Best of MazeCast: Room 39

Getting antsy waiting for the next MazeCast episode? My recommendation is to go back and watch early episodes again. I like to do this when working on mechanical tasks and when I do I always find I learn something I missed the first time or am reminded of an idea I loved.

Take, for example, the Room 39 episode, “The Thousand Injuries of Fortunato.” I revisited this episode recently while doing a bunch of formatting and it is a good one, featuring Vincent, Greg, and Beelz. Room 39 is of course the Cask of Amontillado/Poe room, so there’s a lot of talk about that, but you also learn about the ELVIS WAY observation and the Young Guns 2 connection. In case that’s not enough to make you want to revisit Room 39, here’s a snippet of conversation that occurred after Beelz presented Dave Gentile’s idea about how we know which door Montresor took. Apparently, he was just popping over to Room 4 to gather materials to make the torch which he planned to shove into Fortunato’s cell before sealing it up for good.

VINCENT: You wouldn’t really use a log to make a torch, would you? I mean, that’s not the way you make torches…

GREG: Chop it up!

BEELZ: Chop some of it off!

VINCENT: You, you’d have to… You wouldn’t… you couldn’t do it with just an axe because they’re – I mean you could I guess if you were really an expert wor – but that’s not what they do ’cause they make like, thin – more like a pole than a-

GREG: Well, what Middle Ages tool would you use to make a torch?

VINCENT: (exasperated) I don’t know what they used in the Middle AGES…

GREG: Well, that’s when you used torches! You don’t use torches – like, these days, the British, they call torches flashlights, and you don’t use wood for that at all. But that’s not what they used in the Cask of Amontillago! They used, like, a torch with a stick.

VINCENT: Yeah a STICK, not a LOG!

BEELZ: He just pushes the candle in there! It’s METAPHORICALLY a torch.

Yes, a fine example of the kind of eloquence and in-depth analysis you have come to expect from MazeCast.

But what happens next? Before you get all shook up, skip to 56:40-ish to listen the exchange and find out. Or, don’t be cruel to yourself, just rewatch the whole episode! And remember, if MAZE is always on your mind, we want to hear from you. Comment or get in touch via the public MAZE chat room, accessible from the link on the home page banner.