Cultural History of Mazes
From Maze
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| − | 10-Print produces a pattern that the manual calls a maze. Of course, it does not have to use the word maze. It could call it the randomly alternating pattern of diagonal lines. Although that description does capture the output of the program, it does not capture the magical power of the program to create out of a simple alternation a visual pattern recognizable as a maze. The amazing turn of this program is the clever and concise turn by which it produces a maze seemingly by the flip of a coin. | + | 10 PRINT produces a pattern that the manual calls a maze. Of course, it does not have to use the word maze. It could call it the randomly alternating pattern of diagonal lines. Although that description does capture the output of the program, it does not capture the magical power of the program to create out of a simple alternation a visual pattern recognizable as a maze. The amazing turn of this program is the clever and concise operation by which it produces a maze seemingly by the flip of a coin. |
Mazes have an iconic place in the world of early computers and, of course, a much longer place in cultures around the world. They are heavily charged symbols that appear to call the viewer into entering their pathways either physically or visually. | Mazes have an iconic place in the world of early computers and, of course, a much longer place in cultures around the world. They are heavily charged symbols that appear to call the viewer into entering their pathways either physically or visually. | ||
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Nothing in these definitions requires mazes to have a solutions. | Nothing in these definitions requires mazes to have a solutions. | ||
| − | Certainly all of the definitions of maze attend the perception of this particular program, but these definitions demonstrate clearly that the output does qualify as a maze. As a maze-generator, 10-Print falls under the shroud of the myths of mazes and labyrinths. | + | Certainly all of the definitions of maze attend the perception of this particular program, but these definitions demonstrate that the output does qualify as a maze. But what if one wanted to insist on the strictest possible view of the constructed puzzle-maze with a single solution, denying that the output of this program is a maze at every moment? Even then, what could the output possibly suggest, what could it evoke in the viewer, if not the concept of the maze? 10 PRINT is a maze-generator, but even if there are some who deny this, they will have to grant that it is a program that is associated with and falls under the shroud of the myths of mazes and labyrinths. |
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Labyrinths can thus be the boundaries of the space to be navigated or the path that is followed. In the latter sense, the labyrinth may be not just the plan of the path but the path in motion across time. In the case of a solvable maze, the solution path is obfuscated by choice points. The pattern presents not the predetermined path but the challenge toward finding that path. However, once that path is known, the maze becomes changed into the solvable path encompassed by wrong turns. Like the labyrinth, it now has one path to its solution and it can no longer be a maze. | Labyrinths can thus be the boundaries of the space to be navigated or the path that is followed. In the latter sense, the labyrinth may be not just the plan of the path but the path in motion across time. In the case of a solvable maze, the solution path is obfuscated by choice points. The pattern presents not the predetermined path but the challenge toward finding that path. However, once that path is known, the maze becomes changed into the solvable path encompassed by wrong turns. Like the labyrinth, it now has one path to its solution and it can no longer be a maze. | ||
| − | This has important implications for how the notion is abstracted and how 10-Print becomes a maze and a labyrinth. Typing in the program, the beginning programmer engages in the ritual. At the same time, the program begins as a maze to the initiated. Unless the programmer is already fluent in C64 Basic and has memorized the PETSCII tables, she is unlikely to recognize the effects of the program. Once the code has been typed in and executed and the programmer sees the maze, there is no returning to the previous status of the line. This is similar to the process of becoming literate, but not exactly. Nonetheless, these are not mazes that have single solutions. When the programmer is encouraged to make changes to the code, new corridors appear, and the maze itself proves to be endless. | + | This has important implications for how the notion is abstracted and how 10 PRINT itself (not its output) becomes a maze and a labyrinth. Typing in the program, the beginning programmer engages in the ritual. At the same time, the program begins as a maze to the initiated. Unless the programmer is already fluent in C64 Basic and has memorized the PETSCII tables, she is unlikely to recognize the effects of the program. Once the code has been typed in and executed and the programmer sees the maze, there is no returning to the previous status of the line. This is similar to the process of becoming literate, but not exactly. Nonetheless, these are not mazes that have single solutions. When the programmer is encouraged to make changes to the code, new corridors appear, and the maze itself proves to be endless. |
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'''Mazes in Mass Media''' | '''Mazes in Mass Media''' | ||
| − | According to Clifford Pickover, the first major maze movie was aptly called The Maze, a 1953 horror film directed by William Cameron Menzies. The maze in the film was the hedgerow kind, like the snowed-under maze of The Shining. Pickover adds Labyrinth and The Man in the Maze to his list movie mazes. | + | According to Clifford Pickover, the first major maze movie was aptly called ''The Maze,'' a 1953 horror film directed by William Cameron Menzies. The maze in the film was the hedgerow kind, like the snowed-under maze of ''The Shining.'' Pickover adds Labyrinth and The Man in the Maze to his list movie mazes. |
In the 1980s around the time of these early video games, a made-for-TV movie, Mazes and Monsters, presented a young Tom Hanks as a young man who had gone over the edge into a psychosis where he could no longer separate his role-playing game from reality. Such a movie spoke to both the moral panic around the rpg Dungeons and Dragons and the relationship between that game and the maze motif. | In the 1980s around the time of these early video games, a made-for-TV movie, Mazes and Monsters, presented a young Tom Hanks as a young man who had gone over the edge into a psychosis where he could no longer separate his role-playing game from reality. Such a movie spoke to both the moral panic around the rpg Dungeons and Dragons and the relationship between that game and the maze motif. | ||
| − | In these examples, the maze becomes a metaphor of horror and confusion. It is the site for getting lost as opposed to a riddle ot be solved. | + | In these examples, the maze becomes a metaphor of horror and confusion. It is the site for getting lost as opposed to a contrived riddle to be solved. |
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'''Computer Generated Mazes ''' | '''Computer Generated Mazes ''' | ||
| − | Pickover also includes a section on "the largest computer-generated maze in the world," a title which seems quaint by today's standards. Although he notes the program could generate an 1000-page maze, he sites the largest one she had printed to date as a 200-page maze. However, he gives the title to the 1987 maze produced by Walter Pullen. This 23-foot maze had to be stored on "eight floppy disks" and "require one megabyte of disk space" (7). Pickover later adds an followup note from Pullen about a maze he had generated with "@2 miles of passages" that "stretched over 3031 pages" (8). | + | Pickover also includes a section on "the largest computer-generated maze in the world," a title which seems quaint by today's standards. Although he notes the program could generate an 1000-page maze, he cites the largest one she had printed to date as a 200-page maze. However, he gives the title to the 1987 maze produced by Walter Pullen. This 23-foot maze had to be stored on "eight floppy disks" and "require one megabyte of disk space" (7). Pickover later adds an followup note from Pullen about a maze he had generated with "@2 miles of passages" that "stretched over 3031 pages" (8). |
| − | Needless to say, this quest for the largest computer-generated maze will always be chasing 10-Print, whose never ending corridors can be drawn merely by executing and repeating that line. These other mazes, such as Pullen's, are single-solution mazes. However, Moore's law no doubt affects maze production at about the same rate that 1 megabyte diminishes as a sign of large memory and the number of pages in a maze print out approaches absurdity. | + | Needless to say, this quest for the largest computer-generated maze will always be chasing 10 PRINT, whose never ending corridors can be drawn merely by executing and repeating that line. These other mazes, such as Pullen's, are single-solution mazes. However, Moore's law no doubt affects maze production at about the same rate that 1 megabyte diminishes as a sign of large memory and the number of pages in a maze print out approaches absurdity. |
