From: 1:20 PM Subject: Narrator's Identity in MAZE: Dante ReferenceTo: jmb184@frontiernet.net First -- let me say, your website is wonderful! It's answered a lot of questions I've been nursing for years, and it's wonderful to see so many people coming together to work on this infuriatingly clever puzzle. This is in reference to the following message listed in your website's correspondence: >Date: Sat, 08 May 1999 10:31:42 -0600 >From: IF >X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 [en] (Win95; I) >MIME-Version: 1.0 >To: John Bailey , carl@wurb.com, nwdave@cyborganic.com >Subject: Re: Regarding MAZE >References: <3732034F.4B4673A3@ix.netcom.com> <373227B2.718591A8@frontiernet.net> >Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="------------F3B6053AEBDD6641E446D8BD" >X-UIDL: 38034cf2fcacc4a6c4dae91806fbdbab >X-Mozilla-Status: 8013 > "They think I am some poet who will lead them through the symbols and >spaces of this Underworld." > A reference to Dante, obviously, though in context he seems to be >clearly stating he is NOT a Dante of any sort. This is the first formal >declaration, and it's hinted at further along, that the Maze (or House as he >calls it) is a Hades of some sort. This is the first major pointer towards my >strongest suspiscion: That The Narrator is King Minos of Crete, the king who >comissioned the Minotaur's labyrinth and who, after death served as a judge of >the dead at the gates of hell (see gatekeeper comment above). Minos is in >fact directly mentioned in Dante's Inferno, and if anyone can find the >relevant passages, I'd be most grateful. The guide in the Inferno was actually Virgil; Dante was the guided one. Still, that doesn't make any difference here. The passage in question is in Canto V, right at the start: So I descended from first to second circle -- Which girdles a smaller space and greater pain, Which spurs more lamentation. Minos the dreadful Snarls at the gate. He examines each one's sin, Judging and disposing as he curls his tail: That is, when an ill-begotten soul comes down, It comes before him, and confesses all; Minos, great connoisseur of sin, discerns For every spirit its proper place in Hell, And wraps himself in his tail with as many turns As levels down that shade will have to dwell. A crowd is always waiting: here each one learns His judgment and is assigned a place in Hell. They tell; they hear -- and down they all are cast. "You, who have come to sorrow's hospice, think well," Said Minos, who at the sight of me had paused To interrupt his solemn task mid-deed: "Beware how you come in and whom you trust, Don't be deceived because the gate is wide." This is the extent of Minos's appearance in the Inferno, and that last certainly resembles the Narrator's admonition at the beginning of Maze. I would consider this good circumstantial evidence for considering King Minos the Narrator, though it's still not positive proof. A couple of miscellaneous notes you may already have, but which I didn't notice if they were there: ROOM 1 (the entrance hall of the Maze): Three of the four lines of dialogue among the visitors correspond to door. The fourth seems to correspond to "Decisions, decisions, too many decisions." At first I wondered if this was referring to a specific fable, but more to the point it has "decision" in the title. Ergo, this is the correct decision! ROOM 3 (an entirely different kind of place): Every item on one side is mirrored by its answer or opposite -- the Riddle of the Sphinx mirrored by a stick-man, the sun mirrored by the moon, POTS mirrored by STOP. The only object with no obvious match is the radiator; since a radiator produces heat, then its opposite is cold. Thus, if you go through the door to room 33, you're "getting colder." ROOM 4 (the great hall of many doors): If we're paying no attention to the foolish face we are facing out of the picture, and thus the black cat runs out of door 15, 29, or 44 and then proceeds out of the hall. Presumably it leaves by a different door. In order to be sure that the cat crosses our path we have to take door 15 or 29 -- the two exits we leave here from at different times. ROOM 5 (the tree room): The Narrator correctly identifies the chances of choosing correctly as two in four -- because two of the doors are on the path and the other two lead to entrapment in the cycle of rooms with no exit. ROOM 7 (a pleasant room with three doors and a lamp): A bull-horned mirror turns anyone who looks into it into a Minotaur. ROOM 9 (what appeared to be an old storeroom): Obvious, but ... one blind mouse implies the number 3, indicating that door. The thoughtful one is wrong here, as the Narrator agrees with her; this is a clue that this room is not on the path. ROOM 11 (an airy room with many doors): Again, the thoughtful one is wrong and the Narrator is telling the truth (living or dying is a VERY important choice!). An indication that you're on the wrong path. The darkness outside may be that of Room 24. ROOM 13 (room number 13): Pointing a spotlight at a sundial is a good way to indicate that time is meaningless. It is six in the evening here, while the sun was hot at the gate, and it's late afternoon in room 19. Time might be seen as passing, but then, neither 13 nor 19 is on the path, indicating that it may well be noonish throughout the journey. ROOM 16 (a stone chamber which reminded me of my old neighbors): If the narrator is a