Listing to Port

1. A more philosophically acceptable labyrinth. The premise of the more formal sort of labyrinth is that there is only one true path; for all our fondness of labyrinths, we do not agree with this. Instead we consider that there are as many true paths as people. Our labyrinth reflects this: there are no walls and no paths except those made by previous visitors, which you are under no obligation to replicate. Nevertheless, you are certainly at leisure to find a twisty, winding and difficult way through the labyrinth if you think it would make you feel better.

2. A maze of books. More accurately, this is a giant room filled with old books stacked from floor to ceiling, with initially only a small book-free alcove available at the entrance. Progressing to the other side requires the maze entrant to move the books around to create an increasingly narrow path, particularly if they also wish to leave some indication of the way back to the start. From time to time, functionaries appear with piles of new books to be added to the stacks. Crossing the book maze is thus a time-limited exercise, with tardy travellers soon completely buried. It is therefore vitally important not to start reading whilst in the book maze; in fact, illiteracy is a distinct advantage. It is unsure what lies on the other side of the maze in any case, and if it is desirable or not. Some suspicious observers point to the influx of new books bound in curiously soft leather which often occurs after a successful maze crossing.

3. A maze in time, rather than space. Now that we think of it, we are all doing this already. It may be that that when you found that silent, magical lake in the mist (do you remember the silent, magical lake?) you were passing through the central chamber.

4. A virtual maze. We have a computational model of the nearest city; a very, very accurate one. Into it we out our requirements for a maze: one entrance, one central chamber, one exit, a suitable amount of twists and turns and some peril. We receive a selection of entrance points and rules. For example, our city may be transformed into an adequate maze by the rule that the player take no road containing the letter ’d’. Or perhaps that they pass no building higher than two stories. We envisage many of these mazes operating at one time, with a host of players whose paths cross and recross (though their different rules mean that they can never travel together).

5. This is a formal hedge maze, except that as used according to the usual rules of hedge mazes there is no solution. There is not even nearly a solution; it is a set of closed loops. You can only get into the further parts of the maze by pushing through the hedge atone of its many sparse points. Of course, if users were to ask how this maze works, we would happily tell them this. Later on, for variety, we include a mirror section (which can only be solved by climbing over the wall) and a grotto or two (which are there merely for amusements’ sake, although we did once catch a patron trying to tunnel their way out of the grotto with a spoon).