Quite the feat to find and stay in the unusual register that The Intuitionist occupies for the whole of its length - an extended allegory for race in America in which the central, vivid metaphors (elevators, Empiricism, Intuitionism, the black box) and their associated departures from 'natural' reality never overpower plot, character and direct thematic connection to the world we know (Lila Mae Watson feels real, crucially), although some of the more overtly, and knowingly, generic elements threaten to tip the balance at times (e.g. the entry of Jim and John, and their double act in wisecracking and philosophising) ... where the genre is noir/detective by way of Pynchon and even Auster and steeped entirely in blackness.
Also impressive is the sense of humour, including at the sentence level - 'Even the female students have to wear Safeties, making for so many confused, wrenching swivels that Midwestern's physician christened the resulting campus-wide epidemic of bruised spinal muscles "Safety Neck" '; (of John) 'He's still searching for a concordance between the loss of his virginity (purchased) and an ankle sprain (accidental) exactly three years later, give or take an hour'; 'One young gentleman with grave eyes tendered a blueprint that consisted only of an empty shaft and "an eerie dripping sound". No one was very happy with the high marks Morton received for such frivolity.'
And the way that while there are obvious connections to be made between the novel's key symbols and real world figures - elevators and ascension, Empiricism and Intuitionism bearing relations to whiteness and blackness or perhaps Republicans and Democrats, the black box as both aspiration to perfection and by-definition MacGuffin - the mapping is not too pat or without complexity.
So what is Intuitionism? It is 'about communicating with the elevator on a nonmaterial basis', constructing an elevator 'from the elevator's point of view'. There is another world beyond this one. A way of making sense of the phenemenon, if it exists, of there being a discrepancy between the mass of an elevator before disassembly and after. But then: 'What Intuitionism does not account for: the catastrophic accident the elevator encounters at that unexpected moment on that quite ordinary ascent, the one who will reveal the device for what it truly is.' That which cannot be explained by either Intuitionism or Empiricism. And finally (and it's the visit of Fulton's - black - sister that brings this to the surface of his own understanding): 'Intuitionism is communication. That simple. Communication with what is not-you.'
Also impressive is the sense of humour, including at the sentence level - 'Even the female students have to wear Safeties, making for so many confused, wrenching swivels that Midwestern's physician christened the resulting campus-wide epidemic of bruised spinal muscles "Safety Neck" '; (of John) 'He's still searching for a concordance between the loss of his virginity (purchased) and an ankle sprain (accidental) exactly three years later, give or take an hour'; 'One young gentleman with grave eyes tendered a blueprint that consisted only of an empty shaft and "an eerie dripping sound". No one was very happy with the high marks Morton received for such frivolity.'
And the way that while there are obvious connections to be made between the novel's key symbols and real world figures - elevators and ascension, Empiricism and Intuitionism bearing relations to whiteness and blackness or perhaps Republicans and Democrats, the black box as both aspiration to perfection and by-definition MacGuffin - the mapping is not too pat or without complexity.
So what is Intuitionism? It is 'about communicating with the elevator on a nonmaterial basis', constructing an elevator 'from the elevator's point of view'. There is another world beyond this one. A way of making sense of the phenemenon, if it exists, of there being a discrepancy between the mass of an elevator before disassembly and after. But then: 'What Intuitionism does not account for: the catastrophic accident the elevator encounters at that unexpected moment on that quite ordinary ascent, the one who will reveal the device for what it truly is.' That which cannot be explained by either Intuitionism or Empiricism. And finally (and it's the visit of Fulton's - black - sister that brings this to the surface of his own understanding): 'Intuitionism is communication. That simple. Communication with what is not-you.'
