{"id":119364,"date":"2017-12-29T09:00:07","date_gmt":"2017-12-29T14:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=119364"},"modified":"2017-12-19T11:13:52","modified_gmt":"2017-12-19T16:13:52","slug":"the-inventions-of-witches-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/29\/the-inventions-of-witches-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Inventions of Witches"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>We\u2019re away until January 3, but we\u2019re reposting some of our favorite pieces from 2017. Enjoy your holiday!<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_117405\" style=\"width: 970px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/the-magic-circle.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-117405\" class=\"wp-image-117405 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/the-magic-circle.jpg\" width=\"960\" height=\"854\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/the-magic-circle.jpg 960w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/the-magic-circle-300x267.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/the-magic-circle-768x683.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-117405\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">John William Waterhouse, <em>The Magic Circle<\/em>, 1886.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The inquisitors wanted something old from each witch they tortured\u2014a Sabbath orgy or blood oath or cat demon or wolf-faced baby or some other verification of the stories they already believed. They also wanted something new, so they could feel, with each trial and execution, as if they were getting somewhere: With what instruments do you fly? What did the toad in the pot say? Which direction do you turn the horseshoe over the door to summon your demon?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/10\/30\/the-inventions-of-witches\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Read More &gt;&gt;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019re away until January 3, but we\u2019re reposting some of our favorite pieces from 2017. Enjoy your holiday! The inquisitors wanted something old from each witch they tortured\u2014a Sabbath orgy or blood oath or cat demon or wolf-faced baby or some other verification of the stories they already believed. They also wanted something new, so [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1295,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32152],"tags":[31375,31378,4062,1301,31376,31377,31379,31380],"class_list":["post-119364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of-2017","tag-derrida","tag-elizabeth-styles","tag-jacques-derrida","tag-john-muir","tag-joseph-glanvill","tag-psyche","tag-walter-stephens","tag-witchcraft-theory"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Inventions of Witches<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On witches, Derrida, and the impossibility of ever being truly known.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/29\/the-inventions-of-witches-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Inventions of Witches by Kathryn Nuernberger\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"December 29, 2017 \u2013 We\u2019re away until January 3, but we\u2019re reposting some of our favorite pieces from 2017. 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The inquisitors wanted something old from each\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/29\/the-inventions-of-witches-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-12-29T14:00:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/the-magic-circle.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"854\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kathryn Nuernberger\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kathryn Nuernberger\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/29\/the-inventions-of-witches-2\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/29\/the-inventions-of-witches-2\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kathryn Nuernberger\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c2dc6e14aabb952d3dd336469c0ae594\"},\"headline\":\"The Inventions of Witches\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-12-29T14:00:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/29\/the-inventions-of-witches-2\/\"},\"wordCount\":120,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/29\/the-inventions-of-witches-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/the-magic-circle.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Derrida\",\"Elizabeth Styles\",\"Jacques Derrida\",\"John Muir\",\"Joseph Glanvill\",\"Psyche\",\"Walter Stephens\",\"Witchcraft Theory\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Best of 2017\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/29\/the-inventions-of-witches-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/29\/the-inventions-of-witches-2\/\",\"name\":\"The Inventions of Witches\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/29\/the-inventions-of-witches-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/29\/the-inventions-of-witches-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/the-magic-circle.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-12-29T14:00:07+00:00\",\"description\":\"On witches, Derrida, and the impossibility of ever being truly known.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/29\/the-inventions-of-witches-2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/29\/the-inventions-of-witches-2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/29\/the-inventions-of-witches-2\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/the-magic-circle.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/the-magic-circle.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/29\/the-inventions-of-witches-2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Inventions of Witches\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. 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