Word: witch
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Andrew Young was accurate; if we can't count "thousands" of political prisoners currently, we have only to go back through a decade or two of war protests, civil rights activism and witch hunts of the House Un-American Activities Committee to accumulate that many...
...Witch hunts never cease; only the witches change. Early 17th century France was rife with witch trials. Aldous Huxley chose to write about one that occurred in 1634. His book The Devils of Loudun provided the material for this raw adaptation. Since British Playwright John Whiting's early death in 1963, the play has acquired something of a cult following. Cult plays rarely improve on revival, and The Devils is no exception, but they do often contain scenes or ideas of piquant interest...
...spark that ignites this particular witch trial lies in the perfervid erotic imagination of Sister Jeanne (Martha Henry), prioress of St. Ursula's Convent in the town of Loudun. She tells her confessor that in tormented night hours, she is forced to utter obscene words and participate in obscene acts. The nuns in her charge are similarly afflicted. In a fit of possession, with her strangulated sepulchral voice suggesting The Exorcist, Sister Jeanne reveals the devil inside -Grandier-a neighboring vicar whom she has never actually seen...
...homophobia" (hatred and fear of homosexuals). The nuanced policy admits the possibility of ordination for people with a homosexual orientation, so long as they are "repentant" and committed to celibacy. It directs presbyteries not to quiz ministerial candidates about homosexuality unless they themselves have raised the issue. An "anti-witch-hunt clause" leaves unclear whether the church would act against open homosexuality among those already in the ministry...
Wrong notes intrude; unlike almost all modern artists, he neither practiced be fore the sessions ("Practicing is tedious anathema to me") nor redubbed passages to smooth out errors. In a final heresy, he embraces sentimentality, the witch word of the 20th century. "The more gushing, the better," he proclaims...