get the "clown" vibe, more of a flash of Nosferatu....

[Robert Gray]

It didn't strike me that way at all when I read it. It doesn't really strike me that way now in discussing it.

[garygak]

Makes sence to me. They are practically all DT stories. Father Callahan returns, years later. In It, we meet the Turtle for the first time. Why wouldn't Pennywise be hiding in Mark's closet?

[Sophius]

Because Father Callahan didn't grow up in Derry. And, though I may be mistaken in this regard, I actually recall in The Wolves of Calla that, when he iterates his history, he says that he moved to Maine later in life.

[guido tkp]

i'm sorry, but i'm thinking someone said it correctly: archetypical imagery, nothing more

it would be interesting, though, to have the master speak to the issue of whether he had the dark tower, and all it's seeming connectivities, in mind while writng all his books from day one: as in, did he specifically plant seed and imageries just in case...

...as opposed to slowly coming up to the idea as time, and stories clearly, began to shape a (possible) connectivity

[king family fan]

An interesting concept but never struck my thoughts. Maybe its time for a re-read.