Talk:The Tommyknockers
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" Spoiler" I believe "The Tommyknockers" is connected with IT with one event in the book. The event is when the two kids have to go to Derry,Maine to pick up batterys for Haven. On there way back there start getting sick and the one that is driving sudden sees a clown in the manhole, but he closes his eyes and the clown dissapears thinking it was only his eyes playing tricks. Thus that had to be Pennywise. Mr. DC
- You might be interested in this chart, which is linked to from The Dark Tower (series). — Laura Scudder ☎ 15:01, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
- also (from the Talisman) Jake happens upon Gard on the beach near the Alhambra inn/hotel. this is shortly after Gard's 'incident' at the Poetry caravan after-party
- Isn't there an incident in which one of the characters spends a night in Derry and hears chuckling from the drains? I could be mistaking this with another book, as it's been a while since I've read The Tommyknockers. Joel Blanchette 17:56, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
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- When the two teenagers are sent into Derry to buy batteries. They assume they're hallucinating along with their physical ailments from leaving Haven. — Laura Scudder ☎ 21:03, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
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[edit] Children's rhyme
Can someone provide a citation/evidence that the "Tommyknockers" rhyme actually exists outside of Haven? Obviously a Google search is going to be largely fruitless... -- nae'blis (talk) 22:26, 27 February 2006 (UTC)
- Well, for what it's worth, in his introduction King says both he and his wife grew up knowing the first verse, but that he wrote the rest that appear in the book. He also says that the word tommyknocker appears in Webster's Unabridged, which could be checked at a library I'm sure. Might have the rhyme in it's entry even.— Laura Scudder ☎ 00:08, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
This is probably quite old. I am aware of an English variant
"You know last night? Well the night before,
Three little tomcats came knocking at my door,
One with a fiddle, one with a drum
And one with a pancake stuck to its bum."
Here 'bum' is a standard UK English (not slang) word for bottom, commonly (though not universally) assumed to be a contraction of 'bottom' - see Wordsworth Concise Dictionary of English Etymology. This children's rhyme is at least fifty yrars old and fairly well known. Variants exist. For example the one quoted at http://www.owdjim.gen.nz/Verse.php It is possible to argue that the tommyknocker version is the oldest as 'tommy knocking' appears to be a children's practice of knocking on the door and running away before the occupant answered and watching their discomfort from a distance. When we know that there was another children's game called 'catwalking' in which children (almost invariably boys) walked from one garden to the next in the manner of cats, climbing over fences and stealing bottles of milk from the doorsteps we come closer to understanding this bit of children's folklore. I remember a boy describing this to me about forty years ago. About that time, another use of the term 'catwalk' came in to describe the thrust stage used in fashion shows. It seems probable that boys would have dropped the term 'catwalking' as soon as it became popularly associated with 'girly things'.
It is possible to argue that the 'Tomcat' rhyme is a corruption of a description once describing the activities of delinquent boys 'catwalking'. The behaviour now becomes clearer in the context of children's folk games. The three little 'tom cats' are really boys. Fiddle and drum is an extension of the disturbing practice of catwalking as playing loud music at night is as antisocial as knocking on doors and running away. The pankcake seems a puzzle However, pancake in England is a flat, thin piece of pan fried dough - what is called in France 'crepes' http://www.thefreedictionary.com/French+pancake. It is also a slang term for the result of a bowel movement in a baby's nappy. It used to be quite common in England to hear mothers say "my baby has a pancake stuck to its bum". This is not something a tom cat or any other kind of cat would tolerate, of course. Again, it becomes comprehensible as being anti social behaviour of small boys. Displaying the behind to someone is insulting enough but it is an even more potent symbol if it is a dirty behind. The rhyme is now clearly understandable as saying (in paraphrase)
"The night before last, three noisy boys catwalked into my garden and banged on my door and made a lot of noise. When I went to open the door they ran away but as they did so one of them dropped his trousers and displayed a dirty bottom."
Such antisocial behaviour is clearly understanddable. What seems likely is that the word 'tommyknocker' was confounded with 'tomcat', because of the association with catwalking. It may be conjectured that the reconstructed second line was something like "Catwalking Tommyknockers came knocking at my door".
It is possible to claim support for this from intersubjectivity and coherance. If anyone else can come forward with variants of the tomcat ditty or memories of 'catwalking' it would help to substantiate this. Unfortunately, in folklore, primary sources are often oral tradition.
[edit] Differences from the miniseries
Whomever wrote the series says that the actual aliens are never seen. This is not true, they are found in the control room of the ship, dead. King even describes the appearence of the aliens; claiming them to even have a knife like weapon in their hands. There is also another scene with Gard and Bobbi where they find a room full of aliens with wires coming from their heads, presumably once 'feeding' the ship.
[edit] Possible Trivia Entry
I'm struggling to find a proper source for this, but there was an episode of The Outer Limits (the newer series) where the female lead character starts going psychotic due to having accidentally shooting herself in the head. She then starts seeing the man in a photo that came with her picture frame speak to her, and she gains amazing knowledge and talent, most notably with wiring- she then rewires her TV so as to shock and kill her cheating husband, and then dies along with him. I know that this episode was based on Tommyknockers, but I'm struggling to find a source.
- You're looking for The Revelations of Becka Paulson. Written by Stephen King. The Wikipedia entry does not say that the Outer Limits episode was actually based on Tommyknockers, though. (P.S. please sign your posts so we can know who you are and when you posted your comment - I have no idea if I'm answering something new or something five years old here) Chaoticfluffy (talk) 21:04, 5 May 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Tommyknockers.jpg
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BetacommandBot 11:24, 6 July 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Another Influence - The Night Slaves ?
There was a TV film from 1970 called "The Night Slaves". People were getting up in the middle of the night like zombies and meeting up to work on some kind of space ship. One of the characters had a metal plate in his head and was immune. Does anyone else remember the film? http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0066140/
[edit] Another inspiration?
King said he was partly inspired by H.P. Lovecraft; has he ever said that this specific novel was inspired by "The Shadow Over Innsmouth"? Both stories concern the people of a small New England town being transformed by an "alien" taint, with the one remaining human (James Gardener/Zadok Allen) being dismissed as a harmless drunkard. Or is it likely to be a coincidence? Dave-ros 22:16, 6 November 2007 (UTC)
