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Title
American Book Review Pub Date : 2021-04-19
Devin Thomas O'Shea

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  • Title
  • Devin Thomas O'Shea (bio)
Credulity: A Cultural History of US Mesmerism
Emily Ogden
University of Chicago Press
www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo27949426.html
272 Pages; Print, $27.50

Credulity: A Cultural History of US Mesmerism is a study of American "animal magnetism" in the early nineteenth century. Emily Ogden, a professor of English at the University of Virginia, argues that US Mesmerism is the story of modernity digesting science as the new religion. The book maps ruptures between belief and proof that are exploded by American snake oil salesmen. From the 1830s up to the Civil War, Ogden reads credulity through capitalist exploitation, woman's liberation, entertainment, religion, and the frontiers of science where testability ends, and pseudoscience begins.

Ogden's book, published by The University of Chicago Press, attempts to shoot the gap between an academic audience and a general readership. The academic side is most prominent up front with the first sections of the book devoted to the entomology of "credulity" and a larger, affect-based, argument made for defining credulity versus alternative academized words like "enchantment" or "belief." This represents about 20 percent of the content in the book, and I had a difficult time parsing this overall argument. I'm interested in affect theory, like Sianne Ngai's Ugly Feelings (2007), but found credulity hard to conceptualize in the way I think Professor Ogden wanted her readers to walk away with. Granted, I also had a difficult time with other affect theory books like Cruel Optimism (2011) by Lauren Berlant, but as opposed to Berland, Ogden meets her readers with more accessible prose.

I found the biographical sections of Credulity on historical figures like Stanley Grimes (the "skeptic" who also dabbled in pseudo-science phrenology) and Lurena Brackett (the blind girl who could see after she'd been magnetized by doctors) gripping stories filled with interesting psychological and philosophic ground that Ogden beautifully develops. Those sections are well-worth slogging through some of the academic angles. Specifically, chapters two, three, and four were fascinating, well-researched, arguments that drew me into a new understanding how pseudo-science interacted with larger forces like slavery, labor, and secularism in the nineteenth century. The reading of Moby Dick (1851) in the Coda was extremely fascinating—especially the distinction of Queequeg as an idol worshipper who doesn't take his totem all that seriously. Ogden's reading of the Blithedale Romance (1852) has convinced me that I have to tackle Hawthorne's novel so I can return to that second of Credulity and enrich my understanding of both books.

For me personally, how often I can return to a non-fiction book for supplemental readings determines if it's a good buy—I will definitely return to Credulity.

In chapter one where the author outlines credulity in a theoretical sense, I found myself forty pages deep and wanting to hurry on to the historical PT Barnham con men. In chapter five, which focuses on Benjamin Franklin's celebrity skepticism, and his dabbling in electricity, I found the material less compelling and a deep hatred of Franklin (who comes off as bourgeois and hypocritical) manifested itself alongside the difficulty I found in mapping the larger credulity argument.

Professor Ogden's research is impeccable, her writing is beautiful, and I am very interested in the subjects of each chapter. But, the credulity argument felt shoehorned at places. For example, Ogden has just finished discussing one of the most interesting characters, Lurena Brackett: a blind girl who, when magnetized, manipulated parlor audiences into the belief that she could psychically travel to quasi-distant places like Providence, Rhode Island. Brackett did this largely through storytelling, and Professor Ogden's theory that Brackett was only partially blind seems convincing. However, Ogden writes,

Magnetism gave Brackett an audience expecting she might be able to fly to New York, rather than one convinced she could not find her way around a parlor. She lived for a time in a wider world because they—and she—found a way to be open to these possibilities. That openness was what went under the name "credulity."

In this instance...



