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Mazes
May 7, 2018 10:16:11 GMT
Post by ropardoe on May 7, 2018 10:16:11 GMT
About two years ago I raised the subject of maze stories in an MRJ thread, complaining that I didn't know of a list of such, let alone an anthology. Kev commented: "I think you may have to take the lead on that one, Ro". While hastening to note that I have no plans whatsoever to put together such an anthology, I've been prompted by the forthcoming appearance of a maze story in the next Ghosts & Scholars to have a go at a list. Here then is my preliminary attempt. I've tried to note the first appearance of each of the tales (which is not, of course, necessarily the place where it's most accessible). Please add whatever you can! There are some great stories here and there's no doubt they'd make a nice collection, but not edited by me! (Kev, if I've put this thread in the wrong place, please move!)
Robert Aickman, "Rosamund's Bower" (Night Voices, 1985)
Michael Chislett, "The Maze" (Formidable Visitants, 1999)
Jeremy Dyson, "The Maze" (Destination Unknown, 1997)
Neil Gaiman, "A Lunar Labyrinth" (Shadows of the New Sun, 2013)
M.R. James, "Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance" (More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, 1911)
Rick Kennett, "The Outsider" (Ghosts & Scholars 14, 1992)
H.P. Lovecraft (with Kenneth J. Sterling), "In the Walls of Eryx" (Weird Tales, October 1939)
David Longhorn, "Lineage" (The Ghosts & Scholars Book of Shadows Volume 2, 2014)
Reggie Oliver, "The Maze at Huntsmere" (Soliloquy for Pan, 2015)
Barbara Roden, "Tourist Trap" (Shadows and Silence, 2000)
Paul StJohn Mackintosh, "My Dancing Days are Over" (forthcoming in Ghosts & Scholars 34, 2018)
Lisa Tuttle, "Treading the Maze" (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, November 1981)
Mark Valentine, "as blank as the days yet to be" (booklet, 2017)
Geoffrey Warburton, "The Maze" (All Hallows 27, June 2001)
C.E. Ward, "The Particular" (Ghosts & Scholars 32, 2001)
Gene Wolfe, "A Solar Labyrinth" (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, April 1983)
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Mazes
May 7, 2018 11:54:44 GMT
Post by cromagnonman on May 7, 2018 11:54:44 GMT
"The Maze of Maal Dweb" by Clark Ashton Smith (Weird Tales October 1938)
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Mazes
May 7, 2018 12:00:00 GMT
Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on May 7, 2018 12:00:00 GMT
Jeremy Dyson's The Maze is based on the one which stood in Roundhay Park, Leeds, until the late '70s. When The Friends of Roundhay Park on Twitter were looking for photographs of the maze, I was - thanks to info supplied by Hugh Lamb when he wrote about the adaptation in Ghosts & Scholars and in a letter he sent me - able to point them to the Yorkshire TV version of Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance, as the maze scenes were filmed in the park about a year before the maze was chopped down, something that delighted Mr Dyson to learn. (Roundhay Park - rather a tunnel beneath the park - also features prominently in the film of Dyson's and Andy Nyman's Ghost Stories.)
The Legacy of Mr. Dylan in Dr H.S. Grace's 1910 collection Intangible Apparitions & Other More Substantial Terrors features a maze, though not of the hedge variety. In the library of his newly inherited priory, Mr Dylan finds himself probing deeper and deeper into the ever-darkening recesses of a great labyrinth of towering bookcases, each exploration bringing him closer to understanding the obscure contents of the ancient books on the shelves and unlocking a family mystery, yet also bringing him closer to whatever it is he begins to suspect is also prowling within the confines of the maze.
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Mazes
May 7, 2018 15:37:01 GMT
Post by dem bones on May 7, 2018 15:37:01 GMT
I doubt this is what you're looking for, but on the basis they all count. Edward D. Hoch - The Maze And The Monster: (Magazine Of Horror #1, Aug., 1963). A two mile subterranean maze carved through solid rock. The naked prisoner is assured that one exit leads to paradise on earth, the other, into the clutches of a fiend. Guess where he winds up? A bloody variation on The Torture Of Hope.
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Mazes
May 7, 2018 15:43:42 GMT
Post by ropardoe on May 7, 2018 15:43:42 GMT
"The Maze of Maal Dweb" by Clark Ashton Smith ( Weird Tales October 1938) Thanks - noted.
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Mazes
May 7, 2018 15:44:57 GMT
Post by ropardoe on May 7, 2018 15:44:57 GMT
The Legacy of Mr. Dylan in Dr H.S. Grace's 1910 collection Intangible Apparitions & Other More Substantial Terrors features a maze, though not of the hedge variety. In the library of his newly inherited priory, Mr Dylan finds himself probing deeper and deeper into the ever-darkening recesses of a great labyrinth of towering bookcases, each exploration bringing him closer to understanding the obscure contents of the ancient books on the shelves and unlocking a family mystery, yet also bringing him closer to whatever it is he begins to suspect is also prowling within the confines of the maze. How could I have missed that - I'm such a fan of the good Dr Grace?
