Beautiful chaos: chaos theory and metachaotics in recent American fiction

240 Pages·2000·2.01 MB·English

by  Gordon E. Slethaug

Beautiful Chaos

Beautiful Chaos
Chaos Theory and Metachaotics in
Recent American Fiction
GORDON E. SLETHAUG
State University of New York Press
Published by
State University of New York Press, Albany
©2000 State University of New York
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Slethaug, Gordon
Beautiful chaos : chaos theory and metachaotics in recent American fiction/
Gordon E. Slethaug.
p. cm.—(SUNYseries in postmodern culture)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-7914-4741-3 (alk. paper)—ISBN 0-7914-4742-1 (pbk. :alk. paper)
1. American fiction—20th century—History and criticism.2. Chaotic behavior
in systems in literature. I. Title. II. Series.
PS374.C4. S58 2000
813'.5409384—dc21
00-038766
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
iv
I wish to dedicate Beautiful Chaos to three colleagues who have been
great friends and have always given me good advice: Dr. Neil Hultin, Dr.
Warren Ober, and Dr. James Van Evra.

CONTENTS
Prefaceix
Acknowledgments xxxi
Chapter 1 Dynamic Fiction and the Field of Action:
Mimesis, Metaphor, Model, and Metachaotics 1
Chapter 2 Orderly Systems: Growth, Competition,
and Transgression 27
Chapter 3 Entropic Crisis, Blockage,
Bifurcation, and Flow 45
Chapter 4 Turbulence, Stochastic Processes,
and Traffic 61
Chapter 5 Energy, Noise, and Information 79
Chapter 6 Juxtapositional Symmetry:
Recursion, Scaling, and Fractals 97
Chapter 7 Iteration 123
Chapter 8 Strange Attractors 147
Chapter 9 Synoptic Study: “The Coded Dots of Life” 163
vii
BEAUTIFUL CHAOS
viii
Notes 187
Bibliography 193
Index 201
PREFACE
Things begin, things end. Just when we seem to arrive at a quiet place
we are swept up, suddenly, between the body’s smooth, functioning
predictability and the need for disruption. We do irrational things,
outrageous things. Or else something will come along and intervene,
an unimaginable foe. Abe Skutari, after years and years of peddling
door-to-door in rural Manitoba, is drummed out of business by
Eaton’s Mail Order. Who would have expected such a thing? So what
does he do but borrow money from the Royal Bank—the first such loan
ever made to a son of Israel—and open his own retail establishment on
Selkirk Avenue in Winnipeg, specializing in men’s workclothes and
footwear, garden supplies and bicycles. Adoor closes, a door opens; Mr.
Skutari’s own words.
—Carol Shields, The Stone Diaries
Introduction to the Text
In John Guare’s playSix Degrees of Separation, the black youth Paul shows
up late one night at the door of Flan and Ouisa Kittredge, wealthy white
New York art dealers and socialites. Ostensibly a victim of a stabbing inci-
dent in Central Park, he asks for their help and, in turn, fashions their
evening into a delightful experience of good conversation, close cama-
raderie, and fine eating. This part of the experience is pleasurable for the
ix