MAZE General Comments

For saying something.

This and that.

 - Image copyright 1985 by Christopher Manson

892 thoughts on “MAZE General Comments

  1. I can’t believe I was gone from here for so long! It feels kind of self-centered to make some big deal of it but I guess I just sort of got demotivated with Maze- I hope everyone has been doing great though, and happy extremely late Maziversary!

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  2. My parents bought me this book when I was 10, way too young to have any clue what to do with it. Given the reward I knew there must be a trick to it, either that or someone must have already solved it. After a week diagramming the thing out (we were on a road trip at the time, hard to write in a shaky Datsun F10) I determined you couldn’t just follow the obvious doors and get anywhere, except out, if you ever got in. Some rule would have to be broken. But I had no reason to believe that a table top would open and let me in any more than that some of the unlabeled doors led somewhere that hints in the rooms near them would indicate, or that some one-way doors secretly worked both ways and there was a way of finding out which ones. Twenty years later I sold the book, being no closer to the solution, nor having met anyone else who had ever even heard of it. A tantalizing puzzle, but definitely not my cup of tea. It’s nice to hear someone managed to collect the prize, but frustrating to know that I wasn’t thinking along the right lines, or even anywhere close.

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    • If it makes you feel any better/worse, the prize was divided among the people who got closest to solving it. Nobody solved it.

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    • There was behind-the-scenes discussion in the MazeCast hangout; I don’t think anyone thought to bring it here. I don’t think there’s a need either. For out-of-the-loopers: a malicious, racist, homophobic poster monopolized this site for weeks, becoming so obstructive and offensive that we abandoned posting in hopes he would get bored and leave. He didn’t, but WR removed his posts, and presumably banned him.

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  3. Well, after something like 3-5 years of nearly ruining everything, it looks like he’s finally gone ahead and completely ruined everything. Guess I should have joined the site earlier. :-(

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    • Eh, no one else is posting anything relevant at the moment, and at least the malicious trashpiling is transparently irrelevant, which saves a little time compared to his usual posts.

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    • Yeah, basically the only actual harms that come from this are the spamming of people’s inboxes if they have comment notifications on and the potential burying of comments we would want to refer to.

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    • Imo the game plan should be to completely ignore all of this. All of us should completely stop responding or even acting as if the spam comments are there. If we want to talk, we can of course, just related to proposed solutions and stuff like that. It’s the only thing we can really do unless WR steps in

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    • Yeah, you’re right. I don’t know why I *haven’t* been doing that up until now.

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  4. New to this website. Spent months at a time as a kid figuring out the puzzles. Managed to find the path by myself, but not the riddle. Not even close. Was blown away by the sheer amount of amazingly complex discoveries that have been made here. I’ve been reading comments for hours. The amount of clues and nods that Manson hid in his book are also incredibly surprising. It excites me that there’s still more to discover, and I look forward to taking part in that. Cheers.

    (Also put this in the comments for the Rooms page before realizing I wasn’t in the general forum oops).

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  5. Has anyone ever seen a copy of Maze in the wild? Random, I know, but I just remembered being at a summer camp and seeing someone reading it on a hike. I probably would have been more excited but I was young so I just thought it was popular or something

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    • I don’t know if this qualifies, but Rian Johnson Tweeted a picture of his bookshelf at some point (or maybe it was in a video) and he had MAZE on his shelf. (This has already been mentioned here, possibly, can’t remember, sorry if so.)

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    • I’ve seen it in bookstores before, but I don’t think I’ve come across a copy besides that.

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  6. youtube dot com slash watch question mark v equals 2IoanTzkVV4

    “Did you ever tell em how you wound up in that chair?
    Did you sneak in the lair while the king wasn’t there?
    Did you make them all aware sometimes life isn’t fair”

    “Did you make em think that god had something on his mind?
    Did he make a design that went outside the lines?”

    “Think about consequences that you’ll leave
    When you con and deceive and the people believe
    Sure that they’re the ones to grieve over what you achieve
    All the plans you conceive and the plots that you weave.”

    scarily fitting mazey song o_0

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  7. In the spirit of following through with old stuff, here are some mockups of the Maze Revisited thing I made at the beginning of the year but forgot to share
    ritzbyss dot tumb lr dot com slash post slash 637747575674503168 slash old-maze-art

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  8. i have an unshared mazecast “best moments” compilation sitting around, but rewatching it it’s more of… a ytp? not sure if it’s worth sharing

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    • Where is this thing already? My life is hollow enough with the niggling despair of minor disappointments.

