Ehrman Hall Elevator
What justifies your taking the elevator? What floor do you live on? At what point are you exceeding the social standard, respect, or some sort of elevator conduct?
Wednesday October 25th
11:29 AM` The elevator goes back down to the
ground floor.
Five people step in. 4 girls and one guy.
Two of the girls seem to know each
other, but they stop their
conversation once they are inside.
The elevator stops at the 1st floor.
“Hey yeah, I figured since it was here,
might as well take it.”
“Oh no, that’s fine.” He leaves.
11:30 AM “You can fucking walk. It’s only one
thing of stairs!
Wow. Can you believe that?”
“Yeah! I know! Compared to us who
have to go all the way to the 8th!
What a fat ass.”
The rest of them chuckle.
It’s not meant to be rude.
But kinda funny.
They decide it was rude of the guy to
waste their stop to the 1st floor.
The elevator stops at the 4th floor.
Those two girls step out, chuckling.
There are two areas with buttons. As you enter the elevator, one is on your left, right next to the elevator door. The other is on the side of the elevator door, but on the wall. It’s a curious thing. The one on the left, let’s call it one, has three columns of buttons. The one on the right, let’s call it two, has two. Was it a matter of space? Because there seemed to be plenty in this tiny room. The capacity is 18 passengers, or 3000 pounds. It sounds like a lot, but each person would weigh about 166 pounds. I guess that’s reasonable. I personally don’t weigh that much, but we are all only new college students. The building, Ehrman Hall, is generally for freshman and sophomore undergraduate students at UC Berkeley. Those freshman 15 haven’t hit all of us yet.
Sometimes we do see family in the elevator, or even in the stairs. Another uncommon site is the cleaning lady. There’s two and they’re very kind.
Thursday October 25th
The elevator sits for a minute before it goes to the 5th floor. It opens on the fifth floor and the cleaning lady gets in with her big cart of towels, toilet paper, toilet seat covers, plastic garbage bags, sprays for the bathroom. All in a yellow cart. She’s wearing pants and a shirt. She’s also wearing plastic gloves. “Are you not getting off?” she says, barely in English. She says this because I didn’t press any button. “Oh no, I’m doing a project.” The elevator goes down to the basement. She steps out with her cart. She gives me a small smile as she steps out.
Ever require that sense of privacy in the elevator? Maybe that moment to scratch an itch, pull your pants up, or sing a song to yourself. It’s a relief when we get it, but what about all those times when we don’t? As I stood there, for fifteen minutes each day, I witnessed the uncomfortableness. It begins the moment they step in and don’t say a word. It usually doesn’t begin with an approving nod, but a disapproving look at the ground usually with their hands full.
It could have been because I stood there and didn’t speak. Not only did I not speak, I didn’t press any buttons to ay floor. A reaction by the brave ones to this was questions.
The more silent ones just gave looks, awkward looks. It probably ran through their mind “does she live on my floor? Has it been more than two months and I still haven’t met her? Never even caught her name?” Their questions only increase when I don’t get off. They did look back again as they left. But that’s about it.
Saturday October 31st
9:31 AM We’re at the ground floor,
they step out.
“Are you just staying in there?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
The elevator door closes.
There’s also that time when you want to be alone, but with someone else. It’s a fantasy. Always in the back of our minds, all the sneaky things that could happen, or have happened.
Friday October 30th
The elevator also stops at
the 5th floor.
As it opens there’s a boy
and girl standing on the
edges of the entrance
staring at each other.
A pose filled with lust.
As they step in the
elevator,
he grabs her ID key
and card from her.
They are being discreet,
but you could tell they
didn’t want anyone else
in the elevator at that
moment.
They are backed up
next to each other,
but he looks to his
left down at her.
She tries to get her ID back,
but his hand goes for hers.
2:48 PM We get to the ground floor.
The boy and girl step out.
Holding hands now.
Sometimes it’s the question of when you’re supposed to hold the door for someone. How do you judge when the elevator’s full? If you’re in a rush? Or the elevator door just won’t stay open any longer. It’s beeping. What about that chivalry when someone holds the door for you?
Monday October 26th
11:26 PM. Stepping in from the 5th floor.
It’s empty.
It goes down to the first floor
A guy steps in.
He is holding his phone with music.
He presses the 7th floor button.
“Hold please!” He holds a door for a girl going up to the 6th. She’s in pajamas.
There is no talking. I think it’s because I am here.
She gets off at the 6th floor. He gets off at the 7th.
It returns to the 5th floor. Someone’s holding the elevator too long, it begins to make a beeping noise.
She was on the phone, and ended
up not getting in.
11:29 PM The elevator returns to the ground floor and a girl gets in.
She needs to go to the 7th floor and holds the door for a guy going to the 8th.
He has food in his hand
“Thank you.”
DUNLAP, DAVID W. "World Trade Center's Elevators to Be Among the World's Fastest." New York Times 27 Feb. 2009: 1. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 9 Nov. 2009.
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ReplyDeleteSomething so simple as an elevator can amazingly result in such an interesting encounter that I many times have taken for granted. The piece utilizes a very unique format which fills the reader’s mind with a series of extremely thought provoking questions, then goes on to directly observe an everyday situation in an elevator. This idea of speaking to the reader, or engaging the reader, then diving into a narrative piece is similar to the structure found in Bruno Latour’s piece, “Pandora’s Hope” in the second chapter, “Circulating Reference.” Latour even addresses the reader, on page 29, and says, “Note, dear reader, “ which specifically and personally addresses the reader.
ReplyDelete“Ehrman Hall Elevator” uses a similar approach of addressing the reader in order to establish that same relationship. Also, in order to draw the reader into the scenario even more, Latour uses pictures, evidence of his excursion. Mozaffari also takes a similar approach by using pictures of the Ehrman elevator. Initially, the pictures begin by taking the reader to important sites, very specific ones, in the elevator. She starts with the buttons, one of the main components of the elevator. Gradually, she moves to hand-drawn pictures of events she witnessed in the library. In a way, the events which Mozaffi encounter are logged like a journal in her blog. Similarly, Latour uses pictures to depict and log his experiences and encounters throughout his journey. Page 33 contains a picture of plants being collected for documentation.
Although Latour’s and Mozaffari’s experiences and topics for discussion are vastly different, methods used to bring a piece of their study to the reader are similar in approach, and result in a very personal experience for the reader.