Listen, people, I have a serious problem regarding balloons. Not joking.
I blame Stephen King’s IT, which I read as a wee pre-teen, during one summer when my parents had only just finished tearing down and rebuilding our house, which spent its nights creaking and settling into its new plywood and drywall skin. Did I mention this house was in the middle of nowhere? Only woods and fog for miles. Plus, the occasional terrifying deer snort. Don’t believe me? Deer snorts are the weirdest sound ever. They aren’t so fluffy as you might imagine.
I spent many late night/early morning moments staring into the black circle of the bathroom drains, trembling with fear lest they should start talking to me. Luring me, because they all float down there.
IT left these lasting impressions:
- Books are life. Period.
- Balloons are the devil. They are filled with the expelled souls of the damned. I sincerely still dislike them, and I don’t keep them in the house. There was an incident with a balloon for my thirteenth birthday, and my brother drawing a face on it, and tying it to my doorknob … I was even afraid to kill the thing, afraid there would be some sort of demonic retribution.
- As good a song as it may be, Float On by Modest Mouse was surely recorded to torment those Stephen King fans who were initiated to IT as I was: alone, in my room, in the dead of night with creaking house and snorting deer providing the soundtrack to my terror.
If you’re a fan of IT, check out this blog from Quirk Books. It’s not spoiler-ey, and it gives a fair spread of expectations for the movie IT: Chapter 2.
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