Is there anything like Moby Dick, but with mining? Something

Op I've had a strange fascination with mining recently...

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Here's a couple more mining pics for ur spooky pleasure.

Imagine how intimidating it was before flashlights.

Why would men venture into so dangerous and depressing a place? the economic circumstance that made such a decision choiceworthy, although invisible, must be even darker and gloomier.

Zola's Germinal. A dick even gets cut off in it

Moby Dick was a pretty good book.

I mean I only got through half of the first quarter of the book, but I was laughing my ass off. And the sermon in the Chapel was really well written and thoughtful.

Don't know why I dropped it.

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>>9270633
Think of the different types of materials mined. How much more oppressive are the lung-dusting coal mines than the exciting gold mines?

Think of lives lived underground, people who collapsed and died not having seen the sky in a week.

There's gotta be something out there that captures all this.

>Is there anything like Moby Dick

No

>>9270633

>have a chance at making 60-80k starting out

>without a college degree and little training

>work 14 days out of the month

there's a lot of reasons why people would want to be miners. Moreso today then ever. It's very popular in the midwest (america) and australia/tasmania.

>>9270658
>each month you take half a year off your lifespan
Neat.

>>9270668
Is modern mining that dangerous?

>>9270668

You asked why. I've heard a lot of good things from an older friend of mine (60) who worked in a mine for a decade. I think there's some misconceptions of the conditions and work done in a modernized mine. They really give back to the communities they're in usually. If you're young as opposed to getting a job at starbucks you're allowed a chance at some decent status which you can use in a lot of areas to buy land and start a family with.

>>9270669
Oh I doubt it.

>>9270668
Most of them refuse to wear the ventilators

>>9270590
I like this. What's it from?

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>>9270685
WVfag here.
It is that bad and worse. Black lung is real, as is cancer, COPD, a whole host of heavy-labor related diseases and of course workplace incidents. And while you might make a decent chunk starting out, you will never make enough to stop working the mines. Anyone who has any potential will take another job, or go to college if they can, move away and never come back. It's not easy to get scholarships if you're poor, white and out of state (which basically everyone is) but those who can will gladly turn their backs on generations of family and a loving community if it just means escaping the economic hellhole that is Appalachia.
Also the companies hate the miners, and will take any opportunity they can to jew them, up to and including fatal corner-cutting on safety procedures. They can get away with it, too, because the urban liberals care more about "muh mother nature" than human deaths which rarely get reported outside of the region anyway, and never organize in the miner's defense. Hell, Clinton basically promised to throw a solid quarter of the state of West Virginia into unemployment, and was cheered for it. Washington is less than 100 miles away from some people, but it might as well be another continent for all the mutual empathy there is.
Local politicians are equally complicit. The amount of bribery, backroom deals and general corruption that goes on makes me feel like I'm living in a different country. My county spent hundreds of thousands on a fucking sidewalk, only to give the contract to a company owned by the cousin of the county clerk which put up a "sidewalk coming soon" sign for ten years and then took it back down. We can't even get a fucking sidewalk out here.
It's the most beautiful part of the country, but like California, it's wasted on the people who live here.

>>9270763
Sad, but true. And once coal starts going out of business, which is bound to happen, all those people will be out of a job with no skills to support themselves.

>>9270816
They'll move on to something else, or die out. That's the problem with modern blue-collar workers--they are too stubborn or lazy to learn to do anything else once their job has become obsolete

>>9270816
>capitalists wuz good bois dey dindu nuffin workers problems are all their own fault

>>9270826
Jesus man

>never been out of Utah suburbia

>>9270763

Good post.

>>9270574

that's a fascinating idea

>>9270633

my great-great-grandad was a miner
my great-grandad was a miner
my grandad was a geologist
my grandad worked in the oil business
and now I write software for oil machinery

there's something in the rocks...

>>9270830
What?

>>9270574
the difference would be that an underground version would be 100% supernatural and a monster entirely of the author's imagination, instead of something inspired by more plausible contemporary circumstances. closer to lovecraft.

