| Barth has unified his first seven books by using repetition as image, form, and theme. LETTERS contains countless correspondences to his first six books, pulling them together into one interrelated whole. Furthermore, the meaning of repetition develops throughout these books. In the early novels, the repeated image is able to bring one to some self-discovery, as the mirror does to Todd; likewise, Barth is there at his most realistic, trying to reproduce the world. Gradually, the mirror and its reflected image lead to more and more paralyzing self-consciousness in the characters, until the knowledge it gives them actually becomes detrimental (as with Peter Greene) or is somehow flawed (funhouse mirrors); likewise, Barth's writing becomes more intricately self-conscious as he indulges more and more in repetition, experimenting, trying to discover the key to the creative process. Finally, in LETTERS, Barth strikes a balance between a blind repetition/description of reality and a wide-eyed turning-back-on-itself over-consciousness.;At least part of Barth's success is attributable to his switch from the regressus in infinitum to the spiral as the primary image of repetition. Thus, instead of endless exact repetition, the repetition of the spiral progresses, often by moving backwards. In fact, the spiral represents all of Barth's works, since in LETTERS Barth created a new work by returning to his previous material. |
