Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges. Labyrinths were of major interest to Borges, whose writing was at times existential or surreal, but rooted in modernism and symbolism. Labyrinths figured in many of his short stories, as in The Garden of Forking Paths. Borges wrote often about labyrinths, mirrors, the idea of infinity, and the nature of reality in his often philosophical short stories..

The labyrinth at Chartres, probably the most famous modern-day, real life labyrinth

Labyrinth- featuring Jennifer Connelly and David Bowie in all his spandexed glory in an 80s fantasy film about a young girl who accidentally gives her brother to the Goblin King- then wants to take it back.

The mythological ancient labyrinth at Knossos, built for King Minos to hold the minotaur

Pan’s Labyrinth- this film is a dark work of magical realism, by mexican writer-director Guillermo del Toro

Labyrinth games- you have to get the marble all the way through the maze without letting it fall through one of the holes

The International Labyrinth Society- focused on labyrinth creation and maintenance, as well as education and events

Guerrilla Labyrinths- There’s a guy here in Montreal who creates urban labyrinths in order to “inject into everyday urban life a chance to slow down,  a touch of spirituality, a connection to the past, a surprise from the subconscious”. The most recent one was done on the lachine canal.

Roger Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber series- in this series of book there is a labyrinth, called “the Pattern”, which is a portal for those who walk it to parallel worlds.

And finally M.C. Escher’s Relativity (below). Escher was a graphic artist whose works often had a strong mathematical component. He created “impossible worlds” featuring constructions that could never be built and often that could only be drawn by playing on perspective and perception. His prints experiment with the idea of infinity, as in Relativity, which inspired the Goblin King’s castle in Labyrinth.

The New York Trilogy- Paul Auster

If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler- Italo Calvino

Pale Fire- Vladimir Nabokov

Three Novels- Samuel Beckett

Blood and Guts in High School: A Novel- Kathy Acker

The Outsider- Albert Camus (aka “The Stranger” in the States- apparently there was a copyright problem). Quintessential novel of the absurdity of human existence in an indifferent world (Nobel Prize).

Native Son- Richard Wright. The existentialist topic of the struggle between Self and Other on a social level, Wright looks at black people as the other in 1930s Chicago. This book in part inspired Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex, in which she analyzes woman as the Other.

The Elementary Particles- Michel Houellebecq. French author who has been hailed as the next Camus, this book is the first of his I read, and still my favourite. Two brothers, alienated from society, struggle with their inner turmoil in a culture where love is found to be increasingly obsolete and humans nothing more than particles subject to decay. Warning: explicit sex scenes.

Notes From Underground- Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Has been called the first existentialist novel, written long before the term was coined. The “Underground Man” cannot fit into society and obsesses over every social interaction, hating the person he’s created for himself.

Invisible Man- Ralph Waldo Ellison (National Book Award)

Hunger- Knut Hamsun. Hamsun has been called the father of modern fiction. He won the Nobel Prize for Growth of the Soil.

Lolita- Vladimir Nabokov

Nightwood- Djuna Barnes

Labyrinths- Jorge Luis Borges

Hunger- Knut Hamsun