There's nothing more awkward than a Q&A session when no one has any Qs. At Elliott Bay Book Company on Saturday afternoon, Allan MacDonell read from his memoir Prisoner of X: 20 Years in the Hole at Hustler Magazine. He read about his "ambivalence toward the whole porno world," about Larry Flynt ("moony, pasty, waxy"), and about the gradual degradation of his mind while holding the job (he began seeing sphincters in waitresses' foreheads and in place of his wife's mouth). But, except for the occasional startling sentence ("Visions of anus were taunting me"), the writing just wasn't very good, and MacDonell seemed to sense this, going so far as to say that it all sounded very different to him now that he was reading it aloud. Then he asked if there were any questions. The audience, under a dozen of us, effectively yawned. "Can I ask you questions, then?" he said, and then started pointing to strangers and asking why they'd come, including a shy 15-year-old who MacDonell had hit up to come to this reading on MySpace. This was depressing. I couldn't wait to make my exit.
The next day, I entered the Central Library just after noon and joined a group of tourists (from as far away as Germany, Australia, and Kirkland) on a free architectural tour of the building. These tours are offered about three times a week. The guide, a library volunteer who works at an architecture firm, had answers to all the tourists' basic questions (360,000 square feet; $165 million to build; yes, wi-fi is free throughout) and answers to questions no one thought to ask (the light bulbs in the ceiling on the first floor each last 10 years; the "black fluffy stuff" that fireproofs the fifth floor columns contains "microchip glitter"). And she acknowledged that, after nearly a year and a half in operation, the building's exits are still a problem.
There is an upward escalator but no corresponding downward escalator. There isn't even a proper stairwell. The stairwell that runs alongside the escalator only goes as low as the lowest floor of the book spiral, at which point, when you want to get out of the building, you have to push a button for the elevator or take the emergency-exit stairs. A man in a baseball cap stuck with a bejeweled American flag said that if he were the building's designer, he would "put fireman poles from the top to the bottom." A tall woman said she found it "distressing" that, in a building full of "green design" innovations (the heat-reducing windows, the recycled materials), it's "hard to find your way through the building by stairs." The guide explained that stairs are expensive and that elevators are required for disabled patrons. "Right, but 90 percent of the people who come here are able to walk... It's unfortunate," the tall woman said. The guide said, "I completely agree."
