Room 22

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…a gaudy room that reminded me of a theatrical backdrop. Places like this are overdone, for my taste, but some people like the exotic…well, everyone is a critic.

It’s true, I am by nature extremely critical. Although my life is a lonely one I have not spared any of my guests the rigor of my judgment…. We all have our roles to play.

This is not a bad place, really; one could spend quite some time here. However, in their restive way, the group moved on to…

 - Images and text copyright 1985 by Christopher Manson
used with permission. [Purchase MAZE from Amazon]

 

Room Type:  TRAP     Doors:   2  5  38  42  43

Solution Summary: [COLLECTION CURATED BY WHITE Raven. SEE COMMENTS FOR ADDITIONAL SOLUTION PROPOSALS.]

● Red Herring(s): The various items in this room suggest “red herring.” The third sign, WOMAN’S JEWELRY, is “her ring” or “herring.” The other three signs all make sense as fish aspects: scales, tail, and water. [Credit: Factitous] The octogon recalls a stop sign which is red. The pitchfork (compare to Room 26) recalls a devil which is red. [Credit: vewatkins] [Manson has confirmed that this solution is only partially correct] Alternately this solution could be plural “red herrings” and refer to the various clues in the room. [Credit: Aria]

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● Stop: The various items in this room suggest that a visitor stay here. The octagon bench suggests a stop sign [Credit: vewatkins], which should be taken to mean that visitors stop [Credit: Aria]. The four center items spell out “STOP” the Sofa, the Trident, the Octogon, and the Pawn (the pawn is on top of the octagon seat). S-ofa/T-rident/O-ctagon/P-awn. [Credit: Owen Hammer] The “sofa” could also be a “seat.” [Credit: Aria] The theatrical nature of the room and the curtains hanging in the doors may suggest the idiom “it’s curtains” or “bringing down the curtains” (done, the end, show is over). The phrase, “This is not a bad place, really; one could spend quite some time here.” could be a clue that staying is better than leaving. The phrase “Places like this are overdone”… could suggest the words “over” and “done.” [Credit: Aria] The letters of the center row can spell LONELY if the L is used twice, this may pair with “lonely” in the text (but the doubled L is problematic – an L shape is suggested slightly by the creases of the wall under the sign which would complete the word) [Credit: White Raven], “lonely” in the sign and text could reinforce staying here, trapped. [Credit: Aria] [Possibly the four signs on the wall may spell "STOP" Scales/Tail/O(ring shape)/Precipitation(H20). Though the last one is pretty weak.]
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● The solutions above could work together, although the red herring theme seems to suggest that we not take seriously the stop theme. The following solutions works with either or both of the above theories: The H+OO spells 38 alphanumerically if read from bottom up like the WOMANSJEWELRY sign. H=8 + O=15,O=15 indicating door 38. [Independent Credit: Kon Tiki | also Katherine & Nova] On the opposite side of the room the scales-sign could indicate door 43. The 4 (on the left) is more than the 3 (on the right), thus a scale weighing the two numbers would tip to the left. [Credit: White Raven] The tail could also be seen as pointing to door 43. [Credit: Aria] Thus both doors are indicated therefore the clues are red herrings AND/OR both doors are indicated reinforcing the conclusion that one should stop here.
.22path

252 thoughts on “Room 22

  1. BOOM
    BOOOM

    Five stars

    I’m sorry I say that so often sarcastically, because I sort of mean it now.

    Gentile is right that the octagon is a stop sign, but we’ve been thinking of the wrong significance of that. Stop signs are red. That’s where we get the “red” for red herring. The devil’s pitchfork is there for the same reason–to indicate “red.”

    The text about spending quite some time here is further meant to cement that the octagon is a stop sign.

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    • Not a pitchfork – Trident – with sea theme. But stop signs are red, and so is a heart light. And yes – rest relates to “stop”.

      As I’ve said I think red herring is intended. But it is part of a set of thing to direct our attention to 4 or 5 “rooms” that have time FA or GA. enterance/1/41
      and 19/23 – the key room being 19.

