" Poll/pole isn't new, but I agree that it seems necessarily implied. I suspect it's just an alchemist clue for Room 6. "

" "Seeing red" is also an expression with ties to bulls, though the text doesn't make any reference to anger, which I would expect if this connection meant anything. "

" I think this room is called/drawn as a (sort of) backdrop… simply only to evoke the color red. You can argue which comes first, but with the trident, “stop sign,” cushion, and red herring reference, I think it’s all just conveying the color. This also... "

" The guests take a poll "

" oh, we've done all that before, I just realized "

" KING! "

" WING, RING... STRING STING uh THING "

" Hmmm… this room is a pit. A lot of the pictographic symbols can be construed as synonyms for “container.” A drum can mean a container. A flute is a term for a kind of pitcher. I dunno. "

" No, I can’t see anything else whatsoever. Perhaps it’s not meant to be clueing bird, but “wing” or “flight,” based on the pose? But there would be better ways to do so. "

" Do you think it's possible it's something other than a bird? "

" yearly+ 33 musing: bird ring as a contrived phrase seems ripe for the spoonerizing. thing “murdering” orrrr it could be a locket. could be looking at it all wrong, it is a chunky ring with a slightly irregular perspective "

" This discovery is giving me a splitting headache. I can’t tell if it’s a dead end, or genius. "

" "Effigy" is an interesting suggestion here, and I like possibility of reading that as FG; it"s not a phonetic bullseye, but neither are "hurry cane" or "pair'o'dice." I'm not convinced of what the significance of that message would be, but it merits thought. "

" You raise good evidence. I concede that he is more ambiguous than I asserted. "

" Got it. What is a totem, tribal fetish, and work of art, that resembles a person and that you burn? It's an effigy, as in "FG". These are the two clefs in Room 18. We pick the left half of the word:"F", which corresponds to... "

" Will soon! Haven’t logged in there for a while, haha "

" My reading of the Guide is mostly just how I remember his demeanor, and the wondrous-yet-frightening atmosphere I picked up as a kid. I’m going to go back to see if I can substantiate that reading, though. Here are some instances of the Guide being... "

" I read him as more malicious than apathetic. I can't think of an instance in which he was happy about the group's success, but their ultimate failure sends him into fits of laughter. Admittedly, we never see a group's victory depicted (which incidentally is a... "

" Pssssst, ritz, check the MazeCast hangout. "

" "They seem to be watching us..." does just seem to be explaining the joke, which is how I always took it. It is pretty funny if Manson threw that line in because he didn't trust readers to get the point, considering all the arcane things... "

" Reasonable observations here. For me, though, the horror of the Guide comes less from a grand scheme malicious manipulation, and more being led through an unfamiliar, convoluted maze by an apathetic agent—one who gives you a fighting chance, but is entertained whether or not you... "

" Not sure what I was trying to say here—I think it was a loose pun on the aesthetics of this room. Anyways, two off-the-cuff thoughts as I take another look at 31: First, the intended reading of the strange/strangely dialogue is unambiguous. The weird thing... "

" Not the correct door, necessarily. They were close to "something," presumably something the Guide doesn't want them to discover, but I think that could be either A) something that would reveal the correct door, or B) part of the Riddle of the Path. "

" I believe you're correct, though this has been hypothesized on MazeCast before. I'd look up an episode and timestamp for you, but that would require me to watch MazeCast. "

" My thought here is a continuation of my unifying theory that the guide's job is to misdirect the guests, and that solutions can be inferred from the guide's deceptive suggestions as well as his emotional responses to the guests behavior. Much of the discussion amongst... "

" You can do numerology and find letters in the room all day, but when I look at this room, I see everything tumbling to tip the guests away from the only solution. With the understanding that both the maze and the guide seem to want... "

" @vewatkin Good point, I definitely see it as pointing slightly past the F, but the whole theory would be stronger if there were 12 letters about the clockface to be sure "

" @vewatkin I'm not saying the path way the guests are implied to go is always the right way, but in this case the guide explicitly expresses concern that the guests are close to solving the room and choosing the CORRECT door. Thus, I think it's... "

" I've been thinking about the "seeking for so long" bit. It's such a peculiar line. On its face, you think it's pointing a giant glowing arrow at room #45. Then when you know the winning path and the canonical "correct exit" for each room, you... "

" Bequest did not die! It became Blue Prince. And it hibernated for several years. But look, it's coming out: blueprincegame dot com "

" Well, it's being used intransitively however you read it, but I ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssort of know what you mean. But I think the original speaker does mean, "They appear strange," and the Guide means, "You should say they watch strangely," and this is just a play on... "

" Well, I guess not really, but you still might need to read it twice to process that “look” is being used intransitively. "

" I don't think it is! "

" Just for fun. “They look very strange(ly)” is something of a garden path sentence. Ha! "

" The crowned door does lead to Room 4, as confirmed by the door in Room 4 leading to 25. "

" I am going to be thinking about this for a while. Bravo for adding another entirely unique and rich reading to a book where so many have been posited. "

" the crown is door 4? Evidence: 4 nails on the board fallen, and the expression over the door is fear-> fear is similar to four? Not to mention that the moods are placed in descending order as were the first four planks on the door "

" My only meager bit of context I can apply to this is that my brain made an astrological/mythological leap at the mention of "children" the first time I read it. Not sure if it has any bearing but the my of Saturn and his connection... "

" To add to previous post: a way to look at the Maze is to as a work of modern literature, which can be interactive, interlinked, intertextual and hypertextual. The time works different there because of unlimited amount of times the Maze is being solved. The... "

" Hello to everyone! It's my first post, even though I have solved the path part of a maze something like 7 years ago. But it looks like that there are still unanswered questions, so I will try to join the team of deep divers here... "

" It's mysterious, alright, and maybe impossible to answer without understanding the role of the Maze itself. Repeated underworld references suggest this is some corner of Hades if not Hell, and for countless visitors to persist living in the void of 24, it does seem like... "

" For sure. I think it’s easy to forget just how disturbing it is to be a kid and unexpectedly encounter it for the first time. The text also implies that it’s a kind of purgatory. It lays bare the impossible geometry of the maze (no... "

" It's certainly merciful, in the manner you describe. 24 could have just had a door to, say, 35, and then you could go around in circles forever. I suspect 24 is included more for aesthetic reasons than puzzle design. Given Manson's desire to paint the... "

" This was never corrected… how could you, White Raven… "

" In the spirit of the year of room 24, I want to ask… what is the actual utility of this page? Why does Maze have a failstate? I mean, there’s the whole atmosphere of dread the book sets up about it being inescapable. The back... "