[...]videntiary thinking

elaborated visualization of the witch stereotype

='lgc'>='lgc'>--> complex ="trms">nature of ='strcls'>*="trms">sensual explorations of the flesh='strcls'>* through masochism and exorcism

="large lg2" stl="font-size:111%"> demonic influence
genres of trans="trms">figuration and ="trms"nttrm="metaph,metamorph,metabol,metal">meta="trms">morphosis

Christensen shows how those who were once identified as witches are now the objects of medical and ="trms">social concern in ="trms">modern life ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> shows the potency of her various forms over time


='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="ppl">Baxstrom ='lgc'>+ ="ppl">Meyers
(='mywrk'>my work on ="nms">ajayeb is based on that) ='lgc'>[there is a largely='lgc'>] unacknowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edged ="trms">historical tendency and predis="trms">position within the human ="trms">sciences with roots in much older practices of='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•defining ="trms">social facts
="lsts lst1">•discovery, ="trms">interpretation, production of the real itself
='lgc'>[such as ="trms">bestiary='lgc'>]

="trms">method that allows the rese="trms"nttrm="search">archer to sense
="trms">interpret and master forces that appear to be nonsensical (yet held to be ="trms">present='lgc'>: held to be essential to the reality of everyday ="trms">social life) ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> an ="trms">epistemological concern

privileged space of the irrational in medical discourses in 19th century='lgc'>: (Jonathan ="ppl">Strauss ='lgc'>='lgc'>-->) irrationality (nonsense) was a legitimizing force for medicine in that the very incomprehensibility of the mad created a mysterious and extra-="trms">social ="trms">language that the rising medical profession could adapt to its own purposes

“nonsense” of “the native” ='lgc'>[='lgc'>='lgc'>--> my start-up engine in Islam ="trms">lecture series, a privileged site of mysterious incomprehensibility allowed me to to form the ="trms">methodological basis for a fieldwork for unknown forces of irrational life in distant ="trms">societies...='lgc'>]

='strcls'>*="trms">anthropology='lgc'>: (a distinct human ="trms">science from the desire to credibly) master nonsense='strcls'>*
(="ppl">Baxstrom ='lgc'>+ ="ppl">Meyers)

="trms">anthropologists claiming to have assumed the “point of view” of another (='lgc'>~ fieldworker must achieve the cultivated sensed point of view of another) ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> distillation of ="trms">method ='and'>& dis="trms">position (='qstn'>?) ='lgc'><='lgc'>-- when confronted with the ="trms">question “who are you='qstn'>?” and “what do you do='qstn'>?”
(="trms">according to Malinowski='lgc'>: this) privileged ="trms">relation to the unknown must emerge through the ability to test what is asserted to be real ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> a series of subjective trials subsumed within the rubric of “fieldwork”
='strcls'>*presumptions='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•experiential dis="trms">position of the analyst ='lgc'>='lgc'>==> understanding of a ="trms">phenomenon other wise held to be ="trms">imaginary and ="trms">fictional
="lsts lst1">•witnessing and testimony ='lgc'>='lgc'>==> evidence as to the reality beyond the direct experience of the rese="trms"nttrm="search">archer

(='lgc'>[Malinowski updated and secularized a much older ="trms">epistemology of='lgc'>] Luther='lgc'>:) faith='lgc'> = a commitment to the re="trms">presentation of a truth ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> Western ="frds scrmbld"nttrm="Christianson">Christianity's own efforts to discern truth and the ="trms">nature of the ="trms">world


proliferation of witches in 15th century Europe

reassuring relief for the pious believer='lgc'>: force Satan (and his followers) from the shadows through an ="trms">interpretive expertise over the concrete secondary manifestations of God's reality ='lgc'>--='not'>✕='lgc'>='lgc'>--> (most had no luxury to ="trms">imagine) ='strcls'>*the embrace of life that the devil urges in binary op="trms">position to that of the good='strcls'>*
='lgc'>='lgc'>--> Devil ="trms">interfering with the most intimate ="trms">communications with the Divine
="prgrph">-how does one really know who is speaking when prayer is returned='qstn'>?

