indescribableFor those of you who know what I'm talking about: I just finished reading It for the first time.
I think I was crying mostly because of the ending and how they're all forgetting each other again. OMG SADNESS. Because yeah, I teared right up and choked when the last few sentences of Mike Hanlon's last entry were "I loved you guys" (or words to that effect). Because I just spent well over a thousand pages getting to love all seven of these people, loving their love for each other, their dedication and courage and reality.
Nobody writes believable people like King does. I keep forgetting this.
Well, that, and the longing (desire!) in my own heart for the wild uncaring freedom of childhood, the invincible daring, the "HIIIII YO SILVER AWAY!" that's so tough to hang onto as a grownup. (You can, I've seen people do it; it changes, it shifts, but it's at root the same thing.)
Things I think will be stuck in my mind or vocab permanently:
"Beep-beep, Ritchie."
"love, desire, and the dark. If they didn't have the first two, they'd be left with the last." (I swear I've heard the phrase "love, desire, and the dark" somewhere else, before, but I can't remember where.)
the poem Ben wrote for Beverly.
The image of the glass tunnel between the library buildings, and Ben considering it, how you stand in the darkness and learn to love the light.
For a horror story, this is very upbeat. The moral is if you stand, if you're brave and tough and stand, you can win against the wildest evil that exists. That things turn out right a surprising amount of the time. That anyone who looks at this world and thinks that God doesn't exist needs a serious reality check.
This is one I may read again someday.
