Power Lines
How electricity became a metaphor for modernity in the United States, inspiring authors from Mark Twain to Ralph Ellison.
At the turn of the twentieth century, electricity emerged as a metaphor for modernity. Writers from Mark Twain to Ralph Ellison grappled with the idea of electricity as both life force (illumination) and death spark (electrocution). The idea that electrification created exclusiv...
How electricity became a metaphor for modernity in the United States, inspiring authors from Mark Twain to Ralph Ellison.
At the turn of the twentieth century, electricity emerged as a metaphor for modernity. Writers from Mark Twain to Ralph Ellison grappled with the idea of electricity as both life force (illumination) and death spark (electrocution). The idea that electrification created exclusiv...