Comments on: Room 30

By: banzai_bill

banzai_bill — Tue, 22 Jul 2025 18:36:03 +0000

The text contains only 4 words with ‘O’ and ‘U’ in them,
and 2 ‘spaced out’ appearences, as they are displayed with the door inbetween.
So, 4 and 2 -> 42

thoughtful
Obviously

‘O’ and ‘U’
for us

confused
through

By: Bastian

Bastian — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 02:13:33 +0000

Three letters F = 6, 0 = 15, U = 21 “Add em”
Add them = 42

By: vewatkin

vewatkin — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 17:05:40 +0000

That’s probably a good illustration of the dangers of unrestricted arithmetical solutions: you can always find something to count or multiply or combine to get the number you want to get.

I noted a solution listed above, about counting F in the text and then multiplying by the etc etc, and even though that was motivated by specific symbols in the room, it was still nonsense that only worked out by coincidence.

(I only count 41 words in the quotes, incidentally, but I don’t think it matters very much which of us is correct in our counting.)

By: vewatkin

vewatkin — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 16:53:49 +0000

Reading your comment again, I realize you may have already understood all that–you were just suggesting a reason for why we don’t go the way the puzzle is indicating.

That’s fair enough too–the Eden theme and the discussion of door 34′s elegance speak to the idea of avoiding temptation. I think there’s a broader theme of “silence” in the book that suggests we don’t want to go the way that the clues point, but it’s not clear how far we can take that, or how many rooms are meant to suggest this to us.

(Room 1 makes the importance of silence explicit. Room 26 uses literal devils as clues. And perhaps this room highlights the danger of temptation. I’m not sure whether any other rooms along the path suggest this principle, and I’m not sure how many of them even follow it.)

By: vewatkin

vewatkin — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 16:46:58 +0000

This is one of the few puzzles in the book we have a pretty good understanding of–the assemblage of objects in the center of the room indicates “F HOUR TREE,” which is an anagram of THREE FOUR.

That doesn’t mean that the associations you cite aren’t there, though. Certainly, the IF NO EVE anagram (ONE FIVE) will create associations with the tree here, and possibly with religious language in the next room, and the devil imagery in the previous room. It may be that one of the key ways that Manson distracts from the solution to a puzzle is by inserting elements into the room that associate with the puzzle along a different axis than the solution.

By: Nicholas

Nicholas — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 05:09:52 +0000

It’s fruit from the true of knowledge. If there’s “No Eve” to tempt Adam then he remains naive.

And the fruit of knowledge is fake so it offers false wisdom.

And the clock is broken making it not a reliable source of information.

Unsure if this all tracks.

By: Jsd

Jsd — Sat, 31 May 2025 01:29:57 +0000

There are exactly 42 words in the quotes in the text.

By: Treenk96

Treenk96 — Thu, 29 May 2025 14:12:07 +0000

The text says “Leaving the room and all that IT contained behind us, we entered…”.

If you examine the room I only found 10 fruITs and 3 exITs. Then, it means that the children left 10 fruits, 3 exits and the room 30 behind. -> They left 43 behind.

¿What is the number before 43? You got it right, 42. Which is the right answer. Kind of trickie this one.

¿Can you find you find any other item that contains IT in the room? ¿Maybe in the text? I think it may be a correct answer involving both story and image and with word-puzzles that Manson loves that much.

By: tawny thrash

tawny thrash — Thu, 22 May 2025 10:49:31 +0000

The letter ornaments are vowels. 42 (fortytwo) is the only number to only contain the ornament vowels.

fortytwo (O, O)
thirtyfour (I, O, U)
five (I, E)
fifteen (I, E, E)

By: Graham

Graham — Thu, 22 May 2025 03:41:50 +0000

Another way to get 2 from the tree, there are 10 apples and 5 branches (representing division). [Although it is a bit hard to tell if I have this right... the picture at the top might have 6 branches, but the picture in the middle appears to have 5.]