part of Greek mythology, then his literary neighbors would be other fables and folk stories. Thus, even if the giant does not actually represent a Titan, it could still serve as the reminder. The giant may also be the Green Man of Celtic folklore. ROOM 22 (a gaudy room that reminded me of a theatrical backdrop): The third sign spells WOMAN'S JEWELRY backwards, but I can't think of a type of jewelry that men don't wear also that might relate to the room. The fourth sign says WATER (h two o). (I didn't figure these out -- my theater group did in high school. A lot of backstage time that should have been spent rehearsing was spent analyzing path networks and arguing good-naturedly over riddles.) ROOM 23 (a room with three other doors): On the path. One of the visitors says they should have picked up the bumbershoot from the "coat room" -- "the one with the animal" -- a clear reference to 42, the room with coats hung up in it and an animal. The path does indeed go through room 42 headed to room 23, and it does NOT pass through room 10, where a visitor picks up an umbrella. Also, the object the narrator crushes is probably broken glass from room 19, another indication not to take door 19. ROOM 27 (a darkened chamber dominated by a large figure): The inscription is very hard to read, but resembles FATA VIA MIN VENIENT? I don't know much Latin, but the Fata Morgana is a famous mirage, VIA means road, and VENIENT is a conjugation of either "to come" or "to go". MIN, I have no idea. Best guess, Hidden Path To Come. Is this an indication to look for a hidden door just two pages later? Also -- there's a spade over the door to 13 and a spade leaned up against the opposite wall. The heart over the locked door is matched by a club leaning against the other wall; no match. This is the door from room 20, which is on the path, while room 27 isn't. Perhaps there's a connection, as very often the correct road is the one that there is no clue to indicate. ROOM 29 (a much smaller room): Just to be bothersome: a bottle is upended to pour its contents out, a leaf blows around and around in the wind, salt and pepper shakers are upended to use them, a windup key is turned over and over, a spatula flips things over, an hourglass is inverted, the tumbler is upside down. Looking carefully at the door and candelabra makes the hidden entrance painfully obvious, and you're even clued to do it by the fact that only the candle actually IN the candleabrum is lit. How I could have missed this for fourteen years ... ROOM 36 (an old and ruinous part of the house): No comments here, but I would like a layman's translation of the term "plangent brio." ROOM 37 (a long, open room with no roof): While I prefer the use of the zero from slala@printcafe.com, I have to note that the missing number from the blank face is a three on normal dice. ROOM 39 (what looked like a combination wine cellar and junk room): The multiplication chart is wrong; 1x1=1, not 2. Also, if the 7x7 says 49, the hook on the 9 would be at least partially visible; if you look REALLY closely, it appears to say 48! This implies that only the 5 and 3 are correct. The correct door in the next room is 5x3=15. Also, in "The Cask of Amontillado," Fortunato was bricked-up in a dead-end corner of the Montresor wine cellar and family crypt. If one is counting doors, perhaps this one shouldn't be counted. ROOM 41 (a room with a special piece of furniture I thought might appeal to my guests): The guests "were pretty sure of themselves" but didn't know whether to trust the slide. Obviously, they didn't take it. The frog about to strike implies a trap about to be sprung, indicating again that the slide is a trap. The rag doll is obviously pointing to YARN, the label on the TALE door from room 1. * There is a STORY behind the STORY door -- the lead story on the newspaper. * There is a TALE behind the YARN door -- the bird's tail. There is nothing corresponding even roughly to a FABLE in room 20, 41, or 21. To me, what this says is that again, FABLE is the odd-man-out. Since rooms 41 and 21 are mixed-up, they are "wrong"; STORY is "right" because that's the way we'll come on our way out, and FABLE is an example of the silences being as eloquent as he sounds. ROOM 42 (the next room): "Sinners This Way" refers to Adam and Eve, which do reside in room 30. Thus, the correct path is the one with saints behind it. Room 22 is out because of the devil's pitchfork. Room 25 is out because of the crown on the wall; saints are usually commoners. Room 37 has nothing resembling saints. Room 4, however, the correct choice, has the heavens painted on its ceiling. Also, there is a lost boot; this is the boot in room 38, showing that anything in that room is "lost." ROOM 43 (a great hall, dominated by the entrance to room 22): The reason the choice is neither "good" nor "bad" is because either one will lead around in circles! The party is already trapped forever, so the choice matters so little that one can hardly call it good OR bad. Anyway, these are merely my own petty, unworthy thoughts, and I only hope you will find enough scant merit in them to consider them for archiving. Thanks for maintaining this terrific site! -- R. Serena Wakefield (raistw@gate.net) Visit Serena's Roleplaying Dojo: http://welcome.to/serenasdojo/ When you get right down to it, when the bridge washes out we're all stuck spending the night in this spooky old house together.