='lgc'>[for='lgc'>] the demonologists of the 15th and 16th century ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> “God must exist because Satan is ="trms"nttrm="righ,rigo,riga,rigi,trig,rign">right in front of me!” ='lgc'>: reality of witches ='lgc'>='lgc'>==> Satan
Institoris, Sprenger, Johannes Nider,
the name of the witch ='lgc'>='lgc'>='lgc'>~=> sacrilegious and inhuman deeds (subject to verification)

='strcls'>*inquisitors believed that what was reported to them was possible='strcls'>* (still they desired proof) ='lgc'><='lgc'>== ="trms">interweaving of learned demonology into the fabric of a dominant theology (='lgc'><='lgc'>-- sovereignty of God ratified primarily through the ="trms">worldly evidence of Satan) ='lgc'>+ invisibility of the spiritual ="trms">world was expressed as an essential given

='lgc'>{for the inquisitor (witch hunter) it was never enough to simply “believe” ='lgc'><='lgc'>='lgc'>==> a ="trms">narrative must be produced that at least partially satisfied the ="trms">demands of evidence='lgc'>}='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='strcls'>*="trms">interrogation under torture='lgc'> = an experimental form of knowing in crisis='strcls'>*

truth value of a nonsensical confession made sensible ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> human belief, action, and ="trms">social practices

ethnographic style of early French ethnographers ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='strcls'>**learning truth from lie='strcls'>** was essential to re="trms">presenting the “primitive” reality in order to ="trms">interpret it in its true picture
="prgrph">-Marcel Griaule's approach to fieldwork='lgc'>: “The crime is the fact, the guilty party the ="trms">interlocutor, and accomplices are all the ="trms">members of this ="trms">society. ='lgc'>[...='lgc'>]the abundance of pieces of evidence serving to convict appear to facilitate the inquest, but in reality they guide it into labyrinths='lgc'>--labyrinths that are often organized. ='lgc'>[...='lgc'>]The inquest must be treated like a strategic operation.”
='lgc'>='lgc'>--> nonsense to be mastered had shifted from the demonic, incredible forces at play for the inquisitor to the misguided tall tales of the native ="trms">interlocutor ='lgc'>[='lgc'>='lgc'>--> same mistake that Federici does in her ="trms">book Caliban and the Witch. Federici, in search of the manifestations of misogyny, aggressively frames the s="trms">cene of a feminist encounter with witch-hunt as a kind of antagonistic trial of ="trms">social organization of the Middle Ages in ="trms">transition to early capitalism... a mode of attention that is equally didactic and forensic as the witch inquisitors='lgc'>]

recognition of the struggle that lay at the heart of raising testimony to the status of the “really real” ='lgc'>--="ppl">Avital='lgc'>='lgc'>--> Griaule aggressively frames the s="trms">cene of ethnographic encounter itself as a kind of antagonistic trial (whereby the ghosts and gods of the natives are forced out of the shadows and made concretely apparent to the senses of the ="trms">anthropologist)
='strcls'>*fieldwork ='lgc'>='lgc'>==> knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge of hauntings that is itself haunted='strcls'>*

="trms">imaginative result of “I-witnessing”

='strcls'>*paradoxical necessity of an expressive element within an objective test in ="trms">relation to what would other wise be nonsense='strcls'>* is evident in many of the examples of 16th century visual culture ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="nms">ajayeb ="trms">bestiary


trial by ordeal
(illustrated in Eduard Fuchs)
the case='lgc'>: if the woman floats she is clearly able to con="trms">travene the ="trms">nature and is therefore a witch or heretic; if she sinks, she has made no such pact with Satan
="prgrph">-procedural expertise ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> trial by water here functions as ='strcls'>*experiment as much as a punishment='strcls'>* designed to reveal an other wise invisible truth

testimony ='lgc'>+ experimental results ='lgc'>+ expert inquisitorial ="trms">interpretation ='lgc'>='lgc'>==> early version of the ‘case study’ (synthesized as evidence in service of accounting for variation that exceeded general laws regarding ="trms">relations and ="trms">phenomenon in the ="trms">world)
="ppl">Baxstrom ='lgc'>+ ="ppl">Meyers

(="nms">ajayeb's) individual cases='lgc'>: an effective strategy in providing analytic (and ="trms">="trms">empirical) purchase for ="trms">phenomenon that were other wise invisible to even the discerning eye of the expert ='lgc'><='lgc'>-- ='strcls'>**to move away from a reliance on ="trms">="trms"nttrm="metaph,metamorph,metabol,metal">metaphysics='strcls'>**


='strcls'>**medicalization of the invisible='strcls'>**

possession
set the ="trms">stage for the explicit medicalization of the mobile invisible forces that experts had been struggling to master, explain, and take ="trms">measures against ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> a new mode that was equally ='strcls'>*didactic and forensic='strcls'>* (as the theological frameworks deployed by inquisitors and the exorcise of demons by Church)

witch="trms">craft, faith healing, and demonic possession
Bibliotheque diabolique ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> case studies to de="trms">monstrate the precariousness of misre="trms">presentation and the consequences of ignorance ='lgc'>='lgc'>~= investigations collected by Charcot and his students in their studies of hysteria
="lsts lst1">•clarifying the link between witch="trms">craft and hysteria

