Examples of Recursion in Literature or Cinema?

Question

Escher is the popular example when thinking about art influenced or exmplifying the concept of recursion. In G&ouml;del, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, Douglas R. Hofstadter makes some connections between the music of Bach, Escher's art and other areas of knowledge related with recursion and self-reference. I was wondering what other works of fiction in film or literature exemplify recursion in their structure. That is, not works about recursion, but works in which recursion plays some kind of role in their structure or meaning.

l3x · Accepted Answer

David Mitchell's book Cloud Atlas might fit I think. There was a film made of it in 2012. The children's book Charlie Cook's Favourite Book has the same premise.
You might also find things in Jorge Luis Borges' short stories (although I can't think of any specifically off the top of my head).
The film Inception has a recursive theme to it.
And there is a popular sci-fi book called Recursion, but I've not read it so not sure how much it fits the actual idea of Recursion!

PaulHoule · Answer

There is a disturbance in references in this movie
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predestination_(film)
based on the Heinlein short
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_You_Zombies
If it is than that's not a neat "recursion" with nesting but more of a spaghetti code paradox.
Another example is the prevalence of fractals in all forms
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal
these are motifs in nature (plant and animal structural systems not to mention hydrogeological) and seem to be common to the psychedelic drug experience but they do appear in an occasional movie set or image montage and become a theme in literature from time to time.

Emigre_ · Answer

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (1996) has an interesting structure using hundreds of footnotes some of which have themselves footnotes. The ending is not straightforward and the novel's chronology non-lineal. It contains disgressions on many topics. According to the Wikipedia, in an interview Wallace mentioned that the plotting and notes have a fractal structure modeled after the Sierpiński gasket, suggesting some degree of recursion.

Emigre_ · Answer

The New England Science Fiction Association (NESFA) has a website with a compilation of references to recursion in science fiction: Recursive Science Fiction[1].[1] https://data.nesfa.org/Recursion/index.htm

soueuls · Answer

I would say the TV show : Dark.In my opinion it&rsquo;s one of the most complex thing I have ever watched.I don&rsquo;t want to tell too much about it to keep the surprise

nvm0n2 · Answer

The Man In The High Castle is an alt history in which the characters read an alt-history book describing our actual timeline. That probably counts!

Emigre_ · Answer

Federico Fellini's 8&frac12;?... Criterion Collection mentions that "8&frac12; is a film about making a film, and the film that is being made is 8&frac12;".

raincom · Answer

In Indian Purana-s, stories exemplify recursion: story A has story B, which has story C, and so on, then backtrack.

Emigre_ · Answer

Raymond Smullyan's riddles book What is the Name of This Book paradoxically refers to itself in its title.

Examples of Recursion in Literature or Cinema?

The New England Science Fiction Association (NESFA) has a website with a compilation of references to recursion in science fiction: Recursive Science Fiction[1].
[1] https://data.nesfa.org/Recursion/index.htm

I would say the TV show : Dark.
In my opinion it’s one of the most complex thing I have ever watched.
I don’t want to tell too much about it to keep the surprise

The Man In The High Castle is an alt history in which the characters read an alt-history book describing our actual timeline. That probably counts!

Federico Fellini's 8½?... Criterion Collection mentions that "8½ is a film about making a film, and the film that is being made is 8½".

In Indian Purana-s, stories exemplify recursion: story A has story B, which has story C, and so on, then backtrack.

Raymond Smullyan's riddles book What is the Name of This Book paradoxically refers to itself in its title.