americananana

My fascination with caves probably began with Planet Earth's "Caves" episode. That and "Ocean Deep" are my favorites because jesus motherfuck, evolution gets up to some crazy shit when you deprive nature of sunlight. Eyeless salamanders and vampire squid all up in my business. But it's not just the weirdo animals -- there's something about caves I find aesthetically compelling. Can't quite pinpoint why. I just have these images that I find appealing: underground waterfalls, underground lakes that go for miles, creatures that are sleeping, creatures that are waiting, and a network of caverns like a three-dimensional maze where you're playing the most dangerous game. Dean and the shadows hunting each other in the caves beneath Tennessee. Castiel standing on the shore of a great lake, waiting for an answer, or a barge, a Charon figure who will tell him that his father hasn't been seen in hundreds of years.

In a way it's kind of the opposite of my romanticization of the desert. The desert is about the desperation of empty space. The cave is about the panicked buzz of claustrophobia. When you are trapped in either, you are forced to confront yourself. The desert does it by stripping everything down to the bone. The cave does it by drowning you.

This is all just a shmancy way of saying, "Hey, look at my vacation pictures."

( Caves! )