      The red herring meant here is the one on the cover.

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    • vewatikin,

      I don’t love it, but I buy it. Five stars!

      White Raven

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  2. Whilst watching a torrid soap, V-Watt’s mind wandered and came up with this solution:
    1. There are some X’s in the text.
    2. There’s that donkey tail.
    3. H+OO is “ho” with a long O.
    4. Scale is a T and suggests unbalance.
    5. Don Key Ho T– we just need an “ay”.
    6. plAYces, tAYste, nAYture, plAY, wAY- All in the text.
    7. There’s a trident which is like a lance and it’s tilted.

    All of this adds up to Don Quixote.
    The room is saying it’s a trap room and you’re doomed to a life of overwrought pretend gaudiness without getting anywhere or effecting real change.

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    • Perhaps the theater references clarify that we’re supposed to think of the play Man of La Mancha, not the novel Don Quixote. The play begins with Quixote already confined within an insane asylum, better fitting the nature of the trap.

      As the play progresses, Quixote flashes back to events from his life, but in the framing story he is transferred to successively smaller and more restrictive cells, until he is finally locked in a completely darkened cell while his captor, a talking umbrella, bellows insane laughter throughout the theater. Traditionally, the theater exits are barred and patrons are never permited to leave. Higher end venues will provide food and drink throughout the audience’s captivity, but most simply allow the audience to fall into starvation and, rather inevitably, cannibalism. The actor who plays Don Quixote is likewise never released, but the role is always filled by a terminal hospital patient who is not expected to survive longer than one day, in order to comply with OHSA regulations.

      Currently, three Man of la Mancha venues still have surviving audience members. The play has not been performed since 1977.

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  3. Seems obvious but I don’t think anyone’s mentioned it. The pattern under the seat is very reminiscent of a stop sign. Being a trap room it would make sense.

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  4. Let’s start again on a new solution:
    H+ROPE=HOPE let’s do that first and put it aside for a bit. It is a clue that there is hope of escape from the TRAP.
    Vswakin and I spotted the duo-directional indicators. “3” in the Trident. “8” sided sign. “4” posters. You can get either 43 or 34 from that. 43 has an indicator pointing here, and it looks like 34 does too. So it seems that the TRAP does have room exit indicators which lead away from room 24 and lead here. There is an escape detailed in room 6, we just need to find what it is here that points us there.
    Moving on, we first have a set of clues that I believe are supposed to lead us to the word “ocean” or “sea”. We have “scales” (like on a fish), “rope” (like on a sailing ship), and “H + OO” which is H2O which is water. The sign with the letters in a rough square is “Woman’s Jewelry” written left to right and bottom to top. It is “her ring” = “herring”. Notice the center of the round couch looks like a pearl. The doorways could be shaped like men. And that light could be a heart light. Heart light came out in 1982, and MAZE in 1985, it was based on the red heart light in the movie ET. So, we have a red herring. We’ll see what to do with it in a bit.
    Is it “ocean” or “sea”? In the next room 38 there is a poster with “See”. It is part of a puzzle there, where it spells “No escape” but also I think it helps us choose “sea” here. A carnival is also a “fair”. This suggests fair+sea=Pharisee. We have fair as part of “Farewell” next door in 43, so that helps reinforce this too. “Well” is in the text here in this room (near a set of ellipsis, to help bring it to our attention). In room 43 we have that choices are neither “good” nor “bad” giving us “fair”. But then we are told that 22 is not a “bad” place. It is also “fair”. Also note that the narrator talks of being “extremely critical” and not sparring guest the rigor of his judgment. That is – he is “fair”. There are scales of justice, also representing “fairness”.
    We have a place to rest in the middle of the room on an 8-sided sign. And we have “restive” way. A rest-stop. And again the text says “one could spend quite a bit of time here”.
    Let’s put these together. Pharisee and a “rest-stop” suggest the day of rest, the Sabbath, Sunday.
    Above I observed a large excess of words with “one”: “overdone”, ”som(n)e, “everyone”, ”lonely”, ”one”, “one”, “som(n)e” “on(e). 6 pure “ones” (and 3 near-misses). This kind of repetition is generally meaningful in MAZE.
    We also have lots of things that seem theater related “gaudy”, “everyone is a critic”, maybe “exotic”. Let’s just take these to be about “art” in general.
    Finally the trident in this 8 sided room marks a MAZE time F/G A. It is exactly between so let’s take it to mean both. This would be the entrance way, room 1, room 23, and room 19. A number of things tie these rooms together. They are the ends of the figure 8, they both feature the Sun a lot. There is an easel in both. Now let’s look back at some of our collected clues:
    SUNday, One, art, and RED HERRING. Note the one red Herring in the book is over the front gate. So we have a number of clues re-enforcing those rooms. And we have the initial message “HOPE”. The message then is that HOPE can be found in those rooms. And since we know the solution in 6, we know it can indeed be found. Room 19 has the guide say “looking me in the eye”. And that points us to 6 where we can look into Raven’s eye and escape back to our world.

