For Tuesday, read Henry Adams’ “The Virgin and the Dynamo” (an excerpt from Adams’ oddly autobiographical, The Education of Henry Adams (1907/1918)). As you read, make three annotations. Use these annotations to pose questions raised by the text.
For various reasons – – changing literary styles, Adams’ attitude toward himself, different cultural contexts (dynamos, cathedrals, etc.) – – “The Dynamo and the Virgin” might at first seem a bit of a strenuous read. One way to make sense of Adams’ essay is to approach it as a version of the hero story, with (appropriately enough) Adams as the hero of his own life. I.e. a somewhat regular person accepts a call to adventure, they encounter various mentors, they undergo a series of trials, they emerge from their ordeals grander and better and otherwise improved. (See the video above for one version of this familiar narrative. Sadly, this version invokes Shrek as an example – – please don’t be put off by this lapse in taste and acumen.)