‘It’ before It: Stephen King and the abhuman from Carrie to The Shining

Abstract

Although Stephen King’s most famous use of the pronoun ‘It’ comes from his 1986 novel It, he nevertheless uses ‘It’ in highly distinctive ways well before then. These uses of ‘It’ before It need to be discussed because they signify a complex transformation of human characters into monstrous creatures. Focusing on texts ranging from Carrie to The Shining, this article explores how King developed these distinctive ‘Its’ from a somewhat vague sense of unease or twisted desires into complex signifiers of the ways human characteristics can transform into monstrous actions. But King’s focus is never solely on the spectacle or the general horror of this transformation from human to monster. Instead, he explores the unsettling problem of the ways even the most positive human desires and actions can turn characters into ‘It’ creatures. Thus, the real tragedy of becoming an ‘It’, this article argues, comes from recognizing that these ‘It’ creatures are never just simple variations on a monstrous theme; instead, they represent the ways ordinary people can become monstrous as they lose themselves to their own alluring, but ultimately empty, actions.