She also speaks about lines not offering a complete thought. Within the prose novel Event Factory, we see our narrator following such lines, and we are with her in her confusion. In this way, the line creates a certain chaos within the text. Do you think chaos is a feature of the “open text,” to again use Hejinian’s term? How is it effective? RG: How would you define chaos? What’s an example of chaos in Event Factory? TC: Chaos is all these events that are somewhat distant and seemingly disconnected—they seem to just be happening. Chaos theory came to mind, as if to suggest that there is some sort of connection to these seemingly disconnected events. In many of the books we’ve read in this class, there seems to be this feature. RG: I don’t know enough about chaos theory to give an adequate response. When I think about the word “chaos,” it brings to mind clutter and excess, which is opposite to how I see these Ravicka novels, which are so sparse. But I don’t think that’s what you’re asking me about. In terms of the line (I’m really glad you brought in Hejinian’s essay), I see it as synonymous with sequence in the case of fiction. But I guess the question is where does sequence take us. In Event Factory, there is a preponderance of events, and the notion of “event”
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