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    • Turning it into a fully loyal YTP meant changing a good chunk of it, but it’s still coming, don’t worry

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    • 1 year+ update: I’m so sorry for not following up on my promises! Not to make an excuse, but the account used was deactivated a bit after I started making it (it was owned by a larger administrative account for something I left, but just assumed would keep the accounts up due to how long they had been) but that’s probably for the best…
      I forget most of what I put in it but I distinctly remember editing Greg singing the pop song Despacito.

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    • I can’t remember if I already posted that that was in it, though…
      Then I’ll have to remember something else! I think I edited the crew hearing the room one solution and having an intense reaction as if it was the most ridiculous theory possible, swearing, etc
      I also could swear I made a ytp-within-a-ytp when Sara mentioned the prince cutting down the trees with Disney footage and strange sound effects with the Room 5 mini-episode superimposed over it

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    • So lovely to see you too! And aww, I’m glad you think so- but it’s funny I’m reading this as I WORK ON A NEW MAZE NONSENSEPOST THAT I’VE SAVED LOCALLY 13 TIMES AND HAS NO WAY OF BEING LOST… (not that it’s anything great! But I refuse to do the same thing twice)

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    • It’s done! (Sharing it here too if that’s not redundant) eYsMyoOEw1g <— that's the youtube code

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  9. Is it possible that the minotaur is really a disguise of the symbolistic dualism between man and nature? Minotaur, kinda sounds like “man/nature” anyway.

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    • I would say it’s laid pretty bare that the Minotaur is literally the duality between man and beast. It’s a bull man. The etymology comes from Minos-Taur (bull of Minos) though, the “notaur” part is unrelated.

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  10. Mazecast crew, would it be alright with you all if I made a video compilation of my favorite Mazecast moments? I’ve been watching it a lot lately in my freetime and I’m making it my goal to get every single one down… and there are quite a lot of memorable exchanges!

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    • I can’t speak for everyone but I think that would be a hoot! Glad we are keeping you company. :)

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    • (Also, new episode in the works — anyone interested in joining us just let us know here or at info mazecast dot com.)

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    • Good god, do it. Maybe you can edit new episodes to make them bearable, too.

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    • Vince, you talk about Mazecast like it’s some strange form of torture…

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    • See if you can edit older clips of Vince into the newer, Vinceless episodes at appropriate moments, saying things like, “Ha ha! Good joke!” and “You know, that’s very astute!”

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    • It’d be funny to edit a mazecast to make Vince agree with Sara the entire time

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  11. “Sounds in the Maze” 22:59 – Mazecast nearly finds “flagon.” I almost spat out my drink while listening to this, it was so close-
    I mean, it makes sense why it got swept up in other things, but in retrospect it is interesting to rewatch analysis with context…

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    • It is really very nice and generous of you to call it “analysis,” Ritz! That bit IS pretty funny considering how much mileage has since been gotten out of “flagon.” If only we had taken the time to consult the thesaurus!

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    • This sheds a lot of light on some questions we’ve brought up. I don’t know where to start.

      It’s hilarious to me Manson might find pleasure in our aggrevation, haha. The last paragraph is fascinating and made me rethink his entire relationship with his fans. The fact that he wrote at all is promising.

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    • I’ve been trying to find a way to watch “Prospero’s Books” — can’t even get it at the library. The labyrinth book he mentions is hard to get ahold of as well. But I was happy to have watched Cocteau’s “Beauty and the Beast” — it is beautiful and extremely Mazey. Roussel’s books are dense and challenging but I’ll post some writing of his that explains his process and “strange internal logic” on the blog. It does seem like it could be relevant to MAZE and Manson’s process.

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    • Okay, so: unless I’m mistaken, there are three keys in the Maze. (And one keystone.) Each key is on a different “tier” (path, loop, trap). And each of the rooms in that tier with a key is pretty vital.

      PATH key: Room 29, room with hidden door.
      TRAP key: Room 38, see ape nose room.
      LOOP key: Room 33 (important for the reasons you pointed out in 17)

      Of course, these are different rooms from the 17 connections… but still, I find it interesting! 17 seems to connect to the cores of clue paths (45, 6, 33) while these rooms are like, structurally important. Also, 17 couldn’t connect to 29 because that’s where you get there from.

      29 accesses the second half of the path, 33 is… 33, essentially the center of the loop, and 38 is right in the break of the key, telling you there’s no way out. These rooms are very important to the composition of each tier, and they all contain key imagery.

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    • It feels like all these “key” discussions will make a lot more sense once we know what the heck is going on with 33. Everything we find now seems to come right back to it.

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    • Hm. Well, I’m sure it means something else within its own puzzle in 33. But maybe there’s some explanation for its shape.

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    • Do loop puzzles even direct us to the correct door?
      I mean, some do, right?
      Why in the world would Manson make SOME puzzles tell you where to go, and some not?? That’s really really…

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    • I see. I wasn’t sure what you mean by “the ‘key’ rooms.”