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Mazes
May 7, 2018 15:46:37 GMT
Post by ropardoe on May 7, 2018 15:46:37 GMT
I doubt this is what you're looking for, but on the basis they all count. Edward D. Hoch - The Maze And The Monster: ( Magazine Of Horror #1, Aug., 1963). A two mile subterranean maze carved through solid rock. The naked prisoner is assured that one exit leads to paradise on earth, the other, into the clutches of a fiend. Guess where he winds up? A bloody variation on The Torture Of Hope. Difficult to know where to draw the line on mazes, isn't it? If we stick to hedge and turf mazes, then "In the Walls of Eryx", for one, doesn't qualify. So for the moment I'll be completist and include "The Maze and The Monster". Thanks.
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Mazes
May 8, 2018 2:26:58 GMT
Post by helrunar on May 8, 2018 2:26:58 GMT
Ro, I love that you wrote that it's "difficult to draw the line on mazes." How very true...
And it reminded me of this story that was in a Sam Moskowitz anthology about a New York subway line somehow looping into a Mobius strip and the people on the train going inter-dimensional. Maybe somehow I'll be able to recall either the title or the author. Very remote in the old memory banks... (Obviously, that story wouldn't fit the usual definition of the maze topos.)
cheers, Steve
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Mazes
May 8, 2018 7:21:42 GMT
Post by mcannon on May 8, 2018 7:21:42 GMT
Ro, I love that you wrote that it's "difficult to draw the line on mazes." How very true... And it reminded me of this story that was in a Sam Moskowitz anthology about a New York subway line somehow looping into a Mobius strip and the people on the train going inter-dimensional. Maybe somehow I'll be able to recall either the title or the author. Very remote in the old memory banks... (Obviously, that story wouldn't fit the usual definition of the maze topos.) cheers, Steve That would be "A Subway Named Mobius" by A. J. Deutsch. Originally published in Astounding Science Fiction December 1950, and reprinted in various anthologies - I read it in one such reprint myself, way back in the early 1970s. There's a .pdf of the text available here - openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/elliseng1710sp2018/files/2018/02/AJ-Deutsch-A-Subway-Named-Mobius.pdfMark
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Mazes
May 8, 2018 8:21:00 GMT
Post by ropardoe on May 8, 2018 8:21:00 GMT
Ro, I love that you wrote that it's "difficult to draw the line on mazes." How very true... And it reminded me of this story that was in a Sam Moskowitz anthology about a New York subway line somehow looping into a Mobius strip and the people on the train going inter-dimensional. Maybe somehow I'll be able to recall either the title or the author. Very remote in the old memory banks... (Obviously, that story wouldn't fit the usual definition of the maze topos.) cheers, Steve That would be "A Subway Named Mobius" by A. J. Deutsch. Originally published in Astounding Science Fiction December 1950, and reprinted in various anthologies - I read it in one such reprint myself, way back in the early 1970s. There's a .pdf of the text available here - openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/elliseng1710sp2018/files/2018/02/AJ-Deutsch-A-Subway-Named-Mobius.pdfMark Yes, a particular favourite of my other half, since he's both an SF fan and a very keen and active gricer (which, incidentally, the spellcheck wanted me to change to grocer!).
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Mazes
May 8, 2018 11:02:08 GMT
Post by Swampirella on May 8, 2018 11:02:08 GMT
Thanks for improving my vocabulary with "gricer", a word I just learned but will never use....
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Mazes
May 8, 2018 12:11:58 GMT
Post by helrunar on May 8, 2018 12:11:58 GMT
Awesome! Thanks, Mark!
I have no idea what a gricer is; will have to googie... er, google.
Laughing, Steve
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Mazes
May 8, 2018 20:36:53 GMT
Post by Shrink Proof on May 8, 2018 20:36:53 GMT
Thanks for improving my vocabulary with "gricer", a word I just learned but will never use.... Those of us who work on preserved steam railways do (occasionally!) use the word... The supposed derivation was explained to me some years ago. Steam train buffs who were more interested in photography than collecting numbers would often avoid busy stations and head off into the remoter parts of this pestered isle to photograph trains in scenic settings. This was because such places are hilly (Northern England, Scotland...) and so the locos would be working hard on the gradients; in so doing they produced photogenic steam and smoke effects. Also, as steam engines were gradually withdrawn for scrap and replaced with diesels, this was done on a roughly regional basis and they became confined to fewer and fewer areas of the country. Their last strongholds were in those same places, so more and more steam enthusiasts made for the hills. When they traipsed across the moors for that classic lineside shot they invariably disturbed the grouse there, in much the same way that beaters raise them for shooting parties. Gricers is (allegedly) a corruption of grousers. And that's your Useless Fact(oid) of the Week....
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Mazes
May 9, 2018 2:00:33 GMT
Post by Swampirella on May 9, 2018 2:00:33 GMT
Thanks for the lengthy and memorable explanation!
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Mazes
May 9, 2018 8:36:22 GMT
Post by Shrink Proof on May 9, 2018 8:36:22 GMT
Thanks for the lengthy and memorable explanation! You're welcome. Sorry the thread got derailed, as it were. Ah, my coat, how kind....
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