>>9270826
>Work in a coal mine doing back breaking and deadly labour for years on end
>Lazy
Lmao. One blue collar worker is worth ten million of you soft handed limp wristed latte sipping lily skinned Prius driving faggots. I bet you've never worked a day in your life.

Fall of Giants by Ken Follet is about a 19th century russian mining town.

>>9270763
wat does being white have to do with it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cco-pCb0klU

it's a beautiful system we've got in WV. back breaking labor > opiate dependency > prison. if people can claim that the holodomor was genocide i can't possibly imagine that history will look kindly on american pharmaceutical companies.

>>9271387
>Holodomor was'tnt a genocide
found the kike

>>9271387

and btw, the places where you can get a job mining are fucking paradises compared to the ghost towns on our side of the ohio where you can see the heroin epidemic in the eyes of the gas station and fast food employees

>>9271091
Did manual labor under my father while in Jr. High and High school. Nice try though

>>9271402
>>9271387
This must feel terrible for you but that sounds interesting and fascinating to me. I love what you'd call "decay romanticism"

>tfw no morals

>>9271405

all the rich kids i knew growing up talked like this too. called doing landscaping and home renovations on houses their dads flipped "manual labor"

>>9271407

its hard to have no morals when everyone around you needs help so desperately. we've got so many epidemics it's hard to keep count. obesity, education, food insecurity, collapsing infrastructure, opiates, unemployment, crime, brain drain. theres some im missing too. lots of anarchist / communist groups popping up to help their communities but thats mostly in the college areas. everywhere else is kinda resigned. im sure i'll give up eventually too, but haven't reached that point yet.

>>9271409
>rich
Motherfucker my family made less than $30k last year. Quit trying to assume stuff about me in order to push your pro-blue collar point

>>9270574
write it yourself

>>9270574
Me too, I hope somebody writes the great mining book.

Bonus points for asteroid mining, the chill of infinite space, holographic nick land/hari seldon memery, etc

>>9270763
I'd be happy working mining tbqh, but I'd definitely steer clear of coal, particularly underground

>>9270763
sounds like you need mild socialism, my man

>>9270826

>>9271409


The issue isn't some moral failing on the part of the worker, it's lack of access to resources for education and job opportunity. (And also the fact that we live in a 'global economy' and the state provides efforts for free trade initiatives, but not help for workers who want to re-locate to more economically successful areas)

t. dems need to separate Trump's main blue collar base from his ideology, and find a way to support them as the economy transitions away from fossil fuels and continues to shift labor jobs towards automation - because I get the sense that repubs aren't really helping as much as they promised.

>>9271365
came here to post this

There's a specific word for a hero's journey into the earth, "katabasis"

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> tfw no modernist epic classic focusing on the perils of mining in the early 1900s, the importance and societal reliance on coal, the despair of loss and madness of isolation, the lack of ability to return to conventional society, an unusual need to return back down to the mines, later challenged by mines closing down for being too unsafe

OP you don't realise how much I want this now

>>9270763
can i smoke 50 cigarettes and record this post as 10 different songs and put it out under the name spruce bringsteen?

>you will never do a minecart chase

>>9272481
Anyone care to provide a brief review of Jules Verne's novel ?

>>9272777

Coal-as-Tained-Blood writes itself

>>9273101
It's great.

Instead of mining why not something involving the Parisian catacombs? Always thought that would make a neat Lovecraftian esque short story of a WW2 soldier getting lost in there and thinking some sort of monster is after him.

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>>9270574
this is not necessarily lit, but it's definitely what you are asking for. The Tunnels YA series is literally about characters progressing through a massive underground world. I never finished it because I kind of got to old for it as it was coming out, but the first three books are good YA

Oil!

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OP here, you guys are great, I thought this thread would die.

>>9272777
Thank god someone else knows this feel. It's such a ripe subject, I can't believe it hasn't been explored over and over.

>>9272474
>>9271365
thx, I'll check it out.

