this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2025
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[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 96 points 1 month ago

People really need to stop spreading this misinformation.

It was a TRAIN.

Gangbangs are simultaneous, trains are sequential.

So if you were to compare it to a vehicle a gangbang would be like a plane that goes to Epstein Island, just like Steven King did multiple times.

[–] Heikki2@lemmy.world 73 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Reading the story, the "gangbang" part wasn't like a huge orchestrated planned event. The kids were lost in the dark, loosing hope, and knew that IT wanted them to feel down and weak as alone they could be defeated by IT.

In an effort to make them feel close, Beverly took it up her self to make them all Eskimo Brothers. This brought the Losers Club back into solidarity.

[–] DaMonsterKnees@lemmy.world 110 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I'm a big fan of Stephen Kings work. He's deserving of respect as a writer and story teller. Your explanation is reasonable and true in the context of the story.

There is just no way to talk about, write about, discuss, etc, stuff like that, without the air in the room not going still as fuck. All of what you say is true, it's still.... off.

And that book was just a bit too long, but again, great book, great writer, questionable AS FUCK portion.

[–] snooggums@piefed.world 61 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] Droggelbecher@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Ya know, people keep saying this, but I've tried coke before, and preteen sex didn't cross my mind once during it.

[–] regedit@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 month ago

We're you writing a book about pre-teens being lured by a murderous clown when you did cocaine? No, I didn't think so!

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[–] Drusas@fedia.io 7 points 1 month ago (2 children)

There is just no way to talk about, write about, discuss, etc, stuff like that, without the air in the room not going still as fuck.

I don't think that's true at all. I think there are a lot of people out there who could discuss it, but that requires a significant degree of emotional maturity and there are too many people who can't step back and be open to discussing topics which make them uncomfortable.

[–] DaMonsterKnees@lemmy.world 18 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Mate, where are you going with this? Aldous Huxely erotic play for children? I think you're missing the point. It's not a discussion because the fallacy purported by the writer was to give 12 year olds emotions, desires, and mental processes that they simply have not yet developed. Beverly, the twelve year old girl, wouldn't think to have sex with her friends to comfort them. Full stop. That's the writer putting these emotions where they simply wouldn't exist. And. Creepy.

It's not maturity. Maturity is knowing that twelve year olds don't reason that way.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 20 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (5 children)

Well, she would, because she's a child sexual abuse survivor and it's a hypersexualization thing and a result of how she's been told things work by the adults taking advantage of her.

Still fucked up to type that out and not have some editor say "Are you doing okay, Stevie?"

And don't pretend this is only fucked up sexual thing he's written about children.

[–] SaraTonin@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago (6 children)

This is a very well-made point which does make a very good case for her actions fitting with her backstory.

However, a) it really only works as a post-hoc rationalisation for the scene, rather than an explantation for why the book is better with it, and b) speaking about consistency and foreplanning is somewhat undermined by the climax of the book being “…actually, it’s a…giant alien spider!”

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[–] honurash@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

There are plenty of people who are abused at a young age that come to associate sex with giving comfort or thinking its the only way they can help others.

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[–] IronBird@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

i definitely knew about sex by 12

[–] deathbird@mander.xyz 6 points 1 month ago

Same? Like does no one remember being 12, or did they just block it out?

[–] Vespair@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 month ago

Ummm was your childhood stunted or something? 12yos absolutely can be capable of complex emotional intelligence and reasoning. Hell, for most of humanity "childhood" wasn't even a concept and an adult was anyone over 13.

And don't get me wrong, that we can gift our young the idea of "childhood" is simply one of the greatest achievements of the modern world, so I'm not out here trying to say kids should be considered adults again, but I think you are vastly underestimating the capability of children. Especially children who are trauma survivors and haven't had the benefit of the slow progress of childhood gifted to them.

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[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago (6 children)

That sounds very much like a pedophile fantasy.

[–] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 49 points 1 month ago (2 children)

That's like saying that a lot of people get murdered in Stephen King's stories, so he must have homicidal fantasies.

Horror writers look for ways to shock and shake up their readers, and judging from the comments here, he succeeded.

[–] spamfajitas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Jonathan Swift must have really wanted to cannibalize poor children!

I'll never forget bringing that up in a classroom and realizing adults had no idea it was satire.

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[–] Lux@lemmy.blahaj.zone 73 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Not defending King, as I always found the gangbang suspicious after I learned about it (haven't, and won't read it anyway), but there are people who fully believe Trump is a pedo etc but don't think there's any actual files the way people want. They argue there's evidence, sure, but not the exact client list full of incriminating details on everyone involved that people are expecting to see.

