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Looper's Delight
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> >A few films I can think of in that connection are "Rashomon," > >"Run Lola Run," "Memento," and "Groundhog Day." A few more examples from literature: "Frame-Tale" by John Barth (in his collection of stories "Lost in the Funhouse"). The text "Once upon a time" is printed along the edge of the page, and along the same edge of the back of the page is printed "there was a story that began". Barth instructs the reader to cut off the strip of paper containing the text, twist it once and then tape it together into a Möbius strip. The text, which then literally and figuratively loops back on itself, reads: "Once upon a time there was a story that began once upon a time there was a story that began . . ." ad infinitum. A second example is Eugene Ionesco's 'Anti-Play' "The Bald Soprano" (La Cantatrice Chauve in the original French). The play begins with a couple sitting chatting quietly in their living room, after which some visitors stop by. The action becomes more and more absurd and contentious until they all wind up spouting total inanities whilst screaming at the top of their lungs. The lights go out, the curtain closes then reopens with the original couple sitting in their living room, quietly repeating their original conversation. A third example is a short story by Julio Cortázar, "Continuity of Parks" (Continuidad de los Parques in the original Spanish). It's only a couple of paragraphs -- read it for yourself at http://www.geocities.com/muna_qudah/cortazar.html This also reminds me of the visual "looping" (I'm sure there's some other more specific term for it) in painting where a figure repeats itself infinitely. For example: the old Quaker Oats cardboard cylinders used to show a bespectacled white-wigged gentleman holding a box of Quaker Qats on which he was pictured holding a box of Quaker Oats etc.