Stephen King captured the hearts of America with the release of his blockbuster smash hit book and subsequent movie, “It”. The video features the menacing face of a clown while the book reveals the clown’s head as a skull with stars in the eye sockets. The video jacket reads: "Your every fear - all in the deadly enemy. It can be anything, a fanged monster that won't stay on the movie screen, something ominous lurking in the basement or around the next corner. No matter what your biggest fear is, no one knows IT better than Stephen King... The force takes the shape of a clown, but it isn't clowning around. Instead, it terrorizes youngsters with their innermost fears, bringing them to untimely doom - until a group of wily neighborhood kids fight back. Thirty years later it resurfaces: meaner, angrier. And the friends who vividly remember the terrors of their youth reunite to make a desperate final stand against it." In an interview, King admits he was possessed during the writing of the book.
What is "it"? Sigmund Freud, the father of psychology, invented a model of the psyche which contained three parts to the self: the ego (conscious mind), the superego (superconscious mind) and what he termed the "id" or the subconscious mind. This was the realm of our fears: scary monsters and demons. This id was considered a sort of third person subsistent to the conscious and superconscious mind. Of course, we use the word "it" as a sort of third "person" as well in our use of speech. And, of course, subconsciously we have been programmed to accept the abbreviated "ID" as our identity. We unknowingly give power to this creature and help create "it" every day with our thought and speech. We chant the chorus to the song Let It Be over and over again. And it's no coincidence that IT is the acronym that has been curently assigned to the Information Technology field, or computers, for IT very well may be an artificial intelligence or computer. For a detailed analysis and many more examples of "IT" please reference my page on this phenomenon. Click here to "read all about IT".
The genre of Horror films possesses other “creature features” with “It” in the title. There was “It Lives!”, “It Lives Again”, “It Came From the Sea”, “It Came From Outer Space”, and “It’s Alive!” which is the expression Doctor Frankenstein made famous when he brought his monster to life. From the time we were young, we have been told over and over again that IT is a scary creature that this association has become deeply embedded within the recesses of our mind.
On the Adamms Family, Cousin Itt was a monster. Itt communicated via a high speed gibberish that only members of the Addams family seemed to understand. Cousin Itt's voice was provided by sound-effects engineer Tony Magro, who created Itt's garbled responses by mouthing gibberish into a tape recorder, with a "ppffft and a thhhhhttt" added for good measure, and then accelerating the tape's recording speed.
The eyes (ayes) have it. What do the eyes have? What or who is it? The eyes are the windows to the soul. In Saturday Night Live, Dana Carvey played the Church Lady who asked, “Could IT be… Satan?”
When children play hide and seek, someone always has to be “it”. All the other children run and hide from whoever’s “it”. “It” then goes roaming around trying to find and capture whoever’s not “it”. When someone is found they are tagged as the new “it” -- “Tag, you’re it!!”
The Beatles’ Paul McCartney said the idea for the song “Let it Be” came to him in a dream. He chants the line over and over and we all sing along almost willing it into existence. Every time the song is played on the radio, thousands and thousands are sending forth thought and sound vibrations into the air. We use the word “it” in our language over and over all the time. Could it be possible to manifest a creature from the id, or from the subconscious? Think of these songs: Bread’s “Make it with you”, The Scorpions “Make it Real”, How about songs like Mariah Carey’s Make It Happen. Star Trek’s Captain Picard says “Make it so.” Nike (goddess of victory) inundates us with the “Just Do It” slogan and the swoosh (scythe) logo.
The Energizer bunny took the world by storm in one of the best advertising campaigns in history. The slogan which was for batteries that create energy was “It keeps going and going…” and became a household phrase for many years. Alka Seltzer encourages us to "Try it, you'll like it!" Compaq asks the question, "Has it changed your life yet?" And American Express admonishes us to "Don't Leave Home without It." The company Sobe had this ad on their web site encouraging us to “get it up” and to “keep it up”. Gatorade asks, “Is it in you?”
Notice how the word “it” is italicized and in orange? Also the orange lightning bolt is present. An appropriate question might be, “Is Gatorade a reptilian aid?”
IT (Steven King), Let It Be (Beatles), Make It Real (Coca-Cola), It's the real thing (Coca-Cola), I'm Lovin' IT (McDonald's), Make IT so (Star Trek), If you build IT, they will come (Field of Dreams), It's a Livin' Thing (ELO), Just do IT (Nike), Bring IT on (George Bush), IT's A Wonderful Life, Do It Yourself, Have IT Your Way (Burger King), Is It Live or Is It Memorex? (Memorex), It Takes A Licking And Keeps On Ticking (Timex), You Can Do It, We Can Help (Home Depot), Try It, You'll Like It (Alka Seltzer), Don't Leave Home Without It (American Express), When You've Got It, Flaunt It (Braniff Airlines), Has It Changed Your Life Yet? (Compaq), Buy It, Sell It, Love It (Ebay), EA sports, It's in the game (EA Sports), It Keeps going and going and going... (Energizer), We bring good THINGS to life (GE), Be careful how you use it (Hai Karate), It is, are you? (Independent Newspaper), We don't make it until you order it (Jack in the Box), Whatchamacallit!, If it sounds too good to be true it probably is, What's in your wallet? (Capital One), Life's a sport, drink IT up (Gatorade), Is IT in you? (Gatorade), Coke is it! (Coke), CHOICE: IT's to die for. Literally., Feed it don't eat it, Party like a Rock Star,
People do things “just for the hell of it”. Believe it. Keep it real. To hell with it!!! Keep it up. Let it ride. Pass it on. Get with it.
Are you with it? Go for it. Hop to it. Bring it on. Get it together. Play it again, Sam. There's something to it. Check it out. Figure it out. I love it!! When someone dies, "I guess that was it". Live it up. Let it go. Do you get it? I get it! How's it going? It's going good! How's it hanging? Don't let it end. Who can it be now? It's a wonderful life (the ‘i deal’ life). Let's make it last. You've got it made. Give it a try. Grin and bear it. It just so happens. Leave it alone. Give it a rest. How sweet it is. It's what you make it. I can see it in your eyes. Get it together. What is it? Get over it. The devil made me do it. Whatever it takes. Now you see it, now you don't. Cut it out. Whoomp, there it is.
I'm not going to stand for it. Take it away boys. It looks so real. Say it ain't so. Give it up. It could happen to you. It can't be true (it always lies). I can feel it in my bones. It's a mystery. Give it everything you've got. It's all in your head. I can't get it out of my head. It's in the way that you use it. Get it, got it? Good. Could it be? Don't even try it.
Sit on it.