Short Fiction · Chapter
The Lord of the Dynamos explained
James Holroyd, a brutish Yorkshire electrician, and his assistant Azuma-zi, a superstitious immigrant from the East, work in the roaring dynamo shed at Camberwell.
What happens
James Holroyd, a brutish Yorkshire electrician, and his assistant Azuma-zi, a superstitious immigrant from the East, work in the roaring dynamo shed at Camberwell. Holroyd bullies Azuma-zi, who begins to worship the largest dynamo as a god. After Holroyd forbids him from approaching it, Azuma-zi sacrifices Holroyd to the dynamo by pushing him into its machinery. The death is ruled a suicide, and Azuma-zi remains, now contemplating a further sacrifice of the scientific manager.
Themes in this chapter
Technology and Dehumanization
The dynamo shed's relentless noise and machinery drive Azuma-zi to madness and worship, while Holroyd is dehumanized by his own brutality and mechanical routine.
Artifice vs. Authenticity
Azuma-zi's primitive superstition clashes with the artificial, mechanical 'civilization' of London, leading to a violent fusion of the two.
Characters to notice
Key passages
“The chief attendant of the three dynamos that buzzed and rattled at Camberwell, and kept the electric railway going, came out of Yorkshire, and his name was James Holroyd.”
James Holroyd, a Yorkshireman, was the main operator of the three dynamos at Camberwell that powered the electric railway.
Introduces Holroyd and the setting.
“His helper came out of the mysterious East, and his name was Azuma-zi. But Holroyd called him Pooh-bah.”
Azuma-zi, from the East, was Holroyd's assistant, whom Holroyd nicknamed Pooh-bah.
Introduces Azuma-zi and Holroyd's dismissive attitude.
“To define Azuma-zi was beyond ethnology. He was, perhaps, more negroid than anything else, though his hair was curly rather than frizzy, and his nose had a bridge.”
Azuma-zi's racial background was ambiguous, but he appeared mostly of African descent with some mixed features.
Describes Azuma-zi's appearance and the narrator's ethnographic tone.
“Azuma-zi had come, clad in white but insufficient raiment, out of the stokehole of the Lord Clive, from the Straits Settlements and beyond, into London.”
Azuma-zi arrived in London from the Straits Settlements, having worked on the ship Lord Clive, wearing only thin white clothes.
Details Azuma-zi's journey and impoverished arrival.
“He had heard even in his youth of the greatness and riches of London, where all the women are white and fair, and even the beggars in the streets are white, and he had arrived, with newly-earned gold coins in his pocket, to worship at the shrine of civilisation.”
Azuma-zi had dreamed of London as a place of wealth and white beauty, and came to revere its civilization.
Shows Azuma-zi's idealized view of London.
“The day of his landing was a dismal one; the sky was dun, and a wind-worried drizzle filtered down to the greasy streets, but he plunged boldly into the delights of Shadwell, and was presently cast up, shattered in health, civilised in costume, penniless, and, except in matters of the direst necessity, practically a dumb animal, to toil for James Holroyd, and to be bullied by him in the dynamo shed at Camberwell.”
Upon landing in gloomy London, Azuma-zi indulged in Shadwell's pleasures, but soon ended up broke, sick, and working for Holroyd, who bullied him.
Summarizes Azuma-zi's rapid decline after arrival.