Cave Stuff The blog for all things cave-related!

My current work and school schedule has prevented me from thinking much about caves, let alone visiting them. However, in May I did get to visit beautiful San Salvador island in the Bahamas as part of my environmental studies through the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Although I did not get to visit any of the caves there during the trip, I did bring back some interesting literature from the Gerace Research Center and took lots of photos at places with cool names like Grotto Beach. (The official class photos have been posted here; my personal photo collection is on Flickr.) Next spring we plan to visit Galapagos! Another dream hopefully to come true...

At least flying back-and-forth to Miami approx. every-other-week on business (my alter-ego is a reluctant computer nerd) has left me plenty of time for reading. Among the cave-related literature, I'm currently reading The Devil's Book of Culture: History, Mushrooms, and Caves in Southern Mexico by Benjamin Feinberg. The book is an interesting read, although not overly focused on caves and a bit scholarly for someone seeking a little escape from scholarly tomes.

On the fiction side, possibly of interest to cavers (especially those with a love of fantasy literature) is Mervyn Peake's chilling novella, Boy In Darkness. Much of the story takes place in an abandoned mineworks, and Peake's ability to paint with words reveals in horrifying detail what the darkness might otherwise hide. Into this world of twisted metal, endless shafts and tunnels is thrust 14-year-old runaway Titus Groan, reluctant heir to the ritual and stones of the ancient castle city-state Gormenghast (and star of his own wonderful book trilogy!):

...At the heart of this land or region, where no trees grew, and no birds sang, there was a desert of grey space that shone with a metallic light.

Dropping imperceptibly from the four horizons this wide swath of terrain, as if drawn towards a center, began, hardly noticeably at first, to break into terrace bright and lifeless, and, as the level of the surrounding land subsided, the terraces grew steeper and wider until, just when it appeared that the focus of this wilderness was at hand, the grey terraces ceased and there was spread out to the gaze a field of naked stone. Scattered indiscriminately across this field was what looked like the chimneys or shafts of old metal workings, mine-heads, and littered here and there in every direction, girders and chains. And over it all the light shone horribly on metal and stone.

And while the mocking sun poured out its beams, and while there was no other movement in the whole vast amphitheater, there was something stirring, something far below the level of the ground. Something that was alive, something that smiled very gently to itself as it sat upon a throne in a great vaulted chamber, lit by a crowd of candles. (Boy In Darkness, pp. 49-50)

Captured by two monstrous grotesques, Goat and Hyena--who once were human like himself--Titus ("the Boy") is called before the master of the underworld domain, the maker of monsters, the blind Lamb:

The Boy, who had heard the call no less than the others, could not imagine why such a sweet and liquid sound should have such an effect on the two rigid creatures at his side.

'What was that?' he said at last. 'Why are you so frightened?'

After a long silence, they answered him together.

'That was our master bleating.' (Boy In Darkness, p. 48)

According to Wikipedia, "Boy In Darkness was first published in 1956 by Eyre and Spottiswood as part of the anthology Sometime, Never: Three Tales of Imagination. Boy in Darkness has also been published separately in the United Kingdom. It has been out of print in the United States for decades." (As I write this, there are a few used copies of the standalone book available via Amazon.com, which is where I obtained my copy after reading the Titus Groan/Gormenghast/Titus Alone trilogy.)