Bill never judges.Īnd then, of course, this scene leads right into Eddie’s recollection of the hobo sexually soliciting him, solidly drawing a connection between Eddie’s fear of sexuality and his fear of rotting/disease. It’s important that it’s Bill who catches his eye - it connects back to the beginning of the chapter when he specifically states that Bill never called him a “sissy queerboy”.
Also, when Eddie is watching Richie in that typical Eddie way where he can somehow make poorly taped up glasses sound poetic and delicate - Bill catches him in the act of staring, perfectly nonjudgmental. This is the part that makes Eddie say he hates it, therefore it’s also the part he secretly likes. He reacts to it only when it’s accompanied by something flirtatious, a cheek pinch or a ‘cute’. It is so important that the chapter which contains an almost absurd amount of gay coding begins with those two things: that as a kid Eddie had more thoughts about Richie than he let on, and that Eddie was not just targeted by bullies for his asthma, but also for his sexuality.Īs the chapter goes on, it becomes very clear that when Richie calls him Eds, Eddie doesn’t always react to it. He also informs the reader that as a kid people made fun of him by using homophobic slurs, and that Bill was not one of those people.
EDDIE KASPBRAK FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH IT FULL
This is all in the span of like… four pages, and it’s relevant that our very first introduction to Richie as a kid is through Eddie’s eyes, and that he spends the whole sequence inner monologuing about how great yet confusing Richie is. 14-year-old me definitely picked up on the ‘this guy teases me playfully and I pretend to hate it but I’m actually obsessed with him’ dynamic.īut I need to stop and meta for a second because this chapter is FULL of Eddie subtext and most of it flew over my head 15 years ago:īefore we’re even introduced to kid!Richie, adult Eddie reflects on, and admits to the reader, that he actually liked when Richie called him Eds because it was a secret identity Richie bestowed upon him. Bill caught Eddie’s eye, smiled a little, and shrugged. ‘A piece of Red Cross adhesive tape was wrapped around one of the bows of his glasses, and the loose end flapped against his cheekbone as he worked. Richie jumped to his feet a second time and pinched Eddie’s cheek. “Get up, stop it, you’re splattering mud on me!” Eddie cried. “Oh-you mean it was your idea, Eds? Jesus, I’m sorry.” He fell down in front of Eddie and began salaaming wildly again. ‘….Richie’s sometimes enchanting, often exhausting charm.’ ‘Ben, Eddie saw, was looking at Richie with a mixture of awe and wariness.
Then we get Eddie quietly observing Richie’s face when he’s being uncharacteristically solemn.
When Richie makes his entrance in the flashback, the first thing he does is pinch Eddie’s cheek. Okay so, assuming I am 14 years old and reading IT for the very first time, without that much practice interpreting symbolism and without the world knowledge needed to make certain connections that seem so obvious to me now as an adult, and I’m just casually reading the novel having only ever watched the miniseries as a little kid… these are the moments that probably jumped out at me first:įor Eddie, it was The Dam in The Barrens (aka one of the most meaty chapters for Eddie analysis)
Like as in the earliest moment in the book where I started to go ‘hmmm’ on the very first read through? Anon that was a long time ago!!!
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