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  5. Torah:

    Maybe.

    Not the least bit sure let, just chasing a fancy. JEW, Pharisee, scales of justice, jugdement = maybe Hebrew LAW. Found a small lead there, thats all.

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  6. I read that as:
    Pharisee – probably
    Herod – no more than a Herring at best
    And beyond that all wrong.

    We have Phrarisee and JEW it seems. maybe LAW in the scales. Paul is a famous Pharisee. There were Pharisee judges in Acts. Any other thoughts?

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    • Can you tell me what part of that correspondence strikes you as cryptically suggesting that pharisee was on the right track?

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    • Well,
      1) it was the last complete step he did not say was incorrect.
      2) The carnival poster next door. A carnival is a fair and it has “see”. That was a late addition to the other reasons I had for getting there.
      3) Suppose Manson “invited” Pharisees but not specificly Herod. Then Herod could have come on his own, “univited” as it were.

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    • I think Manson was more getting at the relationship between a work of art and its creator. Art in its creation is something of a compromise with the physical world. Further, our own thought processes are not entirely conscious. Our verbal mind is not entirely in control.
      Whatmore, there is a notion that an interpretation brought to a work is not wrong even if it doesn’t agree with the conscious intention of the artist. I think he’s saying, in part, that Maze isn’t a puzzle in the traditional sense and sense. There are three official problems offered- how to get to the center, how to get there and back quickly, and the whole business with the riddle. The why of these things and whatever larger puzzles we may see or wish to solve, while not necessarily intended, are valid insofar as our opinions are valid.

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    • Yes – I agree that was part of the message. People may run into things that he did not put there, and that is not entirely bad. I ran into a whole lot of ghost Christopher’s once. I think they were all ghosts now. The first one I ever found was just a “heart of Christopher”, really, not even a full man. But I may keep a few friendly ghosts around for old times sake, however.

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  7. So here is the MAZE related part of what Manson wrote:

    I am reluctant to get into all the things I stocked the Maze with, as I may have mentioned to you before, as it seems to diminish the mystery and, after all, that is the real content of the thing.
    But I will say that I never invited Herod to join us, though I suppose if you have run into him, he may have come on his own, and Broadway musicals are not my thing, so….[ ]…you’ll have to do without the Superstar as well.
    I should mention that I have never intended any references to gay people either, and in my defense I would not use that particular term in any case.

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  8. My full analysis is wrong. Manson wrote and told me himself. He was very cryptic of course, but he did want to be clear that he didn’t put “FAG” in the puzzle. The whole JCSS bit is out the window. He has not yet given me permission to share his quote, but my take away is that Pharisee is 90% likely to be there, Herod 10%, and everything after that 0%. That is I think Herod is the “red herring” here. Herring and Herod sound a lot alike. And I am on the lookout for other famous Pharisees. Paul perhaps? A judge from Acts? I also strongly suspect (on my own) that the letters indicated on the “clock” have meaning, just not the one I guessed. They could be musical notes for example. And other elements are probably valid, but need to be assembled differently. I’m updating the website.

