Comments on: Room 31

By: Kirk

Kirk — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 00:24:02 +0000

It’s also a bowling term.

By: vewatkin

vewatkin — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 20:41:34 +0000

If you took this to be a visual representation of a figure of speech, it’s notable that it connects to 44′s “vicious circle” and 21′s “garden path” (as in “to lead down…).

I’m not sure that “dead wood” is a sensible enough expression to describe this leg of the Maze, though. Considered very generally as meaning “a useless thing,” it’s a plausible enough description of this room or this area. But in practice, the phrase is used more to describe something expected to do work (like an employee or a machine) that doesn’t, rather than just any old thing that isn’t useful to you.

By: vewatkin

vewatkin — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 20:30:05 +0000

dead wood

By: vewatkin

vewatkin — Sun, 17 Aug 2025 16:21:07 +0000

I would be cautious of a finding a letter theme where a number of contextually appropriate objects start with the same letter. Here, with the decaying tree in the courtyard, the fact that there are branches, brooms (or soft rakes?), and baskets for collecting tree litter, doesn’t strongly suggest that objects were chosen for their initial letter, rather than to suit the scene. The brick walls aren’t strictly connected to these other objects, but they are a building material found in other places of the Maze as well.

Taking words from the narrative that start with the same letter

It’s like if there were an office room within the Maze, and it contained paper, pens, pencils, a printer, a phone, a (hole) punch, a PC, a pocket pouch…it’s a lot of Ps, but it’s also just stuff that seems thematically appropriate to the setting.

By: KennRuss

KennRuss — Sun, 17 Aug 2025 14:42:35 +0000

The face above (the correct) door 44 has no pupils. Maybe it is very strangely looking inward while the rest are looking outward?
This is a “B” room: in the art there are pairs of baskets, brooms, branches on the ground; in the text the branches are “bone-white,” sound like “boards,” and the walls are explicitly “brick.”

By: ritz

ritz — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 01:22:09 +0000

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

By: vewatkin

vewatkin — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 19:20:04 +0000

Pssssst, ritz, check the MazeCast hangout.

By: vewatkin

vewatkin — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 19:12:19 +0000

“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 he expected readers to understand.

By: ritz

ritz — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 16:37:30 +0000

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 to me about that exchange, though, is the response from the visitor.
“They seem to be watching us…”
It’s redundant. That’s the “joke” that the Guide just made. What’s the point of having the character restate it? Is it to draw attention to the difference between passively looking and actively watching?
Hmm, reading it again, perhaps that’s the case. I’m imagining the eyes of grotesques following you, like in a gothic horror.

My second thought, perhaps brought about by years of 33-windmill-tilting-delirium, is that the two rooms maaaaaybe have some parallels. Room 33 has no floor, this room (admittedly one of many) has no ceiling.
Branches are compared to boards here, and the centerpieces in each room vaguely resemble each other. Boards are MADE of wood, what exactly is the point of that metaphor?
Eh… it’s likely just colorful tone-setting, but I can dream.

By: vewatkin

vewatkin — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 18:08:44 +0000

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 two possible meanings of “look,” and the reader is meant to immediately recognize it as such.