='strcls'>*witch hunting and the exorcism of spirits in the 16th century (='lgc'>='lgc'>--> antiquated forms of inquiry) ='lgc'>='lgc'>~=='qstn'>?! clinical studies of nervous illness in the 19th century ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> conceptual scaf="trms">folding of the emergent ="trms">science='strcls'>*='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•fascination with the secondary visible effects of primary invisible forces
="lsts lst1">•long-term labor of ="trms">social ="trms">interpretation that required the mutation of old ="trms">categories and the creation of new ones

='lgc'>='lgc'>==> “witch='lgc'> = misdiagnosed”

epilepsy, the sacred disease, erroneously perceived as resulting from hostile magic
='lgc'>=/= hysteria (hold a special place in the moral ="trms">imaginary)

the special susceptibility of women to witch="trms">craft mirrored the “feminine weakness” as="trms">sociated with the hysteric, exacerbated by low ="trms">social status
="prgrph">-in countless accounts of possession, we find descriptions of demons speaking through the mouths of girls
='lgc'>[="ppl">Baxstrom ='lgc'>+ ="ppl">Meyers ='lgc'>=/= Federici's flat analysis of witch hunt as the tool of subjugation of the local population or of woman by men='lgc'>]

tableau vivant ='lgc'>--into='lgc'>='lgc'>--> tableau clinique ='lgc'>--into='lgc'>='lgc'>--> tableau critique

hysterical reliving of the o="trms"nttrm="righ,rigo,riga,rigi,trig,rign">riginal ="trms">symptom ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> reframed trauma='lgc'>: an attempt to suspend the two temporalities (real and re="trms">imagined) in the same image
='at'>@="frds scrmbld">Hoda

one element of fascination with hysteria was its “look” ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> hysteria's ="trms">aesthetic link to forms of possession

possession ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> aneasthesias, amnesias, subconscious acts, ="trms">somnambulisms, fixed ideas

a scaf="trms">folding='lgc'>: conceptually arranged chasm between outer and inner states ='lgc'>='lgc'>==>
="lsts lst1">•exorcists building on the ="trms">techniques of inquisitors and witch hunters ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> possession acts as the bridge across this chasm
="lsts lst1">•="trms">neurologists and psychologists construct the same
='lgc'>--='not'>✕='lgc'>='lgc'>--> (Malinowski's) ="trms">anthropologists='lgc'>: fieldworkers as truth-tellers returning from the dark corners of the real (the witches are no longer explicitly the target of the inquiry)

="nms">Häxan's real object='lgc'>: the specter of sheer nonsense

hunt (even in objective ="trms">scientific mastery) ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> fueled by a desire operationalized in a ="trms">method of being close enough to something to sense it

="display:block;white-space:nowrap;margin-bottom:-1em;overflow:hidden;">...................................

(='qstn'>?every time we have to) show how ='strcls'>*the word (that we are using) relates to meaning='strcls'>*

Christensen makes every effort to ="trms">craft a witch that is real to us ='lgc'>: ="trms">ontological fluidity of a cinematic image ='lgc'>='lgc'>==> “="nms">Häxan='lgc'> = word ='lgc'>+ image ='lgc'>+ thing”

metoposcopy='lgc'>: the expression of reasoning was to be found on the face, (dating back to Girolamo Cardano and the Renaissance) the operation of reason as the weaving together of images in the mind ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> a proto-cinematic theory of the ="trms">relation between image and thought if ever there was one

="lsts lst1">•re="trms">spectable scholar indexes himself through his sources
="lsts lst1">•="trms">authoritarian first-person tenor ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="trms">instrumentally impersonal tenor
="lsts lst1">•establishing the X as a chapter within a much longer constellation of practices, discourses, traditions, and institutions

Kieckhefer ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> how the long ="trms">history of practical ="trms">natural magic was en="trms">folded into the ="trms">specificity of European witch="trms">craft in the late Middle Ages

Christ in Limbo ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> Christensen's parallel editing ='lgc'>='lgc'>==> moving re="trms">presentation of a terra-centered universe ='lgc'><='lgc'>~='lgc'>~ elaborate ="trms">wonders found in baroque wunderkammer (meticulously assembled by the German elite)


