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There are many catacombs in Paris. Nobody knows how deep the system goes. They were there before Haussmann, before the Normans, before the Goths, before the Rom
by DiscourseFan 2y ago
There are many catacombs in Paris. Nobody knows how deep the system goes. They were there before Haussmann, before the Normans, before the Goths, before the Romans, perhaps even before the Gauls. Your idea of what is French, however, is not what is buried underneath in the collective unconsciousness of the city, what supports it, but instead the reproduction of what people want to believe represents the city. But the Notre Dame no longer exists, it was a symbol of the power of a Medieval state. Paris today is a city of malls, broad avenues and apartments. We kid ourselves to believe that putting it back will "continue" its history: the history is buried under the immediately visible surface, its waiting for you to get lost in it. If we could build something that might unearth that history, perhaps it might be possible to begin to remake the city of Paris once again.
- profsummergig 2y agoI read somewhere that the catacombs were the result of needing cemetery land for building on. What an effort that must have been! Convincing people that their ancestors could be extracted from the ground and stored as skeletons in caves underground. What a massive amount of land that must have freed up!
- DiscourseFan 2y agoDef not what really happened, since the arrangement down there more closely resembles macabre interior decorations than any reasonable funerary arrangements. The catacombs are the result of Paris being built on top of numerous underground tunnels that have existed at least since the Roman era but were massively expanded in medieval times.
- aubanel 2y agoI'v been a lot down the Catacombs, and still go sometimes, but I think you have a too grandiose view of their significance. Their most ancient existence is as stone carries, the storage of bones only started late, in the XVIIIth century. They never really held big significance for Parisians. Source: https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carri%C3%A8res_souterraines_de_Paris https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carri%C3%A8res_souterraines_...
- DiscourseFan 2y agoIts a metaphor
- aubanel 2y agoThen it does not really meet its goal, if it wants to convey the idea that "the true identity is hidden underground" by referring to something that isn't the true identity.