2. The analogy of the manikin...I think what is being said here is that education needs to be held accountable...that it can be flawed, or disappointing, or ineffective and may need to be "tailored" to the meet the requirements of the student. Also that the ego can be flawed, and may need altering to appreciate the education provided, or the drive to seek out the knowledge elsewhere. Regarding this volume in particular, Adams seems to say that he is using it to challenge young men to think of their college years in a new light, different from that of their fathers.
One question the Preface answers for me, is why Henry Adams is writing these pieces. It doesn't seem he is recollecting anything pleasant...It is apparently intended to serve, in part, as a "working model for high education....what part of education has...turned out to be useful, and what not." (p.31)
Haylee
3. I read the sentence, "Until the Great Exposition of 1900 closed its doors..." to mean that Adams was desperate for knowledge, meaning, experience, and for something great; something grand. The author seems to be speaking sympathetically, and not making fun. Other sentences that seem to support this:
"...but to Adams the dynamo became a symbol of infinity. As he grew accustomed to the great gallery of machines, he began to feel the forty-foot dynamos as a moral force..." (p. 42)
"Before the end, one began to pray to it; inherited instinct taught the natural expression of man before silent and infinite force." (p. 43)
"Adams, for one, had toiled in vain to find out what he meant." (p. 44)
"...he found himself lying in the Gallery of Machines at the Great Exposition of 1900, his historical neck broken by the sudden irruption of forces totally new."
Haylee
4. The constant self-criticism; the deeply ingrained co-dependent behavior of denying her own needs to please others; the white-knuckled fear of taking risks that lead to an unfulfilling career, and the willingness to settle for a relationship that lacked passion; the need for control, acceptence, security, sameness--these are all common characteristics of the woman who may seem compassionate, familial, or settled-down in her twenties, but by her thirties, is simmering, threatening to boil over; burning her past away, leaving angry, red blisters in her wake as she tries to become something better before she evaporates. This was the illusion, that she was content.
This sort of repetitive string of descriptions seems to serve to allow an idea to sink in as you're reading. The writer is making an important point, one that she really wants the reader to spend time thinking about, and seems to have quite a bit to say about it. I really like reading and writing this type of sentence pattern. When I'm reading, it makes me focus in more closely, and when I'm writing, it seems to give me freedom to get around to my point and get a lot of information in.
Haylee
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4 comments:
"...it must have the air of reality; must be taken for real; must be treated as though it had life. Who knows? Possibly it had!" I think part of what he says about the manikin actually reverberates as a 'you'll get what your looking for' kind of attitude. You must wish to see what is shown to you and not less of it just because of a judgment or attitude. I also find the idea that this singular manikin which is draped with "the toilet of education" is one manikin. It says something that I have always felt, which is that in learning, one size does not fit all. This particular garment of education or the ideal of what these boys should be upon leaving cannot but sit well with some and do harm to others.
3. I cant even really add to this that almost perfectly sums up what I thought too. Haylee, if we keep this up I won't have to write much.
I find it a little sensitive, like this is one of those parts where the memories took him back and he could once again feel the pull of the Dynamo and the hope it offered. I also agree that going back through it is better I think reading the other pieces gave me hope. To have this as the first made me a little afraid of what was to come. And I, like an unhappy youth at Harvard got less out of it for the attitude.
4. The part that stuck out to me was that Barry Maine said that Adams expected his readers to laugh out loud at this. This entire piece made we want to do anything but laugh so I went back through this part. The last sentance saying "His brothers were the type; he was the variation." Completely flies in the face of what he just said. He lays the New England character out for all its distrust and hesitation then admits that he is hesitant and distrustful of the changes in said character. He then pawns it off on his brothers and "shirks the responsibility" if you will, of even laying claim to this character.
So laugh out loud maybe not, but it does show a level of...(blank moment) sarcasm I guess for lack of a better word.
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