Feb. 5th, 2018 10:26 am
The Intuitionist, by Colson Whitehead
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lisa_goldsteinThe Intuitionist conjures up a world where elevators have all the allure and excitement of the automobile industry. There are elevator conventions hyping the newest models, magazines with names like Lift, and prizes like the Werner von Siemans Award for Outstanding Work in Elevator Innovation.
Elevator safety is crucial here, of course, and as a child Lila Mae Watson dreams of becoming an elevator inspector. She grows up to attend the Midwestern Institute for Vertical Transport, where she reads Theoretical Elevators, Volumes 1 and 2 by James Fulton, and falls under the sway of the Intuitionist school. Intuitionists believe in “communicating with the elevator on a non-material basis”; they conduct their inspections by listening to the elevator, feeling the vibrations as it climbs, and imagining the machinery working. Opposing them are the more conventional Empiricists, and the two factions struggle for control of the Elevator Guild.
Watson becomes the first black woman hired by the Department of Elevator Inspectors. Then the worst happens: an elevator that she inspected crashes. She is convinced that she was set up, that the elevator was sabotaged after she looked at it. For one thing, she's distrusted by most of her coworkers. For another the timing is suspicious: Guild elections are coming up, and with this accident the entire Intuitionist camp is thrown into disrepute. She decides to investigate. Along the way she discovers other groups and other conspiracies, friends and foes and spies, and an astonishing truth about the founding of elevator science.
You would think you’d run out of things to say about elevators after a while, but Whitehead’s invention never flags. He just keeps going, spinning out this improbable world, as serious and deadpan as Buster Keaton. Inspectors have recognizable uniforms, and even a preferred hairstyle. A coworker of Watson’s studies escalators, a less prestigious specialty but one with more job security. Guild members attend banquets, where they eat and drink and watch entertainment and make boozy passes at dancing Safety Girls. (Women are not welcome, of course, and as for black women — well, when Watson goes undercover as a waitress, her coworkers fail to recognize her.)
The whole book is a delight. It’s less serious and ambitious than The Underground Railroad, of course, but like that book it has things to say about race and racism. “There is another world beyond this one,” wrote James Fulton, and some people think that he wasn’t talking about elevators.
Elevator safety is crucial here, of course, and as a child Lila Mae Watson dreams of becoming an elevator inspector. She grows up to attend the Midwestern Institute for Vertical Transport, where she reads Theoretical Elevators, Volumes 1 and 2 by James Fulton, and falls under the sway of the Intuitionist school. Intuitionists believe in “communicating with the elevator on a non-material basis”; they conduct their inspections by listening to the elevator, feeling the vibrations as it climbs, and imagining the machinery working. Opposing them are the more conventional Empiricists, and the two factions struggle for control of the Elevator Guild.
Watson becomes the first black woman hired by the Department of Elevator Inspectors. Then the worst happens: an elevator that she inspected crashes. She is convinced that she was set up, that the elevator was sabotaged after she looked at it. For one thing, she's distrusted by most of her coworkers. For another the timing is suspicious: Guild elections are coming up, and with this accident the entire Intuitionist camp is thrown into disrepute. She decides to investigate. Along the way she discovers other groups and other conspiracies, friends and foes and spies, and an astonishing truth about the founding of elevator science.
You would think you’d run out of things to say about elevators after a while, but Whitehead’s invention never flags. He just keeps going, spinning out this improbable world, as serious and deadpan as Buster Keaton. Inspectors have recognizable uniforms, and even a preferred hairstyle. A coworker of Watson’s studies escalators, a less prestigious specialty but one with more job security. Guild members attend banquets, where they eat and drink and watch entertainment and make boozy passes at dancing Safety Girls. (Women are not welcome, of course, and as for black women — well, when Watson goes undercover as a waitress, her coworkers fail to recognize her.)
The whole book is a delight. It’s less serious and ambitious than The Underground Railroad, of course, but like that book it has things to say about race and racism. “There is another world beyond this one,” wrote James Fulton, and some people think that he wasn’t talking about elevators.
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I have absolutely no interest in zombie stories, but even so, I think I'm going to have to give his 'Zone One' a try.
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