I'm fascinated by mazes, and they featured in Eve of Destruction (I always liked the maze on the cover of the American edition) as well as, to a lesser extent, in The Arsenic Labyrinth. Yesterday, therefore, it was fun to pay another visit to a local maize maze.
The maize maze is to be found in the fields belonging to a local farm. They first built a maze a few years ago (there are several up and down the country, and I gather the idea originated in the US) and have steadily expanded the range of attractions, as well as the number of different mazes. So there is also a fence maze, a no U turn maze, and a colour coded maze. Plenty of different ways in which to get lost.
The pleasure of mazes is, I think, similar to the pleasure of a puzzle novel from the 1930s. It may not be the most sophisticated form of pleasure, but who cares? I certainly find them enjoyable.
Never been in a maize maze, but had fun in the mazes at Legoland the other day!! If you could bring yourself to read a non-crime novel, I'd recommend Larry's Party by Carol Shields. Larry is a designer of mazes and labyrinths. There's a review here: http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/09/07/reviews/970907.07klinket.html
ReplyDeleteThanks for the recommendation, Juliet. My webmaster and I went to Legoland a good many years ago, but we can't recall the mazes. Maybe they are a newish innovation!
ReplyDeleteMazes are fascinating but considering how bad I am at finding my way out of paper and pencil mazes I am wary of entering a real one. When I was very young, and short, venturing too far into the corn in my grandparents' garden could be scary!
ReplyDeleteWell, Eric, I have to admit we needed a bit of teamwork to find our way out of the big maze!
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