>>9272042
lol I write blogs and web content. I'm good enough to get paid $30/hr by corporations, but that means I'll probably never write anything really /lit/.

>>9271421
>>9271387
>>9271402
>>9270763
Post more, please. Stories, thoughts etc, whatever. I've got a friend who's dad was a coal miner and made it out, but he won't talk about it. I think he's ashamed of it, but I don't think I could explain to him not to be. Wish I could hear what it's like.

>>9270720
no idea, amigo.

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>>9272794
best kek I've had all day.

>>9271373
if you're white, you gotta score real fucking well on ACTs or SATs (like 95%tile) + 3.0 GPA to get recognized for scholarships. There's very little that's just "ah yeah you're poor, we'll give you a shot". Chances are, if you grew up in a poor rural place, you never were exposed to *anything* that would dispose you to the stupid-high test scores. I'm not saying POCs get lots of scholarships without academic merit either, but there are some. However, I suspect it seems like an infinite amount compared to those offered to whites, especially if you're down on your luck.

>>9273147
how close is it to the movie?

>>9271373

When you apply and ask about scholarships, they say these scholarships are for blacks. As a poor coal miner, you don't know the story of the inner city black struggle. You only know your own story. As most people do.

Therefore, it is easy to see where resentment can arise. But is this resentment not unwarranted? Even in ancient times, it was considered a fate worse than death to be a miner, field slaves had better lives and lived longer. The men sent to battle the earth in darkened pits live half lives, unable to leave, unable to stand upright, unable to stop doing the thing that kills them, are they not by any definition slaves?

>>9271061
What does your dad do?

>>9273218
black sheep of the family, he went and became a fisherman.

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I guess there's no mining literature because there's no light to read or write by down there.

If you like mining you should read Boatmurdered.

>>9273150
>>9273234

Check out the series Carnivale but more specifically, the episode "Babylon", spooky ghost miners done right.

>>9273228
How's he doing with the regulations? My buddy comes from a family of fishermen in Glouster, Mass and his dad had to become a stonemason because the catch limits destroyed the industry.

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>>9272327
It's not hard to see where the initial support for the French and Russian revolutions came from. But as much as people hate the corporate suits, miners are some of the most fiercely individualistic, anti-government people in the country. Some would literally rather die than accept welfare.They'll take charity though, and help from friends. I know communists like to paint themselves as eventually abolishing the state, but I don't think that would cut it here.
Speaking of help from friends, one thing I really do love about WV is the strength of community. You can rely on friends and family for just about anything. Often after church a bunch of people will all go over to one of the member's homes and help them take on some big project: cutting down a tree, raising a barn, clearing a field. The women make lemonade and fire up the grill, the men go out to work for a few hours and the little kids run around outside playing. You laugh and joke as you work, and even if it's something as simple as dragging felled branches half a mile to the scrap pile it's still good fun. And everyone does it for free, with the understanding that the favor will probably be returned eventually. There are very few "specialists" out here, in the sense of electricians, plumbers, etc, but you'll usually know a guy who can help you out. And people are there for more serious stuff, too. That's one thing I haven't found since coming to uni, and it makes me understand why cities are more left-wing - when people are so callous towards even their family members, it makes sense that you would need the state to provide a safety net.
>>9273150
I'm pretty young and didn't have family in the mines, so I don't have as many stories about that. However, I recommend you get a book on the Coal Wars, the 1910s-1920s when the coal companies called in private armies to put down insurrections of miners. Often people from outside don't do the situation justice, or else try to map urban dynamics onto rural situations, so usually authors from Appalachia make the best reads. But it's possible for them to write shit to (see: J D Vance). David Alan Corbin is pretty good for that, and I recommend him:
Guns Thugs, Rednecks and Radicals
Life, Work, and Rebellion in the Coal Fields
^Both good. The second is a little more scholarly. Either one will hopefully give you a good understanding of the situation and point you in the direction of more literature.

does nobody else see the homoerotisicm oozing all over this therad?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsNtc7Uxspw

Is tis a good doc?

