Emily Ogden (@ENOgden, www.emilyogden.net) is associate professor of English at the University of Virginia and the author of Credulity: A Cultural History of US Mesmerism (University of Chicago Press, 2018). She has written for the New York Times, Critical Inquiry, Lapham's Quarterly Online, American Literature, J19, Public Books, and Early American Literature. Her regular column appears at 3 Quarks Daily.