The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead
"The Intuitionist" by Colson Whitehead is a novel set in a mid-twentieth-century metropolis reminiscent of New York City, centering on Lila Mae Watson, an African American elevator inspector. Lila Mae adheres to the Intuitionist method of inspection, which relies on intuition and sensory perception, in contrast to her colleagues, the Empiricists, who depend on mechanical checks. This divergence in approach places Lila Mae at the crossroads of professional and social marginalization, particularly as she navigates the challenges posed by her race and gender. The plot intensifies when an elevator she inspected crashes, leading to suspicion and accusations against her from the Empiricists, especially during a contentious election year for the Elevator Guild.
As Lila Mae strives to clear her name, she becomes embroiled in a web of intrigue involving the discovery of research papers belonging to James Fulton, the originator of the Intuitionist philosophy. Her search for Fulton's elusive blueprints for an innovative elevator design, known as the "black box," intertwines with themes of ambition, identity, and the pursuit of upward mobility. The narrative explores the complexities of Lila Mae's character, revealing her determination and resilience amid adversity. Whitehead’s debut novel blends elements of speculative fiction and detective storytelling while engaging with deep themes pertinent to African American experiences, ultimately standing out as a unique exploration of societal dynamics and personal aspirations.
The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead
First published: 1999
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Allegory; detective; fantasy; social criticism
Time of work: An alternate mid-twentieth century
Locale: A large metropolitan city in the United States
Principal Characters:
Lila Mae Watson , a black female Intuitionist elevator inspectorJames Fulton , the originator of the Intuitionist theory of elevator inspectionPompey , the first black elevator inspector in the city and an EmpiricistRaymond Coombs , a spy for Arbo Elevators who deceives Lila Mae by pretending to be Natchez, the nephew of James FultonBen Urich , a writer forLift , the elevator magazine
The Novel
Set in the middle of the twentieth century in a large metropolis reminiscent of New York City, The Intuitionist is the story of the ordeals of an African American elevator inspector named Lila Mae Watson. Watson is already marginalized by her race and sex, and her adherence to the Intuitionist method of elevator inspecting causes her to be further ostracized by her fellow inspectors, who are Empiricists. Intuitionists like Lila Mae assess an elevator’s “health” by listening to it and feeling its vibrations. Once in contact with the elevator, an Intuitionist just knows whether or not it is “healthy.” In contrast, Empiricists inspect elevators by getting into their shafts and checking the mechanisms to see if they meet specifications.
In spite of all her trials, Lila Mae is very dedicated to her work and has an outstanding inspection record that earns her the prestigious assignment of inspecting the elevators in the Fanny Briggs Memorial Building. Then, disaster strikes. Elevator number eleven of the Fanny Briggs Memorial Building crashes in a free fall shortly after her inspection. It is an election year in the Elevator Guild, and the Intuitionists and the Empiricists have both put forth candidates for the position of guild chair. Consequently, Lila Mae is convinced that the Empiricist candidate, Frank Chancre, who has known connections with powerful underworld figure Johnny Shush, has had the elevator sabotaged. Discrediting her, an Intuitionist, will cause the Intuitionist candidate, Orville Lever, to lose favor.
Matters are complicated when the research papers of the deceased father of Intuitionism, James Fulton, are unearthed and Lila Mae’s name is found in the margin of one of the notebooks. Lila Mae becomes convinced that she must find Fulton’s blueprints for the “black box,” a perfect next-generation elevator that will utterly change the landscape of the city. Her search for Fulton’s papers and her attempts to clear her name are fraught with deceptions, false leads, encounters with enforcers, and an ever-increasing sense of danger.
The novel concludes with a surprise ending: Lila Mae finds out that no one sabotaged elevator number eleven. She also discovers that Arbo Elevators is behind the ransacking of her apartment, that the company sent men to intimidate her, and that Natchez—the supposed nephew of James Fulton—is an Arbo employee named Raymond Coombs. Finally, Lila Mae learns that Arbo believed she had obtained Fulton’s writings about the black box. The floundering company sought these papers in order to save itself from bankruptcy. After a brief description of Fulton’s thoughts during his final days of work on his third and final theoretical volume, the novel concludes with Lila Mae alone in a room, working obsessively to finish Fulton’s work, to find the perfect elevator.
The Characters
The characters of Lila Mae Watson and James Fulton are central to developing the themes of the novel. Lila Mae’s father was an elevator operator in a department store. As a child, she was fascinated by her father’s uniform, which he brought home to show to her and her mother. The only African Americans allowed in the department store were those who worked there.
Lila Mae is an obsessively determined individual; nothing deters her. She adjusts to her room, a converted janitor’s closet, at the elevator inspectors academy. She remains calm and focused when she finds thugs ransacking her apartment, when she is kidnapped by Chancre’s forces, and when she discovers Natchez’s deception. Even when she realizes that her life may be in danger, she perseveres to uncover the truth. She is unwavering in her efforts to be the best elevator inspector and to be acknowledged as such.
Lila Mae has nothing in common with her only African American colleague, Pompey. He conforms and does what the “whites” want, because succeeding as an elevator inspector will enable him to provide the opportunity of a better life for his children. Lila Mae’s motivation, by contrast, is self-centered, and in this respect she resembles James Fulton, the father of Intuitionism. A light-skinned man, Fulton had been able to pass racially, but he had always known that his life was a lie: If his colleagues had discovered the truth, he would no longer have been accepted. Angered and wishing to get even, he created the concept of the black box as a joke. Lila Mae and Fulton are loners; both fight against a system that makes every effort to deny them the verticality (upward mobility) admired and sought by the society in which they live.
Critical Context
The Intuitionist, Whitehead’s first novel, brought him immediate recognition as a talented writer. The novel earned the Quality Paperback Book Club’s New Voices Award and was a finalist for an Ernest Hemingway/PEN Award. Whitehead says that he was first inspired to become a writer when he read the books of Stephen King; The Intuitionist evinces this influence with its eerie and often horrific world of elevators and elevator inspectors, where unexplained free falls are always possible and elevators seem to be living beings. The work has been acknowledged as breaking the traditional boundaries of fiction and eluding easy classification in one of the established genres of fiction. It contains elements of speculative fiction, of the detective novel, of allegory, and even of comedy. Whitehead feels that, within the canon of African American literature, his novel should be placed in the tradition of the intellectual black novel, represented by the works of Charles Wright and Clarence Majors.
Bibliography
Bell, Bernard W. The Contemporary African American Novel: Its Roots and Modern Literary Branches. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2004. Discusses the novels of Whitehead and others as embracing experimentation and abandoning the traditions and roots of the African American novel.
Liggins, Saundra. “The Urban Gothic Vision of Colson Whitehead’s The Intuitionist (1999).” AfricanAmerican Review 40, no. 2 (Summer, 2006): 359-370. Places the novel in the gothic tradition because of its setting and the “horror” created by its allegorical treatment of the black struggle for upward mobility.
Porter, Everette. “Writing Home.” Black Issues Book Review, May/June, 2002. Treats Whitehead’s obsession with place and its influence on his novels.
Russell, Alison. “Recalibrating the Past: The Intuitionist.” Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 49, no. 1 (Fall, 2007): 46-60. Sees the work as an anti-detective novel. Discusses the functioning of textual authority in regard to race, identity, and history.
Whitehead, Colson, and Walter Mosley. “Eavesdropping.” Book, May 1, 2001, p. 44. Whitehead discusses his goals in writing, the difficulties he encountered in publishing The Intuitionist, and his sense of himself as a black writer.