Perhaps so. I took the throwaway mention of MLK's picture on Natchez's desk to be a very significant clue as to this world's future. I may have been reading too much into that sentence, though…

I, too, was taken in by the Screaming Man fakeout, but it didn't really resonate for me as a well-executed device. The whole buildup it lent to Johnny Shush amounted to a giant red herring that Whitehead promptly dropped for the rest of the novel, and Ben Urich disappeared for almost the rest of the novel. In the end,…

"She's still in her own black box."

Lila Mae out of isolation
One element of the book that really impressed me was Whitehead's controlled division between Lila Mae's near total lack of interpersonal self-awareness vs. the subtly wider view the Whitehead as an author would take on Lila Mae's personality, and how it impacts her allies and co-workers.

This'll be a discussion that hopefully will find a more appropriate thread later this week, but I found Natchez to be only the most egregrious of the many Noir-Fiction-Grab-Bag-o'-Cliches propping up this book's ostensible, official plot. There were numerous points in this book when I was reminded of Who Framed Roger…

Ah, congratulations Rowan! I must have missed the news that you had achieved AVClub's Second Elevation!

Miller, I definitely got the sense in reading this book that Whitehead was capable of writing that could transcend the flaws I felt limited The Intuitionist's success. Certain episodes from the book (The Elevator Inspectors' celebratory dinner, Lila Mae's confrontation with Pompey) were significantly more gripping and…

Think of a number, divide it by 2…

Is it possibly a commentary about how the inherently eurocentric standards of knowledge and education contributed in far-reaching, insidious ways to the repression of black social advancement in the United States? The implication that "book learning" was a traditionally white province, and that the European scientific…

Miller, thanks for the recommendation. In reading the Intuitionist, I tried to stay mindful of the fact that this was Colson Whitehead's debut novel, and I was duly impressed with several aspects of his writing, with the understanding that his writing was going to evolve beyond the limitations I felt befell this first…

A vessel of elevation or just a tiny box?
While reading this book, I was definitely struck with the amazingly tight focus with which Whitehead rendered the world of the Intuitionist; as Tasha wrote, "it IS the world." However, with so much energy devoted to portraying an alternate reality of such obsessive focus, your…

[Jumping late onto this train of WTF-ery…]

A book about competing schools of philosophical thought amongst elevator operators? Reading all these WUiB selections sometimes makes me droop my shoulders with shame at the comparative poverty of my own imagination. Who would think to write a book about THAT?

This article makes me happy!
Oh, Sweet Chocolate Covered Jesus, do I ever love Big Star. They've been one of my favorite bands in the history of ever for about ten years now. I am outrageously glad to read how you've enjoyed discovering them, Zack, and I thank you for taking the time to share that experience.

Having just finished On The Road, I can count how many times the phrase "my life on the road" or "I/we were on the road again" popped up. In fact, I can think of several "classic books" that slip their titles into the text to somehow justify that titling choice. Not that it makes it somehow more kosher a practice, or…

Yeah, I confess that I really don't have any legitimate gripes with Frobisher. I've known a Frobisher or two in my life, so perhaps I was overreacting to his shenanigans. Cavendish was more hilarious for me, but that's just my sense of humor. People have made some really good points about Letters from Zedelghem being…

Hmmm, that's a good point, Rowan. But then, if David Mitchell didn't have the Comet birthmark linking the six stories, he may have feared that his book would read less like a novel and more like a short story collection, which is a distinction that's been discussed elsewhere on these boards. I can't say whether that…

Mwa ha ha!!!

Ah HA….If "Appalachian Trail" recent history is any indication, you must be having a VERY good time indeed, Swibble!

Really, Miller? I found those paragraphs in particular to be quite beautiful.