Pynchon & Film

[Basileios Drolias]

On Mon, 15 May 1995, Bonnie Surfus (ENG) wrote:

> 
> I wonder--for any of you who went to Warwick--how much, if any, was 
> devoted to the study of chaos theory in Pynchon's work?  I don't mean 
> just to mention that he was/is aware of chaos theory, but to the extent 
> of tracing fractal images or even the text as fractal (whole.)  This last 
> could address the WWII theme issue, I think, esp. as Pynchon treats the 
> War as an almost inconceivable whole, almost personified being or formation.
> 


It would be quite interesting to find fractal / chaotic text influences 
in TP. However one should be very careful since the whole idea about 
fractals, chaos, dynamical systems etc, although it's been around for 
about 100 years it's only over the past two decades that it has gained 
popularity. A fractal structure can be observed in other books 
(Ulysses? Finnegans Wake? A la recherche du temps perdu? more?) having to 
do I think with a certain writing style and not with scientific 
influences. If I had the time I would check the contents of Scientific 
American or Science during the 50ies, 60ies for possible references that 
might have influenced TP.

basil