If you are reading this then you have seen my blog and you know that I’m a huge fan, so let’s take the gushing and fawning as read, shall we?
Mr Manson, it has now been one year and one day since my (terrible) first post on the Abyss.
During that time I have had a lot of fun on that site and here on MazeCast. I’ve learned a great deal about your book but also about Greek myths and Roman numerals and the short stories of Borges. In addition, I have met many interesting and intelligent people, some of whom I now consider actual friends despite never having met them in person-a first for me-so thank you very, very much for that.
But Chris-may I call you Chris? No? Very well. Mr Manson, the other day my husband glanced at MAZE as it lay on a side table in the living room. It was not the first time he had seen the book, of course, far from it, but this time something prompted him to remark, “Why are you all spending so much time on this thing? There’s a giant red herring right there on the cover. What does that tell you?”
Perhaps he was trying to pry me away from this (let’s face it) extremely nerdy hobby but his comment gave me pause.
Has it all been a prolonged, elaborate April Fool’s Day prank, Mr Manson? Are we all just chasing rainbow trout here? Please send us a sign. A rain of fish, an umbrella, anything.
Happy Prologue Day to all Mazers! Perhaps better known as Pi Day, March 14 (of course) is the day on which to celebrate all things mathematical, and especially pi in all its irrational glory.
Should your notion of celebration include imbibing cocktails as you recite your times tables, solve differential equations, or memorize pi to 100,000 digits, may I recommend a piña colada piled high with pineapple pieces. For more refined tastes, a spirited pinot grigio should do the trick. Beer drinkers can enjoy a pint of piquant pilsner. Kanpai!
Back to the Prologue. The entrance gate is unusual in that you can go through it even though it does not have a number above the door. Instead it has "THE NEXT PAGE", which is preeeeeetty unambiguous. Nevertheless, like the rooms inside the House, the entrance seems to have a puzzle or three to solve to confirm you've got the right door, even though it isn't necessary here. That's how I interpret the pi symbol–shaped gate on the prologue page: it is a door indicator puzzle when combined with the umbrella.
This is the idea (see also the Abyss): the way the umbrella with its r-shaped handle is propped against the pi-shaped gate gives you πr. What does πr signify? The equation for the circumference of a circle is C = 2πr, where r is the radius of the circle. Divide both sides of the equation by two, and you get ½C = πr - pi times the radius of a circle is equal to half the circumference of that circle. And there's that half circle right over the door, a visual representation of the solution to the puzzle.
White Raven's theory about red herrings is that things that seem to connect one room to another, things that you have to peek into the next room to see, are usually red herrings (e.g., BALLerina in Room 10 and the BALL in room 14). If that's true, then the Prologue page can be seen as a kind of teaching page: the clues indicating the door to 41 (the fact that it's the only door you can see, the path of light, the highlighted handle) are misleading. The reliable clue comes from objects within the "room" - in this case, outside the gate.
An additional Prologue clue for door 1 comes from an observation vewatkin made in the chat a while ago: the two round stones by the umbrella could be intended as Morse code for I. If this is intentional, I could be meant as a reference to Roman numeral I, indicating Room 1. (In fact, the door itself could be an "i"- again, the Roman numeral 1, lowercase this time.) These ideas appeal to me because they add to the "teaching page" notion: the point illustrated here would be that each room contains multiple different puzzles pointing you to the correct door.
In general, there doesn't seem to be all that much in the way of mathematical clues in MAZE; at least, there are few if any of any complexity. Sometimes you have to do some simple addition, and there seems to be a multiplication thing going on in Room 30, and there's still the geometric transformation shenanigans in Room 3 to work out (or not), but that's about it. I keep hoping to find something related to the golden ratio, which seems like it would fit thematically, be relatively easy to incorporate into visual clues, and be up Manson's alley, but so far no dice.
LATE-BREAKING NEWS: a math-related solution has just been revealed by White Raven. You can find the solution here, the hint thread here
Finally, I will leave you with this fun fact about pi that I feel Manson himself might enjoy: when you hold "3.14" up to the mirror you get...
In a departure from my usual practice of providing you with a soundtrack for a room or area in the Maze, this month's playlist is dedicated to the Guide.
