Monday 1 September 2008

The Maize Maze








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.

4 comments:

Juliet said...

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

Martin Edwards said...

Thanks 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!

Anonymous said...

Mazes 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!

Martin Edwards said...

Well, Eric, I have to admit we needed a bit of teamwork to find our way out of the big maze!