GR as fractal world

[Bonnie Surfus (ENG)]

ok. everyone's sick of hearing about it, but here it is.  I wanted to 
report that as I continue reading, I still find evidence of a fractal 
universe (that is GR.)  Self-similarity on many levels creates repeating 
images throughout the text.  Yet the bifurcations keep "interrupting" 
them so that you can't get comfortable with one before another emerges.  
Right now I'm dealing with octagonal shapes, the repeating jagged edges, 
and the symbol of yin-yang.  Oh yeah, and the rainbow--actually, in colors.

All this mixed with talk of "chaos theory," particularly as it was 
emerging in the mind of Mitchell Feigenbaum.  As James Gleick describes 
him, "a man seen prowling in the dark, night after night, the red glow of 
his cigarette floating along the back streets."  The smoke's pattern was 
one of Feigenbaum's areas of study in terms of order in chaos.  Well 
known.  Pynchon, in GR:  "Given the precisions of light these mornings, 
there are  forms of grace to be found in the rising of the smoke, 
meander, furl, delicate fade to clarity. . . " (206)--watching cigarette 
smoke.

That's minor.  An observation last night.  More are these.  Tell me if 
you've run this down or not, ok?  I have not read anything on the 
similarity to the war film in _Slaughterhouse Five_, the one that runs 
backwards and makes the bombs go UP, back into the plane, people heal, 
etc.  There is a parallel on 203-04. (by the way, at the bottom of 
203--Viking--ther is a first person intrusion.  I am baffled.)  Anyhow, 
the film goes on, dealing with a puritan ancestor (not unlikely for TRP) 
and the whole trip over, colonizing motivations, etc--in details of the 
trip (vomitting, etc.)

Another thought:  On 205, there's this whole wandering through the casino 
that, for at least 2 paragraphs, seems to echo the idea of TRP's 
narrative style (nothing new, I realize, but seems in bas relief here.) 
the "newness" of it, the anti-modernity, etc.  If you're interested, 
maybe you could read over and see if you agree, comment?  

One last thing, the following discussion of Plasticman--may be so obvious 
but I missed it first time--parallels Tryone's situation, part the toilet 
adventure (this, on 206-07.)

Comments are appreciated, even it they tell me that my ideas are old 
news.  

Thanks.

Bonnie.