version

Well-known member
The Chamber of Secrets is basically a hidden chamber and network of tunnels under Hogwarts which connects to the plumbing throughout the school, can only be opened by a sort of chosen one and which houses the basilisk - a huge serpent.
 

luka

Well-known member
The Chamber of Secrets is basically a hidden chamber and network of tunnels under Hogwarts which connects to the plumbing throughout the school, can only be opened by a sort of chosen one and which houses the basilisk - a huge serpent.

Oh. They've got that in skyrim only it's a speaking duck pond not a basilisk
 

linebaugh

Well-known member
Well, the chinese actually founded the town of Mexacali, the sister town across the border from america's Calexico. They showed up in the late 1800/early 1900's in part looking for work post California's gold rush, in part escaping persecution on the northside federally backed by the chinese exclusion act around that time.

No one knows exactly why/how the tunnels were formed, best guest is that the farmers would partially bury themselves at night to sleep as it was cooler underground, and following that logic they decided to construct whole networks of underground quarters to escape the heat. A situation convenient for when Mexico passed its own set of anti-chinese laws.

Many of the current citizens of Mexacli are unaware of/outright deny the existence of the tunnels - the chinese citizens of mexacli are famously guarded - and Vollmans only has rumour and a first hand account from a citizen who claimed to have watched them come out of the ground 'like rats' during a massive fire in the 70's. Eventually he finds a grocery store operating as a kind of central station to the underground network. The tunnels are now dilapidated but at one time were ornately decorated and contained dorms, casinos, and generalized community centers. Tongs, stateside chinese fraternities often confused with chinese mobs (a conception not always wrong however), were a big presence underground.

The fire, air conditioning, and relaxing racial tension have left the tunnels almost entirely empty since the 70's, but Vollman did manage to find an old man still living down there.
 

version

Well-known member
It's awful really. People literally forced underground due to persecution and circumstance. I watched Dark Days a few years ago and something similar was going on. Not so much in terms of persecution, but it was a bunch of people who had nowhere else to go and one way or another ended up living in an abandoned section of the NYC subway.
 

linebaugh

Well-known member
Not that it isnt still awful, but it seems the tunnels were furnished and the man who took care of the grocery store spoke fondly of the days of the tunnel. apparently it was quite the scene
 

catalog

Well-known member
re the farmers burying themselves underground cos it's cooler... on one of those videos posted by woebot in the "living in isolated places" thread, there was the guy who wrote comic books and was really tall, had got divorced and basically made himself an underground cave, that was actually too low for him to stand up properly in... he had this little sort of cell which he slept in, then a room with a big skylight...

but something he said on the video stayed with me.

basically that a lot of animals build underground cos it's usually the "safest" place - you're more protected from the elements and the temperature is more naturally regulated / less subject to fluctuation from rain / storms / snow etc.

and the idea of having a skylight was also interesting, basically that it's better than a window cos you can morte easily see straight up, so you get more sky and stars - less other stuff like trees or other houses or whatever. sounds obvious when you think about it. like when you look out of a window quite a lot of the time, you look down?

one of the most creative spaces i was ever in was an attic with skylight.
 

catalog

Well-known member
also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sassi_di_Matera cave people exterminated by mussolin

that area of italy is somewhere i'd like to go someday. i'd actually like to start in naples, go to that main big cathedral, then go down to that bit of calabria. it's where the greeks met the romans, geographically. and it's got moorish influence too. no big cities. lots of mafia.
 

version

Well-known member
There's an episode of Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends where he meets a bunch of survivalists and there's this old bloke who lives in a cabin buried under the snow in a forest. Looks quite cosy tbh.
 

catalog

Well-known member
swiss family robinson - they live in a cave in the winter and put in the ship cannon and make windows.

600px-SFR_color_-_exploring_the_cave.jpg


very smug novel that - they all get along really well and life keeps getting better and better.
 

version

Well-known member
The partially-buried farmers thing feels of a piece with those photos of sleeping whales. I can imagine wandering into a field of sleeping farmers as you might swim through a sleeping pod,

sleeping-sperm-whales.jpg
 

catalog

Well-known member
"Beach does not charge money for admission to the shelter, instead guaranteeing individuals admission in return for sweat equity and active involvement in the Ark Two communities' various activities."
 

luka

Well-known member
Paris is a pig-sty. i've learned to love that about it. London is as sterile as Singapore.
 
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