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I recently re-read Tombs of Atuan for the first time in ages, mostly because I am still really into the Locked Tomb fandom and I was reminded that this wasn't the first time I loved a small pale goth child who lived in the dark and cared for an ancient Tomb and had far too much responsibility and guilt and power dropped on her shoulders far too young.
I still really liked it! And it was one of those books I finally re-read and kept going, "Oh, here is where that thing that is a fundamental part of my mental landscape came from, I had forgotten."
And now of course I am playing with a crossover where the first Arha after the Tombs fell was called Harrowhark before she was eaten. :D
But! I did find on my re-read that I had a lot of trouble with the Labyrinth. With making it work in my head. Which is sad because there was a period in my life when the Labyrinth was one of my favorite places in all the worlds.
I think I had two related problems with it. One was depth. The Labyrinth is an extensive tunnel system, thousands of years old, but it seems to be both extremely level, and extremely shallow. It's two-dimensional: the flat map in the front of the book seems to be an fully accurate representation of the tunnels. And related to being flat, it's very shallow. There's a section of it where flowing water can be heard through the tunnel wall, and it's the same flowing water as the (not very large) surface river. And there are hidden peepholes into the tunnels all over the surface, which are large and short enough to allow packages to be passed through, and to allow people on either side of the peepholes to have a fairly good view of each other, which implies the distance from the ceilings of the Labyrinth and the surface is no more than a few feet, a dozen or so at most.
I guess?? that's possible? With magic?? and if the bedrock was exactly perfect for digging tunnels in? And I mean you just have to accept that the earthquake was not in any way natural, so clearly the denizens of the Tombs are capable of mucking about with geology. But "the tunnels are under a very thin skin of rock with soil just above!" or even possibly "The tunnels are actually dug in the loose sandy topsoil and only lined with stone!" aren't really as creepy as I remembered it being. ;_;
That would actually work pretty well with some of the general themes of the book though, I guess? Maybe I will have my Harrow!Arha wandering in the ruined Labyrinth and seeing the pale desert soil seeping through the cracked places in the stonework.
But the problem with that version is that the book also seems very much to want the Labryrinth and Undertomb to have been built into, and as part of, a natural(-ish) cavern system. Certainly when we finally see the Undertomb, it is clearly described as being part of a living natural cavern, and the Pit is also implied to open into a very deep natural cave system *under* the labyrinth. And the way the Labyrinth is laid out - with all of its blind tunnels and vermicular turnings - seems like it's built on the model of a water- or lava-carved cavern. Except! It's two-dimensional! And natural caves aren't ever two-dimensional at all, that's part of what makes them so wonderfully horrifying.
One possibility I guess is that the there is a natural cave system deep under the Tombs, which the Undertomb was maybe the original natural entrance chamber of, and the Labyrinth is a projection of that cave system into 2-D above it? Or maybe the whole thing was created to mimic a natural cave system in a place that doesn't naturally have them, the same way there's a theory that pyramids are sometimes built as artificial mountains in flat areas.
Anyway I wrote this out to see if I could come up with a Theory of the Place that made sense in my head, but I think the actual conclusion I came to is that I need to go build the Place of the Tombs in Minecraft....
I still really liked it! And it was one of those books I finally re-read and kept going, "Oh, here is where that thing that is a fundamental part of my mental landscape came from, I had forgotten."
And now of course I am playing with a crossover where the first Arha after the Tombs fell was called Harrowhark before she was eaten. :D
But! I did find on my re-read that I had a lot of trouble with the Labyrinth. With making it work in my head. Which is sad because there was a period in my life when the Labyrinth was one of my favorite places in all the worlds.
I think I had two related problems with it. One was depth. The Labyrinth is an extensive tunnel system, thousands of years old, but it seems to be both extremely level, and extremely shallow. It's two-dimensional: the flat map in the front of the book seems to be an fully accurate representation of the tunnels. And related to being flat, it's very shallow. There's a section of it where flowing water can be heard through the tunnel wall, and it's the same flowing water as the (not very large) surface river. And there are hidden peepholes into the tunnels all over the surface, which are large and short enough to allow packages to be passed through, and to allow people on either side of the peepholes to have a fairly good view of each other, which implies the distance from the ceilings of the Labyrinth and the surface is no more than a few feet, a dozen or so at most.
I guess?? that's possible? With magic?? and if the bedrock was exactly perfect for digging tunnels in? And I mean you just have to accept that the earthquake was not in any way natural, so clearly the denizens of the Tombs are capable of mucking about with geology. But "the tunnels are under a very thin skin of rock with soil just above!" or even possibly "The tunnels are actually dug in the loose sandy topsoil and only lined with stone!" aren't really as creepy as I remembered it being. ;_;
That would actually work pretty well with some of the general themes of the book though, I guess? Maybe I will have my Harrow!Arha wandering in the ruined Labyrinth and seeing the pale desert soil seeping through the cracked places in the stonework.
But the problem with that version is that the book also seems very much to want the Labryrinth and Undertomb to have been built into, and as part of, a natural(-ish) cavern system. Certainly when we finally see the Undertomb, it is clearly described as being part of a living natural cavern, and the Pit is also implied to open into a very deep natural cave system *under* the labyrinth. And the way the Labyrinth is laid out - with all of its blind tunnels and vermicular turnings - seems like it's built on the model of a water- or lava-carved cavern. Except! It's two-dimensional! And natural caves aren't ever two-dimensional at all, that's part of what makes them so wonderfully horrifying.
One possibility I guess is that the there is a natural cave system deep under the Tombs, which the Undertomb was maybe the original natural entrance chamber of, and the Labyrinth is a projection of that cave system into 2-D above it? Or maybe the whole thing was created to mimic a natural cave system in a place that doesn't naturally have them, the same way there's a theory that pyramids are sometimes built as artificial mountains in flat areas.
Anyway I wrote this out to see if I could come up with a Theory of the Place that made sense in my head, but I think the actual conclusion I came to is that I need to go build the Place of the Tombs in Minecraft....