« Life is like a maze in which you try to avoid the exit. » — Roger von Oech
Some time in the late 1980s, a friend handed me a book, challenging me — I guess — to “see if I could work out the solution.”
He had, however, misread me: altogether lacking that flavour of ambition, I wasn’t in the slightest interested in solving the riddle. Instead, I was quite content to wallow in the uncanny ambiance and enjoy the stunningly wrought textual clues.
This is Maze (1985, Holt, Rinehart and Winston), written and illustrated by Christopher Manson; Amy Hill, designer.
« This is not really a book. This is a building in the shape of a book… a maze. Each numbered page depicts a room in the Maze. The doors in each room lead to other rooms. For example, the room on page 1 has doors leading to rooms 20, 26, 41, and 21. To go through door number 20, simply turn to page 20. Your challenge is to find your way from room 1 to room 45 and then back to room 1 using the shortest possible path. If you use your head, you should be able to make the journey in only sixteen steps. »
« … a gloomy, cavelike place far underground. Even I was oppressed by the weight that hung over our heads. A very small hole, high above, admitted a feeble light. »« … what appeared to be an old storeroom. Dust obscured a damaged painting, making it hard to understand just what the artist had intended. »« … one of the biggest rooms in the House. All three doorways were dark. “Afraid to go out?” I asked. »« … a much warmer room. Shadows danced across the floor to the fire’s music. »« … a dramatic room with four entrances and exits. “Not enough light in here,” they remarked. “Not very tidy either.” »« … a darkened chamber dominated by a large figure. We could see that someone had been working here recently; the entrance I had so carefully hidden had been uncovered. I made a note to return as soon as I could and fill in the hole again. »« … a melancholy little courtyard surrounded by a brick wall too high to see over. A dead tree lifted its bone-white branches to a sky filling with gray clouds. »« … what appeared to be someone’s basement. One of them sank gratefully down on an old couch which promptly collapsed. »« … the foundations of the Maze. Deep underground stones had been carved and fitted; passage opened in the natural rock. »
Nearly four decades after its publication, Maze’s mystique endures. And interest resolutely lingers, which I salute. Apparently, Maze belongs to a genre termed ‘ergodic fiction‘.
Should you wish to try your hand at the task, the entire book’s available to peruse here.
Who's Out There? 