Shafted: 41 hours in an elevator

Yesterday Karen at Write from Karen linked to this New Yorker article about that guy who was trapped in an elevator for 41 hours. I've now read the entire article, and it's really fascinating. It's not just about the guy. It's not even primarily about the guy, but his time in the elevator provides a latticework on which the author pins a discussion of the history and logistics of elevators. Really, really interesting. Two things surprised me enough to want to mention them.

1. I hadn't realized when I first heard about the elevator guy (who urinated--see my initial assumption--down the elevator shaft after prying the doors open) that this all happened some time ago, in October of 1999. What's shocking is how the event--or more precisely, his reaction to the event--upended his life. I like in particular the way the New Yorker author ends the article discussing this.

2. You're going to hit yourself in the head when you read this:

"In most elevators, at least in any built or installed since the early nineties, the door-close button doesn’t work. It is there mainly to make you think it works. (It does work if, say, a fireman needs to take control. But you need a key, and a fire, to do that.) Once you know this, it can be illuminating to watch people compulsively press the door-close button. That the door eventually closes reinforces their belief in the button’s power. It’s a little like prayer. Elevator design is rooted in deception—to disguise not only the bare fact of the box hanging by ropes but also the tethering of tenants to a system over which they have no command."

They've been playing with our heads all this time!

Tags: Nicholas White, elevators

Comments

[Eric the Blogless]

So *thats* what "babbitt" (Babbitting?) is.

And on a semi related note, its obvious to me that this is a whiny self absorbed elitist response of the Oligarchy (Nicholas *White*? Are you kidding me?!)
to the depressing and hostile existence most of America is condemned to....the priveliged upper floor, the obvious metaphor of smoking at ground level (dumping waste), the disingenuous worry about dehydration from medicines, as opposed to the more pressing concerns of safety and survival, all the while immobilized in a vertical construct with minimal sensory stimulus, a readily apparent designation of thesevere stratification of our culture....clearly this is a nakedly antagonistic effort to depict the wealthy elites as co-sufferers in our decaying and crassly selfish society. It's a banal attempt to excuse Gentrification! Its the political ideology of the man in the elevator taking precedence over the man in the street!

Let my people go!

[Debra Hamel]

Ah, this is why I love you, Eric. Because you're completely nuts.

[Susan]

Or, then again, it could just be a case of shit happening.

[Tom]

Did you see this?

http://mensnewsdaily.com/2008/04/16/man-falls-down-elevator-shaft-woman-breaks-his-fall/

[Debra Hamel]

Oh my. Just put that up at del.icio.us. The image it brings to mind is of the elevator shaft slowly filling with bodies so that it's eventually just one big pile.