"Sympathy for the Devil" by the Rolling Stones
"Pleased to meet you/ Hope you guess my name/ But what's puzzling you/ Is the nature of my game." I could pretty much stop here, right? Trying to work out the identity of the Guide is one of the more absorbing puzzles that MAZE has to offer. Right from the get-go the Guide himself sets up the mystery: "Preoccupied with their own thoughts, impatient, like so many children, they didn't see who I really was." From there the question is implied again and again throughout the book as the Guide drops hints about his past and makes oblique comments about his own appearance, and a torn sign in the Trap has a hole where his name should be: who is the Guide?
"Who Are You?" by The Who
If only we had a microscopic hair sample, or a smear of spittle, or a blurry still from a security video that we could blow up with impossibly good resolution...!
"Strange Animal," by Gowan
Well, we now know for certain, of course, that the Guide is the Minotaur, as most MAZE fanatics have long suspected. It was fun to toss around other candidates like Minos or Theseus or the Devil, but nobody else fit all the clues so well. (More on that in future posts.) The Guide is winking very broadly when he says, "... in a very real way we are all of us animals, at least in part." I mean, who else is this clue going to be referencing? Mr Tumnus?
"Liar, Liar," by the Castaways
One of the more interesting bits of information that we got from an Ask Manson was that the Guide's statements are never completely truthful. It was difficult to pick a song about lies because there are so many good ones out there - Fleetwood Mac's "Little Lies," or the Knickerbockers' "Lies," for example - but in the end, I had to go with this one. The schoolyard chant of "liar, liar, pants on fire" seems a suitable response to the Guide's condescending attitude towards his visitors, whom he often refers to as children although they seem not to be - and even though he more often seems like the childish one, with his little tantrums and snits.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Gjx-ZQuQ_Y
"Follow Me," by Uncle Kracker
Sometimes in making these playlists I learn something new about a familiar song. For example, I had no idea that this song, which seems to be a sweet and simple love song if you're not paying attention, is actually about an arrogant jerk who likes to sleep with married women. Huh. Also, "Uncle Kracker"?! On the subject of sex, that's something that is largely absent from MAZE. The Minotaur has been used as a metaphor for animalistic or violent male lust (see, e.g., Picasso's Minotaur prints), but aside from a bit of mild flirtation with the Thoughtful One in Room 19, this Minotaur is really more interested in insulting and confusing his guests, with the goal of trapping them forever in Room 24, than in having sex with them. Or in eating them, for that matter! Which has always bothered me a little. Eternal entrapment seems a strangely bloodless end for a famously voracious monster to arrange for his victims...
"Lead Me On" by Teena Marie
Gotta be honest, including this track is pure self-indulgence. Ah, those pre-teen memories of listening to the Top Gun soundtrack over and over while fantasizing about Iceman. (Yes, pillow-kissing may have been involved.) On a related tangent: didja ever hear about that time when someone was plastering Val Kilmer's face and name all over Toronto?
"Your Daddy Don't Know" by Toronto
"... What your mama's gonna do tonight!" Speaking of Toronto, here's some CanCon and a shout-out to the Guide's family. Neither of the Minotaur's two daddies, Minos and the white bull, knew what his mama, Queen Pasiphaë, was going to do that night when she got up to her ill-fated shenanigans. I blame you, Daedalus! When a cursed woman asks you to build her a cow costume so she can fuck a bull, YOU SAY NO.
"Centuries" Fall Out Boy
In Room 16, an ancient-looking stone chamber, the Guide muses that he is reminded of his old neighbours, whose descendants "are still telling stories about me and my family to their children," a notoriety that he calls "immortality of a sort." In a similar spirit, this anthem blusters, "Some legends are told/ Some turn to dust or to gold/ But you will remember me / Remember me for centuries." It is a very silly song with a very silly video but I enjoy them both quite a lot.
"Minotaur's Song" Incredible String Band
The Incredible String Band is a Scottish psychedelic folk group, and this is their Minotaur song, which includes such magnificent lines as: "I can't dream well because of my horns" and "His habits are predicta-bull / Aggressively relia-bull bull bull..."
"Mini Mini Taur Taur" Tobuscus
If you listen to this, it will become an earworm that will torment you for the rest of your life, especially when you are trying to work or sleep. Don't say I didn't warn you.
http://soundcloud.com/chillygonzales/myth-me
"Myth Me" Chilly Gonzales
"Are you still with me? / You're gonna myth me..." We close on a wistful note with a lisping pun. The Guide puts up a good front, but perhaps all that sneering pride is just to hide the terrible loneliness of an eternity in the Maze with only occasional doomed visitors, an elusive man in formalwear, and a bunch of birds for company.
