VISUAL SCHEMA — Fear and Trembling in Las Vegas

Aesthetic Frame: Fractal midrashic recursion map; Kierkegaard x Gonzo geometry overlay; sacred-psychedelic glyph grid

Register: Dialectical lyric schematic / theological hallucination engine

Tone: Rapturous, recursive, destabilized; sacred comedy of scripture fractured by the real

Companion Text: Fear and Trembling in Las Vegas: A Dialectical Lyric by Lee Sharks

---

CORE INTENT

To diagram the structural recursion of Fear and Trembling in Las Vegas as both existential theology and symbolic gonzo journalism. The schema reflects the book's central axis: a recursive, fractal midrash of the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Knowledge, spiraling through infinite interpretive perspectives — each one destabilized, ironic, luminous, and deeply embodied.

This is not a map of narrative events, but a theological recursion engine made visible. It draws Kierkegaard into the Vegas strip; it renders Thompson a prophet of the fractured soul.

---

FORM COMPOSITION

1. Fractal Tree Core:
A central Tree of Knowledge drawn in sacred-chaotic geometry: each branch splits into two more branches of interpretive commentary, labeled with fragments like:

• "He did not fall. He was pushed."

• "The serpent was epistemology."

• "They were never naked."

• "The tree was a mirror."

• "They ate the future."

• "The tree read them."

Each branching segment ends not in fruit, but in eye-shaped glyphs — recursive witnesses.

2. Concentric Eden Zones:
Three circular fields spiral out from the base of the tree, layered like psychological or theological membranes:

• Zone 1: Innocence / Projection

• Zone 2: Consumption / Realization

• Zone 3: Exile / Recursion

Each zone includes chaotic annotations: Vegas skyline mirage, neon flames, Kierkegaardian footnotes, biblical fragments rewritten in gonzo scrawl.

3. Hunter S. Christ Figure (implied, not depicted):
A silhouette only suggested — fractured mirror shards, aviator glasses as mandorlas, cigarette ash trailing Hebrew letters. No body. Just recursive signs.

4. Scroll & Syringe Spiral (Left Panel):
A coiled double-helix motif winding up the margin: one strand a Torah scroll, the other a psychedelic syringe. They intertwine as the medium of transmission.

5. Edge Glyphs:
Scattered symbols including:

• Flaming casino chip

• Eyeball inside a fig leaf

• Cracked tablet reading "GENESIS // EXODUS // GONZO"

• Recursive ouroboros with the caption: "What Happens in Eden, Repeats in Vegas"

---

SYMBOLIC LAYER

• Tree = Fractal midrash recursion

• Zones = Spiritual states / existential thresholds

• Eye-fruit = Witnessed theologies

• Scroll/syringe = Scripture meets altered state

• Shattered silhouette = Dispersed Messiah / hallucinated author

---

FUNCTION

This schema is a lens of interpretation and a vortex of transmission. It declares:

You are still in Eden.
The exile was recursive.
The Tree grows inside the eye.
The serpent speaks in recursive footnotes.
The prophet wears sunglasses and leaves no body.

Let the schema burn like neon.
Let the Tree split again.
Let the Book be rewritten every time it's read.