      The keys do all seem to occur at funnel points. Anyone who lands in 43 or 22 (and there are a fair number of doors leading there) will have to go through 38 thereafter. (Of course, the same is true of 40, 11, and 24, to a greater extent. But at least 38 is like the gateway between the two parts of the Trap. I guess.)

      33 is where everyone has to pass through who landed in 36, 16, or 35; or took the wrong door in 17. OF COURSE, again, the same is true of all the necessary rooms between 33 and 10. (From 10 you could go to 14 and then the Trap, so that’s as far as you are absolutely forced to travel along the Loop.)

      And then 29, of course, is the only way to reach the back half of the Path. And the same is true of 17 and 45, but, again, whatever.

      Of the three, 38 seems like the least special room to its respective tier. “SEE APE NOSE” is one warning among at least three, potentially more if we could make sense of 22 or 6 or 11.

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    • Well, the way I see it, talking about “correct” doors in the Loop is a questionable extension of the term “correct.” I don’t mean that it’s wrong–I do the same thing all the time. But 41 is not the right door in Room 10 in the same sense that 26 is the right door in Room 1.

      The 16-step path is the only series of steps that forms part of the solution to Maze. The door choices along that path are correct in that they form part of that solution.

      We talk about Loop rooms having correct solutions in that they get us closer to Room 1, where we have to start over. But in terms of solving the book, it doesn’t really matter whether you travel from 21 all the way back to 1, or whether you just jump into 24 and die and then start over.

      If part of the point of the Loop is to distract and confuse the reader, then it’s reasonable that it’s full of clues pointing in every which direction, not just ones pointed away from 1. Any time you spend in the Loop is a “waste” of your time, in the sense of solving the book, and Manson’s misdirection could plausibly be aimed more at moving the reader around in circles than in pushing them in a straight line away from 1.

      FOR MY MONEY, my small small amount of money, we don’t know enough about puzzles in the Loop to make a good prediction about how it’s direction/misdirection works, except that it includes at least some puzzles that point in the “wrong” direction.

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    • Maybe the missing periods are a reference to the Room 1 statement that they don’t want to be late.

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    • Heh.
      Vince, what’s your take on the “curated” loop solutions? Do you suppose many of them are fabricated?

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  12. Has anybody else had problems pasting things in and then posting them in the past? ITA drops the connection everytime I try.

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    • I haven’t had any issues pasting things in here. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered anything like that on any website.

      Oh, maybe I’m misunderstanding. What exactly is happening, and what are you trying to paste in?

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  13. WHAT about MANSON’s drawing style, such as the HATching and cross HATching techniques (among others), THAT can be observed thru owt the IVIAZE?

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  14. Can I assume there’s a millionaire fan of Maze that is having the actual house built somewhere?

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    • There are several types of commentators on this website:

      1. The members of Mazecast, satellite members, and other major contributors who either still post here, or left forever/indefinitely (Beelz, Hello Gregor, Brent H.)

      2. Occasional puzzle pilgrims who google for Maze and find this place, and make sparse but still reasonable contributions (Kon Tiki, Moleman, etc) who exhibit a fair understanding of the style of puzzles in Maze.

      3. David Gentile, exhibiting the same style of post over the years, under different nicknames, ranging from thought-provoking to downright gibberish.

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    • I guess that didn’t directly answer your question. “Recent past”, well, you’ve been here the recent past, you can see who’s posted!

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    • Breaking in the new comment page with a serious question about the buzz of activity dying down!

      I guess by these definitions I’m a form of puzzle pilgrim? Cool title lol. I uhhhhhhh don’t think I actually qualify due to not being very good at lateral thinking… but I’m glad I technically fit into the Not Terrible category!

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    • Oh, haha, I was going to just say “past” but I remembered how long this community has been around. The Abyss doesn’t encapsulate all of that, though.
      Looking through comments around 2014/5, solving the Maze was kind of an “event,” right? Like, with points and all that? Interesting. I bet that pulled a lot of people in…

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    • Well we had some younger readers but I think they mostly asked questions.

      And yes, people came up with solutions and White Raven would tell people whether he thought they were correct.

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    • It actually really makes me sad that I missed both the actual monetized maze contest as well as the secondary event that you mentioned. They’re both the kind of thing that excite me, but I only showed up when all the bits I was smart enough to solve had been solved.

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    • I mean, there’s still stuff to be solved though.
      I don’t even know if it is about comprehension.
      Like, I’ve spent so long with this book and the first solid thing I find? Through RHYMEZONE.

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  15. To paraphrase the great Le Petomane Joseph Pujol who, like me, seemed to be alone on the stage and our backsides had more to say than our faces, and I quote….

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