A very specific genre of fiction that I absolutely adore is the supernatural maze or lanbyrinth. Technically, most of them are mazes – but I do like the word labyrinth more, especially in my German mother tongue, where it remains "Labyrinth" rather than "Irrgarten" (maze).
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| Giovanni Battista Piranesi - Le Carceri d'Invenzione - Second Edition - 1761 - 14 - The Gothic Arch |
Over the years I have, of course, created several pieces of transcendental maze in media – both as static dungeons on paper, procedural generation things in computer games or even that story-book-experiment I once wrote/designed. And of course my board games, of which there have been several iterations. But what about regular media? Books? Films? Board games...? Here's some I have read/watched/played over the course of the year. And no, Maze Runner doesn't count. Go home, creeps who read YA like a religion. And if you're actually a young adult: How the fuck did you end up on my blog?
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewsky
Can't have this list without that book. The story itself is, of course, a maze. As are the layers upon layers of fiction. Are we in the baseline reality of that dude researching an obscure, possibly nonexistant found-footage-film? Are we in that film? Are we the editor? The crazy old man who had been writing about the film? If they ever make this a movie, they should just go full found-footage and ignore any of the framework. But they probably wouldn't, would they? Difficult read, but it has some glimpses of mad genius shining all throughout the entire crazy thing. Love it or hate it. I love.
Maze by J.M. Mcdermott
At first glance, this is a straightforward story of people getting sucked into a mystical/magical maze. They appear to be from different epochs or worlds and fight a very bleak fight to survive in that crumbling ecosystem full of monsters where humans can just barely make themselves a niche somewhere in the middle o f the food chain. Terrifying at points and then you realize that some of the events don't link up right on a time line. I strongly suspect that if one were to draw all the story's strands on a map, it would itself form a maze with time-loops and everything. I don't have the stomach to work this book like that. It's good.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
What a great book! As far as supernatural mazes go, this one definetly has the most stylish one, consisting of endless halls of marble statues and reliefs that are affected by tides of an ocean below. And there is an ecosystem of birds, seaweed and fish there, which allows the amnesiac main character to survive. Great world building, good main character, nice resolution. The story is straightforward and that's a good thing. Definetely a recommendation from me.
The actual art of Piranesi
Giovanni Battista Piranesi was an archaeologist and architect and combined these two skillsets into his artbook Carceri d' Invenzione in 1750. When I first saw these etchings in a gallery in downtown Hamburg when I was a teenager I was fascinated. Later I encountered them in a museum and that's when I heard the name Piranesi the first time. The places depicted are immense, small human figures are seen on some of the walkways and the architecture is recognizable as mediterranean but expanded to a size that is today echoed by high fantasy media. I love 'em and you should too.
Das verrückte Labyrinth
The favourite board game of my childhood. The fact that this design allows for a nearly limitless ways of maze generation and as it stays in constant flux throughout a game it doesn't matter if things link up or not. Each player will just make their path if need be and so new passages keep opening up while old ones get blocked. You can play this very nastily but usually it's worth to just keep your eyes on the prize and go to your next treasure. This was one of the things that inspired me to make my first maze-boardgames. I still like to play it with my kids – we have the original version from the 80s. There are even Harry Potter themed ones now and while I'm usually very much averse to that kind of cash-grab-rebranding in this case it's oddly fitting.
Dave Made A Maze
A film! And with a premise that seems tailor-made for me: Guy who can never finish his creative projects (!) likes to craft with cardboard (!) and makes a maze (!) that is walk-in (!) and much larger on the inside than on the outside (!). Exploration (!), death (!) and hilarity (!) ensue. The film is lovingly made but somehow less than the sum of its parts. This ain't no Shaun of the Dead. But it's still not a bad way to kill the 100ish minutes of its running time. Just don't expect to like most of the characters or the plot resolution too much. Dave, you're a twat.
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