中文翻译:

标题

代替摘要,这里是内容的简要摘录:

  • 标题
  • 德文·托马斯·奥谢(生物)
Ç redulity:AC ultural ^ h的istory美国并购esmerism
艾米莉·奥格登
芝加哥大学出版社
www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo27949426.html
272页; 印刷,27.50美元

可信度:美国催眠术的文化史是对19世纪初期美国“动物磁性”的研究。弗吉尼亚大学英语教授埃米莉·奥格登(Emily Ogden)认为,美国催眠主义是现代性的故事,它把科学作为一种新的宗教加以消化。这本书描绘了美国蛇油销售人员在信念和证据之间发生的破裂。从1830年代到南北战争,奥格登(Ogden)通过资本主义剥削,妇女的解放,娱乐,宗教以及可测性终止,伪科学开始的科学前沿来解读轻信。

奥格登的书由芝加哥大学出版社出版,试图弥补学术读者和普通读者之间的差距。在学术方面最突出的是本书的第一部分,该书的第一节专门讨论“轻信”的昆虫学,并提出了一个较大的,基于情感的论点来定义轻信,而不是诸如“结界”或“信仰”之类的替代学术词。这约占本书内容的20%,而我在分析这一总体论点时遇到了困难。我对情感理论很感兴趣,例如Sianne Ngai的《丑陋的感情》Ugly Feelings,2007年),但我很难相信我认为奥格登教授希望读者放弃的那种轻信。的确, (2011)由劳伦·伯兰特(Lauren Berlant)创作,但与伯兰德(Berland)相对,奥格登(Ogden)与她的读者见面的散文更加易读。

我在诸如斯坦利·格莱姆斯(Stanley Grimes)(也涉足伪科学相貌学的“怀疑论者”)和卢瑞娜·布拉克特(Lurena Brackett)(被医生迷住后可以看见的盲人女孩​​)等历史人物的传记人物传记上找到了令人不解的故事奥格登美丽发展的有趣的心理学和哲学基础。这些部分在某些学术角度都是值得的。具体来说,第二,第三和第四章是引人入胜,经过深入研究的论点,这些论点使我重新认识了伪科学如何与19世纪奴隶制,劳动和世俗主义等更大的力量相互作用。读白鲸迪克(1851)在Coda中极为着迷-特别是Ququequeg作为偶像崇拜者的区别,他并没有那么认真地对待他的图腾。在奥格登的阅读福谷浪漫(1852)使我确信,我必须解决霍桑的小说,所以我可以返回到第二的轻信和丰富了我的两本书的理解。

对我个人而言,我多久可以回到一本非小说类书籍中进行补充阅读,这决定了这是否是一个好选择-我一定会回到Credulity。

在第一章中,作者从理论意义上概述了可信度,我发现自己四十页深,并且想着急于历史悠久的PT Barnham con men。在第五章中,本杰明·富兰克林(Benjamin Franklin)对名人的怀疑以及他对电力的涉猎,使我发现材料的吸引力降低了,对富兰克林(他是资产阶级和虚伪主义者的仇恨)表现出了强烈的仇恨,同时也表现出我在绘制更大的地图时所遇到的困难。轻信的论点。

奥格登教授的研究无懈可击,她的著作优美,而且我对每一章的主题都非常感兴趣。但是,轻信的论点在某些地方让人感到毛骨悚然。例如,奥格登(Ogden)刚刚结束了对最有趣的角色之一卢琳娜·布拉克特(Lurena Brackett)的讨论:一个盲目的女孩,当被吸引时,操纵客厅的观众相信她可以从心理上去到普罗维登斯,罗德岛等准遥远的地方。Brackett很大程度上是通过讲故事来做到这一点的,而奥格登教授关于Brackett只是部分失明的理论似乎令人信服。但是,奥格登写道

磁力给布拉克特一个听众以为她希望她能够飞往纽约,而不是一个让她相信自己找不到客厅的人。她在一个更广阔的世界中生活了一段时间,因为他们(和她)找到了一种应对这些可能性的方法。这种开放就是所谓的“诚信”。

在这种情况下...

更新日期:2021-04-19
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