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  9. In Room 2, the door leading to 22 features three of the prop trees (that we see in room 30). This might connect to the theatrical backdrop remark for the room that makes little sense otherwise.

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  10. Look up the full analysis on my page to follow these small additions. In adjoining room 38 we have see/sea I noted. But a carnival is also a fair. So pharisee is right there.

    Also from the from the light in the heart spot. We can take both light hearted and heartlight. Put then together and get light hearted song. Together with herod from joss this is king herods song. Then this song plus one gives us the answer.

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    • From David Gentile’s Walkthrough page, correspondence from Christopher Manson:

      “…while I dislike to go into much detail about what is or isn’t there, I do want to say that I have really only put my name in once on purpose, and besides a couple of references (nun, pair-o’-dice) used for their word value, I did not intend to incorporate any particularly Christian ideas, messages or doctrines. My first name is entirely coincidental to the book, and was not my doing in the first place.
      I hesitate to say anything about the book usually…”

      Unless you are accusing Manson of lying to you in that letter, or unless you misrepresented what his message said, it is simply implausible that anything here is cluing to: jesus christ superstar, pharisees or King Herod.

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    • No no. At one point in the past I thought at the very end in room 43 there was a keep yourself out of bell message and started reinterpretation from that perspective. That was way off and he told me. Christian images as part of a puzzle are not verboten. We have Adam eve paradise and so forth. It’s just that the final result is not Christian preaching. Here herod is not the final result only one step in the process. Even a agnostic living in Western society is aware of and can use Christian symbols. That’s all this is nothing more

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  11. A bit more….
    So, we have a red herring. But what is a red Herring? The room? Are we supposed to ignore it? Or is the red herring itself a red herring and we should ignore it? Herring and Herod sound a lot alike and Herring is the easier one to get. And if we do the above analysis we have used almost all possible meaningful words and objects. But if pressed you could use “reminded” = “re…d”, or pull and “o” and “d” from “backdrop”. But there is no clear reason for doing either. So let’s not. This leaves us two choices
    1) Herring = a fish and a clue to ocean/sea, and then later in the analysis a clue to “Herod” because of the same sound. And ‘light-hearted is a clue to Herod’s JCSS role.
    2) Herring = one half of red herring, and heat-light = the other half, and that is all we have.
    Which is the REAL red herring? I submit the simple solution is the wrong one and the red herring. That is “red herring” is a “red herring”.

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    • Just to check, in your choice 1, are you saying the things cluing “Herod” are the fact that it sounds kind of like “herring,” plus the idea that a light near the chest of an outline suggests one particular light-hearted song from popular culture?

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    • Raven has asked me not to repost long bits so could you visit my page and scroll down to room 22?

      http:// www. davegentile .com /stuff/maze-rooms.htm

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  12. Facicious, there are plenty of things to directly clue Herod. The herring is mostly a misleading clue away from him but can be made into a more difficult clue for him. We have him in the anagram role + h. In fair + sea = pharisee. In Jew. In judge both in text and scales. Then for his JCSS self. FAG and numerous theater references and light hearted which his song is.

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    • Factitious was only speaking on behalf of people who aren’t insane.

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    • I was trying to speak to the MAZE community in general, not just the sane parts.

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    • Heartlight the song came out in 1982, Maze in 1985. The song was inspired by the move ET and he had his red heart light. They had to fork over cash for infringment. So, yes – it can be read “heart light” or “light hearted” and intentionally, I’d say. It is clearly a red herring. But is it a simple red herring, indicating the room is nothing? Or is it a red herring red herring, stopping us from looking for a more complex puzzle?

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  13. I also think her ring = herring is correct. But not every herring is red. Some of them just swim in the sea. Scales on fish – yes. Pearl. Trident. Water. See (in next room) ropes on sailing ships. So that makes “herring” a “red herring” in that it points towards “red herring” and not “sea”

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    • It might even be a red herring that is a red herring because it points to red herring. Gaaaaahhhhh. “Reminded” is the only meaningful word not used in my Herod thing. “R…ed”

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    • But then. “Herring” also sounds a lot like “Herod” instead of “reminded” grab the word “OverDone” to complete it. Also not explicitly used in my large analysis.

