How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Tracks! Tracks! It seemed to the visionaries who wrote for the popular magazines that the future lay at the end of parallel rails. (13.1)
With subways and the expansion of railways, the future did indeed seem to be linked with the railroad, whether you were transporting people or materials. It's fitting that the couple that most freely embrace modernity (Tateh and Mother) end up in California… way at the end of the railway line.
Quote #2
…an engineering miracle was taking place, the construction of a tunnel under the East River from Brooklyn to the Battery. [...] The work was dangerous. (13.1)
Modernization, whether it was building skyscrapers, bridges or tunnels, was dangerous work that cost many men their lives. The process of modernization seems to help the affluent way before its beneficial effects reach the poor and the working-class.
Quote #3
The machine lifted off the ground. He thought he was dreaming. He had to willfully restrain his emotions, commanding himself sternly to keep the wings level, to keep the throttle continuously in touch with the speed of the flight. He was flying! (13.5)
The first powered flight occurred in 1903 with the Wright Brothers. This passage shows Houdini taking his first flight in a French plane only a few years later, when flying was still a novel idea. Here we see the thrill of new technology: Houdini is freaking flying!