I don't have anything to write today. I haven't had anything to write this whole week, except for nonsense. Hmmm, maybe I'll just write some nonsense and share it... right?... here it goes. I'll write about today's 5-minute freewrite topic.

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Witches in literature

The victims of prejudice and ignorance

A topic that has always touched me is the way that witches were treated by the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages. This was not an isolated case, but it's the one that touches me the most. Anyone could be accused of being a witch or a supporter of witches. Then, through torture, they'd make them confess being witches, and they would in order to end the pain, only to be later burned on a pyre.

One side decides you must die an agonizing death, and after days of torture and horrible conditions in a dungeon, you find yourself being set on fire before a booing crowd that laughs at your demise and wholeheartedly approves the comedy installed upon the agony of your final moments. And who was this scapegoat? A mother or a daughter, a sister, or maybe just a helping hand, or maybe she was a horrible person who deserved what she got, but who is anyone to decide anyone else's fate?

I keep finding the theme in literature, so I assume that many people found it as shocking as I did. I find comfort in this for a few moments until I remember that the same is happening nowadays in different scales. There is even the word "witchhunt", but it only carries the meaning of ceaselessly tracking down a certain group of people; it doesn't carry tragedy in its meaning.

The first real-world case that comes to mind is one way too close to home. A few months ago, the Venezuelan Gestapo, SEBIN, learned the location of a group of students who were planning to protest against the government. They went into their homes and arrested them. I've personally heard of stories from victims of torture at their hands and the horrible conditions in which they are "stored". Who knows how many have died.

The two most recent cases of literature where I've found the theme are Release That Witch, a Chinese web novel and Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. Both are fantasy novels. As I was reading the first one, I would get used to the joyous themes until a sudden scene would remind me of the tragedy of it all, and I would spend hours thinking about how tragic it truly was.

Both novels share a similar scene where the narrator displays a very detailed description of the results. In the first one, a character visits the royal capital and finds witches hanged in the central plaza, a rotting stench reaching the noses of every passer-by, and in the second one, the main characters find witches tied to pyres, burnt to a crisp, except for one who remained alive, charred black and agonizing.

I just can't help being sad about this. Those were young women with lives and desires till someone self-righteously decided to end their lives in the name of "the greater cause".

Hmmm, there was not much literature, but this is a freewrite.
I don't allow myself much editing on these.

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