Pynchon & Gaddis: "Upcoming Number". A Synchonicity

[Lorentzen / Nicklaus]

 The day before yesterday I read an article on Gaddis in the newspaper (: FAZ). 
 In it the author wrote about Gaddis' like of formulations with the word 
 "number", especially "number comming up" as a metaphor for death. The next 
 thing  I read was Pynchon's 'Been-down-so-long'-intro. I was quite astonished  
 when I  came to the following:  "... has to keep tempting death, only  
 half-realizing that the more intensely he lives, the better the odds of his  
 number finally coming up." A serious theme, - but all of sudden I had to smile 
 ...

                                                                  Yours, Kai