repetition (again!)

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: is there anything to say that hasn't been said already?Is there anything new under the (black) sun?

Was thinking about this whilst watching the Superman t.v. series-the one that retraces his early life-at Nabil's (please note, Roxana, that there's still innocence in the world..hey, what would be new would be to bring some of the people who comment into the main blog space here,.. hint, hint).

Okay, okay, try and kill this post now by the usual methods: a few quotes, semi-academic jargon, faked profundity, etc., etc...

Repetition as a way of avoiding death or the fear of death has, of course, been done to death. And it doesn't work, anyway.

t.v. commercials:

Why is it that it's always the same old tried and tested formula? People in white coats suckering you into the notion that the product has been "scientifically tested", "clinically approved" or the "new and improved" detergent, soap, etc. Repetition of the banal. Recently, there was a programme that looked at the 100 best commercials. Nostalgia for the old days (and if old, then good).

Compensation:

One imagines that in times of stability "rupture", the novel, the startlingly, shockingly new attracts like nothing else, holds us spellbound. And in times of rapid change,flux, 'liquid modernity', one must be served up the 'comfort food' of the familiar, the Same. The instant, which is loved, precisely because it is recurrent.

Variations on a theme:

replicas, cliches, retakes, sagas, remakes, serials, soaps, spirals, whodunits, quotations, loops, flashbacks.

Superman, Star Wars, the story is done, the adventure is over, people age and there's a limit to saying 'to be continued'. What to do? Go back to the beginning...how did we get here? The first was not the first after all: the prequel. This is really interesting (a new trick?)...it's like you come across a blog, read up on what a person writes every day and then wonder: what was she doing before this? The everyday, trivial, things, the 'deep' things, the loves, the hates, the falls... that went up to make up this (virtual) person before you now. The allure of the weight of the past, the loop out of the present and future expectations back to what must have been...the past that doesn't reveal anything new but confirms what you already knew/loved.

Play it again Sam.

You can't talk about repetition without mentioning music, rhythm, innovation.

The series:

The same situation, the same personality quirks that you've come to love; the thrill of pretending you don't know (how infantile: fort-da!); the end that is not the end, but just an episode. The need to hear the story again and again.."In the beginning..."

The saga:

The same circle of events,struggles, illusions, delusions, disasters, personality traits, lives on in others, is passed on, and never breaks out into the new. question: can there be newness without background continuity?

Columbo: You knew this was coming, you expected it from the picture, no? Closure.

Why do you like Columbo so much, more than Morse even (but not more than Sherlock)? Nothing to add to this.

But the real reason I like Columbo is that Ubo would always call me-when I hadn't combed my hair or shaved (and that is always!) - Columbo!... and I like to recall such moments, again, and again, and again.