The Spectacular Showing: Houdini and the Wonder of Ethnomethodology

This essay is about Houdini’s escapes and ethnomethodology’s studies.¹ By accomplishing what appears to be impossible, Houdini leaves his audience considering not only how did he manage to do that, but also just what is it that we consider to be possible. Magicians and escapologists warn us off an interest in the mechanics of their tricks that might spoil the thrill of what they dramatically present to us: a sense of the limits to whatwe can apprehend as an audience. While marking out the differences in their projects, this essay brings out the sharedurge of escapologists and ethnomethodologists to question our senses, openmembers to particular phenomena, and awaken us tothe wonder of the world.In reflecting on what happens when magicians reveal the devices that constitute their tricks, I ask whether the purpose of studying methodologies canonlyreside in revealing how they are practically produced as intelligibleactions. What more might ethnomethodology’s invitation be?     

CHILDREN'S PERCEPTIONS OF TELEVISION CHARACTERS1

This study explores the cognitive dimensions used by children in differentiating among television characters. By linking content-free judgments of the differences among television characters with content attributes suggested by prior research, a four-dimensional mapping is identified. This cognitive mapping is virtually identical for children at three different ages. Further, dimensions identified are strong predictors of the children's desires to model the social behaviors of the TV characters. The dimensions identified and discussed include those of humor, attractiveness, strength, and activity. The findings also indicate that young boys and girls use the same dimensions in markedly different ways.