Week 1 Readings

Okay, so here it goes! First of all, I am really excited about all this blogging business and can’t wait to really get into the meat of the material this quarter. I think that these weekly explorations in conjunction with what we discover in class is going to make for a really interesting and fun next ten weeks. This week we started out with the text On Witchcraft by Cotton Mather. We read just a small excerpt; however, it was jam-packed with some awesome description and details of a seriously significant little bit in our nation’s history. I found the reading fascinating in the fact that it was written in advance of the Salem Witch Trials. I think by now most of us have become fairly well acquainted with the story of the Salem trials through “The Crucible”, “Hocus Pocus”, and various other mediums but I think that many of us, myself absolutely included, were surprised to find that there had been a precursor to the more famous [or infamous] witch trials. That being said, the small “chapter” that we read was entitled “Enchantments Encountered” and really just served to set a baseline for what is to be exposed within the bulk of the text. Cotton makes gives us vivid images of what his people have been dealing with, take for instance,
“ And we have now with Horror seen the Discovery of such Witchcraft! An Army of Devils is horribly broke in upon the place which is the Center, and after a sort, the first-born of our English Settlements : and the Houses of the Good People there are fill’d with the doleful Shrieks of their Children and Servants, Tormented by Invisible Hands, with Tortures altogether preternatural. After the Mischiefs there Endeavored, and since in part Conquered, the terrible Plague, of Evil Angels, hath made its Progress into some other places, where other Persons have been in like manner Diabolically handled. These our poor Afflicted Neighbours, quickly after the become Infected and Infested with these Daemons, arrive to a Capacity of Discerning those which they conceive the Shapes of their Troublers…” (15).
In this passage it is easy to see that Mather not only takes a very vivid and firm stance on the situation but also uses very vibrant images to bring to life the full effects of exactly what is happening. He capitalizes words that are to be given certain emphasis, which I presume was allowable within the confines of preliminary grammar. Throughout the entire reading Mather uses incredibly strong language, particularly using words such as Plague, Infested, Infected, Tormented, Irritated, Wretches, and so many more to be affiliated with the Devil and his affairs. I think for me, personally, it was within these words that I was really able to feel the impact of the situation.
In class we discussed our individual and varying views on the idea of “evil” and myriad on descriptions/explanations were offered. I don’t think that any single person had a complete, holistic idea of what evil was in our own mind, which is interesting to me considering we had just read the accounts from a man [representing an entire community of people] who had a really solid and unyielding idea of exactly what was going on. How can he be so certain? And why is it that in our current lives we seem to be so far detached from a definite idea of what seemingly should be our greatest adversary?
Other than the passage that I spent time re-typing I really like a quote from one of the first lines of the passage: “it may be easily supposed that the Devil was exceedingly disturbed.”
For me, that set my reading off and put me in a good mood, it was a “duh” moment and made me laugh. Simple as that. (<<I also really liked the way that the quote “the Wretches have proceeded so far, as to Concert and Consult the Methods of Rooting out the Christian Religion from this Country” flowed off my tongue as I sort of read it aloud. I imagined myself being a stately, serious minister standing at a pulpit and making this proclamation to my congregation. Don’t know why exactly…it’s just what happened in the moment. However, that came back into mind as we were discussing in class the mindset of these Puritans and how they really, truly believed that they were God’s Army sent to this new land to actively engage in “battle” with the Devil himself. …Very iiinnnnteresting stuff!

I think that might be all I’ve got for tonight…better get back to some reading…Peace!
(I am so sorry for the awful formatting! I guess I will learn my lesson not to type in a word doc first!)