Renaissance Hermeticism='lgc'>:
="trms">writings of Hermes Trimesgistus ='lgc'>='lgc'>='lgc'>~=> foundation for='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•Ficino's relatively mild ="trms">natural magic
="lsts lst1">•Pico della M="nms">irandola's ="frds scrmbld"nttrm="Christianson">Christian Caba="trms"nttrm="listen,alist,ilist,llist,olist,ylist,ulist">list
="lsts lst1">•Agrippa's ="frds scrmbld"nttrm="Christianson">Christian magus
="lsts lst1">•Tommaso Campanella's (1568–1639) utopian City of the Sun
="lsts lst1">•="ppl">Bruno's full-blown Hermetic–Caba="trms"nttrm="listen,alist,ilist,llist,olist,ylist,ulist">list (through the power of astrology and magic to bypass the Church altogether)
="lsts lst1">•

...rippling effects of the Hermetic–Caba="trms"nttrm="listen,alist,ilist,llist,olist,ylist,ulist">list tradition ='lgc'>='lgc'>-->
="lsts lst1">•scrupulously mathematical astrology of Girolamo Cardano
="lsts lst1">•the ="trms"nttrm="righ,rigo,riga,rigi,trig,rign">rigorously ="trms">="trms">empirical studies of the ="trms">natural ="trms">world ="trms">demanded by ="ppl">Bruno's attempts to operate as a magus
='lgc'>}='lgc'>='lgc'>==> (paved the way for) ="trms">science of ="ppl">Newton and Copernicus ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> a new ="trms">="trms"nttrm="metaph,metamorph,metabol,metal">metaphysics to emerge

attacks on Renaissance magic and the Hermetic–Caba="trms"nttrm="listen,alist,ilist,llist,olist,ylist,ulist">list tradition (that ="trms">authorized witch) ='lgc'>='lgc'>==> anti-witch treatises

(case of Giordano ="ppl">Bruno's execution ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> Hermetic magic and Cabalism) how in the 16th century='lgc'>: “superstition='lgc'> = crime”


(Christensen attributing) ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> Hortus deliciarum, a largely cohesive image of hell to a period when the ="trms">nature of hell's location and “topography” was a subject of fierce theological debate
="prgrph">-he strategically ignores debates and alternate conceptions of damnation that existed in the 15th and 16th centuries in Europe

='lgc'>[that which you choose='lgc'>] works to amplify ="trms">affect more than further analysis (='lgc'>='lgc'>--> such as Christensen's attempt to heighten the fiery terror of the s="trms">cene by billowing smoke ='lgc'>='lgc'>==> عام generic explanation)



...a palpable sexual dimension crepting into Christensen's thesis ='lgc'><='lgc'>-- images of women “sneaking away” to attend Sabbats

="nms">Häxan visually grounds itself in ="trms">citable evidence from the start
="lsts lst1">•cinema='lgc'>: (as an ="trms">instrument for “recording reality”) a vehicle for “telling the truth” about the ="trms">world ='lgc'>[in early 1920s='lgc'>]

when documentary was not yet documentary ='lgc'>-- ="trms">fiction wasn't ="trms">fiction yet either ='lgc'>--Chanan='lgc'>='lgc'>-->='lgc'>{
moving pictures='lgc'> = visual tidbits لقمه چرب ونرم
made no ="trms">demands on ="trms">literacy (='lgc'>='lgc'>==> sp="trms"nttrm="already,spread">read easily)
whe ="trms">world on the screen remained anecdotal (and predominantly iconic)
practically in="trms">articulate (in terms of public discourse)='lgc'>}

(1900) visual meaning-making machines that ="trms">demanded not only attention but belief (by ="trms">staging as real reenactments) ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> mutated the desire to see far-off contemporary events
="lsts lst1">•='lgc'>='lgc'>--> Attack on a China ="trms">Mission Station (1900), Hunting Big Game in Africa (1907), and With Captain Scott, R.N., the South Pole (1912), The Battle of the Somme (1916) and With Our Heroes at the Somme (Bei unseren Helden an der Somme, 1917)

(="ppl">Baxstrom ='lgc'>+ ="ppl">Meyers) ="trms">question of ="trms">mimesis
="prgrph">-what is the ="trms">relation between a fragmentary visual artifact drawn “from life” and the truth value of any such fragments='qstn'>?
="prgrph">-what ="trms">sorts of filmmaking practices can felicitously mimic life as such='qstn'>?

