unnamedcryptid's review
3.5
This wasn't the worst book I've had to read for school. I think I do tend to appreciate the historically situated ones more, so it was good to learn about McCarthyism and the Red Scare stuff for this. I also liked some of the extra writings at the back of the edition I read.
Not much else to say for this one, but here are a few quotes as per usual (minor spoilers):
-"Their fathers had, of course, been persecuted in England. So now they and their church found it necessary to deny any other sect its freedom, lest their New Jerusalem be defiled and corrupted by wrong ways and deceitful ideas."
-"The Salem tragedy... developed from a paradox. It is a paradox in whose grip we still live, and there is no prospect yet that we will discover its resolution. Simply, it was this: for good purposes, even high purposes, the people of Salem developed a theocracy... to prevent any kind of disunity that might open it to destruction by material or ideological enemies.... But all organization is and must be grounded on the idea of exclusion and prohibition... The witch-hunt was a perverse manifestation of the panic which set in among all classes when the balance began to turn toward greater individual freedom. When one rises above the individual villainy displayed, one can only pity them all, just as we shall be pitied someday. It is still impossible for man to organize his social life without repressions, and the balance has yet to be struck between order and freedom."
-"If she is innocent! Why do you never wonder if Parris be innocent, or Abigail? Is the accuser always holy now?...I'll tell you what's walking in Salem—vengeance is walking in Salem. We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!"
-"Reproach me not with the fear in the country; there is a fear in the country because there is a moving plot to topple Christ in the country!"
-"Is there no good penitence but it be public?"
-"Who weeps for these, weeps for corruption!"
Not much else to say for this one, but here are a few quotes as per usual (minor spoilers):
-"Their fathers had, of course, been persecuted in England. So now they and their church found it necessary to deny any other sect its freedom, lest their New Jerusalem be defiled and corrupted by wrong ways and deceitful ideas."
-"The Salem tragedy... developed from a paradox. It is a paradox in whose grip we still live, and there is no prospect yet that we will discover its resolution. Simply, it was this: for good purposes, even high purposes, the people of Salem developed a theocracy... to prevent any kind of disunity that might open it to destruction by material or ideological enemies.... But all organization is and must be grounded on the idea of exclusion and prohibition... The witch-hunt was a perverse manifestation of the panic which set in among all classes when the balance began to turn toward greater individual freedom. When one rises above the individual villainy displayed, one can only pity them all, just as we shall be pitied someday. It is still impossible for man to organize his social life without repressions, and the balance has yet to be struck between order and freedom."
-"If she is innocent! Why do you never wonder if Parris be innocent, or Abigail? Is the accuser always holy now?...I'll tell you what's walking in Salem—vengeance is walking in Salem. We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!"
-"Reproach me not with the fear in the country; there is a fear in the country because there is a moving plot to topple Christ in the country!"
-"Is there no good penitence but it be public?"
-"Who weeps for these, weeps for corruption!"
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