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    • Oops. OverDone is a “one” word. But Herring and Herod still sound close. And if it matters the word backdrop is not really used. One could get an od there. But only after you had used up all other words. As a last step you could do that.

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    • I’m not sure that Manson would put in a clue to the word “herring” as an attempt to make us think of Herod. He’d be more likely to have made a sign that clued the word “Herod” if that were his goal.

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  14. The third sign, WOMAN’S JEWELRY, is “her ring” or “herring.” As in red herring.

    The other three signs all make sense as fish aspects: scales, tail, and water.

    If that’s all that’s going on here, it would mean the whole message from this room is that it’s a red herring, which seems plausible for a trap room.

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    • That is clearly the correct response.

      It’s funny that we were so close to it, and even had the correct answer, but we just arrived at it the wrong way–not as a corruption of “earring,” but as a clear word-to-word alteration of “woman’s jewelry” to “her ring.”

      I think we got this one in the bag.

      I’ll note further that I do think the trident and cushions clue to 38. I suspect the rooms do still have clues, and that they point to 24–but I have a lot of work to do to make that hypothesis defensible.

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    • Welcome Factitious!

      Congratulations! I am tentatively moving the solve meter from zero to four, but if we don’t find “red” or anything else, and feel confident that this is it, I’ll move it up to five. Well done!

      White Raven

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    • Dave mentions that man-door’s heart light. you don’t have to put on the red light.

      Factitious did a great job, but I still feel a bit uneasy. The tail doesn’t fit as neatly with fish as the other three signs which makes me think the signs might be paired- water and herring/unjust scale and donkey tail. The water sign pairs extra well with the woman’s jewelry since the H makes one think of Her and the 00s are also rings.
      Could there be a separate clue ruling out 43? Is there some other connection between the scale and the tail?

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  15. Last tiny bit here: The entrance ways look like men. That light hangs in front of one. It is where his heart would be. “Light hearted” King Herod’s song in JCSS certainly is that.

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    • If Manson didn’t put in any intentionally christian messages or themes (except when it is being used for its word value (like “nun” in 45), I think we need a much stronger evidence to pick up something like Herod, or a particular song from Jesus Christ Superstar, and run with it.

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  16. A bit more on “fair”.

    In room 43 we have that choices are neither “good” nor “bad” giving us “fair”. But then we are told that 22 is not a “bad” place. It is also “fair”. For reinforcement notice that he is “extremely critical”, and has not sparred his guests the “rigor of his judgment” – that is “He is fair”.

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  17. Raven,
    So what would be a “solution” to this room in your mind? There are no good door exits. I expect some sot of message like “TRAP” to be found in this room. Is that what you expect?

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    • Yes, while there are two other likely possible messages, the most likely is something trap related.

      Three of the trap rooms, as already posted, contain trap messages as their primary riddle. 24 is the trap in the trap. I won’t say anything about the other two but they do both contain obvious trap-like images and/or text. If this room does not contain a trap message or suggestion it is the only room of The Trap that does not.

      That said, perhaps this room is special, it is well furnished for being in The Trap. Maybe the answer is something unique and unlike anything else in the book, like a thank you to the publisher or something. But given the difficulty of determining so remote a possibility I’m still shooting for a trap message or one of the other messages that occurs elsewhere in the book.

      White Raven

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    • Fair enough, but consider every step of the chain of analysis is backed up – that is there are 2 paths (or more) to each step of the conclusion. Ocean/sea for sure. “Fair” I just noticed is weak, but also just found support. Pharisee/Jew – 2 paths. Judge – 2 paths. 2 paths to the specific JCSS one – the theater stuff, and the time keeping one. And then for the song from there you have the +1 process and the “rest/stop” reinforcement, plus just the absolute appropriateness.

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    • You haven’t convinced me but keep fishing (pardon the pun) – something in here could be on the right track.

