Some Random Things

First, I wanted to share some photos of Eastern State - as discussed in class, I definitely recommend a visit. (www.easternstate.org)  The facility was used as a prison until the 1970's when it was abandoned. It was the first "penitentiary" in the United States, in the sense that it was ostensibly geared to rehabilitation.  Prisoners were isolated, and true to the Quaker roots of the place, left with a bible to contemplate their choices.  Even when they were taken for exercise, isolation was maintained, with individual yards instead of a common one.  For those who lacked yards, sacks were placed over their heads to keep them from interacting with others.  This "humane" system didn't work so well - prisoners started to go crazy and eventually the approach was discontinued.  The prison housed famous inmates, including (briefly) Al Capone, and today you can visit his cell.  There are several other common spaces that can be visited including he chapel, synagogue and baseball diamond.  By the 1970's, the number of prisoners was down to a handful and Eastern State ceased operations.  At that point it languished for several years, deserted and slowly reclaimed by nature.  It was going to be demolished in the 1980s and become the sight of luxury apartments but the plan fell through.  Instead, restoration began in the late 80s and by the early 90s portions were open for tours.  Today restoration continues, funded in no small part by the massive "Terror Behind the Walls" haunted house that operates for over a month every fall (and at which my good friend Jenny has played a Zombie for about a decade now).  The prison itself, of course, is far scarier than anyone jumping out from behind a corner with fake blood running down their face.  The experience of visiting is unlike anything I have done - the tours are largely self-guided.  The structure of the prison is like an insect- there is a center with several legs shooting out around it.  You can wander the halls and see the empty cells, most with trees that have grown into the architecture, and small human details that stay in the mind.  Shoes thrown over a rafter, names scrawled on walls, a broom deserted in the corner of a hall, furniture long unused. 

Second, although I am only a little over halfway through Lady Audley, it has me thinking about motive.  Not of the criminal, but of the detective.  Robert Audley spends a lot of time agonizing over what he is doing.  At times he nearly convinces himself that he would be better off letting the mystery go, but he can't.  It seems to me that Robert has many motives - love, of course, but also something closer to compulsion.  He just can't *not* know what happened.  When I think about contemporary detectives - in novels but also television and movies - their motives are as important as the criminals.  And they are often a strange mix of something anecdotal from their lives and something deeper and less conscious - a drive that doesn't have a reason.