I've been thinking about elevators lately. I read a short story last night in which a young girl has a sleepover with her best friend from kindergarten, and when she plays a certain LP in her record player, her closet turns into an elevator to transport them to a faraway city. Elevators are interesting - you step into this tiny, moving room, the doors close, and when they open you are in a new place. A new vista opens in front of you with the opening of the doors.
Elevators are used in interesting ways in literature and movies. Think Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which will always make me think of Hilary Clinton's terrific speech, or Harry Potter and the secret elevator that connects the muggle world and the magical world. They appear in numerous speculative fiction and Twilight Zone episodes.
Elevators are a frightening place for thousands of people - claustrophobia, fear of being stuck in one, etc. Elevators are are socially awkward places. Do you address the stranger in the elevator with you? Do you make eye contact? What?
Elevators have their own genre of music.
Transitory spaces. Usually uncomfortable, and usually inexplicably smelly.
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