From - Sat Nov 06 14:33:47 1999 Received: from smtp01.frontiernet.net (smtp01.frontiernet.net [209.130.129.210]) by mail.frontiernet.net (8.8.8a/8.8.8) with ESMTP id XAA53366 for ; Fri, 5 Nov 1999 23:52:49 -0500 Received: (from daemon@localhost) by smtp01.frontiernet.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id XAA49964 for ; Fri, 5 Nov 1999 23:52:44 -0500 Received: from smtp4.fas.harvard.edu(140.247.30.84) via SMTP by smtp01.frontiernet.net, id smtpdCNXZMa; Fri Nov 5 23:52:36 1999 Received: from default.fas.harvard.edu (boroson.student.harvard.edu [140.247.187.142]) by smtp4.fas.harvard.edu with SMTP id XAA03168; Fri, 5 Nov 1999 23:52:35 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <3.0.1.32.19991105234823.0093e998@pop.fas.harvard.edu> X-Sender: boroson@pop.fas.harvard.edu X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0.1 (32) Date: Fri, 05 Nov 1999 23:48:23 -0500 To: jmb184@frontiernet.net From: Alexander Boroson Subject: MAZE Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-UIDL: 9253d176294dc9fae64f1bcfd5464d65 X-Mozilla-Status: 8003 Is your MAZE site still active? It was a pleasure to find that someone is collecting theories about this book. Do you have any information about the clues that lead the reader along the path from one room to the next? Knowing the path is one thing, but there are supposed to be reasons for choosing the correct doors. Some of these I thought I had worked out - I wonder if anyone else thought the same way... For example, the clue to choose the door to 26 on the first page seemed to be that "Fable" was the only one of the four words not to have been spoken (or anagrammed) in the text. Or, along similar lines, that in room 42, one chose the door to room 4 because the salt and pepper shakers are the only image that can't be called a "pair" (or "pear"). And the sculpted fists holding sculpted torches in room 4 are a strong clue to the hidden door in the next room, 29. AND on the return trip, having already been through room 4, the reader should recognize, in room 39, that the sounds described are coming from that room (a clue that they should return). Etc. I had more guesses like these about the reasoning but I can't recall them all at the moment. I DO recall that most of them were even less convincing than the few above, and that for a good number of rooms I had no ideas at all. If you knew anything about this aspect of the puzzle I'd love to hear it. Another comment: one of the suggestions made on your site is that a shorter route exists, using the unmarked doors. This is pretty clearly not allowed by the rules of the book, or even by the logic of the narration, when one takes into account the various references to "locked" doors...the fact that the people in room 10 rattle the door to 37 but can't get in - and the door is IDENTIFIED as the door to 37 by the connection between the texts - makes clear that one can't sneak through the unmarked doors even if one knows what's on the other side. On the other hand, I suspect there is something to be gleaned from making a "map" that identifies all unmarked doors, especially given the comment in room 5 that "There are one hundred ninety doors in this part of the House, counting the gate..." The comment confuses me - by my count, there are 188 doors, counting the gate, AND counting the Cask of Amontillado door in room 39, which, according to my mapping, does not connect to anything. Am I wrong to count it? Or perhaps I've missed some OTHER unidentified door that becomes its partner? Since the total includes the front gate and yet is an even number, the implication is that there is another unpaired door somewhere, presumably the blocked door in room 39. Unfortunately that leaves 2 doors unaccounted for - unless I am missing some obvious ones. Has anyone else done the count? I thought perhaps the point of this clue was to encourage the reader to look for the hidden door in room 29 - if you didn't know about it yet, you might assume that the blocked door in room 39 connected to one of the doors in room 17, a completely useless link! By giving the total number of doors he gives a hint that one is hidden. Of course, that only works if you can find the other 189, which I apparently can't. Help? Let me know what you think of any of this. -Andy Boroson