Abstract
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?
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abram, D. (1997) The Spell of the Sensuous. New York: Vintage.
Abram, D. (1997) The Spell of the Sensuous. New York: Vintage.Abram, D. and London, S. (1999) The Ecology of Magic: An Interview with David Abram. Insight and Outlook http://www.scottlondon.com/insight/scripts/abram.html
Bearn, G. C. F. (1997) Waking to Wonder, Wittgenstein’s Existential Investigations. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Blaine, D. (2002) Mysterious Stranger. London: Channel 4 Books.
Blum, A. and McHugh, P. (1984) Self-Reflection in the Arts and Sciences. Atlantic Highlands NJ: Humanities Press.
Boden, D. (1994) The Business of Talk. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Boden, D. (1994) The Business of Talk. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bogen, D. (1999) Order Without Rules: Critical Theory and the Logic of Conversation. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Bogen, D. (1999) Order Without Rules: Critical Theory and the Logic of Conversation. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Colin, B. (2002) Blaine Culture. In The Scotsman, 30th October, Edinburgh. pp. 2–3.Colin, B. (2002) Blaine Culture. In The Scotsman, 30th October, Edinburgh. pp. 2--3.
Coulter, J. (1979) The Social Construction of Mind: Studies in Ethnomethodology and Linguistic Philosophy. London: Macmillan.
Coulter, J. (2001) Human Practices and the Observability of the “Macro-social.” In T. R. Schatzki, K. Knorr Cetina and E. Von Savigny (Eds.), The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory. London: Routledge.
Crabtree, A., Nichols, D. M., O’Brien, J., Rouncefield, M. and Twidale, M. B. (2000) Ethnomethodologically Informed Ethnography and Information System Design. Journal of the American Society for Information Science 51: 666–682.
Feber, E. (1904) Houdini Is Made of Locks and Bolts. In Appleton Crescent, Appleton WI.Feber, E. (1904) Houdini Is Made of Locks and Bolts. In Appleton Crescent, Appleton WI.
Garfinkel, H. (1963) A Conception of and Experiments with Trust as a Condition of Stable, Concerted Actions. In O. J. Harvey (Ed.), Motivation and Social Interaction. New York: Ronald Press.
Garfinkel, H. (1964) Studies of the Routine Grounds of Everyday Activities. Social Problems 11: 1–33.
Garfinkel, H. (1967) Studies in Ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall.
Garfinkel, H. (2002) Ethnomethodology’s Program:Working out Durkheim’s Aphorism. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Garfinkel, H. and Sacks, H. (1986) On Formal Structures of Practical Actions. In H. Garfinkel (Ed.), Ethnomethodological Studies of Work. London: Routledge and Keegan Paul.
Garfinkel, H., Lynch, M. and Livingstone, E. (1981) The work of a discovering science construed with materials from the optically discovered pulsar. Philosophy of the Social Sciences 11: 131–158.
Garfinkel, H. and Wieder, D. L. (1992) Two Incommensurable, Asymmetrically Alternate Technologies of Social Analysis. In G. Watson and R. M. Seiler (Eds.), Text in Context: Contributions to Ethnomethodology. London: Sage.
Gibson, W. B. (1953) Introduction. In W. B. Gibson (Ed.), Houdini on Magic. New York: Dover Publications.
Goffman, E. (1970) Strategic Interaction. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Goffman, E. (1971) Relations in Public: Microstudies of the Public Order. London: Allen Lane.
Goffman, E. (1974) Frame Analysis. New York: Harper and Row.
Gold, G. D. (2001) Carter Beats the Devil. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
Harper, R. and Hughes, J. A. (1993) What a F-ing System! Send ‘em All to the Same Place and Then Expect Us to Stop ‘em Hitting: Making Technology Work in Air Traffic Control. In G. Button (Ed.), Working Order: Studies of Work, Interaction and Technology. London: Routledge.
Houdini, H. (1953) Houdini on Magic. New York: Dover.
Kawatoko, Y. (1999) Space, Time and Documents in a Refrigerated Warehouse. Human Studies 22: 315–337.
Livingston, E. (1986) The Ethnomethodological Foundations of Mathematics. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Livingston, E. (1987) Making Sense of Ethnomethodology. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Lynch, M. (1993) Scientific Practice and Ordinary Action: Ethnomethodology and Social Studies of Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lynch, M. (1999) Silence in Context: Ethnomethodology and Social Theory. Human Studies 22: 211–233.
Lynch, M. (2001) Ethnomethodology and the Logic of Practice. In T. R. Schatzki, K. Knorr Cetina and E. Von Savigny (Eds.), The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory. London: Routledge.
Lynch, M. and Bogen, D. (1996) The Spectacle of History: Speech, Text and Memory at the Iran-Contra Hearings. London: Duke University Press.
Lynch, M. and McNally, R. (1999) Science, Common Sense and Common Law: Courtroom Inquiries and the Public Understanding of Science. Social Epistemology 13: 183–196.
McHugh, P., Raffel, S., Foss, D. C. and Blum, A. F. (1974) On the Beginning of Social Inquiry. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Parsons, T. (1951) The Social System. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Parsons, T. (1968) The Structure of Social Action. New York: Free Press.
Phillips, A. (2001) Houdini’s Box: On the Arts of Escape. London: Faber.
Sacks, H. (1978) Some Technical Considerations of a Dirty Joke. In J. Schenkein (Ed.), Studies in the Organization of Conversational Interaction. New York: Academic Press.
Sacks, H. (1984) On Doing Being Ordinary. In J. M. Atkinson and J. C. Heritage (Eds.), Structures of Social Action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sacks, H. (1992) Lectures on Conversation, Vol. 1. Oxford: Blackwell.
Sacks, H., Schegloff, E. A. and Jefferson, G. (1978) A Simplest Systematics for the Organization of Turn-taking for Conversation. In J. Schenkein (Ed.), Studies in the Organization of Conversational Interaction. New York: New Academic Press.
Schegloff, E. A. (1986) The Routine as Achievement. Human Studies 9: 111–151.
Schutz, A. (1973) Collected Papers, Vol. 3. Edited by I. Schutz. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.Schutz, A. (1973) Collected Papers, Vol. 3. Edited by I. Schutz. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
Sharrock, W. and Anderson, B. (1986) The Ethnomethodologists. London: Tavistock.
Silverman, K. (1996) Houdini!! The Career of Erich Weiss. New York: Harper Collins.
Suchman, L. (1987) Plans and Situated Actions : The Problem of Human-Machine Communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sudnow, D. (1978) Ways of the Hand: The Organization of Improvised Conduct. London: MIT Press.
Watson, R. (1992) The Understanding of Language Use in Everyday Life: Is There a Common Ground. In G. Watson and R. M. Seiler (Eds.), Text in Context: Contributions to Ethnomethodology. London: Sage.
Wittgenstein, L. (1953) Philosophical Investigations. Oxford: Blackwell.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
LAURIER, E. The Spectacular Showing: Houdini and the Wonder of Ethnomethodology. Hum Stud 27, 377–399 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10746-004-3341-5
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10746-004-3341-5