The Sexual Overtones of the Hoover Dam

Yesterday evening, I was sitting down diligently doing my AP Language homework. I had to annotate "At the Dam" by Joan Didion. At first she was talking about how it just "canted vertiginously" and was "ominous". But then it was amazing! A hopeful "monument of faith" that has sadly "since been misplaced". That was cool, I suppose the Hoover Dam can be frightening and amazing at the same time. I looked it up, and it's actually in quite a pretty place:

I kept reading, and kept reading. I thought I was getting it. You know, basically the Hoover Dam is super rad. But suddenly, the world tilted when I read this:

But history does not explain it all, does not entirely suggest what

makes that dam so affecting. Nor, even, does energy, the massive involvement

with power and pressure and the transparent sexual overtones to that involvement

For a moment I paused, then I turned to my best friend, Brianna, and asked her what this could possibly mean. How could the dam possibly be sexual or produce any sexual "overtones"? She told me that it absolutely had to be an extended metaphor. But a metaphor for what? I read the entire piece, waiting for the answer to pop out of thin air, much like these sexual overtones did.

I read about the almost ethereal qualities of the dam. About a "star map" and how the dam will continue when all the people are gone. Didion gets a revelation from this. She realizes the dam is beautiful because it is in "absolute isolation" and it is "transmitting water and power in a world where no one else is." Upon reading that statement, I wondered how deep it really was. Did she mean that no one else in the world is using dams? Not likely, since she states previously that dams are quite "commonplace". Or maybe, she means that now that we have dams that do all the work themselves, we don't have to work so hard to produce energy. However, consistently throughout her article, she portrays the dam as hopeful, the "brightest promise" for America. This is all good and well, but the underlying implication based on the article is that America is not quite as bright as the dam. So, perhaps, the dam is isolated in the sense that it is the hope that will carry on, even in a world where hope seems lost. The article was about the Hoover Dam after all, there really was no extended metaphor!

Okay, so that was fine. I put on my thinking hat for that last paragraph and powered through the complicated world that is syntax and diction. But the sexual overtones would not leave my head. I was frustrated to the point that a single, angry tear slipped down my face as I flipped another pancake then beat it violently with a spatula. This seems like an overreaction, I'm sure. And it was, I suppose. It was especially unfair to the pancakes that I so often make with love. Alas, no matter how many pancakes I tortured, the connection between the Hoover Dam and sexual overtones eluded me.

I came to the extreme conclusion that the Hoover Dam was alive, and it is a sexual being. It was isolated because so one accepted it for who it really was. It was pushing forth sexual energy in a world where no one is getting any. I told my best friend and she bursted into laughter and, of course, agreed with me. Because this was a perfectly reasonable conclusion.

Unfortunately, I have had no revelation about sexual overtones. This ridiculous conclusion still stands with me today. I even asked my AP Lang teacher. He said that he choose this article explicitly for the "WTF" effect that these sexual overtones would have on our brain. However, I don't think he intended for it to cause such intense frustration on my part.

All is well in the world though, regardless of the sexual overtones pouring out of the Hoover Dam. I have made peace with the mystery words, and with the mysterious sex life of the Dam. It is happy in absolute isolation, and I am happy sitting here, decidedly not transmitting any water or power. Just like everyone else in the world.

~Jade~