>>9273356
Did you take soy in your latte, or were you feeling brave enough to try the skim milk today?

>>9270574
>>9270587
>>9270590
I didn't know how much I wanted to read this until right now.

>>9273351
>, miners are some of the most fiercely individualistic, anti-government people in the country. Some would literally rather die than accept welfare

Why are they stupid, if its free fucking take it

and god sake learn something else than mining maybe ????

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Once wathed a document about Norilks mining. It was like 1200 meters below. Insane.

>>9272777
nobody said you can't write it yourself, just make sure it's well researched

>AngloGold Ashanti's Mponeng gold mine, located south-west of Johannesburg in South Africa, is currently the deepest mine in the world. The operating depth at Mponeng mine ranged from between 2.4km to more than 3.9km below the surface by the end of 2012. Ongoing expansions have resulted in deeper digging at Mponeng, pushing the record to beyond the four kilometre mark.

wev

>>9273351

My family was west virginian miners. From what they said, it's terrible work. The only one who was really successful was my great grandfather, who was actually a moonshiner and had over 30 illegitimate kids, but he eventually got busted and had to work in the mines to survive.

My grandad had caught black lung by the time he was 14. He moved up to ohio, with most of my family, and everyone lived like total bums for about 30 years. There'd be like 20 of them living in a 4 room tiny house, with 2 pairs of clothes to go around the 6 kids, and they still thought it was paradise compared to working in the mines.

My grandad only found success in his 70s, when he started banging rich ladies and maybe killing them.

My dad and all my aunts and uncles became huge successes.

Tell me some about the local myth like characters or legends related to mining towns and the mountains

>>9273356
>admiration for anything men do is labeled homoeroticism
all leftists need to kill themselves asap

>>9273424
>My grandad only found success in his 70s, when he started banging rich ladies and maybe killing them
whoa buddy you cant just drop a line like that and not expect us to be ok without more details

>>9271429
>is working class
>looks down on other working class people
This is how Trump won

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>>9273482
TOM JONES!!!

THE MAN, THE MYTH,THE LEGEND!

>>9273522
Fucking hell man this faggots gay music played at our gym classes I shit you not in the 90s in East fucking Europe

Dear lord I wanted to kill myself back then and now too

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>>9273528
Tom jones IS the definition of heterosexuality.

>>9273542
This photo was

taken
someone thought it was good idea
someone thought it was a photo good enough for releasing publicly
Tom Jones thought it wa a good idea
Tom Jones thought it was okay to be published

This photo exists.

>>9273528

>this faggots gay music

>Jones has stated that he had sex with up to 250 groupies a year at the height of his fame.
>Jones had affairs with well-known women, including Mary Wilson of the Supremes, TV host Charlotte Laws[86] and former Miss World Marjorie Wallace.[87] Cassandra Peterson, better known as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, says she lost her virginity to Jones.[88]
>One affair resulted in the birth of a son. In October 1987, while on tour in the US, Jones had a brief relationship with model Katherine Berkery, who then discovered she was pregnant. After a legal battle that included DNA testing, a United States court ruled in 1989 that Jones was the boy's father. Jones denied the court's findings, until finally, in 2008, he admitted they were true. He has shown no interest in meeting his son, Jonathan Berkery.

POON
HOUND

>>9273556
Yeah This is What I call Bullshit vol 01929125

>>9270574
>Novalis' Henry von Ofterdingen

Read it.
You won't regret it.

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>>9270646
>Oh I tell ya boys, Mickey Doyle is my name
>and I come from Carbon County
>And I shot the boss of the Lansford mine
>now my soul is up for bounty

>But I will die with my head held high
>for I fought for the men below
>The men who slave, and sweat and die
>down in the black hell hole

I recommend some Irish-American history.

>>9270574
Germinal is a god tier book.

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>>9272133

Desperation by Stephen King
Lmao
Tbqh I enjoyed it when I was 12

>>9273506
When he was in his 70s, after my grandma died, he had a habit of marrying rich old ladies, who would die shortly after. He seriously did this with like 4 women.

