Metamorphosis 913 – Solutions, Annotations & Results

Stats – We had a good response to this tough grid with 29 submissions. Of those who submitted, only 6 had managed to complete the grid with zero errors, of whom 5 got the full score.

Here’s the completed grid.

If you rotate the Grid by 270 degrees, you can see the “ESCHER” spelt out (highlighted in green here).

The answers to the bonus questions are as under:

(1) What is the word definition for 54A? – A ONE SIDED SHAPE
(2) What are the six thematic words? REPTILES, TOWER OF BABEL, SNAKES, STARS, PUDDLE, RELATIVITY
(3) What is the theme of the thematic words? WORKS OF M.C. ESCHER (who wrote METAMORPHOSIS)
(4) What are the three thematic letters? I, A and C (highlighted in RED in the grid above)
(5) What do the thematic letters represent? 1 Across
(6) How are the thematic letters related to the puzzle title? 913 -9TH 1ST AND 3RD LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET

You can access the Grid with solutions Here – Clicking Reveal ALL with show you the solutions and Annotations.

The first entry was submitted by Ian Vanderschee but it was not an all correct entry. The first all correct entry was from Madhup Tiwari while the last all-correct entry was submitted by Mona Sogal.

RESPECT! to the three ladies and two gentlemen who managed to max the score.

Here is the scorecard (sorted by total and then in Alphabetical order)

Grid Rating: The puzzle got a  good score of 8.2 and a whopping 13 perfect 10s.

Top 3 Clues:  Favorite clues were “Penrose Triangle” which got 11 votes, “Tower of Babel” which got 8 votes and “White Blood Cells” which got 7 votes.

We hope you enjoyed this spectacular puzzle. Now, over to Agrippa for the “Making of 913 Metamorphosis” that many solvers had requested for.

THE MAKING OF 913 METAMORPHOSIS – BY AGRIPPA

Here is the process that I went through in creating the puzzle.

Took me a couple of months to come up with all the elements of the puzzle and to put them together.
Having picked Escher as the theme, my plan was to incorporate that Escher’s works into the clued words and the grid layout. I went through a few iterations of grid layout before settling on the one that you see currently.

Initially, I planned on getting the light to dark, dark to light Escher sketch themes and Escher’s tessellation patterns into the grid. But that made the grid too busy. I think it took me about two weeks before it occurred to me to map (conceptual blend) that theme into letter space. Visual light/dark themes morphed into letter addition/deletion. After which I had to decide on which letters to delete and add.

At the same time, I was thinking about the structure and the hierarchy of the overall puzzle and the notion of strange loops (more about that below). I wanted to tie the puzzle to 1Across (that is the homeland:-)) and IAC came from there. And then the idea to divide it into three sections.

(My observations/feelings on the conceptual blend to the letter space:
There is a visual appeal to Escher’s sketches. But, for me, the same appeal was missing when I mapped the concept into the letter space. It was very confusing, even while creating the puzzle. Probably due to the right brain to left brain switch. Visual images are processed by the right side and the letters/words/sentences are processed by the left side. But there was an elegance to the mapping. So, I persisted)

Overall, the puzzle has three elements:

1. 1Across as a theme (IAC as the thematic letters)
2. Escher as a theme (works of Escher as the thematic words)
3. Strange loops

First element is clear, second element is derived after the puzzle is solved and is hidden in the grid, third element is implicit.

Loops in the puzzle:

1. Two loops of clues for the thematic words. Loop 1: TOWER OF BABEL, SNAKES, REPTILES, Loop 2: PUDDLE, STARS, RELATIVITY. Note that there is a theme within the loops.
2. A word that is a strange-loop by its nature (Penrose Triangle) and another word that is also a loop (Mobius Strip).
3. The process to get to the solution of 54A is a loop too. The letter P in POI cannot be obtained until the puzzle is solved. But P is needed to solve the puzzle.
4. Hierarchical loop: clues->grid->puzzle (including the title and the theme)->1Across group – that is the hierarchy of the puzzle. Elements up the chain appear in concepts down the chain. You have to go up the chain to break a loop. Or, know the answer before you can come to the answer. E.g., Thematic letters of grid sections one and two are evident, but the thematic letter for grid section 3 is not very evident graphically. If you are to derive the thematic letter without solving the clues, you can go up the chain to the puzzle title and reverse map 913 to IAC, or go up the chain to where the puzzle is location (in 1AC) and get to C.

Wow, thanks “Agrippa” for all the fun. I will spend the next few days (or years) trying to understand how you went about this. The level of details is just mind blowing and like I said in one of our discussions in the group, this was like a Tiramisu cake with so many delicious layers.

So readers, Did you like the puzzle? Do you have any feedback for us or for the setter. Do comment in the blog and let us know.