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    • posted reinforcement to “fair”, in room 22, and left out the simple anagram of “Herod” above. Same complexity as getting “A bell” from “FABLE”.

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    • And besides – you want escape from the TRAP to be easy? lol

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    • I were actually in The Trap I would spend all my time in this room hoping to discover just that!

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  18. Jesus, man, where were we on the obvious with this one?

    Head of the trident is a 3. To its right, an octagon. 3 8. The handle of the trident points to 38.

    That obviously ignores the bigger puzzle with the pictures, but we’re in the Trap here, so I’m not sure there are going to be highly convoluted puzzles telling us where to go; there is nowhere to go. Like other rooms in the trap, I suspect this one has something to tell us, maybe related to the guide or maybe just another warning that we’re trapped, apart from the right door to take.

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    • Do you think any of the trap rooms really indicate a “correct” door. I’ve not noticed any. I do think they all contain a TRAP message of some sort, perhaps. Plus, yes, 6 gives us some guide stuff.

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    • Yep – head of Trident is indeed 3, I’m keeping that. And Yep, Oct = 8. But then “4″ signs. Double false clues, one for 43, and one for 38.

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  19. In this room we first have a set of clues that I believe are supposed to lead us to the word “ocean” or “sea”. We have “scales”, “rope”, and “H + OO” which is H2O which is water. The sign with the letters in a rough square is “Woman’s Jewelry” written left to right and bottom to top. This is probably a pearl. Notice the center of the round couch also looks like a pearl. We also have a “Trident”.

    Is it “ocean” or “sea”? In the next room 38 there is a poster with “See”. It is part of a puzzle there, where it spells “No escape” but also I think it helps us choose “sea” here.

    Also in the adjoining room 42 we have a puzzle that leads us to “Fair well” (appropriate for a trap room). “Well” is in the text here in this room (near a set of ellipsis, to help bring it to our attention). That helps with sorting out well/hell/bell in room 43. In room 43 we have that choices are neither “good” nor “bad” giving us “fair”. But then we are told that 22 is not a “bad” place. It is also “fair”.

    Now add Fair + sea = Pharisee. Notice now that the sign that says “Woman’s Jewelry” also plainly says “Jew”.

    The text has the word “judgment” near ellipsis. And we have scales to represent judgment as well. So…King Herod?

    Take ROPE + H and flip the P to make a D and we have an anagram of “Herod”.

    Why “King Herod”? I think because he bears the weight of the responsibility for the death of Jesus, and thus by metaphorical extension bears the weight of the world on his shoulders, like other figures we are clued to in the Maze.

    “We all have our roles to play” fits with Herod’s role in the death of Jesus as well.

    But wait…there’s more. The “solution” to a trap room should involve not a room exit but some sort of message appropriate to a trap like “trap”, “no escape” or “fair well”. We don’t have that yet.

    The narrator says one could spend quite a bit of time here, which is appropriate for a trap room. But also could start us thinking about the timekeeping system in the maze (see introduction section). It involves an 8 sided clock with letters A-H. The text also says “one could spend quite some time here”. The Trident here would indicate one hand on A and the other on F/G. Um…FAG? OK give Manson a break it was the early 80s. But note that King Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar (70s) was played as flamboyantly gay. Now note the “theatrical backdrop”, and “everyone is a critic” and “We all have our roles to play” and “some people like the exotic” (watch You-tube of King Herod’s song from the TV movie), and “gaudy”.

    Well..OK then, so King Herod from Jesus Christ Super star, so what? What else do we have?

    We have a place to rest in the middle of the room on an 8-sided sign. A we have “restive” way. A rest-stop.

    The back in 2012 I observed a large excess of words with both o and e here. Now I’ll refine that a bit to concentrate on words with “one”. “overdone”, ”som(n)e, “everyone”, ”lonely”, ”one”, “one”, “som(n)e” “on(e).

