The Intuitionist

Although James Fulton is dead at the start of the book, his shadow looms large over the entire narrative. A pioneer in the elevator industry and the Dean of the Institute of Vertical Transport, Fulton invented the field of Intuitionism, to which Lila Mae is an adherent. As he put down his theories in his Theoretical Elevators book series, his behavior grew more eccentric until, eventually, the Institute’s board pressured him to resign.

Through her investigation, Lila Mae learns that Fulton was a white-passing Black man born in the Deep South. His “eccentric” behavior began shortly after a visit from his sister, which also coincided with his creation of Intuitionism as a joke on the white industry establishment. To his surprise, the establishment embraced Intuitionism as a brilliant new frontier in elevator science. Yet, as time went on and Intuitionism became corrupted by the same commercial forces as Empiricism, the joke became much less funny to him.

Much of what Fulton was thinking during this period is merely speculation by Lila Mae. She believes that the lie of Intuitionism and the “second elevation”—the true racial uplift—mirrors the lie of his passing as white. Yet at some point, he changed his mind and began to develop a concrete methodology around Intuitionism, buying into its potential: “Now he wants that perfect elevator that will lift him away from here and devises solid method from his original satire” (241).

Raymond Coombs is a consultant for the elevator manufacturer Arbo. He disguises himself as a man named Natchez to get closer to Lila Mae. He is the closest thing to a love interest for Lila Mae, who from all indications very rarely dates. Coombs is tall and handsome, putting on a charming Southern innocence to ingratiate himself with Lila Mae. To her humiliation, she is entirely fooled by Coombs, only discovering his real identity from a photo of Urich’s.

When Lila Mae confronts Coombs in his office at the end of the book, he has a photo of a man implied to be Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his office. When asked about it, Coombs says, “My employers allow me a certain latitude [...]. I do my job and that’s all they care about” (248). Despite his support of the Civil Rights Movement, Coombs is ruthlessly pragmatic about participating in commerce at the highest level, even if it perpetuates the racial injustice he claims to care about.

Pompey is the city’s first Black elevator inspector and an Empiricist. Until near the end of the book, most of what the reader knows about Pompey is filtered through Lila Mae’s seething resentment toward what she perceives to be his overly conciliatory attitude toward his white colleagues and bosses. Moreover, she attributes his unpleasant disposition toward her to jealousy over the fact that she is “a more exotic token” (25).

In truth, however, Pompey’s animosity toward Lila Mae is driven by the fact that she neither sees nor acknowledges the torment he endured to pave the way for her as the second Black elevator inspector. When she responds that he broke his oath by doing illegal work on the side for Chancre, he responds curtly, “Don’t talk to me about oath. I got two boys” (194). Not unlike Coombs, Pompey is willing to engage in the dirtier aspects of commerce if it will let him move his children out of a neighborhood increasingly blighted by crime and drugs.

Marie Claire Rogers is Fulton’s former caretaker and the heir to his estate. She is suspected of possessing the remaining pages of Fulton’s diary—a suspicion Lila Mae confirms late in the novel. Lila Mae meets Mrs. Rogers early on when Reed sends her to meet the older woman in an effort to convince her to give up Fulton’s diary. Mrs. Rogers sees right through this, knowing Reed only sent Lila Mae because both women are Black.

Only after Lila Mae goes on an investigative quest, learning key information about Fulton’s heritage and the lie of Intuitionism, does Mrs. Rogers trust Lila Mae to hold onto the diaries. Mrs. Rogers is loyal to Fulton to the very end, following his instructions by sending out the pages in the first place.

Ben Urich is an investigative reporter for the elevator trade magazine Lift. He is one of at least three parties who receives the pages of Fulton’s diary from Mrs. Rogers. However, when he attempts to publish a story about the “black box,” henchmen who claim to work for Johnny Shush and Chancre—but who really work for Arbo—come to break his fingers and later torture him. Urich largely functions in the narrative to convey information to Lila Mae, revealing Coombs’s identity, Lila Mae’s name in Fulton’s journal, and the truth behind who’s backing Chancre and Lever.