Personally, if I remember the timeline right I can see that point, and it could be true, or there could be files, but I think the lions share that associated with him should be under suspicion, no matter the political alignment, and we should still keep pushing for them anyway, even if there is a chance they aren't the format lots of people think they are.

[–] But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The gangbang makes sense but it is still fucked. Penny wise goes after kids so fuck and you’re no longer a kid. Still a plot point that should have stayed unexplored

[–] kadu@scribe.disroot.org 13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

The gangbang makes sense but it is still fucked. Penny wise goes after kids so fuck and you’re no longer a kid.

Maybe they could pay some bills, fill some spreadsheets in a cubicle, get a doctor's appointment complaining about lower back pain, instead of a gang bang?

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[–] slickgoat@lemmy.world 49 points 1 month ago (1 children)

To be fair, he was drowning in cocaine when writing that book, so he managed to keep the lid on it to the best of his abilities.

[–] miked@piefed.social 19 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Ah. This is why everyone posting cocaine.

I was trying to figure out how a bunch of tweens stuck in the sewer got a hold of enough cocaine to think an orgy would help their cause.

[–] slickgoat@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

Yeah, King went through a rough patch that only got worse before it got better.

[–] HotsauceHurricane@lemmy.world 32 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 7 points 1 month ago

"no it's about growing up and it's like the pig thing in Lord of the Flies not my latent (hopefully) pedophilia"

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[–] QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works 27 points 1 month ago

Wasn’t IT about the loss of innocence? Also drugs were a factor

[–] djsoren19@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 points 1 month ago

I've been told that cocaine is a helluva drug

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 21 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I always thought the part with Patrick and the refrigerator was far, far worse than the adolescent sex scene.

Also, Beverly having her period is a pretty big plot point. Not exactly prepubescent. The boys maybe.

[–] RamenDame@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This scene haunts me to this day. The barrens is for me the most unholy place in fictional existence. Shouldn’t have read it as a teenager. Nobody stopped me cause “look she is reading such a huge book.” …

[–] Droggelbecher@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago (4 children)

When I was 12, my mum told my teacher that I found the books we were reading for class childish. Teacher then gave me IT to read instead. No idea what he was thinking. Being the same age as the characters, the sex scene was the most traumatizing by far.

[–] SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 1 month ago

"so you little shit think you can handle what adults read, huh?"

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[–] heyWhatsay@slrpnk.net 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If you are writing a horror book, you gotta find a variety of ways to scare people. Sex often triggers a select group of readers.

[–] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 month ago (5 children)

What icks me out is when they make an evil character LGBTQ or kinky.

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[–] Fleur_@aussie.zone 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

People reading horror for some reason:

"What the fuck is this horrific shit what was the author thinking"

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[–] SethTaylor@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago (2 children)

This scene is such a stain on his legacy I wish he'd put out a version without it.

[–] Jax@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 month ago

I think that we all have really fucked up thoughts every now and again, and behaving like we never have is a great way to delude ourselves into believing a false reality.

Better to own them and grow than bury them and act like you're some golden god on high.

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[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What was acceptable in the past is no longer acceptable. There are people that can't accept that.

[–] VerilyFemme@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 1 month ago (4 children)

In 1986 though? Pretty sure we had our cultural view on child gangbangs locked in by then.

[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 22 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Unfortunately it isn't even to this day. Just look at who is in the white house.

[–] VerilyFemme@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Most voters who support Trump are in genuine denial that he's a pedophile. It's ridiculous, but it doesn't change the fact that they also hate pedophilia - they're just being conned into thinking queer people are the pedos (also very likely some of them are pedos/complicit, but I will risk the assumption that that is the minority and the conservatives I've met in real life actually aren't pedophiles).

Also, have the standards of what's acceptable changed or not? You said they have, then you implied they haven't. Either way, I highly doubt everyone was just fine with that scene in 1986, especially given it was not recreated in any adaptation.

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[–] Zwiebel@feddit.org 5 points 1 month ago (3 children)
[–] snooggums@piefed.world 36 points 1 month ago

All characters involved were kids, so not in the context of the story.

It was supposed to be some kind of metaphor for becoming and adult or something. The editor and publisher left it in.

Weird as hell, but not like that.

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] ThePantser@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 month ago

Maybe a fleeting dream or memory he had as a teen where he was part of a gangbang?

[–] Acinonyx@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 1 month ago

there are people being murdered in this story as well, so he must want to murder someone too right?

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