“Seeing isn’t believing. Believing is seeing.”
Welcome to The Podcast That Floats Down Here’s Daily Derry! The Daily Derry focuses on topics discussed in the most recent episode of the show, which this week was “Stephen King’s ‘IT’ – 033 – Ch. 18 – Bullseye.”
In this episode, Luke, Ben, and Melissa discussed chapter 18, in which the Losers make their own bullets and shoot them at It, which I think is a pretty good plan. Melissa was aghast at the idea of a child using a blowtorch, but hey – when an evil entity is trying to kill everyone, you do what you gotta do.
The hosts talked a lot about the idea of belief and how that is turning out to be a huge theme of this novel. In this chapter, we see that how belief helps the Losers defeat It for the time being. Beverly pretends she has another slug and It is convinced she does. Everyone has to believe and have a “united thought” for their plans to work.
Melissa brought up this great quote from The Santa Clause: “Seeing isn’t believing. Believing is seeing.”
Firstly, great movie.
Secondly, for some reason, my brain always finishes that quote as “believing is believing.” (Anyone know why? Google isn’t helping.)
Belief is a huge part of life. A majority of Americans believe in a higher power, which you will never be able to prove in this life. Belief is the cornerstone of religion.
There’s also the belief we hold in ourselves and each other. Check out this clip from How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. The protagonist (played here by Nick Jonas, you’re welcome) is tricking everyone into thinking he’s a big shot businessman when he is really a window washer. He sings this song to himself before an important meeting to bolster his confidence. The reprise of the song is then sung to him by his love interest.
As people, we have to believe in ourselves and the people around us. We have to believe that we are doing good in the world and for some people, that involves believing there is a higher power who has set us on the right track.
For the Losers, belief is crucial. They have to believe in each other. They have to believe that Pennywise is a real threat or they will end up like Stan, who refused to believe. They have to believe that they can take him down, even when they have nothing yet. We’ll have to keep considering the idea of the belief as we continue on with the novel.
Until next time, stay imaginary.