I think he was probably killing them, just because I always thought he was kind of a piece of shit, but I dunno.

>>9273406
what's the name of the doc?

>>9273424
this
>>9273506

>>9273854
>some Irish-American history
there's a lot, where do I start?

>>9270642
Pick it back up or read the chapter called The Town Ho's Story, good ol fashion mutiny story, makes a nice distraction from the main narrative

>>9273351
If you wrote a book on the subject of West Virginia I'd read it anon

>>9270574
Germinal is exactly what you're looking for.

>>9274349
Someone said this in the top five posts. Then two others said it.
Thank you for your contribution.

>>9270574

Dante's Inferno is set underground :D

this is by far the best thread i've seen on lit, the pursuit of a new literary setting, where there is a void, something may come of this. feels like a pot boiling away.

>>9273144

Werner Herzog uses shots from the catacombs to good effect in his reboot of Nosferatu. Klaus Kinski is so based in that movie.

Also, Hard times.

>>9273101
classic proto-scifi

>>9273351
>Life, Work, and Rebellion in the Coal Fields
This sounds excellent. Thank you for the recommendation.

>>9270574
>>9270587
stealing this idea right now

>>9270633
Because it was needed, what exactly do you mean? Not only for the men working down there, there were no other jobs for them, but the work itself still had to be done for the sake of resources.

>>9272777
This sounds too similar to The Jungle.

>>9273356
You are a moron.

>>9274364
That was more of a contribution than your snide post.

>>9274516
the jungle? fuck that book. kid dyin and gettin eaten by rats, boss fuckin his wife, holding his job over her head for the gash, i read to escape man, not to confront him.

>>9273388
You're pathetic

>>9270676
I think OP meant an 1800s mine, more similar to Moby Dick's time period.

>>9274525
No, calling someone stupid for being the fourth to mention something with no further comment is fine. Hopefully it will deter them from being a useless cunt in the future.

>>9270574
I'm going to become a coal miner once I graduate from law school

wait 10-12 years and I'll have written it

>>9273356
You're not a woman are you?

>>9270641
tru but Zola is tedious, nothing at all like Melville

You have to understand that welfare is bad because commienumists! Why get help when you can become what amounts to slaves?

Matewan was a good movie about this.

>>9274546
you don't have to read the entire thread to respond to the OP, you insufferable little faggot

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The Foundation Pit may interest you, I have it but I haven't read it yet desu

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>>9274559
Germinal is action packed, and has no tangents. Also its main characters are extremely relatable. Not saying you are not correct overall on the entire r-m cycle, but as far as Germinal goes, it is fucking great.

>>9274635
Fair enough, but naturalism is still a far-cry from dark romanticism.

>>9274645
Unless that naturalism is so fucking dirty and depressing that it bleeds over. Also, the last few chapters terrorism and survival are definitely cut from the Romantic cloth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUpTJg2EBpw

thread theme

>asks for something like moby dick
>people suggest a fucking french book

>>9274668
>tfw to intelligent for cross-cultural exchange

>>9274693
>implying melville has anything in common with filthy frenchmen

>>9274698
i mean considering over half of Moby-Dick takes place in international waters... there's also a frenchman on board the Pequod... and they also run into the Bouton de Rose...

to everyone saying "write it", it can't be done. melville actually spent time at sea. you can't go into the mines they aren't the same now. an attempt couldn't possibly be anything more than a good book.

I guess Germinal is the flavor of the month. Certainly better than Lincoln in the Bardo imo, although not as good as A Hero of our Time

>>9273388
i know that i've probably got a hook in my lip responding but:

if this was written unironically, kys

>>9275065
The US coal country lads are painting a bleak picture

>>9275065
>>9276106
I think it's doable, but you would have to spend years underground, and you would have to drop all preconceptions to get an accurate picture of the mines. And of course you have to be a writer on par with Melville, so good luck.

>>9276106
>the next great coal mining novel has no actual mining, just lots of opiates.