“Made of Steel,” the first chapter of Elizabeth Block’s novel, A Gesture Through Time, introduces the forbidden love affair between the narrator and Magnitude Hortense Zappa. With “Made of Steel,” the novel explodes to life as a mother manipulates her son into pursuing a career in steel. Later, his daughter lurks about her father’s mill, obsessed with the industrial processes of steel production and with one of the factory workers, the only woman on the line, Magnitude Hortense Zappa. They will both go on to triumph as filmmakers, but first their mutual obsessions collide, desire, Hollywood dreaming, and the pure products of industrial capitalism intertwine, resulting in an unlikely seduction.
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