='lgc'>[='thdf'>for example in Curtis's In the Land of the War Canoes='lgc'>] status of reenactment ='lgc'>='lgc'>==> prevailing standards of expressing the real

='lgc'>--later ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> crypto-structura="trms"nttrm="listen,alist,ilist,llist,olist,ylist,ulist">list o="trms"nttrm="righ,rigo,riga,rigi,trig,rign">rigin myth that falsely re="trms">presented what “documentary” meant to pre-Griersonian filmmakers ='lgc'>='lgc'>==> “rea="trms"nttrm="listen,alist,ilist,llist,olist,ylist,ulist">list” Lumiere ='lgc'>=/= the “fanciful” Melies

='lgc'>}='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='strcls'>*gap between witnessing and the real='strcls'>* in Europe (this ="trms">question of evidence occupied inquisitors and theologians long before the invention of cinema)


="large lg6" stl="font-size:107%"> preparing viewers for the “diegetic absorption”
(telling of a ="trms">story by a ="trms">narrator) diegesis ='lgc'>=/= ="trms">mimesis

the strategy of “re="trms">imaging” is ="trms">methodological and intentional (in the opening minutes of the film ="nms">Häxan) ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> (in European terms, for a very long time='lgc'>:) “knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge='lgc'> = re="trms">citations of the known”

='lgc'>+ creation of new images ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> constituting its own evidence for what is at stake
(Christensen designating) ='strcls'>**="trms">techniques of ="trms">presentation rather than simple content='strcls'>**

='strcls'>****the “truth” gained by the reproduction of archival images='strcls'>**** ='lgc'><='lgc'>==through='lgc'>== their mobility in the context of their new use
='lgc'>='lgc'>--> (similar to Farocki) Christensen empties out such visual artifacts, expressing through their preestablished frame a meaning that was hidden and resisted



(="ppl">Baxstrom ='lgc'>+ ="ppl">Meyers carefully treating the) ="trms">methodological element of Christensen's image-making practices ='lgc'>--in='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="nms">Häxan's depiction of the violent moral disorder of the ="trms">Wild Ride of the witches to their Sabbats

(16th century) ="trms">Wild Ride='lgc'>: a standard element of both demonological and popular ="trms">literary accounts of the activities of witches, ="trms">folding='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•older legends of ="trms">wild hunters
="lsts lst1">•restless ="trms">travels of the dead at night
="lsts lst1">•tales of the Furious Horde (a super ="trms">natural band that was not o="trms"nttrm="righ,rigo,riga,rigi,trig,rign">riginally as="trms">sociated with witch="trms">craft)
="lsts lst1">•twisted chaos of the deep forest
Canon Episcopi regarding the power of demonic illusion to deceive women into ="trms">imagining that they could ="trms">travel great distances at night, often in the company of the goddess Diana
='lgc'>}='lgc'>='lgc'>--> conjoining of witch image to demonological discourse ='lgc'>[='lgc'><='lgc'>-- an ="trms">="trms">empirically verifiable invention in the late medieval period and the Renaissance='lgc'>]

="large lg6" stl="font-size:123%"> ='strcls'>*the oscillating value of the non-="trms">fictive='strcls'>* (of its discrete artifacts)

="large lg10" stl="font-size:106%"> hybrid human–="trms">animal creatures with each “="trms">natural” ="trms">species being traceable within the complete appearance of the demonic creature


(coming into contemporary performance art ='lgc'>='lgc'>-->) figures from antiquity='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•Saturn ='at'>@="frds scrmbld"nttrm="Alex,Alert,Aleph,Alessi">Ale
="lsts lst1">•Circe ='at'>@="frds scrmbld">Bryana (changing men into ="trms">beasts, games of chance, gambling, tricks, slight of hand, illusion, hybrid ="trms">animal–human forms of the demons dancing around the “grandmother” with surprisingly young and beautiful appearance ='lgc'>--melancholy='lgc'>='lgc'>--> general sense of sexual and ="trms">societal disorder swirling around a placid, passive female protagonist) ='lgc'>+ ="trms">="trms">empirical strain of the discourse of the witch
="lsts lst1">•Sabbat ='at'>@="frds scrmbld">Jassem
="lsts lst1">•
='lgc'>='lgc'>-->

="large lg3" stl="font-size:112%"> pact of the witch
obsessed state of the hysteric
="trms">interplay of face and tableau

(Warburg's assertion that) donning a mask constitutes an active attempt “to wrest something magical from ="trms">nature through the transformation of the person”
='lgc'>[putting on a mask ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> transformation of the person ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> obtaining omething magical from ="trms">nature='lgc'>]

Christensen formally constructing “the witch” through a cinematic iter[...]