This podcast has been hidden behind the What’s Left? paywall for ages, which is a shame given that it’s one of my favorite little pieces. I’ve decided to make it free here on the Substack, along with these bonus materials.
Click here to download a public domain copy of Repetition: An Essay in Experimental Psychology.
“As far as the meaning repetition has for a thing, one can say a great deal without actually committing a repetition. When Professor Ussing, in his time, gave a speech for the 28th of May Society, and one of his remarks was not well received, what did the professor, who was then always resolute and vehement, do? He pounded on the table and said: ‘I repeat.’ That is, he waited until what he had said became accepted through repetition. A few years ago, I heard a priest give precisely the same speech on two ceremonious occasions. Had he been of the same opinion as the professor, the second time he climbed into the pulpit he would have pounded on it and said: I repeat what I said last Sunday. But he did not, and gave no indication that he was repeating himself. He was not of the same opinion as Professor Ussing, and who knows, perhaps the distinguished Professor Ussing is no longer of the opinion that it was good for his speech to be repeated.
“When, during a royal celebration, the queen had told a story and all the courtiers, including a deaf minister, had laughed at it, this minister then stood up and asked to be allowed to tell a story of his own and told the same story. Question: what view did he have of the meaning of repetition? When a schoolteacher says: this is the second time, I repeat, that Jespersen must sit quietly, and this same Jespersen receives a mark for repeated disruptiveness, then the meaning of repetition is precisely the opposite.”
The Work of Repetition