Power Lines: Electricity in American Life and Letters, 1882-1952 (Inside Technology)

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 exclusively modern experiences took hold of Americans' imaginations, whether they welcomed or feared its adoption. In Power Lines , Jennifer Lieberman examines the apparently incompatible notions of electricity that coexisted in the American imagination, tracing how electricity became a common (though multifarious) symbol for modern life. Lieberman examines a series of moments of technical change when electricity accrued new social meanings, plotting both power lines and the power of narrative lines in American life and literature. While discussing the social construction of electrical systems, she offers a new interpretation of Twain's use of electricity as an organizing metaphor in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court , describes the rhetoric surrounding the invention of electric execution, analyzes Charlotte Perkins Gilman's call for human connection in her utopian writing and in her little-known Human Work , considers the theme of electrical interconnection in Jack London's work, and shows how Ralph Ellison and Louis Mumford continued the literary tradition of electrical metaphor. Electrical power was a distinctive concept in American literary, cultural, and technological histories. For this reason, narratives about electricity were particularly evocative. Bridging the realistic and the romantic, the historical and the fantastic, these stories guide us to ask new questions about our enduring fascination with electricity and all it came to represent. CONTENTS 7 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 9 INTRODUCTION 13 ELECTRICAL POWER AS A DISTINCTIVE SYMBOL 15 THE RISE OF SYSTEMS THINKING AND THE RESILIENCE OF INDIVIDUALISM 17 LINES OF INQUIRY 24 1 MARK TWAIN AND THE TECHNOLOGICAL FALLACY 29 LIGHTNING AND OTHER “SYMBOLICAL” SHOCKS 36 THE BATTERY-POWERED BUTTON 43 THE ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 47 THE ELECTRICAL SLAVE 49 “WAR!” 52 CONFLICTED PARADIGMS OF PROGRESS 56 THE EXAMINATION OF A HAZARDOUS CONCEPT 60 2 SHOCK AND SENSIBILITY: THE RHETORICS OF ELECTRIC EXECUTION 63 EXAGGERATING INSTANTANEITY 70 COMPLICATING THE NARRATIVE 78 EXPERT TESTIMONY: REPRESENTING ELECTRIC DEATH AFTER KEMMLER 81 NOVELS ABOUT THE ELECTRIC CHAIR 87 JOURNALISTS IN THE ELECTRIC EXECUTION CHAMBER 90 THE STAKES OF REPRESENTATION 99 3 CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN’S HUMAN STORAGE BATTERY AND OTHER FANTASIES OF INTERCONNECTION 103 THE HUMAN STORAGE BATTERY 109 BEYOND BATTERIES 121 GILMAN THE UTOPIAN 125 UNDERSTANDING ELECTRICAL UTOPIANISM 136 4 THE CALL OF THE WIRES: JACK LONDON AND THE INTERPRETIVE FLEXIBILITY OF ELECTRICAL POWER 141 THE MYTH OF THE AMERICAN BOY 147 BURNING DAYLIGHT 152 THE FALL AND RISE OF BURNING DAYLIGHT 156 THE MANY LIVES OF AN ELECTRICAL INDUSTRY STORY 162 THE VALLEY OF THE MOON 167 ALTERNATIVE FUTURES 172 INDETERMINATE PRESENTS 174 5 RALPH ELLISON’S AND LEWIS MUMFORD’S ELECTRIFYING HUMANISM 179 MUMFORD, ELLISON, AND THEIR INTERSECTIONS 181 MUMFORD’S ELECTRICAL UTOPIANISM 187 TECHNOLOGICAL HUMANISM IN ELLISON’S “BATTLE ROYAL” SCENE 195 RESISTING RHETORICAL CLOSURE IN ELLISON’S “TRUEBLOOD” SCENE 199 THE GOLDEN DAY 204 ELECTRICITY AND HUMANISM IN THE “OUT OF THE HOSPITAL” SCENE 209 THE MANUSCRIPT VARIANT 214 WHO, ON THE LOWER FREQUENCIES, SPEAKS FOR YOU? 218 CONCLUSION 223 UNDERSTANDING ELECTRICITY AS A METONYM 225 BLENDING LITERARY AND TECHNOLOGICAL HISTORY 226 LOCATING LITERATURE IN OUR SOCIOTECHNICAL IMAGINARIES 229 NOTES 233 INTRODUCTION 233 CHAPTER 1 236 CHAPTER 2 241 CHAPTER 3 246 CHAPTER 4 251 CHAPTER 5 254 CONCLUSION 257 REFERENCES 259 INDEX 277 INSIDE TECHNOLOGY 283 Introduction: Power Lines -- Mark Twain And The Technological Fallacy -- Shock And Sensibility: The Rhetorics Of Electric Execution -- Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Human Storage Battery And Other Fantasies Of Interconnection -- The Call Of The Wires: Jack London And The Interpretive Flexibility Of Electrical Power -- Ralph Ellison, Lewis Mumford, And The Hope Of A Technological Humanism -- Conclusion: The Power Of Lines.