CW: homophobia

So there’s a gay character in this book and I thought it was interesting the way King introduced him — reasonably subtly, saying things like “it was a house that looked like a woman didn’t live there” or something. His homosexuality is mentioned a few times throughout the first half of the book with a kind of “isn’t that quaint” tone. Things like “Tom can’t drive a manual transmission” or “his mustache is neatly trimmed”. But then about halfway through, there’s a line that made me double take.

“She’s like Ahab on the prod for Moby,” the Head remarked. “Eminem may have been a jerk, but he was right about that guy,” Tom said morosely.

Ok, so I vaguely knew Eminem and Moby had beef, but what did Eminem actually say? Turns out he called Moby a f** in a song! So what the hell is Tom, the story’s gay character, supposed to be agreeing with? My charitable interpretation is that King didn’t know about that specific lyric, I guess, and just put in his pop culture reference where he could fit it. But it’s a weird decision, isn’t it?

this book does not waste any time! THE EVENT happens immediately, thank you Uncle Steve