    King Herod appears once in JCSS. HE has one and only one song. Let’s grab that “+” sign again. King Herod (From JCSS) + 1 = the next song. Title = “Could we start again please?” Last 4 lines = ”Before it gets too frightening, we ought to call a halt (or a rest stop). So could we start again, please? Could we start again, please? Could we start again?”

    And that, I submit, is an appropriate “TRAP” room message.

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  20. Unless it’s just me, this page lists 38 twice, once as a one-way connection and once as a two-way, and fails to list 42 as a one-way connection.

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  21. New analysis of room 22 (added to my page as well):

    In this room we first have a set of clues that I believe are supposed to lead us to the word “ocean” or “sea”. We have “scales”, “rope”, and “H + OO” which is H2O which is water. The sign with the letters in a rough square is “Woman’s Jewelry” written left to right and bottom to top. This is probably a pearl. Notice the center of the round couch also looks like a pearl. We also have a “Trident”.

    Is it ‘ocean” or “sea”? In the next room 38 there is a poster with “See”. It is part of a puzzle there, where it spells “No escape” but also I think it helps us choose “sea” here.

    Also in the adjoining room 42 we have a puzzle that leads us to “Fair well” (appropriate for a trap room). “Well” is in the text here in this room (near a set of ellipsis, to help bring it to our attention). That helps with sorting out well/hell/bell in room 43. In room 43 we have that choices are neither “good” nor “bad” giving us “fair”. But then we are told that 22 is not a “bad” place. It is also “fair”.

    Now add Fair + sea = Pharisee. Notice now that the sign that says “Woman’s Jewelry” also plainly says “Jew”.

    The text has the word “judgment” near ellipsis. And we have scales to represent judgment as well. So…King Herod?

    Take ROPE + H and flip the P to make a D and we have an anagram of “Herod”.

    “We all have our roles to play” fits with Herod’s role in the death of Jesus as well.

    Why “King Herod”? I think because he bears the weight of the responsibility for the death of Jesus, and thus by metaphorical extension bears the weight of the world on his shoulders, like other figures we are clued to in the Maze.

    The narrator says one could spend quite a bit of time here, which is appropriate for a trap room.

    “Theatrical backdrop” gives us the letters for “TRAP”, and in room two, perhaps that is what the backs of the fake trees mean in room 2.

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  22. The herring stuff is good!
    Two thoughts:
    1. Donkey tail + theater makes me think of A Midsommer Night’s Dream.
    2. A trap room mainly should either communicate you’re in a trap room, mislead you into believing otherwise, or tell you about the larger Maze. In this case, I think it might say something about the Guide- the left tilted scales mirroring the Guide’s own claim to being extremely critical.

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  23. The sign on the wall says woman’s jewelry if read from bottom to top but I can’t see how that has anything to do with anything!

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    • I noticed that too, I tried rearranging the words “anklet” “necklace” “ring” and “earring” but to no avail. My guess is that “earring” is the right word since it is most often considered woman’s jewelry but I’m not sure what to do with it.

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    • Oooh, earring makes me think of herring, then I noticed the sign to the right of that one perhaps says H + pair rings which also makes me think of herring, but as you can tell I am totally just grasping at straws here. The signs on the other side of the door may be “tail” and “scale” but is there some sort of woman’s jewelry that rhymes with those? And that last sign…. No idea.

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    • Emily, The H + OO is probably H2O… water. A fish has a tail, scales (but there is only one scale) and lives in water (H2O). Also the trident is the weapon of Poseidon mythical god of the sea. But I don’t see how to get from “earring” to “herring” and to have meaning it would need to be a “red herring” and I see no indication of “red” in the room. Are we close to something here? Hmm…

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    • If the “womans jewelry” is a necklace, that could be understood to mean “neckless,” which would describe a fish, though, it is sort of an odd descriptor to break out. In general, when you have to go through several steps to use a bit of information (decoding “womans jewelry,” figuring out it refers to a necklace, and then transforming that to “neckless”) I tend to think the resulting clue shouldn’t be just a strained connection. (Otherwise, you just keep taking steps until something matches and you call it a clue.)

      That said, this one is kind of on the line for me.

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