Chaos Teasers
In Search of Patterns
Strange Attractors cannot be defined by a single trait, but rather by the boundaries they control that
lock us into our established ways. Literature has been exploring those boundaries and the strange
attractors that hold us within them for centuries, for art always tries to look beyond our boundaries.
- Here is an example of a pattern that has been repeated in
numerous works of literature. Can you identify others?:
- BOUNDARY: The hierarchical power structure.
- STRANGE ATTRACTOR: Identity dependent on control over others or by others.
- LITERARY EXAMPLES: The works of the Marquis de Sade; Laclos' Les Liaisons
dangereuses; the works of Flaubert.
- Please send your pattern, with boundary, strange attractor, and literary examples, to
zants@trail.com
The best responses will be posted here with your permission.
Exploring the Edge of Chaos
Writers have used various techniques to explore the edge of chaos, or the limits of a structure which
define its order and without which there would be chaos, or an emergent structure.
- Flaubert uses REPETITION to mock Emma Bovary's illusions of superiority: her second escapade with
Leon is merely an echo of her first one with Rudolph; as a consequence, the reader has no need for a third affair
which could only echo the second, in an even lower key. The same illusions of superiority are mocked on the
social level, with first Tellier's cafe going bankrupt, and, with the ascension of Lheureux, we forsee the imminent
downfall of the "Lion d'Or" cafe. It is implied that Charles Bovary only found a vacant position in Yonville
because Homais, the pharmacist, had already run the previous "doctor" out of town; and when the novel is
finished, Homais' fame is such, that a new "doctor" is unlikely to come. Little illusion about the hierarchical
power structure is left by the end of the novel.
- What does he do to explore a potentially new structure, or form of relationships? Please send your
response, with explanation, to
zants@trail.com
The best responses will be posted here with your permission.
- Proust uses REPETITION and INVERSION to question the hierarchical power structure. The novel takes
us from the snobbery of the Verdurin clan, the nouveau riche of Remembrance of Things Past, to that
of the elite aristocratic Guermantes circle, only to dump us on the same expressions of supremacy found in the
caretaker of the restrooms of the Champs Elysés. That happens in the middle of the novel, so Proust's
ultimate purpose is obviously not merely the questioning of the hierarchical power structure.
- What does he do to explore a potentially new structure, or form of relationships? Please send your
response, with explanation, to
zants@trail.com
The best responses will be posted here with your permission.
Plots that define Structures
What have become "classic" formulas for plots can be viewed as expressions of a typical structure that has
specific boundaries and strange attractors. If several novels seem to be examples of the same plots, the characters
in the novels can be seen to be controlled by the same strange attractors. Is there a similarity in their pattern of
behavior that implicates the conclusion? Though the ending may not be exactly the same, is it similar to others
with the same plot? What socio-political construct defines the boundaries of such behavior?
- Send your favorite formula to
zants@trail.com
We'll see if anyone can 1)identify it, and 2) answer the other questions posed above in respect to it.
Last updated 12/22/95
Please send any comments and suggestions for new chaos teasers to zants@trail.com
