History Headscratchers / It

* I'm not the most familiar with the book, but based on the TV Movie and Movie, Georgie is weary of Pennywise but isn't out right afraid of him. Fear is what Pennywise feeds on, but it doesn't seem like Georgie is much terrified of him based on trying to get his boat or a balloon from him. So was Georgie afraid of Pennywise? Or was Pennywise just eating Georgie for the fun of it?

* In the book, after the Mrs. Kersh scene, Pennywise says "Tell your friends I am the last of a dying race! I came to earth to rob all the women, rape all the men...[[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and learn to do the Peppermint Twist!]]" Obviously there's a good chance Pennywise was just trolling Bev by saying all that, but with all the ambiguous background mythos surrounding IT, could he really have been the last of a dying race?

** I think you aren't understanding what the novel said about it, Patrick isn't exactly ''afraid'' of leeches (and not at all specifically flying ones, that was It just adding a useful part to it that helped It attack more effectively, since leeches aren't very effective on land vs. water), or anything really, he's just revolted by them, and ''sort of'' afraid, or I would say ''feels threatened'' by them in a vague and abnormal sort of way, which makes them the ''only'' thing that is even close to a proper fear for him. It's shape-shifting also isn't ''entirely'' under It's control, it is more like It changes into one or more things It's victim fears, and then attacks however that form is capable of doing, whether It wants to be in that shape or not. If Patrick already doesn't have a proper ability to fear (as a psychopath probably would not, and the novel, again, mentions he specifically does not) then It would have trouble forming a proper shape to attack. The leeches were the closest thing that would work, and after that, It seemed to be trying to turn into ''something'', possibly even just stick with the leeches but with some new twist, but Patrick's warped mind was making it not solidify properly, which is essentially what that passage describes. Beverly, who's listening, ''hears'' her father, who she is justifiably afraid of, speak clearly "Hello and goodbye", while Patrick's viewpoint describes It as bubbly and garbled when It speaks. This is also why the children can fight back against It, they ''force'' It to be vulnerable, and make It's shapes less dangerous with their counter-belief. In this case, Patrick's stilted view of...well, ''everything'' made It's shapeshifting glitch and distort, like when a screen actually shows what it is supposed to for half a second when it starts to malfunction or when you try to get it to work, but the rest of the time is just a mess of static.

** It's pretty explicitly stated that Stan is the one person, aside from Mike, who ''did'' remember (at least some of) what happened that summer, and was never able to deal with it. He had spent most of the the previous 20 years trying to escape and forget about it, but he couldn't face going back. It's also possible IT appeared to him in the bathtub and he believed they would all die without killing IT, and if he lived and did not return to Derry, he would face the horror alone. He chose to die rather than live with the possibility.

** Assuming you're an adult, how many explicit events can you recall from when you were 11 years old? If you're like most people, you probably have only a handful of things you can remember off the top of your head, and a few more that you would recall if reminded, but the vast majority of that time is a blank, and the blank areas get larger the further into the past you try to recall. King was exploring the idea of, "What is in those blank spaces in our memories? How do we know what really happened if we remember so little?" It's implied within the story that the Other makes them forget, because if they remembered everything they would go mad. Then when the time comes to face It again, they begin remembering bit by bit, so they have the knowledge needed to defeat It.